I
believe that a Bringing Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in schools today would be
highly successful, especially in middle and high school settings with students
age 12 to 18. The benefits of having those devices would outweigh the possible
consequences. Devices that would be able to be educationally used are
smartphones, tablets, laptops, podcast players,
PDAs, pocket PCs, tablet PCs, and the school would need to be open to the idea
of new devices as they enter the market. Within the policy
there would be a need for clear expectations and rules that would be enforced
by teachers and administration. Some of the expectations would include, respect
for yours and others equipment, no use of personal sites (Facebook, twitter,
email, instagram, etc.), devices can only be used for educational purposes, no
texting or making a phone call/facetime. These are just some of the rules and
expectations that would be enforced, as the policy continues parts could be
added as the administration sees fit. Consequences would be given depending on
the offense the student committed based on the rules and expectations. Many rules
and expectations are already in place related to appropriate technology use in
relation to devices that the school has to offer, there just need to be a
slight adjustment that would be needed to apply it to BYOD.
“Educators in favor of BYOD feel that it promotes greater
participation in the classroom” (Educational Technology, 2012). An advantage to students bringing their
own device is they are already familiar with the use of the device; therefore
they can focus on the learning of the topic rather than learning how to use the
device. “On average, current students now use on
a daily basis between 3 and 5 devices,” (Mareco, 2015). Another
advantage would be many of the devices students would be bringing in are
up-to-date and more advanced than what the school owns, making the completion
of the task more fluid and successful, in addition to the cost savings. Learning
outside the classroom would be more accessible because they have used their own
device and will have that available at home.
By
having the students learn how to use their devices for learning, doing this
respectfully and appropriately will prepare them for their future (Mareco,
2015). The device could also be used cross-curricular, this would allow
students to be more organized, know where their notes are and passwords. Applications
are more accessible through devices and are often times free. Bringing their
own devices would allow for personalized learning therefore students would be
able to excel at their own pace. As you can see there are many gains to having
students be able to BYOD within schools.
To incorporate a BYOD policy into a
school setting it is essential to offer professional development, whether it is
on the policy or the technology that could be brought in. something that has
worked for other districts is having “the technology
director train teachers on using the devices and installed wireless networks,
and teachers who had expertise with a particular device or technology hosted
workshops to show other teachers how to use the device,” (Chadband, 2012). Adding
this policy into a school would need the support of administration, teachers
and the technology integrator. By having all staff on the same level it will
allow for this to be a successful initiative.
Works
Cited:
Chadband,
E. (2012). Should schools embrace BYOD? Retrieved from
Educational
Technology. (2012). What is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and Why
Should
Teachers Care? Retrieved
from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/tech-ed/what-is-byod-bring-your-own-device-and-why-should-teachers-care/
Nice post Amanda. You mentioned a lot of great positives to a BYOD policy like each student being familiar with their device, and the fact that most kids have better technology than the school does. I agree with both of these as students are more adaptable to technology as it changes. I notice you didn't mention any negatives. Do you believe that the positives clearly outweigh the negatives? I think that there needs to be a balance, but the negatives weren't enough for me to think there needed to be a policy preventing BYOD. I'm glad that you mentioned the need for professional development. I agree with that a lot because teachers need to be up-to-date with best practices on technology, not to mention everything else.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of positives about BYOD in your post, and I agree with all of them. There are a lot of great things that could come from implementing BYOD. Being a teacher from a small rural school where many of my students come from poverty, no matter how many positive things about BYOD I hear, I can't help but think that it wouldn't fit for my school. In a perfect world, all kids would have a device that they could bring, but this is far from the case in my school's town. There would be a digital divide within students, and I feel that it would bring moral way down. There would be many families that would feel pressure from BYOD when they don't have the money for technological devices for their kids.
ReplyDelete