BYOD: Has anyone tried this?

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Permalink Reply by Anthony VonBank on February 9, 2012 at 7:25am

I do it frequently. It works about like you'd expect, most kids know how to run their own stuff, some are as clueless as they would be in a lab. I find they are more comfortable using their own devices, so it goes smoother overall.

I have also learned to to BYOD as projects, where they can share. Some kids have good stuff and others don't. I don't think we are ready to expect 100% BYOD access just yet. (soon, though)

Tony

@clouducation_

clouducation.wordpress.com

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Favazza on February 9, 2012 at 3:35pm

One eighth grade team at our school is part of a pilot program with BYOD.  So far it is working extremely well.  I teach math and use a moodle extensively for this particular class.  The students really like having the convenience of having their own laptop or iPad.  They can begin work at school and complete it at home without having to upload to Google docs, use a flash drive or email it to themselves. I've had no issue with students being somewhere they shouldn't be on the internet.  This is an advanced math class and the students are fairly responsible. 

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Permalink Reply by Maria Smith on February 10, 2012 at 7:18am

My son's high school is slowly implementing it.  They are allowed to bring their Kindle or IPad that they downloaded their literature readings but this is the extent of how they are using it.  They were asked to have it checked by their IT teacher a day before they can bring it.  Once they are done with their readings, they are to turn it in the office and they can get it back at the end of the day.  The school I guess is not ready to fully implement it for security purposes and accessibility (not obligated to have such devices).

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Permalink Reply by Jim Kelly on February 10, 2012 at 12:06pm

We will be doing it next year in our district with our high schools; roughly 4800 students. We are anticipating some resistance among the more "traditional" teachers. As a former high school English teacher and media specialist, it has been my experience that HS teachers can be the most resistant to change. There is talk that some teachers can "opt out" of allowing student use of BYOT, but I am not entirely sure. It will be interesting to see if there is any meaningful backlash. On a side note, I am also curious to see what happens to our bandwidth; we will have our student's devices on their own network within our network infrastructure, so we can throttle it down based on traffic volume and other needs, but our Internet backbone will undoubtedly be tested once this goes live, especially in light of our state's online testing mandates. We will need to achieve some type of balance. Should be interesting.

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Permalink Reply by Maria Smith on February 10, 2012 at 12:21pm

I wonder the same thing, with all the devices, it will definitely slow everyone and everything down if it is not upgraded.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Kelly on February 10, 2012 at 12:32pm

Yes, absolutely. We just upgraded to a 100 MB backbone from 50 the year before and we are pegging it now for a large part of the day. I would like us to get to 500, but something tells me whatever it is, it will not be enough. We will have to teach the kids about how to manage their connections and internet use for the betterment  of all involved.

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Permalink Reply by Stacey Bell on February 11, 2012 at 7:19am

This is a truly scarey thought to me.  I teach high school so maybe I am part of the resistance to change group.  Just recently our principal has allowed students to listen to their ipods while doing individual classwork.  This would be fine if you could trust students to listen to music and stay off the internet and stop texting their friends.  It has become a classroom to classroom rule.  I feel like the BYOD would also have to implemented by individual teachers in my school.  Some students would be great and responsible, while others will cause problems.  Good luck!

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