The decision to allow students to bring personal devices into the classroom is being made all across the nation. Many schools are adopting ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) initiatives to engage our students in the classroom with the same tools they are using outside the classroom.
As a BYOD advocate, I look forward to seeing all the ways personal devices will help us transform teaching and learning.
Yet we must proceed carefully as we open the floodgates for BYOD. We must help our students learn how to work with and without our devices. Many argue we need to work harder on the ladder.
Joe Kraus, currently with Google Ventures, had this to say regarding our relationship with personal devices:
…we’re becoming like the mal-formed weight lifter who trains only their upper body and has tiny little legs. We’re radically over-developing the parts of quick thinking, distractable brain and letting the long-form-thinking, creative, contemplative, solitude-seeking, thought-consolidating pieces of our brain atrophy by not using them. And, to me, that’s both sad and dangerous.
Letting cellphones and iPads into our classroom is not a trade. We’re not exchanging our students’ ability to reflect and think critically for some quick-fix tech gadget that will give them an all-access pass to information. Those gadgets are important. Really important. However, let’s never forget to appreciate and use all the things our brains can do without the aid of of a gadget.
Our students aren’t alone. We adults are experiencing this transition with them. Are you happy with the relationship you have with your phone? Watch Kraus’ entire presentation on our “Culture of Distraction” before you answer.
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