Guest post by Tim Clark @timclark45 on Twitter
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| In New York City students who BYOT have it confiscated by police and placed with other contraband like guns and knives |
While cities like the one where The Innovative Educator works view student owned devices as contraband, I have found one of the most exciting disruptions to traditional teaching practices to be extending to students the invitation to “Bring Your Own Technology” (BYOT). Last year, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia modified their technology guidelines to do just that! They permitted students to bring their personal technology devices to school to assist in their learning.
Forsyth County Schools has always pursued the use of technology to improve educational opportunities. The district’s vision for classroom technology after-all is “to engage students in asking questions and choosing tools to facilitate real world problem solving.” Classrooms are each equipped with an interactive whiteboard, teacher laptop and four student desktop computers. There are also student laptops available at each school and there are peripheral devices such as student response systems, digital cameras, scanners, and document cameras. Yet, despite all this district-provided technology, the most impactful and influential gadgets are not any of these. Instead after 20 years in education I have found that empowering students to use their own personal technologies is the game changer when it comes to learning.
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