In secondary education these days there is a big push to incorporate educational technology in the classroom. Economic reality dictates creative solution for any school managing this, particularly large schools catering to more than 1000 students. Operating budgets cannot keep up with the cost and rapid change of devices required for classroom use. Smaller schools have been able to manage this change better, when the school board that serves the pieces of operational pie capital is adequately managed and funded. To deal with spiralling operating overhead, operating costs get outsourced to parents who now are expected to purchase devices for their children in the same way they are expected to purchase stationery (the politics of this can be discussed on Facebook or Twitter as it will detract from the purpose of this post!)
A further barrier to this influx of technology in the classroom is its effective use. Schools need to provide adequate training time to get staff up to speed on implementation policies, and achieve buy-in from more reluctant participants. In a unionised teaching world, there is only so much buy-in you can officially mandate/force.
I have been involved in several bring-your-own-device (BYOD) inititiatives, and am about to take the lead on one at a school that is rushing forward to embrace technology after a decade and a half of pretending it doesn’t exist. What follows are reflections on these various experiences. Continue reading BYOD Project Management: Journey that Never Ends