What's hot and what's not about a student-centered BYOD Program:

As with every educational technology movement, there are pro's and con's to a student-centered BYOD program. Below you'll find my thoughts on BYOD and resources I just can't live without.

Five Positive Aspects of BYOD

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Having students bring their own devices has many advantages, including but not limited to the following:
  • Access.  My school services 1,500 students and there never seems to be enough devices to go around.  The sum total of our mobile technology consists of 4 aging Macbook carts containing 20 laptops each, one cart of 42 iPod Touch, and 3 carts containing 20 iPads each.  One of the iPad carts is dedicated for use by the ELD Program, which reduces the total number of devices available to students in other classrooms. BYOD seems like an answer to prayer in terms of instantly increasing the availability of devices.
  • Engagement.  We teach digital natives who love tech because it's what they've always known.  Traditionally, we ask students to turn off everything that has a switch when they walk into our classrooms.  BYOD let's students stay connected and exponentially increases their level of engagement. 
  • Management Dream.  BYOD programs can be a management dream, because kids who are engaged and easier to manage.  Since their ability to use their device in class is a privilege none of them want to lose, they don't engage in unacceptable behavior.  They are far too busy and motivated to want to risk the BYOD zen.
  • Digital Literacy. The average classroom has very few opportunities to build digital literacy skills.  Using technology every day enables me to deliberately integrate digital literacy concepts into my lessons.  Over time, students gain a deeper understanding of these concepts than other students who only receive occasional tech-based instruction. 
  • Going paperless. Another positive aspect of BYOD is the fact that my classroom has become nearly paperless.  With so many great online learning management systems, online testing tools, and cloud-based computing, there's little need for paper and the cost associated with making copies and purchasing supplies has decreased. 

Five Negative Aspects of BYOD

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Having students bring their own devices has several disadvantages that should not be ignored.  These include, but are not limited to the following:
  • New Networks Needed.  One obstacle between you and BYOD in your district may be the increased need for wifi access.  Whenever the amount of Internet-using devices is increased, the network support for those devices must increase as well.  Having the time, money, and personnel to make that happen can be a limiting factor. 
  • Device Agnosticism Needed.  Having devoted so much time and energy to implementing iPads in my classroom, plenty of awesome apps come to mind that I would love to use.  However, with so many different devices in the room, it is nearly impossible to have students using the same apps.  This means that most lessons must be designed using Web 2.0 tools - which is great, but perhaps not as transformative as hoped. 
  • Student Choice Decreased.  Along the same lines as having to design device agnostic lessons in terms of apps, not all devices are created equally in terms of capabilities, either.  In an ideal world, I would be able to give an assignment and offer students choices as to how they would like to complete it.  (Record a podcast, make a movie, animate a cartoon, create a presentation, etc.)  In a room where such a wide variety of devices are being used, students do not have equal opportunities to choose how to complete work.  For example, it is impossible to assign a video project unless I group students together and ask BYOD Apple owners to share - which sort of defeats the "device in every hand" concept inherent in BYOD.  I could always attempt to reserve a cart of iPads or iPods, but then I run into access issues as those carts are shared by 55 teachers and 1,500 students.  So, many of the assignments tend to be web-based and students' opportunity to choose is actually decreased.
  • Management Nightmare.  At times it can be difficult to be the teacher, tech expert, and troubleshooter all in one.  Having such a large range of devices, some of which I have little experience using, makes matters even more complex.  
  • Grass is Greener Conundrum.  Several students have experienced what I like to call "The Grass is Greener Conundrum."  The ACLU stipulates that educational opportunities must be equal for all students; to that end, our district has provided a certain number of devices for students who do not own one.  When those loaner devices are nicer than some of the devices other kids are bringing, they tend to figure out pretty quickly that if they begin leaving their device at home, they will be able to use one of the newer, better devices I loan out.  Is it a problem?  Yes.  Can I blame those kids?  No.