Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ BYOD – Worst Idea of the 21st Century?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
Gary Stager - who is becoming the David Noble of the 2010s - pens a strongly worded editorial calling 'Bring Your Own Device' (BYOD) "the worst idea of the 21st century" because it aggravates inequality, causes teacher anxiety, and narrows the learning process. "It is miseducative to make important educational decisions based on price," he writes. I think he misunderstands the nature of personal devices - first of all, and most importantly, that they are personal, and secondly, that a pocket-sized device sold for the price of a single textbook carries more computing power than the average school-supplied computer purchased five years ago. Audrey Watters responds to Stager in Michael Feldstein's e-Literate blog: "I’m hopeful BYOD can help challenge some of the vendor lock-in with software that, say, only works on Windows, or only works on iPads. I hope this is something that will drive schools to the Web versus native apps."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 20, 2024 05:34 a.m.

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