Schools need devices both as a tool for learning but also in being prepared for lockdown situations such as those currently being experienced, whether these come about due to a pandemic or due to another cause.

In the UK some work has been done on getting devices to students, some through the DfE and some through charities and other groups, or even schools themselves trying to gather up devices and distribute for use of students.

We have come a long way however we have some way to go.

Now I will note that we can’t ignore that devices themselves aren’t enough.   We need internet access, and the required infrastructure which provides this, which currently not all have.   I have posted previously in relation to the need for infrastructure.   Additionally, we need training for parents, students and teachers plus we need support structures so they can seek help when needed.

The other big concern I have however is sustainability.   We may have issued devices to many students during the course of the pandemic however this is only a temporary solution.  This effort and investment solves the issue for some students as it is now and for the short term future however in 3 or 4 years time the devices which have been issued will be out of date, may have failing batteries or may no longer be supporting updates to their operating systems, and may represent a cyber risk.  At this point we will find ourselves back where we were 1 year ago when the pandemic began.   Once again, we will find ourselves in need of effort and investment to get replacement devices into the hands of our students.

I remember back to “laptops for teachers” and to working in schools some 4 or 5 years later.   The devices needed replacement however the original centralised funding was no longer present and schools themselves didn’t have the funding in place to replace the laptops which teaching staff had been given access to.   What we really need, isnt just investment and effort now, what we need is a longer-term strategy and plan which lays out how we will make sure our efforts now are sustainable and constant into the future.

As to the specifics of the devices themselves, I have at times showed preference for iPads, for Chromebooks and also more recently for Microsoft Surface devices.   In reality, despite my changing personal preferences, I recognise that each device has its advantages and may fit differing contexts so acknowledge that there is no single answer.   For me the key needs are devices which have good battery life, are portable, robust and reliable.    I also think inking ability is becoming increasingly useful although may not quite be a requirement yet.  A decent camera is also a requirement however this is now a standard feature of modern devices. 

There is also the issue of whether all students should have access to the same device or whether it is ok for students in the same class to have different devices and to bring their own device.   Each of these two options has its challenges.   For example, a single device is a challenge in terms of cost whereas bring your own devices is challenging in terms of teachers supporting different devices and the lack of consistency.    Again, I don’t think there is a single best answer, it is very much dependent in the context of the individual school.

Thinking about it, the key issue in relation to devices, is simply ensuring that teachers and students have access to a device.   Once students have the required digital tool, it is then possible to make use of it to support, enhance and even reimagine learning. 

Access to devices is another fundamental requirement if we are to effectively use technology in learning and in schools.

It is now over three years further on so I thought this was an opportune time to reflect on my thoughts now, how things have turned out and my thinking as it is now.

Thinking back to 2013 I believe now that I was skirting around the key issue.       My concerns at the time were very much around the lack of significant evidence to support the benefits of using iPads in schools.    The conference had plenty of examples of where iPads had been used however the benefits were very generic such as pupil engagement, pupil collaboration and pupil directed learning.   I was looking for more quantifiable evidence of the benefits as opposed to these more general and anecdotal benefits.

Reflecting the key issue I missed was this idea of generalization and the issues which surround it.    My concern was the generalization of the benefits being stated by presenters at the conference however this generalization was inevitable as presenters strove to present in a way which could engage and be appropriate to attendees from various backgrounds and experience levels.    They were seeking to explain how they viewed the iPad as having the potential to have a positive impact on learning.   What I should have been more concerned with was this suggestion that the iPads benefits could be extrapolated to schools in general as opposed to the suggestion that the iPads had general benefits.

Every school is different in a multitude of both small and large ways.    This make the possibility for a single device to have benefits for school in general unlikely.    In addition the iPad as a piece of #edTech is a tool for learning and the impact of any tool depends on its usage.   A well used hammer will fix things to the wall whereas a poorly used hammer will just result in a sore thumb and fingers.    Given the dependence on usage and the likely significant variance in how devices are used again makes it unlikely that a single device such as the iPad could have benefits for schools in general.

Considering the presentations, and on reflection, what I should have been wanting to see was a school that told me what they had sought to achieve, what they had done and how they had assessed their success including what measures and data they used in measuring their success or failure.   The presenters should have been specific about their context and the impact of their use of iPads in this context, with no attempt made to generalize for the wider world.

As more schools look to engage in mobile learning this is my key message:

• Be sure what you want to achieve through the use of mobile devices including iPads including considering how you might measure your impact and hopefully success.
• Do your research on what devices can and cant do including seeking feedback from schools already engaged in using mobile devices however also remember that your context will most likely be different than theirs. Don’t assume as it worked in one school it will work in yours.
• Consult widely. Use social media and your professional learning network (PLN) to get feedback and ideas.    Again, as indicated above always ensure you remember that the context within which those providing feedback are operating may differ from your context and therefore don’t assume what they have done would be transferable to your school.
• Review, review and review some more. No matter how much planning and research you do there will always be something you miss.    These might be unexpected issues however equally possible are unexpected opportunities, new ways to apply the technology, unforeseen benefits, etc.

Above all if you are implementing mobile devices remember you are doing it for your students and staff and your school and therefore any solution or project needs to meet their needs and not the needs of the abstract concept of education or schools in general.

This increase in teaching and learning options puts a demand on IT support and on a schools’ IT services to be flexible and dynamic enough to support these new options.   My belief has always been that the focus is on teaching and learning and therefore it is up to a schools’ IT services to find or develop solutions which provide for the needs of the students, teachers, parents and other stakeholders.   As such IT services should act as an enabler to allow stakeholders to use the resources which they need.

The issue here is that IT services have a number of constraints acting upon them that may run contrary to the needs of the users.   One such constraint is that of budget and especially total cost of ownership.   Users may want specific equipment to meet their specific needs however this usually costs significantly more than having standardised equipment across a school.   Standardised equipment is also easier and therefore cheaper to support.   Interoperability of systems is also an issue as end users may want specific software however this software may not work in conjunction with other software being used within the school.    Another constraint is that of legal requirements.   A school’s IT services has to be conscious of the Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection act among others.   If teachers are making use of a variety of different cloud based services such as Edmodo, ClassDojo or Google Classroom how can a schools IT services ensure that the information held on these sites is kept up to date plus how can the school ensure that they have up to date records as to what data is held on which sites plus who is responsible for this data and ensuring it remains up to date.

The key as far as I see it is balance as it is important for IT services to support the needs of those engaged in the critical job of teaching students.   That said, IT services has a responsibility to bring their skills and expertise to the table to ensure that solutions are in line with legal requirements plus are scaleable and sustainable for the longer period.

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Daily I read about ideas for the use of ICT within learning and teaching.    A large number of the ideas presented often rely on the availability of a laptop, desktop or tablet per student or small groups of students.   Some of the ideas rely on a 1:1 laptop or tablet scheme, a BYOD/BYOD implementation or a school which invests heavily in mobile technologies for use in its classrooms.   All of this is excellent for those schools which have this equipment.  ( I suspect these schools are still in the minority within the world as a whole however the number is growing, although I have no real evidence to support this belief )

But what about those schools which do not have this kind of equipment.    I think it is safe to say that the common IT equipment found in schools, is likely to be IT hardware centralised in IT Labs plus maybe a data projector and desktop in classrooms.    So how best can classroom teachers across subjects make use of limited equipment, where only limited equipment is available, to integrate ICT into their lessons?    What websites, simple peripherals, applications, etc. have you used?

Consider the situation where a teacher shares a resource with students via a blog or a website, or via google drive or some other method.    The student accesses this resource using their browser of choice.    Should they find it useful they automatically bookmark it for later use, or if the relevance is to their studies is very clear they may instantly drop the resource into google drive.   Having done so the student realises that their friend is off ill, so they share the item via google drive with them, sending an email, using their mail client of choice, to their friend to let them know about the lesson and the shared file.   A thought then strikes the student about something similar they have recently read online so they look through their browser history to find the material, before tweeting the URL to the class group so that they too can consider this in their studies.

The above example shows personalisation at work.    The device is the students own device and therefore has the applications they use already setup with the appropriate account details already entered.   As such the student can seamlessly move between applications, sharing, collaborating, researching, creating and more.

As a teacher I find myself doing the same.    I find a useful tweet and I retweet it, and I might email myself the link for later reference.   If it is appropriate to what I am doing or to what my colleagues are doing, I may share it with others via google drive.    If it is an image I may make use of pinterest for sharing or I might include it in a prezi or share it via slideshare.   I move between my chosen applications quickly and easily.

So the question is can we as teachers in the current technological world continue to prevent students from bringing their own devices into the class or should we embrace personalisation and endeavour to reap the benefits which it may present?

Traditionally IT within schools has taken the form of IT labs filled with computers.   In some schools these may be in use all of the time, however in other schools these are often empty and underutilised.   Recent years and the reduction in the costs of mobile technology and wireless infrastructure have allowed some schools to exploit technologies which can be redeployed easily within schools, in ways the traditional IT lab hardware could not be.   Moving a little further forward to today we find large numbers of students with access to personal devices they can use in learning.   These may be mobile phones, tablet PCs or various types of laptop, however they belong to students and therefore could support students in their learning across all subjects as they carry it with them.   Isn’t this want integrating IT into learning is all about?   My son already uses my phone to use apps when we are out and about, he uses an Android and a Blackberry tablet at home, and he is only 7.

At this point I normally hear people comment about what a simplistic view I am taking.  Some of the arguments against this approach are:

• What if the equipment is lost or damaged at school?
• How do we keep control of student school data?
• How do we keep students safe when using their own equipment in school?
• How do I create lessons for use across different platforms in school?
• What about students who don’t have devices to bring to school?

For those without IT equipment, surely schools can provide for these students at cheaper cost and greater impact than they can when installing traditional IT labs which result in very variable student:computer ratios, which do not even taken into consideration actual machine utilisation.     Looking at the other arguments I could present an answer to each of the above issues however I am choosing not to right now.   Instead let us consider a common factor of the above: school.     In schools we assume students have to be perfectly safe, data mustn’t be lost and all equipment must work.   We also provide a set of software which we decide is appropriate.    In other words we create a separate IT world in which to teach.    Schools, their teachers and leaders assume responsibility for all aspects of IT usage however due to the predominance of technology and in particular Wifi and cloud based apps is this reflective of the real world?    Should students not be taught and required to take responsibility for equipment and data as they will need to in life beyond school?   Should they not be taught to deal with issues with technology as they arise?

We aim to use IT in a little safe bubble, where we can use IT without concern and as such we limit ourselves.   Now this is not to say that some things, such as certain websites, don’t need to be blocked, controlled or limited, however surely educating students to the dangers and also harvesting student ideas as to technology, especially given they have grown up with it, would yield greater long term benefits.

Now some schools are using BYOD/BYOT and embracing the opportunities it presents, and also the restrictions and difficulties it brings, as surely any new approach will, however why is it that so many, if not the majority, of schools persist with traditional IT Labs?    This is more surprising still when you consider the potential budgetary advantages as well as learning opportunities which the use of BYOD/BYOT may bring to schools.

Image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net, Contributed by adamr