Mobile learning is hot in K12. Many districts see a BYOD student initiative as a way to be good stewards of resources. But it’s not all roses. In fact, many districts tell us it’s an unsatisfying experience with few results. BYOD is so difficult in fact, that as a business, we are turning away opportunities, and we are fine with it. I have personally helped implement or consult with over 300 schools on the 1:1 or BYOD path, and here is what I’ve experienced.
Now you need to know that I’m not against BYOD. There are a few successful BYOD districts. The thing is that their success is defined by their expectations. They set out to increase Web information access in the classroom and make learning more personal for students. They know it’s about teachers and students who opt in. They don’t depend on personal devices for Common Core testing but do create some interesting instructional stories. Finally, they never had these goals: student equity, reducing student write-ups, bumping test scores, or increasing graduation rates. If any of these happen, it’s a cherry on top.
However, the district described above isn’t the typical BYOD district. At DyKnow we hear from two camps:
1.) Schools moving from nothing into BYOD or
2.) Schools moving from BYOD to a 1:1 standard device.
Unfortunately, those in camp 1 usually don’t have a well-thought out goals, or their goals are unattainable. Those in camp 2 have found more negatives that positives with BYOD and/or want to aim for the behavioral or learning goals I mention above by way of providing a standardized device. (I don’t have time to tell you why now, but the research says that 1:1 standard devices enable these goals. See Project RED research or visit Mooresville Graded School District or Huntsville City Schools.)
So why don’t we, at DyKnow, entertain BYOD project requests? It’s not that DyKnow Cloud doesn’t work. In fact, it’s pretty effective (if it’s installed), and most teachers want the monitoring and analytics benefits it provides. We are in the business of thrilling customers. Besides the typical expectation misalignment, we are driven away by the technical limitations of a BYOD setup. BYO devices aren’t owned or managed by the district which means students have whatever they want (or don’t want) on their gear. When there’s no push tool, no startup scripts, no way to require certain apps at network logon, students can come into class having removed DyKnow Cloud which leads to frustrated teachers. Even if network infrastructure products claim to do this remediation at logon, this still flies in the face of the core BYOD mantra: It’s my device; I use it the way I want. It can become a teacher vs. student power struggle with district IT as the monkey-in-the-middle with no good options.
So if you’re going to commit to BYOD, right-size your goals and expectations. If you want transformative teacher change, student behavioral improvements, and achievement gains, take a hard look at the research around a 1:1 standardized initiative versus BYOD.
Post by Michael Vasey, VP of Customer Experience
The post The Hard Road of BYOD / Why DyKnow Doesn’t Accept BYOD Projects appeared first on DyKnow.
