B.Y.O.D.

Ever since the fifth grade, I have felt like my grade level in school was the last to do everything. My sister's class in school was always the first class to start everything new regarding technology. Although my sister and I remained only two years apart in age, it was very weird for me to think of just how big of a difference bringing a form of technology into the classroom can make. Once I reached the 6th grade and had entered middle school, I realized that technology was taking over in the classrooms. I was required, by Illinois Law, to take a Computers class in my first year of middle school. And teachers were provided with carts of computers and iPads to give us the technological advancement that was needed in the classroom. But, technology is very expensive. Putting the everyday Smartboard in a teacher's classroom is thousands of dollars, and although it is nice to have classroom sets, most schools don't have the funding for it. Personal stories in relation to mine prove that this is what sparked the BYOD epidemic.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, "BYOD," it stands for "Bring Your Own Devices". Some schools may call this "BYOT" and replace the "Devices" with "Technology". Personally, this did not start for me until my 8th grade year. We were asked to start researching a career that we wanted to pursue in the future and create a giant presentation for it for our end of the semester, big-grade assignment in my English/Language Arts Class. I brought in my iPod Touch to work on the assignment throughout class. I also used my mother's iPad to read off of during times when we had to independently read. In my science class, we used certain online, interactive games, such as, Kahoot! to help us get a better understanding of our material that we had learned in class through a review game. This was nice because it gave us the opportunity to be involved in the class, test our knowledge, and have some fun with a stereotypically-boring school day. Not only is this concept of BYOD popular within the school systems, but it is also being adapted in places of work, too.

According to the CIO Website, a website in relation to IT positions, "From the always-on salesperson to the clock-punching hourly worker, companies will need to weigh the pros and cons of including each worker type in a BYOD program. Are BYOD Workers More Productive?
Most people prefer using their personal smartphone or tablet for work than a company-issued one. Does this mean their productivity will increase? Probably, says Aberdeen Group". After reading this context, one can notice the constant debacle that is going on within the work force, but this is not only an issue here. There are many concerns in schools that children will just use the BYOD to text their friends during the school day and not pay attention to when the teacher is up front and talking. In all honesty, as a college student, I too find it difficult to pay attention in all of my general education lecture classes, however, I find that the more strict professors and other educators are on their BYOD rules that this will not be a big issue in the future. But, knowing that college kids will be on their phones anyway, most teachers try to just tough it out or simply ignore those that are ignoring them. As an education major, myself, I find this very intriguing because we, as educators, are basically taught to work around the technology that has been incorporated in our classrooms, but to also work alongside it. Although it is still a debate on whether or not bringing technology into schools is a good idea, I believe that technology, in the end, especially BYOD, is better for the greater good of the academic programs and the schools.