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  • BYOD: It’s not as compulsory as you think

    As a bit of a tech guru, it saddens me to see parents trapped in the psyche that they need to not only “Keep up with the Joneses”, but need to provide their child with a $300+ device to use at school. Let alone stationery, let alone uniforms.

    The reality is that schools should be providing the devices for the students, but this runs into many issues. One is the ongoing costs to the school which many simply don’t want to budget for or have other priorities and are not funded adequately enough to provide for one-to-one devices in their school. Then there’s the requirement to maintain these devices and issues surrounding damages and repairs and whose responsibility that is, along with many others. So instead of dealing with this, schools have been farming this cost off onto their community and expectations land on the parents to provide these.

    Here’s the other reality though. If you can’t provide one, because of whatever reason (including any moralistic ones), then you do not have to. Schools cannot enforce it, and it says so in the following article. It’s against the law. Schools can’t even demand a particular kind of device – they can’t demand any device. These are only recommendations so that they have devices that are all similar and therefore easier to manage within the classroom so that unskilled teachers don’t have to learn how to use a range of device types in order to assist and help with any technological problems.
    But, as we’ve come to know, most devices are usable by the general population and are rarely so dissimilar that they become problematic. Add to this the fact most schools are running Google Apps, which operate on the big cloud in the sky and runs off the internet – therefore look, run, and work all the same regardless of the device being used (allowing for differences between tablet apps and browser based versions).
    Simply put, any device will do. Shop around, and select one that matches your budget, and then your needs, not the other way around.

    Parents who aren’t in the position to splash out for a device that will likely only last 3 years and then you’re up for another one,  should swallow their pride and go and talk to the school. If the school is worth their weight, they’ll explain, discuss, and come to some arrangement for you. It is more than likely some compensation can be made, and in most cases, schools will have a (albeit limited) supply of devices available for student use.

    If not, then it’s more a reflection on the school than you as a parent.

    Don’t just accept it and remortgage your house or go without food for a week to pay for it. It sickens me that this happens because parents don’t want to go to the school.
    Go and talk to the school. Yes they are closed at the moment, but they’ll be open soon enough. Go and have a chat and explain your position. Yes, there may be shame, but it’s not worth just going along with the list of demands, complaining about it later, and missing out on other more important things. Like school lunches.

    I’ve always said schools need to sort out BYOL before they sort out BYOD. If every student is a “Bring Your Own Lunch” student, THEN, and only then, should you start thinking about becoming a “Bring Your Own Device” school.

    Original Article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/88562690/schools-byod-or-bring-your-own-device-demands-are-a-rising-cost-to-parents?rm=m

    For many parents, preparing their children for the school year means finding ways to cope with the costs of BYOD.

    BYOD stands for “bring your own device”, and refers to pupils owning devices like laptops, iPads and Chromebooks for use in the classroom, and for homework.

    Prices quoted by electronics retailer PB Tech, which has built a “shop by school” search tool, show the costs of devices expected at schools vary from Chromebooks starting at just over $300 up laptops costing $2000 or more.

    In both cases there can be extra costs for shock-proof, waterproof cases, and accidental damage insurance.

    Schools have worked hard to negotiate deals, and affordable payment plans for families, knowing the extra pressure BYOD policies can put on hard-pressed families.

    But parents without ready cash can find themselves being steered by schools towards finance companies, or even Work and Income.

    It’s not clear exactly how many people do get government help to cope with BYOD costs, but the first three months of last year, covering the back-to-school period, saw 24,278 instances of “hardship assistance” made by Work and Income, adding up to just under $5.3 million in payments.

    DEBATE OVER

    The debate over whether devices have a place is the classroom is largely settled at intermediate and high school level.

    But some primary schools have introduced BYOD for their older pupils, and retailers like PB Tech sometimes pictures of primary-age children on their website.

    The Ministry of Education says ultrafast broadband is transforming education, and has invested heavily in helping schools and teachers to “equip students with the necessary digital skills to take part, create and thrive in a fast-evolving world”.

    Schools cannot legally force families to buy their children devices, but it’s now common practice for them to use words like “require” and “expect” in their BYOD policies and menus of devices.

    Intermediate and high school parents may feel they have no choice but to fund BYOD, and there’s even signs of pressure on some parents of primary school children.

    Primary schools often own a number of devices, but as Buckland Beach Primary School tells parents: “Parents are now offered the chance to improve the access their child has to ipads. This is offered through BYOD where students bring an ipad from home.”

    Other Articles: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/88562690/schools-byod-or-bring-your-own-device-demands-are-a-rising-cost-to-parents?rm=m

  • BYOD – Bring Your Own Distraction

    BYOD – standing for Bring Your Own Device, has been around for a while now; ever since schools opened up their networks and went wireless, students and teachers alike have been able to access the wealth of information that is available on the internet today.

    But as a speaker at Interface Xpo 2014 put it, BYOD is more aptly put as ‘Bring Your Own Distraction’.

    I chuckled, as I’m sure many of you have as well. Then I realised the truth in it.

    When I say ‘Then’; it did take a while. It took two terms of teaching in a 1-to-1 Chromebook classroom of Year 3-4 students to realise that for many the device in front of them was not a learning tool; it was a distraction.
    Instead of harbouring the potential wealth of knowledge available to them, the students were more enamored with watching youtube videos by the bucket load, changing their background picture, and making their Chromebook talk to them. The question “Are we going to use the Chromebooks today?” became almost as common as “Can I go to the bathroom?”. Searches changed from ANZAC Hero’s, to Superhero’s, to Iron Man, Marvel, and at one point which was bound to happen, ‘sexy girls’. Oh for the love of Pete!

    Unless absolute specific tasks are set, the devices become a source of fun and free time, and trouble.

    Let’s face it: these devices are a distraction. And it isn’t an age thing.

    I don’t know how many staff meetings I have ‘missed’ because I was on my laptop organising my calendar or checking emails. I don’t know one single time I have been given a wifi-password at a conference to listen to the speaker and follow their online notes without a Facebook tab opened in the background. All of these distractions are at the core of technology. Because it can do so much, and meet so many ‘needs’, we have become accustomed to accessing and integrating all of these different sources at once. Even as I sit here writing this, I have two other tabs open, my phone next to me with Facebook and Twitter updates coming through, and Stephen Fry Gadget Man playing on the TV in the background. And this has become my norm.

    Distractions.

     

    Upskill the Distractions

    I was then disheartened by the following report about tech in schools.

    In it, we hear from the Education Council about upskilling teachers to keep up with the technology. “A recent government survey showed only 14 percent of teachers felt they were up to speed on using digital devices for learning. The Education Council wants to see more opportunities for teachers to up-skill.”

    There are some initial issues with this. Firstly, many classrooms, schools, etc. do not have the resources for “tech” classrooms. I know for the class I am in with 1-to-1 Chromebooks, that large amounts of money have been put into making it a reality. The reason I got the task, is because I am tech savvy, much more so than any other teacher in the school. Without blowing a trumpet of any kind, I would put myself in that top 14% of teachers in terms of technology know-how or capability.

    So why does this article dishearten, rather than invigorate? Surely I should be at the forefront, championing the likes of Taupaki School?

    I find myself somewhat over it. Maybe I’ve just given up on the use of technology in the classroom. Maybe it’s just too big, too fast to keep up with. Maybe it is just because the age of students I am teaching, in that technology for practical use is a few years away for them. Maybe because most of my technology learning has been self taught, and most of our students are self taught with technology as well. Maybe I’m just coming at this from my primary school teacher point of view. I don’t know. At this stage in their life, technology is for entertainment purposes. Maybe for secondary teachers, the upskilling to use technology throughout their classes would be more beneficial, and might be what the article is really getting at. But for me, if these students are going to be using and learning the technology anyway, why should schools put financial pressure on themselves, why should teachers upskill to try and be cool for the kids by ‘speaking their language’. Are going too far to bend over backwards for students, rather than the other way around?

    But it concerns me when a teacher in the video says the kids don’t want to go outside at lunchtime. Does this not create further ammunition for the ‘childhood obesity epidemic’ scaremongers? This is a whole other debate which I won’t get into here.

    It concerns me that we know how quickly technology moves, and we have no idea where it will take us, or the skills that students will need in the future. But no doubt they’ll cope. Why does teaching need to be at the forefront of all things technology? For decades, teachers and classrooms have been decades behind the rest of the world. While offices were getting filled up with beautifully fast, glamourous Macbook Pro’s, schools were left back in the 90’s with iMacs clogging up desk space. A scientific calculator was about as BYOD as it would come. Why is there a sudden need to ‘keep up’ with the kids, rather than focussing on teaching (and them learning) the ‘basics’; such as spelling; such as handwriting; such as mixing paint colours, adding and subtracting in our heads, catching and throwing, or even how to make friends, keep friends, show resilience, or learn respect? Do we need an app to teach students to read? Will methods that have been tried and true for decades and decades, and taught us to read, work just as well for students? Or have students become too addicted to ‘entertainment’ that if it’s not a fun game, then I don’t want to do it.

    It concerns me when “This tsunami of digital kids just keeps coming through our system.” is referred to like a natural disaster. We are essentially creating this ourselves. We enable our students by providing these opportunities under the guise of engagement, when really, we’re creating dependency for screens, an addiction to devices. Do they need it? Or is it a distraction from real learning. Yes, I can show you evidence that technology in and of itself motivates and engages students. The very comment earlier about kids not wanting to go out demonstrates this. But at what cost? And is motivation and engagement enough if there is no learning, or not the right learning associated with it. I guess this comes back to having learning specific tasks.

    I always had a bit of a joke when someone would ask about whether we should go ‘BYOD’. I would respond with once students can bring their own lunch, then you can start to worry about them bringing their own device.

    I would appreciate some input on this issue. As you can probably tell, I’m still trying to formulate my standpoint on this one. On the one hand, I love technology and want to share that passion with my students. On the other hand, I have seen technology distract from real learning, and seen schools getting away from the basics of learning. Please feel free to comment your thoughts below and I will look into including more thoughts into this article.

     

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