Should all secondary schools implement “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)” to improve learning effectiveness?

Should all secondary schools implement “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)” to improve learning effectiveness?

“To make computers accessible to the public, the best place to do it is in the education system,” Steve Jobs once said. And now, a recent study, conducted by the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, found that 8 percent of secondary schools and 47 percent of primary schools had previously implemented the BYOD scheme. When the affordability and ability of personal devices are increasing, the possibility of e-learning rapidly arises. E-books, language learning applications, and e-dictionaries appear on every device. Therefore, people wonder whether all secondary schools should implement BYOD to improve learning effectiveness; however, some of them strongly disagree. Before leaping to judgment, it is essential to take a closer look at the issue and analyse the arguments from both sides.

First of all, immediate access to educational materials and resources can be enabled by BYOD. Students save their notes and papers on their devices, and bring them; as a result, they can power on their devices and start learning always and everywhere. In other words, BYOD integrates learning into any corner of life. Hong Kong is believed as one of the most hectic cities around the globe, time confetti is produced between the schedule gaps, and even grown-ups might not make good use of it. With BYOD implemented, students take advantage of quickly accessing learning materials to do a short revision during time confetti, even though their physical paperwork is left at home. On the other hand, BYOD prevents students from losing study materials. Nowadays, many schools advocate experiential learning, and easy access to educational resources makes jotting notes on field trips more convenient. BYOD integrates always-ready educational materials into and convenience the engaged life of Hong Kong students, directly boosting learning effectiveness.

Moreover, the chances of collaboration are increased by BYOD. Collaboration means two or more people working together to create the same thing. Judging by my experience, when I was collaborating on papers for the project with my teammates, we could hardly write on the same topic; thus, the topics lacked examples. Consequently, we split the project into a few tasks, did our respective duty and searched for more information online when we returned home. In this case, never have I thought the interactions between the collaboration were sufficient. On the contrary, BYOD students do research before the discussion and store it on the device or share it with teammates. During the meeting, students use several online collaboration platforms and do the task together on the same page. Simultaneously, more information can be gathered online. What’s better? After students return home or outside, they may use communication applications to discuss online and continue their tasks on the same page. Therefore, BYOD augmented collaboration chances, indirectly raising learning effectiveness.

While the strengths of implementing BYOD are clear, it would be doing a disservice to those with opposing ideas if we failed to mention the drawbacks and criticisms.

One must not forget that BYOD could distract students from learning. Have you ever seen some advertisement pops up and blocks you during research? When you felt curious and clicked on it, it brings you to some video platforms or online games. Most secondary students are more curious and have less self-discipline; accordingly, they may get distracted from learning. Indeed, without implementing BYOD, students are always chatting with classmates surrounding; nonetheless, social media on the device contribute to achieving “long-distance” communication with the whole class and even outside of the classroom. In other words, all the students are just chattering online and not focusing on the lessons. After all, distractions due to advertisements and communications from social media are yielded or enhanced by BYOD, directly reducing learning effectiveness.

Last but not least, technical problems would be caused by BYOD. Devices used by students with different operating systems and models; for instance, a partition of them is android and the left is iPadOS. For this reason, IT assistants have to be familiar with many operating systems. Otherwise, learning on the devices is unavailable. Not only but also, the Wi-Fi network has to be strong and stable enough to afford the high capacity, while all the students at school are using it. Or else, the learning experience may be interrupted; for example, the learning platforms get delayed and cannot download the learning materials. After all, the unfamiliarisation towards different operating systems and models and the unstable Wi-Fi network leads to technical difficulties with BYOD, indirectly reducing the learning effectiveness.

In conclusion, there are several valid reasons why should not all secondary schools implement BYOD to improve learning effectiveness because of causing distractions and technical difficulties. On the other hand, BYOD provides students with immediate access to educational materials and resources, increases opportunities for collaboration, and integrates learning into the daily lives of students. It is simply not fair to abandon BYOD for these reasons. Firstly, Mobile Device Management could block downloading third-party applications including social media, the process of managing mobile devices, largely in terms of usage and security. Secondly, the school should unite the model of devices in order to prevent unnecessary issues. Thirdly, Century 21 is the technological era, and touching and experiencing technology helps students adapt to this new era, especially the usage of AI, augmented reality and cloud computing for improving learning effectiveness. In weighing the pros and cons of BYOD, it is important to consider the specific context of each school and find ways to mitigate potential drawbacks.