For one of my quests, I chose BYOD because I have some experience with it but wondered how it might look in the public school system or through distance learning.
In my experience, everything worked pretty seamlessly because we were a private school and dictated what technology each student should have for class. In our case, we used a combination of iPads, MacBooks, and AppleTVs to create our community. The nice thing about using Apple was that any Apple device would work nicely with our system, including the iPhone.
For this quest, I read the following article on Edutopia:
6 BYOD Discussions Every School Should Have
At our school, many of the points outlined here were solved with the suggestion in number 1 (What Platform Works Best with Your Network). As we had dictated what technology each student was to have, we were able to seamlessly run our programs without any compatibility issues. However, in a regular or distance learning environment, this may not be possible for the reason that Avi wished were number eight, finance. Our situation was nice, but Apple products are expensive and many people already have non-Apple devices at home. It would be unreasonable to have every student in a non-private education system to buy the most expensive technology out there. So what are our options?
As far as I can see, going the Google route seems to be the most inexpensive. A Chromebook / Chromecast / Android recipe seems to accomplish the same as the Apple/AppleTV system and is far cheaper.
Even still, we are talking about telling students what devices to bring to class. The majority of the points in this article centre around whether your network / LMS / software is optimized for all major platforms (Apple, Google, Windows). What works really well on one set of devices might not do so well on another platform.
In addition to the suggestions in this article, I think that the implementation of a BYOD program needs significant preparation and research. The school needs to decide whether or not to streamline their system to one platform or to cross-check each program and app to see if it works on all platforms. Ideally, the school would have a list of 'vetted apps and software' for teachers to use.
By far the biggest discussion, however, has nothing to do with what devices the students are bringing in, but whether the school / district infrastructure can handle the traffic. With too few Access Points (APs) in the school, not everyone will be able to connect to the network. Even if they are able to connect, the volume of traffic could easily bring most systems down if the necessary hardware upgrades haven't been made at the district level.
For me, the advantage of a BYOD system is the cost to the schools. A classroom can be set up to be a BYOD classroom for less than $1000 (projector, AP, synching device like AppleTV or Chromecast) whereas a class set of devices for each classroom in addition to this would make the venture unattainable for most districts. BYOD seems to be the simplest way to bring individual technology into the classroom.
In my experience, everything worked pretty seamlessly because we were a private school and dictated what technology each student should have for class. In our case, we used a combination of iPads, MacBooks, and AppleTVs to create our community. The nice thing about using Apple was that any Apple device would work nicely with our system, including the iPhone.
For this quest, I read the following article on Edutopia:
6 BYOD Discussions Every School Should Have
At our school, many of the points outlined here were solved with the suggestion in number 1 (What Platform Works Best with Your Network). As we had dictated what technology each student was to have, we were able to seamlessly run our programs without any compatibility issues. However, in a regular or distance learning environment, this may not be possible for the reason that Avi wished were number eight, finance. Our situation was nice, but Apple products are expensive and many people already have non-Apple devices at home. It would be unreasonable to have every student in a non-private education system to buy the most expensive technology out there. So what are our options?
As far as I can see, going the Google route seems to be the most inexpensive. A Chromebook / Chromecast / Android recipe seems to accomplish the same as the Apple/AppleTV system and is far cheaper.
Even still, we are talking about telling students what devices to bring to class. The majority of the points in this article centre around whether your network / LMS / software is optimized for all major platforms (Apple, Google, Windows). What works really well on one set of devices might not do so well on another platform.
In addition to the suggestions in this article, I think that the implementation of a BYOD program needs significant preparation and research. The school needs to decide whether or not to streamline their system to one platform or to cross-check each program and app to see if it works on all platforms. Ideally, the school would have a list of 'vetted apps and software' for teachers to use.
By far the biggest discussion, however, has nothing to do with what devices the students are bringing in, but whether the school / district infrastructure can handle the traffic. With too few Access Points (APs) in the school, not everyone will be able to connect to the network. Even if they are able to connect, the volume of traffic could easily bring most systems down if the necessary hardware upgrades haven't been made at the district level.
For me, the advantage of a BYOD system is the cost to the schools. A classroom can be set up to be a BYOD classroom for less than $1000 (projector, AP, synching device like AppleTV or Chromecast) whereas a class set of devices for each classroom in addition to this would make the venture unattainable for most districts. BYOD seems to be the simplest way to bring individual technology into the classroom.