BYOD? To school? At the beginning of the year, when teacher Jamie Weir invited her high school students to bring their mobile technology into her classroom, Grade 12 student Zac Hawkins says his first thought was “This will be an easy class.” He couldn’t, he says, “bring myself to take the concept of using technology in the classroom seriously — more than likely because I’ve been taught all of my life that technology is not meant for the classroom and that school is a paper-and-pencil-only environment.”

As Zac notes in this article, which he wrote spontaneously on his “Bring Your Own Device” while at school, many teachers have been reluctant to allow technology into their classrooms, even if they have that option. Zac suggests it’s a trust issue — teachers don’t trust students and students decline to demonstrate that they’re trustworthy because they feel they are being denied access to what (to them) is a tool for everyday learning in the real world.

Please read Zac’s plea for BYOD (and teacher Jamie Weir’s comments on his essay – no red pen!) and let us know what you think.

 

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John Norton

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