5 Reasons Why BYOD is
a Bad Idea
By: K. Walsh on July 1, 2012
Full article found here:
“Here are a number of problems with the BYOD
initiative for schools:
- Equipment
Inequity: If everyone is bringing their
own equipment, even if there is a standard approach to the type of
equipment (all laptops or tablets, for example), it is still pretty much
inevitable that the brand and/or configuration of each device will vary
and with this comes varying functionality and different speeds of
throughput and performance. This equates to inconsistent experiences, and
different challenges, for one student versus another.
- Tech
Support: With varying types of
equipment, and dissimilar configurations and software levels, come a wide
variety of technological hurdles. We all know that trying to use apps on
the Internet or doing just about anything else with a computer, tablet, or
smartphone, can yield plenty of little issues (this is why techies have
jobs!), and every variation in configuration brings another potential
point of failure of complication. Now the teacher starts losing class time
to tech support and troubleshooting, and the school’s techs have just
picked up a slew of new and unpredictable issues to deal with.
- “Bring
Your Own Distraction“ (I’m sure someone else probably already coined this little twist
of phrase, but I’m still amused by my own cleverness!): When the
device is the student’s, it can be loaded with plenty of games, social
networking apps, inappropriate content, and who knows what else. The
possibilities for this sort of distracting content and software are
undoubtedly increased in a BYOD scenario, despite whatever policies may
exist to help limit or prevent this issue.
- Internet
content filtering: This is a necessary fact of
tech life in most schools – Internet content must be filtered, and there
are technological considerations to make this happen. When kids are
bringing their own tech to school, it makes in increasingly harder to
manage, and this is only becoming more problematic thanks to the
increasing proliferation of 3G and 4G wireless personal devices. A BYOD
program would only add to these complications, and make it that much
harder for your technology department to ensure compliance with content
filtering objectives and the protection of students from inappropriate
content while in school.
- “MBTY”
(Mine is Better Than Yours)
Syndrome: Isn’t school life challenging
enough for some kids (and their parents) without the additional pressure
of having to keep up with the Jones kid? Some kids are going to have the
most expensive, best equipped tech, and some of them are going to brag
about it. The less fortunate kids (and the teachers) shouldn’t have to
deal with that, and nobody wants to hear it.”
My response:
I think you
raise some very valid points here. BYOD
may work well for some schools but others may find it a challenge. Equipment inequity is one that strikes a
nerve with me. I get that life is not
always fair and you need to make do with what you have but these are children
who don’t have control over their parents’ financial situation. A school in my district had Smartboards a full
three years before mine did because their students’ parents donated the money
for them. The issues with distractions
and content filtering are also good points.
We would have to do a lot of teaching about appropriate/inappropriate
use before letting students use their own devices. Digital citizenship would need to be added to
all levels of curriculum.
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