NASBE

40
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Opportunities and Challenges
Born in Another Time
As today’s economy con� nues to strain educa� on budgets, some districts and schools are looking into developing policies
that permit students to “bring your own device” (BYOD) for use in schools for educa� onal purposes. Ideally, BYOD
could allow all students to interact with a digital device at close to a 1-to-1 level while limi� ng capital expenditures by
schools and districts. For example, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia now has all schools par� cipa� ng in a BYOD program.
To accommodate the program and addi� onal devices, the district more than doubled its Internet speeds. However,
BYOD is far from widespread prac� ce – 65 percent of principals in the latest na� onal Speak Up survey indicated they
were unlikely to implement a BYOD policy for instruc� on in this school year. But as more states and districts consider
BYOD, the following are some issues to consider as policymakers go from discussions to possible policy change:
Equity and Access – Perhaps the most signifi cant considera� on for BYOD is fi guring out access to devices for
those who cannot aff ord them. While over 60 percent of parents in the Speak Up survey indicated they would
purchase a device for their student to use in school if it were allowed, there are almost as many parents who are
unwilling or unable to provide such a device. How would schools provide devices to these students so they can
par� cipate in the same ways as other students? For example, Forsyth has dedicated district resources to ensure
all students have access to devices when needed, including 7 to 15 laptop carts (each with 10 devices) for every
school, as well as four desktop computers in each classroom.
Schools need to support many diff erent kinds of devices and likely need greater Internet bandwidth – A BYOD
system can challenge a school’s ability to support all the varia� ons in hardware and so� ware represented by
students’ devices. In addi� on, there will now be signifi cantly more devices connected to the school’s network,
which will require addi� onal Internet bandwidth. If there is a webpage or applica� on that is vital for a lesson,
what happens if a student’s device cannot load the content or cannot access it because of bandwidth limita� ons
of the school? Would there be a device available to them or a local network repository of these educa� onal
resources that could be used for the lesson?
Minimum Device Requirements – Schools may need to consider se� ng minimum system requirements for a device
to qualify for BYOD. School technology needs vary immensely across states, but schools could establish a set
of base requirements that would ensure a device properly operates on the school network. Such requirements
could mi� gate the issue by ensuring hardware, so� ware, and opera� ng systems meet certain specifi ca� ons.
Most ins� tu� ons of higher educa� on use this method for incoming students.
Awareness Building with Stakeholders and Educators – Tradi� onally, BYOD devices such as iPads and mobile
phones have been used by parents, students, and teachers alike to access the Internet for leisure ac� vi� es. As a
result, there are likely to be some who are skep� cal of the educa� onal relevance of BYOD devices. Therefore, it
is important that states, districts, and schools make a signifi cant eff ort to communicate their value . For example,
Forsyth has been working to inform parents of the opportuni� es these technologies can bring to an educa� on
se� ng and encourage their use by providing BYOD tours for stakeholders, educators, and anyone who is interested
in learning more about the program (see h� p://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/byo� ours).
Acceptable Use Policies – Cri� cal to the success of a BYOD program is implementa� on of a comprehensive Acceptable
Use Policy for digital devices brought to school. This is discussed (and a model policy is provided) in
Chapter 2 of this report.
Sources: Project Tomorrow, Speak Up 2011: Mapping a Personalized Learning Journey – K-12 Students and Parents Connect
the Dots with Digital Learning (Irvine, CA, April 2012), 9; Chris� ne Fox, John Waters, Geoff Fletcher and Douglas Levin, The
Broadband Impera� ve: Recommenda� ons to Address K-12 Educa� on Infrastructure Needs (State Educa� onal Technology Directors
Associa� on, Washington, DC, 2012), 17; and Jill Hobson, Director of Instruc� onal Technology, Forsyth County Schools
(Personal E-mail Communica� on, July 25, 2012).