BYOD in the 21st Century

Wondering what BYOD means or if your school is ready for it? In this 8-minute Pedagogical Quickie, I present some of the many advantages and limitations of this concept for education.

• Category

  Education

[Matthew Gudenius]

Also, I 100% disagree with your statement that we will never be able to afford technology because we can't afford the support.

Here's a thought: hire (or train) teachers who are tech-savvy, so they can be IT managers and tech support managers for their OWN classrooms. It is not difficult to manage and support 30 devices. I do it (in addition to lesson planning, curriculum creation, etc.) on a daily basis.

[Marc-André Lalande]

Hiring tech-savvy teachers, well… Sure, why not? It’s not going to happen overnight, though. Then again, I think the most important thing for a teacher is to be a great pedagogue. It’s hard to imagine a great pedagogue not to be tech-savvy nowadays, actually; technology is simply one of the tools you can’t afford to ignore if you’re always trying to improve your pedagogical practices. Hardware maintenance, though… not sure that’s where I’d want a good teacher to invest his or her time.

[Matthew Gudenius]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you've never actually taught in a classroom?

What you list as "Benefit #1" may actually be the biggest problem/limitation of them all. There is a reason for standardization of software on devices, and it's not just for security / virus protection / ease. When teachers need to teach a concept using technology, they need to be able to teach all of the students how to do it together. The only alternative is provide links to resources for learning...

[Marc-André Lalande]

Thank you for your interesting comments, Matthew. I guess that one of the first important things to add is that I think the BYOD concept is one of many in a series that can help school evolve into a better, more relevant learning experience.

Getting every learner to do the same thing at the same time after the teacher has shown how to do it is probably not the type of environment where BYOD is relevant, I agree. Standards are important; the way to meet them doesn’t have to be standardized.

[Marc-André Lalande]

When I was a computer science and economics teacher in high school, what I wanted from my students was for them to show that the concepts and processes in the program were mastered. Sure, an exam is one of the tools that can do that (not very well, though… it is often better at measuring rote memory and ability to deal with a stressful situation), but there are other ways. Agreed, these “other ways” are really hard to explore if the exam is the only thing that counts at the end of the line.

[cooljoe1234567891011]

2:10 SOOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Richard Rowley]

Have you heard of differentiation? With BYOD it applies not only in the task you set, but also the choice of application a pupil can choose to use to complete the task. Security, virus = no problem - all BYOD needs is an internet connection - no need to provide visibility of any domain resources. The main thing BYOD needs to succeed is committed management, a good PD programme for staff and allowing staff the freedom to make mistakes.

[mezajessejm]

My school is starting BYOD in a week

[kalyantr7]

Fruit brand...hahaha!

[Simon Ansell]

Hi Mark,

Great video.

I am giving a talk on BYOD to a bunch of school ICT staff. I would like to get them to watch this but in their own time (8 minutes is too long for my session). Would you mind if I showed them a quick trailer (all credit given of course) to get them interested?

Simon

[ELi95185]

It is Lil cooler than our byot video!

[Marc-André Lalande]

I strongly suggest listening to Dr. Sugata Mitra, Sir Ken Robinson and others on this matter in these amazing videos:

- Future Learning from Good Magazine

- Changing Education Paradigms (RSA Animate's rendition of a Sir Ken Robinson conference)

[Marc-André Lalande]

It is my opinion that differentiated learning and broader competency-based programs that allow learners to delve into more and more relevant learning related to all human activity would greatly benefit society as a whole. If the goal of school is to develop the mind, then I say there are many different ways to do so, and quite probably, much more efficient ways. Until we change our expectations of what school should be, I understand a certain level of standardization seems inevitable.