“Bring Your Own Device” and the digital divide
It was at the South By Southwest Edu conference in Austin earlier this month that I first heard the term B.Y.O.D. or B.Y.O.T.--"Bring Your Own Device" or "Bring Your Own Technology." The idea is deceptively simple--instead of school districts spending money to outfit classrooms with the latest tablet or laptop, which will be outdated in six months, they will instead have students access web-based programs and cloud-based content, in the classroom, with the devices they already have and are familiar with. This idea parallels what is already happening in the workplace, where company-supplied Blackberries are giving way to iPhones that employees purchase themselves. On the website BYOTnetwork, maintained by the Coordinator of Instructional Technology for Forsyth County, GA, teachers share the strong impetus behind BYOT: the chance to differentiate instruction while engaging all students. There's a sense of glee at the idea of hijacking students' distraction devices to instead enhance the classroom experience, enlisting students as collaborators in trying new content and apps, and powering up instead of powering down. Writes one teacher: "As teachers, we have two choices. Embrace the distractions or fight them. Our county decided to embrace the only thing that seemed to be holding ALL kids’ attention. If these devices could hold the focus of any type of