BYOD: Bring Your Own Device

     When properly employed, and only after proper preparation, the Bring Your Own Device program can provide students in the classroom and the library with up-to-date education in a personal multimedia format, without breaking the institution’s budget or leaving any student behind. 

     In her article “9 Strategies for Managing BYOD in the Classroom,” Leila Meyer seeks to help school and library staff adapt to the program in a safe, effective way. These nine strategies are, briefly:

1—Provide Training for Teachers

     Before the program can engage, the teachers and staff involved must familiarize themselves with the technology, the network, and the programs that allow the teachers to employ the students’ devices. Once the teachers are comfortable with everything, engaging and maintaining the program will be much less chaotic (Meyer, 24-25).

2—Provide a Buying Guide for Parents

     Some schools declare specific device requirements to ensure all devices work within the school’s network. In these cases the schools need to provide parents with purchasing guidelines to support those requirements.

3—Provide School-Issued Devices for Students Who Don’t Have Their Own

     It is crucial to have enough school-owned devices on hand to provide for those students who can’t or won’t bring a device of their own to school. Allowing a device gap would create an unfair environment and leave some students behind.

4—Establish a Student Code of Conduct for BYOD

     Just as keeping legislation up-to-date in the wake of extreme technological progress is important, forming and maintaining a proper code of conduct for device usage is also important in order to teach the students digital etiquette and responsibility. This code includes “rules related to cyber-bullying, expectations about student use of personal and school-owned technology and consequences for violating those policies” (Meyer, 25).

5—Allow Students to Use Texting and Social Media between Classes

     It may seem counterintuitive upon first consideration, but giving students social media time improves classroom discipline during class. “By giving students those liberties outside of class time, they’re more willing to respect rules related to device usage when they return to class” (Meyer, 25).

6—Require Students to Use School Network

     In order to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (link here: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act), students use the school’s network while at school rather than their own data plan, to browse safely behind the school’s internet filter.

7—Use Classroom Management Software

     Classroom management software can help teachers and staff maintain control over the class and their device usage, as well as efficiently facilitate lessons. Example software includes LanSchool, which lets teachers monitor students’ screens from the teacher’s desk, Google Classroom, and Poll Everywhere (website: https://www.polleverywhere.com/).

 

8—Provide Expert Tech Support

     As with all technology, eventually problems will arise that will require outside help to address. Some schools employ technicians on campus to help with connectivity issues and other problems.

9—Remember that Devices Are Just Tools

     As flashy and fun as smartphones and other handheld devices are, teachers and staff must remember that while new and exciting, they are just another part of the classroom’s teaching repertoire. “Regardless of what happens with BYOD in the classroom, it’s important to keep the focus on education rather than technology” (Meyer, 26).

Resources

Meyer, Leila. "9 Strategies for Managing BYOD in the Classroom." T H E Journal, vol. 43, no. 6, Nov. 2016, pp. 24-26. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=120002377&site=ehost-live&scope=site.