week 5: mobile technologies and organizational policy
An example of organizational policy that regulates “use of mobile technology” that I have looked at is the province of Alberta’s “Bring your own device: A guide for schools” document. It was referenced in the “Manifesto for 21st Century Learning Broadband: Directives” resource by the Ontario Association of School Business Officials. The four key policy considerations in this document are: responsible/appropriate use, equity of access, network access and bandwidth and the readiness of schools and school authorities for a BYOD model. I believe that any institution that is looking to employ a BYOD policy would be delving into these same considerations, as these are common concerns. The policy also references digital citizenship and access to digital content. The purpose of these protocols is to stipulate policies and practices to help ensure that students become responsible digital citizens, as one example. This can, of course, extend to all technology, but there is perhaps another layer of responsibility that a student should recognize when they bring their own device to school. A school board also needs to think about its infrastructure, in terms of the levels of network access personal devices would be privy to, as well as the amount of bandwidth required to handle the traffic. If a school board decides to allow students to bring their personal devices on campus, it is likely that the amount of bandwidth
There are also liability issues that the school board and IT department do not want to take on, so this must also be stipulated in the policy. The school board and IT department must decide on the level of network access the devices would use, and the amount of security and monitoring required (filters for inappropriate content). If a personal device is in breach of the network access (for example, the student hops on to a network other than the specified, school board-sanctioned network), IT may reserve the right to administer consequences; particularly if a student’s actions inexplicably invite a virus to infect his/her device, IT would most likely not maintain this device. The policy needs to explicitly state the levels of maintenance IT will be willing to provide to personal devices in all circumstances.
If students have their own personal device from home to use at school, it would serve to engage the student, since it is already personalized. I remember teaching a Grade ⅚ class about various Google tools, and the fact that I insisted the students use the Chrome browser in order to increase the functionality of the tools. One student, who, I noticed, was experiencing difficulties with keeping up with instructions, perked right up when he spoke about how he had personalized his Chrome browser at home. Since we were using Chrome at school, he did the same thing with his classroom laptop. He was so proud of himself, and he even taught other students how to personalize their browsers (he even used the word personalized!). This alone propelled him forward with the tasks, because he was engaged and the knowledge he had gave him purpose – he wanted to invest the time. Personal devices also serve to “bridge the formal learning in schools with the informal, outside of classrooms and schools.” The instruction shifts towards more student-centred learning, and subsequently fosters an inquiry-based learning environment. Mobile learning lends itself well to individual and collaborative inquiry, as students are familiar with their own devices and can access information quite readily. By simply being familiar with the interface and mobile browser navigation of their device, they are able to seamlessly and quickly acquire the necessary information in order to respond to an inquiry-based project/question. The teacher should simply provide the search how-to’s, and how to appropriately and respectfully access digital content (one of the considerations of the BYOD policy), and the students would do the rest.
Another implication to learning when using personal devices is the affordability and availability of various assistive technologies within the devices. Since most, if not all, devices come equipped with assistive technology (and, providing they are enabled), the classroom environment becomes more inclusive of all learners. BYOD also helps retain the focus on 21st Century learning, including “critical and creative thinking, collaboration, communication, self-direction, global awareness and cultural literacy.” Students can readily engage in synchronous and asynchronous communication with their peers in and out of school, and can use the same device in doing so. They can easily collaborate on school projects, since they may have access to apps that are not available on a school device, and they will have the same apps as their friends (and apps that they use regularly). Instructional practices could be more inclusive of global collaborative opportunities, and students can potentially share their work with a wider audience to either gain feedback or simply to showcase work done using a certain app they like to use.
Assessment practices are also impacted, because teachers can more readily “use online and embedded assessments in formative and summative capacities.”