About BYOD

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Most of you are probably aware that for a few years my classes have been BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) classrooms. What does that mean?

As many students who were able to brought their own laptop, tablet or chromebook to school. Most left them there, some took them home, some did a little of both. The number of students who brought their own was around 70%, and because it was that high, we were able to make it work. Due to our success, our leadership committee began talks last year to figure out how could KLES make it work for more classrooms.

The articles below can address the WHY having our own devices is important, but I can tell you from experience what we are able to do:

1. Students are able to write a response to a question or write a paper immediately on to a Google doc and share it. No time wasted hand-writing it and then typing it later.

2. Student collaboration has increased; there are more devices for groups to share and delegate the work.

3. Problem-solving and critical thinking have increased dramatically, along with patience. Students are able to navigate through issues and try "something else." This is translatable outside the world of technology.

4. Researching a question or problem is immediate. It can be done during any period-math, science,social studies; not just during the one hour you had the laptops "checked out."

5. Creative 20th century projects and project based learning is available for all areas, not just once in awhile.

6. When a student finishes something early, they can finish working on a project, finish typing a paper, or finish researching something they are working on instead of just "reading a book."

7. So much time is not wasted compared to checking out a cart. Our devices are left "sleeping" all day and we don't need 10-20 minutes to get them booted up and logged on each time we need to use them.

8. Our curriculum has been able to progress more into student-led learning in which students take an independent role in their work. My students reach a level of indepedence far earlier than they did years ago.

9. Our 21st century skills and ability to navigate web-based curriculum has soared. My class interacts with their learning in some web-based way, not just "substituting" an "old way" but with augmentation, modification, and redefinition of their process or product, approximately 50-60% (occasionally more) of the day.

I could continue to go on....but having read those articles, I will address the "cons" that clearly come up.

1. Theft? Damage? Theft, no. That has not happened, nor has it happened in the many years I've had kids bring their own devices. Damage? Yes. There have been a few students who have dropped their devices, stepped on them, etc. and needed some at-home repair. That same number of students do that to our school devices, just for point of comparision, and would just as likely do that home...it is rare that someone else damages someone else's device.

2. Most parents' #1 question: unrestricted access? No, students are on the Jeffco server when they are logged on. The Jeffco firewall blocks inappropriate websites stricter than most households.

3. Viruses? The same as question #2, they are not allowed to download anything on the Jeffco server. Even I can't.

4. Logging on to the server? You heard we had issues. Yes, I managed to learn my way through it after someone from IT finally told me how. I can troubleshoot most server issues now. It takes a bit of time at the beginning getting everyone's different devices logged on to the server.

5. Students "surfing" when they should be on another task: You got me there. Here's where walking around and "eyes behind the head" and other students who tell me what's going on help. This is a responsibility and trust relationship. If I see them playing a game when they are supposed to be typing a paper, they won't be using their device for awhile.

There are numerous articles out there, but I have linked a few. There are many schools who have already gone "one to one" which means the school has provided enough devices for every student to have a device all day, every day. Those schools don't need to go "BYOD."

6 Benefits

pros and cons

insights

Tech Radar's List of the best Chromebook Deals for August 2017

Please fill out the survey below indicating where you are regarding being able to provide your student with their own device:

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