Tuesday, September 13, 2016

BYOD

I believe that students bringing their own devices to school is a risky move. I once worked in a childcare facility in which the students were permitted to bring their own devices (gameboys, ipads, etc). What I observed while working there was that this policy created more problems than it was worth. Children always wanted to play with the other children's devices, which was not permitted. Chargers and other accessories were continually getting lost and parents had to replace them. While that may be slightly different if the devices  were solely used for educational purposes, I don't know that the risk is worth the benefits.
First, you have liability issues. When devices get dropped, broken, or otherwise harmed, I would imagine you would be dealing with some angry parents. In addition, not all parents buy these devices for their children. If some students have them and others don't, it could create problems. In this situation, it would be difficult to navigate using several different types of devices for the same project or assignment. If students were required to have them, it places an unnecessary financial burden on parents.While I do believe that technology is an important aspect of every classroom, I think there are better ways of implementing it than having students bring their own device. I do not think that the benefits that could only come of a BYOD policy would outweigh the issues that would arise because of it.

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