Session 276: Bring your Own Device

Are you broadly in favour of 'Bring Your Own Devices' for students? https://t.co/Xga3eOhl91 #ukedchat 29th Nov 8pm

— UKEdChat (@ukedchat) October 29, 2015

Hosted by @MsHMFL

Questions:

Why would any school bring in BYOD when current thinking / media coverage seems to be saying ban devices?

How do you help build staff capacity to use devices beyond the pioneering staff?

How do you make sure BYOD goes beyond edutainment? Or do you BYOD can truly transform learning? ( will put this out for a vote )

How do you make sure students are safeguarded when on devices? Should there be blacklisted apps? Twitter?

If BYOD was banned by DFE would it affect 21st Century learning and engaging your students? – What is the most positive impact of BYOD in your school?

Any pitfalls you would tell people to avoid? – What final advice would you give to anyone considering BYOD?

Summary

The session started looking at what teachers think about BYOD against the recent headlines about banning devices. Many schools appear to either have introduced 1:1 ipads, done nothing or are harnessing BYOD. I was surprised to see how many comments were about how difficult it is to train staff for BYOD due to the multi-platform nature of this type of edu-tec. It was positive to see teachers commenting on how BYOD can be harnessed as an additional tool in classrooms for engagement and enhancing learning.

Comments during the chat did not feel that there was a need to ban apps, rather there needed to be regular training for students in how to engage with apps and social media in a responsible and safe way. A thread of conversation started to explore the aspect of is school just for educational learning or also social learning. If a school is needed for both then BYOD and a lack of banning apps is a way to build on these skills. A second thread appeared to discuss whether schools had a responsibility to make sure students spoke to each other and developed face-to-face communication skills and if BYOD should be banned outside of classrooms to facilitate this.

In terms of pitfalls the key issues that came up were training, responsibility and making sure BYOD wasn't just being used just as a fancy device instead of books and paper, but that it went beyond edutainment to transform learning. A way to engage our 21st century learners.

Overall the discussion was positive towards BYOD in schools.

Tweet of the week:

@pjmerrell There are so many benefits I do not even know where to begin

Archive and notable tweets

The archive is viewable via the storify below with the following slides being of particular note by the host: 5, 8, 13, 21, 25, 39, 74, 75, 89, 107, 119, 130, 136, 158, 186, 191, 203, 213, 222, 245