Bring Your Own Technology

Many school systems across the country and beginning technology initiatives which put a mobile device in the hands of every student. Our county is beginning a one-to-one initiative as well, but it will take a few years to reach the high school grades. Buying all of the necessary devices in one year is cost prohibitive, but in order to ensure our students have the best opportunity to learn using modern technology we are beginning a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) plan this semester. Our school will be a pilot program for the county and we are extremely excited.

The concept is to allow students to bring their own technology device to be used in the classrooms. Many of our students already have a mobile device and use it every day of their life, only not at school where it can really benefit them the most. We plan on allowing students to use tablets, laptops, and yes even smart phones. It only make sense to me to allow students to use the devices they already own to enhance their education. A large percentage of students have a device in their pocket with more processing power than the computers that put a man on the moon, but never get to use them in class.

While beginning a new initiative such as this poses some challenges such as new policies, new wireless infrastructure, and new procedures,  the benefits should be enormous for our students. We hope to have the wireless network up and running by April or May which will allow us to hit the ground running. If things should fall into place earlier, we will certainly notify everyone and begin as soon as possible.

We are very excited and thankful to our central office for allowing this initiative. Mrs. Karen Tucker has been a huge advocate for this program along with Mrs. Rhonda Stringham and Dr. Tom Sisk and we certainly appreciate everything they have done to make this initiative a reality.