BYOD

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...bring your own device...a technology access model / concept for today's learners

Some notes and quotes from Sam Gliksman's Skype presentation to MCFCS representatives - 25 July 2012


"It's not about the technology - technology alone is not the answer" "Today's technological innovation will be tomorrow's party joke"
  • If you want to embrace BYOD, you need to firstly clarify your educational vision of learning in the 21st Century
  • Youth today learn differently to adults; adults are single task focussed. Today's learners spend 50+ hours/week using digital technologies, multi-media, colour, visuals and are more likely to use a trial and error approach to, for instance, a new camera - whereas adults today are more likely to look for the instruction manual.
  • Learners today can take any course they want online - they can learn anywhere, anytime, with any device (e.g KhanAcademy, K12, iTunes).
  • With fibre optics, we can basically download the entire contents of libraries onto an iPhone.
  • Schools need to develop robust educational visions & plans for the future that enhance digital literacy skills and opportunities for students to communicate, collaborate, create and publish - not just gather and regurgitate information.
  • Whole-School communities need to be included in the vision and planning - parents need to be assured that their investment in a device is supported by effective teaching and learning practice (relevance, usability).

What?

Technology Access Models

1 Computer Lab or Mobile Cart (e.g. COWs - computers on wheels)
  • limited access
  • desktop, laptop, netbooks, ipads
  • requires booking
  • shared (everyone necessarily has access to the same things; no differentiation for individual needs)
  • school financed
  • school maintained (not the student's responsibility to look after)
  • school controlled
Can Schools with this model afford to maintain the model over time?

2 One-to-one Technology Programs
  • anytime, dedicated access
  • decide on equipment (everyone must have x or y, not a or z)
  • used at school, sometimes at home
  • School buys, parents pay
  • school maintained
  • school controlled

3 BYOD
  • anytime, anywhere, any device (poses some problems)
  • minimum standards needed
  • parent financed - school no longer paying for hardware - solely owned and looked after by student
  • personalised - student have the opportunity to innovate; students tend to be more productive


How?

There are challenges in the BYOD model and schools need extensive planning, infrastructure investment and training for successful implementation. Some schools try to ban BYOD - in the USA, 69% of Schools - but 63% of students in those schools are still using them at school!
  • Schools need to find out how many students have actually got a device that could be used at school? In the USA about 40% in the 12-17 age group have smart phones; 11% have a tablet of some sort (this statistic is rapidly accelerating) - know your population; poll anonymously
  • Buy in from the whole school community is essential - "culture change is most effective swelling from the bottom up"
  • Schools need to communicate, develop and deliver a very clear 'responsible use policy'. This should include: where and when devices can be used, rules for taking home, browsing dos and donts, social networking policies, messaging policies, privacy and safety
  • Schools need to have contingency plans for the "digital divide" (haves and have-nots) - use the $ from strategic savings (servers, storage & software) to buy a bank of equipment as loaners
  • ensure whole school campus has robust and reliable wireless internet access & plan for future bandwidth needs including uploading!
  • check that students can access online resources created within school outside the school
  • use platform independent tools such as apps that work across most devices, and online spaces for sharing and collaborating, e.g wikis
  • utilise common features: apps, audio, video, classroom polling and quick tests, podcasting, radio boradcasts, probe attachments for measuring, digital storytelling, emailing and sharing any media using, for example, Posterous, language learning - recording speaking and reading (e.g. foreign language), creating movies (iMovie on ipad), use on field trips (photos, audio, video, data collection and analysis), data organisation tools (Diigo, Instapper, Evernote, Delicious...)


Why?

  • BYOD is cost effective and the current timing is right (increasing demand, shrinking budgets)
  • no repairs and maintenance
  • more engaged and motivated students
  • typically more robust and up to date and personalised
  • greater accountability
  • different learners, different needs (special needs students thrive on ipads and apps, high end users need high end laptops and software)

Some Thorns

  • CONTROL (what schools are used to) - control is expensive!!! It requires you to own the devices. But some companies are developing web-based BYOD environments for more control and monitoring of use.
  • SECURITY - create a separate, segmented network for students with no internal network access. Use web-based, online storage.
  • DO I KNOW YOU? login with authentic user IDs only.
  • monitoring and filtering - web filters provide internet access controls, but these can impact on access speed. Authentication enables monitoring. Insist on wireless access for BYOD - make it part of your responsible use policy - take action if students set up own network access.

Summary

It is not about the device - it's what you do with it
There is no point in preparing students for life in a school. They have to be prepared to function in a global context.
This is a time of great exponential growth. 1GB in 1981 cost $300,000; 1 GB in 2012 costs 12 cents. In 2004 there was no Facebook, in 2012 one in eight people have a Facebook account. It took Apple 22 years to sell 55Million Macs, but only 2 years to sell 55Million iPads.

Sam Gliksman's presentation can be accessed at Slideshare