Black Gold School Division

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), BYOT (Technology), BYOP (Phone) are all similar acronyms for initiatives where students have more choice and control over their technology to support their learning. All students (and staff) are able to use their own electronic devices in classrooms to personalize their learning. While all are encouraged to bring their own technology to school, formal BYOD programs have clear goals for student use within a classroom.

Bring Your Own Device fits in well with our primary goal for student technology use in Black Gold:

• Core subject classrooms have readily available digital tools and media that engage learners and teachers in the collaborative pursuit of challenging and personalized curricular experiences reflective of today’s global, digital world.

  • A focus on higher order thinking skills

  • Collaborative learning environments

  • Personalization of learning

Inspiring Education calls for more student centered, personalized, authentic learning experiences that will result in youth becoming engaged thinkers and ethical citizens, with an entrepreneurial spirit. Innovative uses of technology in education will help bring this vision to life preparing students for the world beyond the classroom.

Teachers across the division have been using portable devices, laptops and netbooks, in classrooms since 2008. This has helped prepare them for the increasingly common sight of technology in the students hands such as tablets, cell phones, laptops and even gaming systems that come to school with internet access. It has also allowed them to learn the different modalities of teaching with technology and assess when its use is appropriate. Administrators in the schools have become involved assessing its effectiveness in the classroom to increase higher order thinking skills, collaboration and personalized learning.

Please note that in our Bring Your Own Device projects, purchasing a device is not mandatory - while we encourage students to bring devices they already own, you are not obligated to purchase a device for your child.

For students that do not have a device, forget their device, or choose not to bring one, in formal BYOD projects, classrooms will have approximately 20 devices available for students use.

Inspiring Education and the upcoming new curriculum in Alberta Schools in 2016 or 2017 calls for an increase in leveraging technology for learning. Alberta Education has released the Learning and Technology Policy Framework for school divisions to plan for the greater integration with technology.