The bring your own device or technology movement is one of the
next big emerging pieces of educational tools that are being used all around
the United States. Since so many people and young people use technology on a
daily basis it makes sense to incorporate the use of technology in the
classroom or for educational purposes.
There are barriers and challenges that stand in the way of
properly implementing and using devices in the classroom. This is especially
true with minor students. Most schools have strict cell phone policies in place
that do not allow students to use a cell phone in class. This is where there is
a gray area about what devices a student is allowed to use (Quillen, 2011).
There are laws that prohibit minors from being allowed to access
anything inappropriate. Policing this is hard and not allowing the students to
become distracted by the devices is also difficult. Some school systems have
slowly implemented BYOD or BYOT. The way in which they have been successful, is
by only allowing a little bit of device use at a time (Quillen, 2011). This way
they keep it simple, which keeps teachers happy as well.
The school system that I work for has not adopted BYOT or BYOD.
I am not sure how that would go over with a lot of the teachers. Teachers have
to be trained in this area so they can successfully use technology in their
classroom to enhance learning. This is the purpose of using technology because
we want our students to learn more and be more successful in school and later
in life. I am still on the fence about using devices in the classroom because I
would like to see how teachers use these devices for at risk students or
special education students. These students have so many distractions and
sometimes I think some special education students would benefit, while the
other at risk students would just want to play. I want to understand and
research how teachers are using iPads or Kindles in their class to enhance
student learning. The core classes are the ones that I am interested in knowing
more about because the public schools are under strict schedules to complete a
certain amount of information by a certain time.
Reference:
Quillen, I. (2011, Crafting your BYOT policy. Education
Week's Digital Directions, 5, 22-22, 23. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/901115269?accountid=12085
Hi Sherry,
ReplyDeleteThis fits perfectly into your lit review! The issues raised here are very important. I am looking forward to seeing how you integrate this research.
It definitely sounds like the BYOD concept has a lot of merit, and will eventually implemented in some form. I definitely see the predicament that would be incurred by allowing students to use some devices for certain applications, and not allow others. I truly don’t believe that the students don’t or won’t understand the purpose however. Students know what it is to interrupt class, or get distracted from class. They do not need a device to do this; this could also be the concept of talking to a peer in class, verses talking to the teacher to answer a question. The line will need to be drawn, and enforced as to the difference of using a device for educational purposes, or using them for inappropriate purposes. The difficult part of this will be enforcement. There are definitely mitigations that could be emplaced electronically to block certain applications, but there are those that don’t. The key will be to enforce the rules when they are broken, and accept the consequences of adjusting the usage by certain students.
ReplyDeleteI think that allowing students to bring mobile devices into the classroom is a noble idea. It would allow students to engage in forms of technology they are use to while still learning. This would be ideal if students could have restrictions on the programs that could be accessed on the devices. This can be seen in my elementary school where the students have access to ipods, ipads and nook colors in the media center.
ReplyDeleteSherry ~ Great post this week and an interesting concept to ponder on. The concept of bring your own device or technology movement to the classroom may seem interesting at first, but I bet there's not a teacher out there that could maintain control of his or her classroom in the learning experience if that happened. I don't understand why school systems just don't adopt the laptop movement and have all e-books, instruction, quizzes, tests, assessments, evaluation, etc. online. Just as we are learning as we speak, the middle and high school age children need to make that transition into what will soon be a virtual world. Though the concept sounds interesting and amazing to engage students into "their" world of technology, I just don't see how a teacher could maintain proper control of the environment.
ReplyDeleteBlessings ~ Ruth Sholes