One of the things that Mr. Phillip's brought up about how the authors talked about how we must know lots of information about the operating system really got me thinking. I completely agree that this part of the article completely goes against what we are trying to do with BYOD. However, I also think it should make us pause and really consider the implications of BYOD. It would be extremely challenging, if not impossible for all teachers to be well versed in all of the platforms out on the market today. That being said, students will need assistance which will lead to teachers needing assistance. I believe that this will be one of the greatest challenges that we will face. Therefore, I think we should look at how we could help to solve this problem. Some of the quick ideas that were running through my head included have a forum on the different platforms that teachers could post to and eLC’s could respond or other IT personnel could respond. We could also offer PD for teachers on the platforms that they are not familiar with since most staff has a smartphone. I also like what Berger said about being more technologically brave when it comes to doing new things. While I don’t think everyone in our district is brave I think that once they are able to see the benefits more and more people will buy in.
The other thing that stood out to me was the cost factor. While I am seeing more and more students with devices not all students can afford them. Therefore, we will need to be able to provide some sort of device to those students. I see these types of devices replacing the laptops that we currently have in the future.
I also believe that we need to look across several platforms and not just the one type of device talked about in this article because our world is ever changing and teaching students how to be able to navigate different platforms and devices will help them learn how to learn. I think that this is the greatest technology gift we can give them. By only having one type of device they will become very proficient in that device but there is no telling what the future will hold. Therefore, we should prepare them to be able to handle any device and learn how to figure things out when something is new so that they will be more “technologically brave” than the generation before them.
Great job!
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