BYOD - BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE
The concept of BYOD is not new to education and is used by numerous schools up and down the country to supplement the devices provided by the school. Our goal is to increase student access to a device and ideally enable all students to have a dedicated device to use for their learning.
Every BYOD device is beneficial, not just to the student bringing it but to those who do not bring a device as it increases access to the devices provided by the school.
The same is true for the teaching.
Laying a foundation that cultivates lifelong, self-directed learning starts at an early age. While much of the discourse on lifelong learning focuses on the later stages of life, it is actually the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes acquired during the early life-stages that provide the foundation for the lifelong learning habit. Schools are pivotal organisations for laying such foundations. 21st century competencies. The pedagogic model underlying too many schools and classrooms is still aimed at preparing students for the industrial economy and is very different from the activities at the heart of knowledge-based organisations, societies and economies.of
The curricula, learning experiences and overall environment must be centred on fostering the skills and mindset of self-directed lifelong learning, with21st century competencies strategically interwoven through the learning experiences
Our world is changing rapidly and it is critical that our education system and schooling is fit for purpose. The Centre for Educational Research and Innovation at the OECD articulates the key shifts that schools need to respond to.
They are:
Far-reaching technological change
Technologies have developed apace, with change quickening all the time. This has far-reaching consequences. The information revolution is transforming how we work, play, read and think; it is changing the nature of our economies and societies from the most personal level up to the global. We are living in an era of incredible invention and growth in information and communication technologies.
A profound transformation from industrial to knowledge economies
Knowledge is now the central driving force for economic activity, with innovation critical. The relocation of economic activities to other countries and world regions - of our societies. As knowledge has become so fundamental then so has learning.
Self-directed, lifelong learning
The capacity to continuously learn and apply/integrate new knowledge and skills has never been more essential. Students should become self-directed, lifelong learners, especially as they are preparing for jobs that do not yet exist, to use technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve problems that are not yet even recognised as problems.
Lifelong learning—the ability continuously to develop over one’s life span—is essential so that each citizen may be able to access the requisite resources and support in order to learn the content and competencies they need. The ability continuously to learn is fundamental in developing adaptive expertise i.e. the ability to apply meaningfully learned knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively in a variety of contexts and situations.
Lifelong learning, 21st century skills, and adaptive expertise are critical in a world that is constantly shifting and demanding higher cognitive capacity. The higher-order skills increasingly prioritised in workplaces and in society as a whole include the capacities to:
team-work, social and communication skills
media literacy
acquire a deep understanding of complex concepts
be able to justify and solve real world problems
be creative
be adaptive and flexible to new information
ask meaningful questions
make decisions weighing different forms of evidence
think systematically and critically
generate, process and sort complex information