Question: Are students and teachers allowed to bring their personal devices to school (…and attach to the network to get online, etc..)???
The quick answer to this question is, either YES …or… NO. If yes, every district that I know of takes a different spin on it. In fact, about 5 years ago the KY Department of Education started asking the same question on the required district Technology Readiness Report (“Does your district allow personally owned devices to be used inside the district?”). So if we (“we” as in interested parties) acknowledge that it is good info to capture, then I’d say that at some level we are OK with it being an option. Again, it seems right for some folks and not right for others. I’d probably even go as far as to say that at some level we would promote it as “creative” and/or “Innovative.” Here is a state-wide capture from last years TRS (09-10):
Personally Owned Computing Devices (Laptops/Tablets/Mobile Devices) – Data capture of 176 School Districts:
1. Has the district permitted personally owned Devices to be brought to school by students? 67 (yes) 109 (no)
2. Has the district permitted personally owned Devices to be brought to school by teachers? 102 (yes) 74 (no)
3. Has the district permitted personally owned Devices to be brought to school by administrators? 106 (yes) 70 (no)
When I think of this, there is some guidance or value that I could/might add to the conversation:
- Reasons: It’s certainly another way to get closer to a 1:1 environment without the major expense of the devices. It also promotes students being in charge of their own learning or own proof of learning. I like that. It also promotes responsibility with the utility – that is the Web (and wireless connectivity). It has to continue promote the teaching of digital citizenship.
- Policy: Make sure something is captured in your AUP or even an addendum (there are samples floating around). Something to the affect that “the user is still expected to perform appropriately while on campus even though it is their personally owned device.” “remember to do the right things.”
- Leadership: Promoting Nxt Generation Learning skills (21 century). This is a good move. Make sure all teachers know, that students bringing devices in would spark more opportunities for use in classroom, when permissible by the classroom teacher. Personal devices in schools is NOT the right of students (yet – maybe it should be), rather an opportunity. (meaning if the activity does not involve needing to use a device, then the teacher – as the facilitator – should expect that the devices remain put away). There is certainly some debate this…
- Budget/ Finances: Beefing up the wireless network is important. You want success out of the gate. Bottom line – It costs money.
- Technical: Some buy a wireless management switch, some buy a bigger device that scans all devices to ensure proper software (OS, Vscan). There are many technical ways to do this. Some use an encryption key, some use 802.1x, some are wide open… Some are now utilizing transparent proxy, and a specific VLAN and DHCP range that only gets Port 80 (or 8080) web traffic… It’s all across the board.
- Logistics: some districts have students or teachers check the wireless device in (maybe in the media center with an STC for example), before the students gets the wireless key the device is checked for a valid OS and a valid virus protection. OTHER district just have it wide open for folks to attach to, making sure to only give port 80 traffic. Having said that, this one is always interesting because if you enable folks to attach their personal devices to the wireless, but you put a bunch of technical complexities on it and make it a big hassle… Many would just plug a Cat 6 cable into the wall and get ALL traffic… (something to think about, when designing the plan). Wireless for personal devices should seam: easy, efficient, fast, open, free. If not people will plug into the wall.
I know of one district in the past couple of weeks has experienced a huge BOOM of personal devices attaching to the network. They had opened their network up to personal devices a couple years ago. However, recently they removed the hassle factor by implementing a “transparent proxy.” Last week, reports identified that they are now hitting over 800 personal devices at one time…
Getty up!