BYOD
In the corporate sector IT managers are trying to cope with the ‘impossible’ situation that workers are insisting on coming to work, and doing their work, with their own mobile and work devices (Bring Your Own Device – BYOD), creating (for the managers, they say) a tsunami of technology management, security, etc, problems. For the workers, they simply know they are more productive and happy using their own devices. The same trend is already dominant in post-secondary and will inevitably prevail in K-12 as devices become more ubiquitous, economical, robust and personalized.
Opportunity Statement
There’s no question that BYOD will ultimately be cheaper and more efficient for both formal and informal education providers, so this transition creates a set of venture opportunities surrounding the content, infrastructure and management of the provision of learning.
Prediction Source(s):
Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
Chelsea M Woods 1:11 am on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My school is moving in the direction of BYOD. I have blogged on the topic http://whatsitinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2012/03/bringing-your-own-technology-to-school.html and am interested in the contrast between our mixed platform environment and schools that have chosen platform for their users: are there significant impacts on learning when users are responsible for selecting and maintaining their devices?
Dennis Pratt 2:22 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Our school has laid the footings for a BYOD school but have not taken the final step of actually letting kids bring their devices. We are at the tipping point and I cannot wait to see what happens.
Deborah S 5:37 pm on May 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My school is in the dark-ages as far as this topic goes as we still ban cell phones in the classroom. I saw a wonderful use for cell phones in my daughter’s university class last semester when students used their phones to respond to questions the professor posted during class. What a great formative/diagnostic tool that could be!
Claire Burgoyne 12:47 am on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
One of the advantages blogs have over other online options is that they can be much more personal. I want the work my students to do to be meaningful to them and see a blog which includes highlights, accomplishments, and reflections as being of great value especially if it’s shared with peers.
Claire Burgoyne 10:20 am on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Oops! I posted my blog comment here in error.
vawells 1:48 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
As part of a revamping of the technology plan in our district we are looking at BYOD. Right now students are not allowed to bring devices to school and phones are discouraged. Schools in the district are in the process of becoming wireless. It is a long process but I am interested in seeing how this initiative will pan out.
unclereg 11:46 am on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Student’s and staff are encouraged not to buy their own tech (such as appletv units) not due to security/reimbursement issues but issues surrounding our wireless internet capabilities & bandwidth/speed problems. These devices need to be supported by a stronger/faster internet connection before a school as big as ours (2000+ students &100+ staff) can sustain effective use.
Hussain Luaibi 9:51 pm on May 11, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
BOYD is a debatable venture in the world of e-learning. But what encourages it on the long run is the fast pace of technology. It makes it inevitable in some fields of education.
Hussain
Kenton Hemsing 10:29 am on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
BYOD holds a lot of promise as it opens the chances for students to engage in ubiquitous learning and extending their learning beyond the classroom. Giving students the chance to continually learn and be engaged in their learning will enhance their learning and move their understanding to deeper levels.
sheza 12:03 pm on May 12, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I recently returned to a Markham public school after teaching internationally for the past 2.5 years. I was awe-struck when the classroom teacher asked the students to take down the notes on the board, and I saw a group of students come up to the board with their cell phones and snap a picture of the notes! The students who didn’t do this had been taking notes at their desks on their tablets or netbooks and laptops. Students were personalizing their learning with the devices that best suited their learning styles. I think that this is definitely the way to go considering the fast pace of today’s technology- students are investing in it at home anyways; our public schools cannot afford to keep up with the latest changes, so why not allow the students to BYOD?
Denise 5:17 am on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
BYOD holds promise for students to be engaged and it can be cost effective, but for a small organisation like ours the challenges are:
1. creating good connectivity and access across platforms and
2. how to effectively develop courses that integrate the use of the devices for learning, and not just result in learners being able to access their emails or multitasking irrelevant to the learning at hand.
shawn harris 6:32 am on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I wish my school was moving in the direction of BYOD! It seems as though it is a recent trend in the more developed countries. At my school, students are not allowed to take any form of devices to school, however they still do especially since internet access is readily available. BYOD has its advantages and disadvantages, however, as an educator of Info Tech, I do allow students to use their devices in my class to integrate with the lesson being taught which brings about a more collaborative lesson; one which holds a discovery appraoch to it as well. In other words, students are more involved with its use as teaching and learning take place in a creative fashion!
Shawn Naomi
Brian H 12:31 pm on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think our devices are becoming evenly more deeply entrenched as an extension of ourselves, so it makes the most sense that our own devices are the primary tool to engage in our learning environments. On a practical note, my school was selected to be first in the district for a hardware refresh cycle. Our prize, 5 year old recycled off lease computers… My students phones seem to have more computing power than the “new” machines we just acquired. A BYOD may be the only way to solve the political and administrative nightmare of connecting students digitally.
Sherman Lee 9:52 pm on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
BYOD is certainly an issue for the corporation I work for, but it also present a possibility of expanding our classroom horizon to include a student response system that utilizes common smartphone and personal electronic devices as input instrument.
Donna Forward 11:24 pm on May 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Just today I received an e-mail from our district tech guys letting the staff know that our students now will have access to the school’s wireless internet and they have just received their own wifi password and the teachers have theirs. This will be a new venture for our school to see how the students and teachers work with this new found freedom.
My only concern with BYOD is that the underpriviledged students who can’t afford iPhones etc, will be left out in the dark. In my school, there are quite a few students living below the poverty level.
I’m curious to see how the next few months before the summer holidays will unfold and how each individual teacher will deal with the fact that the students will have constant access to the internet. Certain teachers don’t allow cell phones in class while they’re teaching so I predict that we will need a few staff meetings to decide how we’re going to handle the situation.
Yves Mainville 7:51 am on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
We are in the midst of implementing BYOD on our secondary school in our school board and I am a member of the planning and implementation team. It has been a whirlwind ‘ride’ to date but nonetheless has proven to be exciting times. Although I am involved in all aspects of the project, my core focus is the ‘pedagogical’ use of BYOD. The goals are to facilitate ‘transformed practice’ with the use of technology in the classroom. We must go beyond the first step of ‘digitizing our current practices’ to truly adapting our teaching practices to maximize the potential afforded to us by these technologies, and this will have a significant impact on how we deliver content, how we assess students and how we collaborate to achieve our end goals.