W
hen mobile phones first became a ubiquitous part of day-to-day life, they were an immediate distraction for students and teachers battled to
keep them out of the classroom. But with the advent of smartphones and tablets creating instant access to limitless information and resources, more and more schools are changing their attitudes to these beeping interlopers and actually embracing their presence through BYOD – bring your own device. YouGov research from 2014 shows that 81% of UK
13–18-year-olds own their own smartphone, with 34% also owning a tablet. Primary-aged children are equally tech savvy, with statistics from the same year recording that 25% of children own their own tablet before the age of eight and 70% are confident in using mobile devices by the time they go to school. So whether you like it or not, there's no getting away from the fact that technology is an intrinsic part of life today, and more and more schools are realising the benefits of integrating it into their teaching in order to benefit learning. “The way that students work on a day-to-day basis is completely different now,” says Brian Fischer, assistant headteacher of Tibshelf Community School. “They expect access to Wi-Fi at all times and to be able to use their devices.” BYOD is a simple idea: students bring in their
own smartphones, tablets and laptops for use in the classroom. Teachers can plan a lesson around them, or
its everyday teaching practice, of which BYOD was a part from the beginning. “We started out small, asking students to use their devices to undertake research in lessons,” explains Brian. “For example, if a student wants to know something, we encourage them to take out their phone and find it out for themselves. This also has the advantage of lessons being more spontaneous and allowing teachers to react to events in class – they don't have to have planned everything in advance. It's also useful for students to be able to access simple apps such as dictionaries and calculators.” In terms of more complex functions, Tibshelf is
trialling a free student planner app, where homework assignments can be automatically uploaded to a student's network profile by teachers, and that parents can also access to check what work their child should be doing. There have also been some unexpected uses of BYOD that teachers hadn't predicted. “We've found that some students are taking photos of things on the board, such as diagrams or equations, as it's a quick and easy way to capture information.” Tibshelf 's BYOD scheme has been received enthusiastically by its students, with 95% of them accessing the network – some even accessed it on Christmas Day! “They love it, and see having Wi-Fi at school as a massive bonus.” In addition to educational benefits, there's no denying
the financial benefit too: with budgets shrinking more every year, schools are oſten unable to provide students with up-to-date devices for use in the classroom, so
“My attitude is, if something is better than what you already have, why wouldn't you use it?”
use them in a more spontaneous manner to encourage independent research. Tablets for Schools, a charity that helps schools use the transformative powers of technology to build learning and attainment, has done a great deal of research into the benefits of using devices in the classroom and records that: “Many learning benefits were apparent soon aſter tablets were introduced, from greater engagement through to independent learning, communication, collaboration and content that could be customised for different learning styles and abilities. Students themselves reported learning benefits.” Tibshelf, a secondary school in Derbyshire, is
currently exploring the benefits of BYOD for its 700 students. The school moved into new premises in 2013 and took this opportunity to integrate technology into
having them use their own is a simple and cost-effective way to obtain and maintain equipment that's fit for purpose. Recent research by the British Educational Suppliers' Association shows that 81% of schools would 'consider' using BYOD and 16% would 'prefer' it to bulk-buying equipment for the school. “We've also found that no student has ever broken their own device,” says Brian. “And generally what they own is better than what we could provide.” When using BYOD in a school setting, then the
infrastructure is vital. Tibshelf worked closely with its chosen ICT providers, the Stone Group, to build a system that would be able to support a multitude of devices being used all at once, that would work for both Apple and Android platforms and that would stop
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www.edtechnology.co.uk | 27 A B O V E L E F T :
T ib sh elf Sch ool is cu rrently trialling a free stu d ent p lanner ap p
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