Bennington joins other districts allowing students to BYOD — bring your own device
Julie Anderson, 2/9/2015
Concerns
Advantages
My Opinion on BYOD
Flexible tools
Familiarity with tools
Cut costs by asking for outside devices
Interesting assignments (like the posters offering advice to authors)
Variety allows for a great deal of discovery
The Article
Interesting attention grabber
Bennington Junior-Senior High School is rolling out a BYOD pilot program.
32 NE Schools are BYOD.
This is less common than one-to-one
Why? Is it all income-based? Do we have demographic thresholds that determine the split?
BYOD programs still require infrastructure
Growing amount of students with mobile devices
Students type essays faster on mobile than a keyboard? I'll be darned...
73% of 12- to 17-year-olds
Use is at teacher's discretion.
"I don't want to get stuff because it's cool. How does this technology allow us to do something more interesting or engaging or allow kids to reach out to other people or show their creativity?" -Jason Schmidt
Tools that might compromise a school network
Social issues (a manifestation of Digital Divide)
Logistics. E.g.
Power
Wireless infrastructure
Where is the device's place in the classroom?
Seems like an innovative and elegant system
I'm of the opinion that the teacher should handle what goes on in their classroom; in this case, I mean monitoring of devices should happen by the teacher during the period. It's tough, but if you lesson plan well enough, you needn't worry.
LOVE the option to BYOD or use a school-provided device if finances are an issue. Equal access rules.