7. REFERENCES:
Discovery Education. [Image}. Cell phone, remote control, and battery charger
http://gtm-media-2.discoveryeducation.com/v2.1/images/medium/42-27574617_m.jpg
Discovery Education. [Image}. Wide Shot of Laptop Computers with Students Working
http://app.discoveryeducation.com/search?Ntt=laptop+computers&N=4294939031&N=4294939057
Discovery Education. [Image}. Wide Shot of Students Sitting at Computer Desks
http://gtm-media-2.discoveryeducation.com/v2.3/images/medium/DE_Education_ComputerLab_4_md.jpg
Discovery Education. [Image}. Wide Shot of Teacher Helping Student at Laptop
http://gtm-media-
2.discoveryeducation.com/v2.3/images/medium/DE_Education_Student_Teacher_Laptop_3_md.jpg
Discovery Education. [Image}. Teacher Helping Group of Students Working on Laptop
http://gtm-media-
2.discoveryeducation.com/v2.3/images/medium/DE_Education_Students_Teacher_Laptop_1_md.jpg
Editor's Notes
BYOT or BYOD is an educational initiative to bring your own device or technology to school. This is an important issue arising in education. I think this is a great initiative to bring to your school. I would like to give you some reasons why I think BYOD is a great resource for our schools and a few quick guidelines.
In the recent economy we are in the budget for education has been cut. We all know the funding is not where we would like it. But, we still need to teach and more importantly we need to teach to the 21st Century. This, of course means we need to teach technology and the only way to do this is with technology devices. We can’t afford to provide all students with these devices, so why not use what the students already have. They will have the technology and we don’t have to pay for it. We need to pull all the resources we have to better prepare our students to be successful in the 21st Century.
There are several important steps to take to start this initiative. You need to start first with a planning committee.
This planning committee must first include the district Technology Director. The director will have the information on the infrastructure necessary to handle the amount of Internet usage and appropriate firewalls. This committee must set up guidelines that should be outlined in a handbook or manual. This should include appropriate uses. Then the most important step is the training. This training should include one for the teachers and one for the students. You should also have a page on the district webpage to have some troubleshooting steps to help both the teachers and students.
This is just a quick overview of what BYOT is and how you can start implementing it at your district. This is just a starting point of what you can do. Please research and collaborate with other districts that have implemented it at their district already. I am sure they will be glad to help you with an issues and suggestions from personal trial and error.
