The idea of Bring Your Own Device (or
Technology, depending on who you talk to) in K-12 schools is a fascinating one
to me. Mainly because it seems so intuitive and yet innovative. I spent my four
years of high school being told to never bring my computer to school and to
then saw experienced an almost complete turn around in college. Not encouraging
kids to use their own technology in school now seems like more than a waste: it
seems irresponsible. I found out on Friday that the school I'm doing my field experience
at this year is switching to BYOD in the spring, so I thought that looking into
it more would be a good idea, just so I could acquaint myself more with both
sides of the issue and what type of information was out there about BYOD.
Melissa
Greenwood’s piece “Survey offers snapshot of BYOD in K-20” points out the
disparity between BYOD usage in postsecondary and secondary education (95% and
48%, respectively), begging the concern that secondary schools are not
preparing students for the use of technology in the classroom that will be
required in college. This is especially disconcerting considering that 87% of
parents believe that effective implementation of technology is important to
their child’s success, according to the infographic from
topmastersineducation.com. Joshua Bolkan’s article “Report: Schools not Meeting
Students’ Technology Needs” further highlights the issue that students in the
United States use less technology in schools than their peers in China. There
is no longer any argument that technology will not be an important part of
whatever paths todays students take and how they interact with the world around
them. If technology is so important, why aren’t we more effectively making it a
part of the classroom, especially when students have so much access to
technology everyday.
The answer, of
course, complex. To me, the most compelling argument against BYOD is the issue
of technology inequality. The topmastersineducation.com infographic shows that
this is a concern for 43% of principals surveyed 84% of teacher and that for
teachers of low income students there is less access to resources and training
for technology in the classroom. Perhaps, though BYOD can help to close these
gaps. If students are regularly bringing their own devices to school, this
could allow school divisions to spend more money on resources for those
students who cannot bring technology to school, rather than making sure that
all students have the exact same device provided by the school. The Dell survey
cited by Bolkan claims that 71% of students have better access to technology at
home than at school, meaning that the schools have room to focus their efforts
on providing technology for those students who do not have access to technology
at home. Of course, these other students are not evenly spread about the
country, but rather focused in low-income areas. The issue of getting
technology to students in low-income schools is a much larger issue, but
perhaps BYOD could alleviate some of the financial burdens of incorporating
technology.
All three of
these reports are highlighting the fact that technology in schools is a changing issue in
schools that many people see as extremely important. They all seem in favor of incorporating technology into the classroom, assuming that it is an important part of any education. They all concern
themselves with how much access students have to technology, but do little to
delve into the quality of interaction students have with technology, something
equally as important.
http://smartblogs.com/education/2013/07/19/survey-provides-snapshot-of-byod-in-k-20/
http://www.business2community.com/infographics/the-role-of-technology-in-americas-classrooms-infographic-0478491
http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/09/13/report-schools-not-meeting-students-technology-needs.aspx?admgarea=News1
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