Back to School
“Daddy, can I have the iPad please?”, “No, go get your colour pencils and papers, and let’s start drawing together”, “but daddy, paper is boring, I want to play on the iPad, pleeeaaase?” how can I resist my 6 year old’s cute persistence almost every day? My reluctance to hand over a piece of technology and fall back instead to the old fashioned way has its reasons, but schools nowadays do not share my reluctance anymore.
The push to incorporate technology, and in particular BYOD, in the learning process is not only coming from students, but from teachers as well. A survey conducted in April of 2015 by the University of Phoenix College of Education, revealed that “93 Percent of Teachers Believe That Personal Devices Connect Students to Real-World Learning”. There is no doubt that the days where you see students carrying heavy backpacks to schools everyday are gone, no more marginalia, or highlighting real books; it's all transforming into digital forms.
The benefits of BYOD are vast, but to school administrations, the appeal comes from passing all the end-users’ technology investments and maintenance costs to the learners, however that introduced another set of challenges which could far supersede the savings BYOD brings.
Let’s look at the top 6 challenges that make school administrations think twice before incorporating BYOD into their education system:
1. Fit an elephant into a fridge?
Think laptops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, smart watches & wearables, e-readers, video/smart cameras, MP3 players and other wirelessly connected devices, now imagine the unprecedented burden put on the school’s wireless networks. A study conducted by Sophos reveals that on average a person carries 2.9 devices, and a GfK research titled “Finding Simplicity in a Multi-Device World” predicts this number to reach 5.2 by 2017! Designing wireless infrastructures has never been more challenging and school CIOs must take this activity seriously.
2. BYOD = BYSND
“Allowing access to uncontrolled devices, operated by teenagers? this is not BYOD, this is Bring Your School Network Down!” a natural reaction of any education CIO. Protecting school network, IT applications, and the privacy of staff & students are the main concerns when it comes to security breaches. Security issues, whether deliberate through hacking attempts, or unintentional through malwares and viruses cause damages to the learning process and also financially to the school administration. A proper identity management system and AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) alongside associated processes must be in place and built-into the BYOD strategy to eliminate this challenge, also security must be built-into the infrastructure equipment, not just the firewalls. A bonus outcome from applying such controls is the ability to monitor and restrict access to certain online resources, in line with the education context.
3. IT service desk’s nightmare
With thousands of students, come tens of thousands of devices, and their problems. A disparate blend of hardware, operating systems, and applications. Imagine a day in the life of a helpdesk engineer, running between classes struggling to resolve incompatibilities with school networks and applications, not only this wastes precious class time, but also causes inconveniences to the teachers and students, disconnecting them from the learning activities. The education CIO must insure that all infrastructure and school applications are built based on open standards. The CIO must always keep an eye on the current and future trends in technology adoptions and adapt the school technologies accordingly.
4. The Starvation Theory
When things are not controlled in a school environment, the law of the jungle prevails. BYOD entitles sharing of school resources between legitimate usage patterns and non-education related activities. Imagine a teacher trying to play a Youtube video during a class, only to be faced with the endless spinning pinwheel, while students’ devices are hogging the entire bandwidth downloading hefty OS updates. Quality of Service controls must be applied to allow differentiated access and eliminate the perpetual denying of necessary resources. School CIOs should insure these features are available in the infrastructure, well suited with the multi-tenancy school environment, and that configuration are current and up to date at all times.
5. Non-monetized investments
For the education sector, it is unethical to monetize services accessed by students, and most education fees are regulated even in the private education sector. The technology investments did not exist few years back at this scale, and their introduction now affect the CFO’s P&L dramatically. Capital expenditures can be transferred into assets, but the bigger issue lies in the running cost for licenses, support and talented IT operations staff. The school administration must analyse the return on investment differently, with the focus on the school reputation and academic values, rather than pure corporate finance analysis. Efficiencies in the IT systems of choice and their operations must be the key evaluation factor for the CIO when making his decision on a certain technology. Sponsored and managed outsourced IT services could be an option that might appeal to some schools, but care must be taken, as the school’s and its students’ privacy must be managed well in this case.
6. Imbalanced equality
An unavoidable, and rather less technical challenge from adopting a BYOD strategy in the school system is the potential issue of learning equality. A fundamental principle in the education system is making the learning opportunities available equitably to all learners. If BYOD strategies are not monitored closely, the less fortunate students will not have access to the same learning resources as the fortunate ones. The school administration must always have the facility of providing school-owned devices for students to be used in class and at home. This should either be considered as part of the school's social responsibility, or via a subsidising system that can be paid throughout the academic year.
It all starts with solid and well thought School Digital Strategy, which includes the BYOD policies and tactics. A partnership with a technology provider, who can be considered a trusted advisor, is the best bet a school administration can have. This will nurture the learning experience, and guarantee efficient current and future school readiness. Now if only I can find peace in my mind and hand that iPad without a struggle!
