On Tuesday, February 18 we had the opportunity to listen to R. Norris from Dakota Colligate, A. McKiel & D. Kuropatwa from SJSD, and M. Ingenmey from RRSD (Minnedosa). They all explained why they think implementing BYOD into the classroom is a good thing. BYOD is excellent because it gives students the opportunity to experience technology at school and at home. Students who can take their device home gives them extra time to "play" and get familiar with their device. The students also have a device they can call their own that they always have access too.
I was surprised to learn that BYOD was also cost efficient. My first thought was that providing a piece of technology for each student in the school would be extremely costly and; therefore, difficult to gain divisional support. Although, its not cheap the school divisions are saving money because they no longer have to create computer labs and continue to keep up with the latest computers.
Computer labs will become obsolete. I truly believe that getting rid of computer labs is excellent! Now the students are not only learning and using technology in one class a day or sometimes a cycle but rather they are using their device everyday for every class!
Every great idea has some negative consequences. One con was the amount of breakage happening. RRSD discussed the idea of giving student choice in the device they select. The had little breakage incidents and believe that the students were more careful with the devices because they had a chance to select what they wanted. Other school divisions created an insurance option where the students pay a certain amount at the beginning of the year and offered 1 new device if their device breaks. I learned a lot about BYOD and truly believe that this is an excellent direction that school divisions are taking. I predict that in the next five-10 years BYOD will be a program taking place in almost every classroom!
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