My Thoughts around BYOD

Mobile devices are becoming more accessible, functional, economical and smart. Many families have access to better computing devices at home than we are able to provide at school.

We must provide an environment where all students can learn using 21st century tools and techniques. There is an urgency here that we need to address.

“Young people who will be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.” NZ Curriculum

What does that mean? LEARN, CREATE, SHARE

The BYOD group on VLN has masses of more in depth information about BYOD and I have learnt more through at the BYO attending the Orewa BYOD conference and school visits in May 2012.

For developing discussion around BYOD you can search via the Twitter hashtag https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23BYOD

The Loop has a range of documents in development around BYOD issues. Ask Geoff Scrimgeour to share the policies/procedures.

Students are going to be bringing all kinds of devices from the newest top of the line device to a nearly crapped out, hand-me-down hunk of junk.

  • Clarify what is BYOD? Bring your own device but the device we tell you to bring OR bring anything you like and we will make it work (not literally)? OR BYOD that you own OR BYOD that you are leasing to own or BYOD that you are leasing??? Or even Buy Your Own Device, bulk purchased from the school.
  • You’re going to get all sorts of devices. Will teachers know what the capabilities of the devices are if they haven’t had any experience of using them themselves?
  • Need for a clear understanding as to who is going to troubleshoot for them? A firm understanding that the teacher is not going to sort out issues.
  • Who will manage and log devices as they log on to the network? Devices may need to be managed as they leave the network (regular, robust access management)
  • Will there be a minimum standard set for the device that is brought to school. Do you want a laptop running Windows 3.1 without any hint of virus protection running on your network? What are the minimum specifications for the devices the students might bring?
  • Are cell phones going to be part of the deal? If they are the school will have no way to manage/filter the content downloaded or searched for and they can be used to access the internet via 3G for other devices including laptops.
  • In reality, in a classroom, how many students will bring their working, charged devices on any one day. Never 100% so what how do they access their work when it’s on the device at home or on a device that they can’t access via the web as there is not enough devices at school and they’re half way through something.

How will the Wi-Fi cope with potentially 30+ devices per class hooking up to the internet concurrently?

  • Are you going to have a big enough pipe for multiple people doing with heavy usage (the average PES student is doing 22GB of data a month).
  • Students are potentially going to  bring more than one device- an iPad, iPod Touch, phone, laptop, netbook, tablet.
  • Will they be able to update their devices at school?

Create a separate virtual local area network for students.

  • Students log in to their own portion of the wireless network, where they have filtered access to the Internet but no access to school servers.
  • You won’t be able to tell who is doing what so need robust policies and agreements
  • Content filtering system also protects them from ­inappropriate websites and systems.
  • What happens to the student network after school hours? Is it still accessible to outside users?

Professional development is important.

  • How will having every child having access to the internet going to change how teachers teach and students learn?
  • There must be a culture where innovation is encouraged and successes celebrated.
  • There is not a lot of point unless teachers are able to teach well, digitally- to have a commitment to teaching with a digitally rich pedagogy.
  • How will we be able to monitor the success of the BYOD innovation?
  • How will we ascertain the improvements in student learning?
  • How will we be able to attribute differences in student outcomes to their improved access to a device?
  • Visiting other schools who are further down the track in investing on BYOD would be crucial? Involving all the stakeholders- management, staff, BoT, parents, students.

Learners need to be taught how to manage themselves on line

  • Robust internet acceptable use agreements for students and adults
  • Responsible use policies
  • Meaningful learning around cyber-safety throughout all age groups
  • Students and teachers need to be able to work collaboratively in virtual and physical spaces.

Provide a buyer's guide.

  • Give whanau some clear, unbiased information around their options- the pros and cons around devices they might choose- Apple laptop PC, netbook, tablet, iPod Touch, iPad
  • Will parents be able to lease devices from the school or from somewhere else?

Think about how they will be managed in the classroom

  • Security/storage- what happens to them during playtime, do they stay at school each day or go home?
  • How will they be recharged when the batteries don’t last long?
  • Will students be able to access loaner devices when their device spits the dummy.
  • Assuming the use of Google docs with a whole classes of students sharing their work with the teacher it will be critical to have an efficient way of managing that with something like Hapara.
  • Maybe a good way to start is to have a digital class or couple of classes where teachers with skill, expertise and a desire to innovate break new ground and launch into a BYOD trial.

Equity

  • Not everyone will be able to be able to bring a device each day and if they do not all of them will be working. How can we ensure that all students have equitable access?
  • Do you intend to go full BYOD where everyone is expected to have a device, every day OR where if you have some thing you can bring it or you can use school gear if you don’t bring your own?
  • If parents are sending their child to school with a BYOD they will expect the child to use it. What happens on days when their device isn’t going to be used?

Parent Education

  • Educate parents around social media and internet use
  • Help parents become confident, connected ICT users
  • Celebrate student successes on line

Board of Trustees Support

  • Develop policies around BYOD so everyone knows their expectations?
  • Acknowledge that there is likely to be unforseen expenses around BYOD.

Innovation

  • Teaching is ecology- one thing changes everything
  • Development of 21st century learning spaces
  • Being innovative
  • Develop an action research project around the use of the BYOD in school- asking questions such as
  1. How has this impacted on student’s learning?
  2. How has this impacted on our teaching?
  3. How has this innovation improved student outcomes?
  4. What worked/what didn’t?
  5. What needs to change? What would you change? What would you do differently next time?
  6. How do we make these changes sustainable?
  • Sharing the innovation- learning from others and sharing our learning as we move forward through the VLN, blogging, sharing with other teachers.

Who is actually doing BYOD in NZ

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QfSQ8dd65FQV58A2jrT7zdaGbo9rOhHY0PD98Axee6g/edit?pli=1#