byod in schools: high definition education
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http://www.cxounplugged.com BYOD in schools, Chris Gabriel looks at whether allowing school children to BYOD is a good idea or just a faddy notion.TRANSCRIPT
BYOD in Schools – High Definition Education?
BYOD in schools, Chris Gabriel looks at whether allowing school children to BYOD is
a good idea or just a faddy notion.
There is an argument that the use of technology and new inventions, such as BYOD,
“dulls the memory and results in people seeming to know much, while for the most
part knowing nothing”. A chorus of approval might be heard from those who believe
a good book, preferably a classic, can teach you all you need to know, and that a
well written essay is a hallmark of a clear thinker; unless the book in question is
Plato’s Phaedrus. Written around 2400 years ago it made precisely that point about
a relatively new technology at the time – ‘writing’ and its partner in crime ‘reading’.
The point is that when new technologies appear and threaten to change the way we
do things, there are many for whom this is unacceptable. The reason, more often
than not, is the naysayers have spent much time learning and developing their
modus operandi and, when they are presented with a new and/or easier way of
carrying it out, it undermines their investment. The reaction is often negative.
BYOD in Schools – using ‘grown up’ tools
The first reaction when pupils brought phones and smart devices to school was to
send a swift letter home reminding parents that school is a place for learning so
please do not bring these devices to school. Presumably they were teaching our kids
communication skills, how to research information and share it, all on tired PCs
running Windows XP. Meanwhile their parents were at work grappling with a new
smart phone that could handle e-mail, use apps to access the corporate sales
database and play Angry Birds on the commute. At the same time, some of those
parents were restricting their children’s access to technology; an hour a day, no
more.
Then some really smart schools clicked. What tools will these young people be using
when they enter the workplace? What do they use socially to communicate, research
information and share? These schools understood that their pupils already had the
user skills and, in many cases, the tools to receive a vast amount of information.
They also realised that a pretty cool way of teaching their students would be to use
the devices they already use to learn and communicate when not at school.
So BYOD in schools was born, and interestingly it seems that this market sector has
it addressed in a way that others just do not – remember our BYOD research
showing that 78% of organisations do not have a BYOD policy? We will be
elaborating on how schools have made BYOD work in further articles, but some of
the issues they have overcome are:
1. Security – child protection, exposure to viruses and malware, network
vulnerability, and student etiquette and behaviour including cyberbullying.
2. Equality – not every child may have access to smart devices. How is this
managed sympathetically?
3. Preparing for BYOD – training teachers, educating parents, developing user
policies and managing expectations.
4. Adopting best practices – finding an integrator, preparing the network,
implementing security architecture and network policies, developing a network
access strategy, and monitoring and managing activity.
The reality is students like using their personal devices, so they become engaged in
whatever it is that they’re doing with them — including classwork, which becomes
even more interactive when everyone has access to technology. Unlike a school-
provided device, the personal device (and the desire to continue using it) goes home
with the student. In this way BYOD in schools enables and fosters 24×7 learning.
This is not just a fad – a study in the US by the Jane Ganz Cooney Center saw an
average 27% increase in vocabulary among five year olds after they used an
education iPad app. A similar study showed a 17% improvement among three year
olds.
One skill of all accomplished academics is not knowing all the information, but
knowing where to find it. Library and research skills is a module taught on most
degree courses. Go into any modern courtroom and the lawyers will be using
electronic devices to find ‘the law’. The medical profession uses smart devices
across all areas of practice, and business people access and respond to e-mail on
the move and update the company database thousands of miles away from HQ
while sitting on a beach.
Should we not then be allowing our children to use the tools they are already familiar
with to access information in the same way the ‘grown up’ world does? What’s
stopping us? In some cases, as we have seen, nothing.
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