The BYOD Questions Your School Should Be Asking
When thinking about bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments, many teachers and students many get caught up in the devices themselves. Others, if they’re knowledgeable, may bring up the need to build a robust wireless network to support the increased Wi-Fi traffic.
But the devices and the network are only part of what’s needed to make BYOD succeed. In a post on Edutopia, Vicki Davis, also known as the Cool Cat Teacher, covered six questions that every school needs to answer before rolling out BYOD:
- What platform works best with your network configuration?
- Is your SIS mobile-ready and multiplatform?
- Is your LMS mobile-ready and multiplatform?
- Can students print wirelessly from multiple platforms?
- Are classroom projectors ready for wireless audio and video sharing from mobile devices?
- Can you sync files between devices and teachers' computers?
These questions dig deeper than just wireless connectivity and device policies; they get to the fundamental use cases that students and teachers must think through before opening the BYOD floodgates.
By addressing these issues sooner rather than later, schools may be able to avoid frustrating experiences with technology that could discourage the use of mobile devices in the classroom in the future.
What questions did your school ask before deploying BYOD? Let us know in the Comments.
