BYOD IN EDU | VALUE or DIFFICULTY?

Schools rush into BYOD implementations based on the rush to “being seen” to offer digital components to learning. Ultimately, the reason why to adopt “BYOD” often becomes misunderstood. Schools fail to answer “why” to the “iPads” or "Chrome books" as often is the question raised as schools promote BYOD as marketing or argue a cost saving position, offering no evidential relationship or meaningful advantage to advancing the cognitive, digital learning and skill development in students. Resultantly, a domino effect of problems falls out where the term BYOD is increasingly synonymous with “Bring your own disaster”. Worringly, and being strongly linked to low-level learning, some schools render BYOD as a compulsory condition for enrollment.

Aside from the cost blowouts, security risks and implications for school ICT departments, the problems scratch the surface with under utilisation of bad tools, deficient infrastructure and 802.11'n' wireless limitations capability, policy paralysis, digitally under-prepared educators and Bring Your Own Disaster turning into bring your own distraction, as teachers try to trouble-shoot issues - where students use the iPad and Chromebook as intended, for playing games, interacting socially and watching games.

Although breakthrough mobility capability is found in 802.11ac wireless, with favourable management of complex mobile education needs through software defined networking, how can schools alter the status quo of failures and problems with BYOD?

Adopting cloud and mobility technologies that offer robustness, with industry relevance, capability and opportunity, to young learners, is central to digital learning. However, how do schools shift from the BYOD fad by aligning with disruptive trends, globally, shifting from of the industrial revolution education paradigm .... as well as avoiding reinforcing chronic skills shortages, attributable to the learning limitations of NCEA - given that schools, by virtue of their economic structure, based on roll and the NCEA paradigm - are compelled not to invest in an alternate mobility strategy?

What are the implications for New Zealand (and those internationally) in the same boat?

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