BBC News BYOD Article

[Dos_Box]

It's a bit business orientated, but worth a read: BBC News - BYOD: Bring your own device could spell end for work PC

[CyberNerd]

interesting that forward thinking schools are already at the cutting edge of this new development.

[Soulfish]

I'm a huge believer that BYOD is the way forward, but not as a total replacement for the desktop PC. For a lot of things within business and schools certainly, but at the moment licensing restrictions and ensuring that devices are capable of running all the apps they need to (and getting them installed) are where I see issues.

 

Terminal services/App-V/XenApp etc solve this issue for some applications, but CAD/CAM etc are still issues. XenClient and similar client-based hypervisors are one interesting avenue to help get around this issue and will be interesting to see them develop!

[alttab]

I'm a huge believer that BYOD is the way forward, but not as a total replacement for the desktop PC. For a lot of things within business and schools certainly, but at the moment licensing restrictions and ensuring that devices are capable of running all the apps they need to (and getting them installed) are where I see issues.

 

Terminal services/App-V/XenApp etc solve this issue for some applications, but CAD/CAM etc are still issues. XenClient and similar client-based hypervisors are one interesting avenue to help get around this issue and will be interesting to see them develop!

 

the question is whether PC use in schools mirrors that of the growth of PC market in general, do you plan for extending the use of the PC desktop into other areas of the school significantly or do you renew what you already have and invest more in management and usage of BYO mobile devices or school provided tablets and notebooks. Repeat that for netbooks in trolleys, is that something that will grow as fast as it did a couple of years ago or does something else resembling more of a personal plus use of BYOD cover the areas where those would have been used previously.

 

Most of the sales growth and innovation is happening in personal devices, and existing tools will be extended to cater for their usage. And new tools will be sought by IT to manage and integrate. It's here that investment in server-based computing and deployment software can cover a lot of bases by presenting apps and desktops across devices, while not completely taking over what is a personal device. Whether laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone.

 

So while BYOD will not totally replace the desktop pc, it could well at some point down the line relegate pc's and IT suites to niche use for only those situations where you need the grunt and screen size of a desktop. It might already be doing that in some schools.

[gshaw]

I'm a huge believer that BYOD is the way forward, but not as a total replacement for the desktop PC. For a lot of things within business and schools certainly, but at the moment licensing restrictions and ensuring that devices are capable of running all the apps they need to (and getting them installed) are where I see issues.

 

Adding it to existing provision is the way forward for sure, I remember a survey at a Uni that said students still want fixed PCs as much as (if not more than) BYOD. Not everyone wants to lump kit from home in education but giving the choice and offering flexibility is where the value comes in

[Arthur]

There was a very interesting discussion regarding Mobile Devices & BYOD at the Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium a couple of weeks ago. They mention education a lot too.

 

http://vimeo.com/35703040

 

Panellists from Aruba, Aerohive, HP, and Ruckus discuss BYOD, mobile devices, and management at the Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium on January 25, 2012

[localzuk]

I rambled about BYOD in schools a week or 2 ago, over here, giving my overall thoughts on the value of BYOD and the way we as techies often seem to put our fingers in our ears and go 'la la la, i can't hear you' when this sort of thing is brought up.

 

Whilst I think this is going to supplement education as it stands, it'll be a long while until there's the chance that it'll replace the way we do things at the moment in schools. Its another tool in the belt of education, rather than a replacement.

 

However, at the same time, we shouldn't get into the 'well business is doing it, why aren't we?' mindset. Schools aren't businesses. They aren't there to mimic a business either, producing worker drones. Whilst we should provide up to date technologies, we should do this based on their educational need, not based on what the office buildings of the world are doing.

Edited February 17, 2012 by localzuk

[alttab]

I rambled about BYOD in schools a week or 2 ago, over here, giving my overall thoughts on the value of BYOD and the way we as techies often seem to put our fingers in our ears and go 'la la la, i can't hear you' when this sort of thing is brought up.

 

Whilst I think this is going to supplement education as it stands, it'll be a long while until there's the chance that it'll replace the way we do things at the moment in schools. Its another tool in the belt of education, rather than a replacement.

 

However, at the same time, we shouldn't get into the 'well business is doing it, why aren't we?' mindset. Schools aren't businesses. They aren't there to mimic a business either, producing worker drones. Whilst we should provide up to date technologies, we should do this based on their educational need, not based on what the office buildings of the world are doing.

 

businesses are doing it because employees aka consumers are doing it. you could say they are reacting, this isn't a case of schools copying what's happening in business. Anyone who works or studies in a school is a consumer also.

 

if anything providing identikit locked-down ict suites or issuing locked down devices with the same OS and choice of applications but in a different form factor sounds like it could be more akin to the 'working drone' mentality, than accommodating folk who want to bring their own device.

[CyberNerd]

BYOD does work in schools.

We replaced all teachers laptops with classroom desktops - much more robust and easier to maintain.

If teachers want mobile devices they bring their own, and plenty do. So far they have brought in imacs, ipads, android tablets and traditional laptops. Overall it has been positive (papercuts webprint isn't too popular though). We've extended this strategy to 6th form and next year they will be required to bring in laptop/devices. The lower school can bring in devices if they want, some do but not many.

[gshaw]

With the advent of web-based apps for a lot of tasks all you need is Internet anyway so letting students do that on their own device makes sense to me.

 

The cynical side of me sees BYOD partially being pushed by the big VDI vendors who make a lot of money out of Citrix \ VMWare View licenses and associated storage hardware. Do you gain much by putting that same locked down desktop to another device if the whole thing is meant to be about flexibility? Maybe from a home access point of view but then there's still a lot of issues around software licensing.

 

As with any new "disruptive" technologies look at both sides of the coin then see how it can add to your existing provision rather than jumping on the latest fad and throwing away everything you've ever known hoping it'll be the panacea

[Roberto]

I can't help but thinking that BYOD instead of standard equipment is a bit of nonsense put forwards by people who don't need and don't understand specialist working environments, and wireless/vdi/etc vendors who have a vested interest in anything that will increase spending on their tools.

 

Having said that, I don't see the problem with allowing people to BYOD in addition to standard provision.

[Max_Power]

Weve had BYOD for sixth formers and staff for the past 2 1/2 years and its been a great success.

 

Utilised with the net, a well populated VLE, Citrix, email (OWA) and HAP its a very good solution.

 

Looking to continue a rollout with younger students, however we are considering the more political circumstances of encouraging BYOD, like muggings and charging of the devices.

 

*edit - I dont believe it will ever replace our current static desktop offerings, due to the specific nature of some software etc such as photoshop or sibelius for example, but as an additional offering, we havent had any issues.

[CyberNerd]

Having said that, I don't see the problem with allowing people to BYOD in addition to standard provision.

 

What do you class as 'standard provision' ? 1:1 ratio - that is never going to happen in my school. But if a few 6th form classes can use their own equipment for doing what is done 99% of the time (word processing, internet) then it frees up that standard equipment.

[Mr.Ben]

I agree that BYOd would be a fantastic addition in schools - it will always be an addition, as we are duty bound to provide access to everyone. Unless the government are willing to step in again and offer free devices to the poorest students.

[Roberto]

What do you class as 'standard provision' ? 1:1 ratio - that is never going to happen in my school.

 

Can't give you the numbers as I don't have them to hand, but we don't have any complaints about a lack of IT resources at my college.

 

But if a few 6th form classes can use their own equipment for doing what is done 99% of the time (word processing, internet) then it frees up that standard equipment.

 

Well quite. This is where supporting them as an addition makes sense.

[gshaw]

Spot on guys, not sure where the Thank Post button has gone but it would be getting good use in this thread

[Dos_Box]

I agree that BYOd would be a fantastic addition in schools - it will always be an addition, as we are duty bound to provide access to everyone. Unless the government are willing to step in again and offer free devices to the poorest students.

 

I was talking with someone 'in the know' yesterday about the old Computers for Pupils initaitive. For those of you who don't know, CfP was a scheme where the governement would 'give' the poorest proportion of pupils in a school (from a given criteria) a free laptop and net connection. Apparently 85% of these are still with their original owners, which is a lot better than the 50% loss rate many estimated!

[36Degrees]

CfP was a scheme where the governement would 'give' the poorest proportion of pupils in a school (from a given criteria) a free laptop and net connection.

 

next year they will be required to bring in laptop/devices.

 

Together these two raise one of the questions I have, namely how does this work when a pupil's parents can't afford to supply a device? I'm not necessarily talking about the ones who are identified as being in a particular group that is entitled to CfP but those that are just above the threshold for certain schemes. i.e. they don't qualify for CfP but don't have the funds to provide a device for their child / children to take to school.

[Mr.Ben]

Apparently 85% of these are still with their original owners, which is a lot better than the 50% loss rate many estimated!

 

That's a great stat - We only had 5 students (out of 200) that qualified and took up the offer here, but I'm glad to say that I've seen them in school and being used.

[fiza]

Together these two raise one of the questions I have, namely how does this work when a pupil's parents can't afford to supply a device? I'm not necessarily talking about the ones who are identified as being in a particular group that is entitled to CfP but those that are just above the threshold for certain schemes. i.e. they don't qualify for CfP but don't have the funds to provide a device for their child / children to take to school.

 

It also occurs to me that you may get issues with bullying. when one child has an IPAD or similar but another cannot afford one but has a cut-down imitation it can lead to issues.

What happens when BYOD becomes the norm and a classroom lesson is based on students using their devices. What happens when young Timmys device doesnt work or requires charging? Do techies get involved in maintaining these devices? What happens when parents blame the school for devices going wrong ? "it was fine when Timmy was using it at home. Something happened in school to it so its your fault! Buy me a replacement!!"

Cynical I know but these thoughts occur to me.

 

I can see benefits in 6th formers using their own devices but can also see the problems.

[alttab]

What do you class as 'standard provision' ? 1:1 ratio - that is never going to happen in my school. But if a few 6th form classes can use their own equipment for doing what is done 99% of the time (word processing, internet) then it frees up that standard equipment.

 

if you get more initiatives which drive/fund more of a 1:1 model [and we've had plenty of those over the years for them to have made some impact], in addition to students providing their own devices, and if those devices are good and robust enough for 99% of tasks then it's not so much standard equipment being freed up, but own devices becoming the standard equipment because of the flexibility. I'm not saying where anywhere near that stage at the moment across the board.

 

But it doesn't take much of a leap of the imagination to think we'll get to that stage, particularly if it's something that's going to be more expected of people as they go forward into college and higher ed. to bring their own devices and what with smaller smartphone type devices being ubiquitous anyway.

[GrumbleDook]

It also occurs to me that you may get issues with bullying. when one child has an IPAD or similar but another cannot afford one but has a cut-down imitation it can lead to issues.

What happens when BYOD becomes the norm and a classroom lesson is based on students using their devices. What happens when young Timmys device doesnt work or requires charging? Do techies get involved in maintaining these devices? What happens when parents blame the school for devices going wrong ? "it was fine when Timmy was using it at home. Something happened in school to it so its your fault! Buy me a replacement!!"

Cynical I know but these thoughts occur to me.

 

I can see benefits in 6th formers using their own devices but can also see the problems.

 

Ah ... most of these issues are about managing perception and some common sense processes ... boring stuff but manageable and some have been covered for many years by folk at the eLearning Foundation.

 

The argument of "It was fine before it was on your network / in your school" argument is a faulty premise but one that has some legs so why don't we start with that one.

 

When you are setting up your facilities for BYOD you have to accept some ground rules, the same way any software developer does, the same way that RBCs do, the same way that the council planning teams do for roads (it will become obvious in a minute). A software developer will know the they cannot test every conceivable configuration and specification of machine to work with their software ... and so they set out a base specification and work on a reasonable to best endeavours basis around that. RBCs generally have standard network builds where they know that if people follow the guides it limits the difficulties trying to deal with if something is not quite working ... and yes, the roads are built to a standard to deal with most road traffic, but special planning is needed to take into consideration extra haulage traffic, farm vehicles, military vehicles ... and so they plan the best they can and have rules (ok ... laws) to restrict stuff (e.g. no tracked vehicles on certain roads) to help manage that.

 

In your school you set out reasonable expectations of what can connect and then make a reasonable attempt at checking against specific generic devices. The will not be popular with some as it could be stating that you have to have Android 2.3 as a minimum, or iOS 5, or restrict it to 802.11N connections ... but you have to set manageable targets.

 

At the point when someone says your system broke their machine you can have a rule that says "Yes, we will investigate and if we are found culpable we will discuss the problem but if it is found we are not culpable then we will charge you for our time". Again, not popular, but helps to stop malicious claims.

 

Things like this is where BYOD needs some legal advice (which has disappeared with the absence of BECTA) especially when you start considering your responsibilities about how you manage the above, as well as how you retain logs of activities should they be needed for police investigations, how you deal with reports of illegal materials on personal devices (whether breach of copyright or illegal images) and changes to your Business Continuity plans should parts of your BYOD infrastructure fail.

 

Whilst this might come across as FUD to some ... it isn't ... it is merely a reasonable set of areas which need to be examined and covered off prior to the project going mainstream ... the same way the school would deal with H&S issues when a pupil / student with a visual impairment starts at the school, if there is a swimming pool built, etc.

[Roberto]

In your school you set out reasonable expectations of what can connect and then make a reasonable attempt at checking against specific generic devices. The will not be popular with some as it could be stating that you have to have Android 2.3 as a minimum, or iOS 5, or restrict it to 802.11N connections ... but you have to set manageable targets.

 

At the point when someone says your system broke their machine you can have a rule that says "Yes, we will investigate and if we are found culpable we will discuss the problem but if it is found we are not culpable then we will charge you for our time". Again, not popular, but helps to stop malicious claims.

 

You're quite right, of course, but even both of these actions have a cost associated with them. You need to spend resources keeping the list of supported system up to date and you need to spend resources dealing with investigations (even if your automatic default answer is 'go away, we don't care', there's still even a resource cost involved in saying that).

[GrumbleDook]

You're quite right, of course, but even both of these actions have a cost associated with them. You need to spend resources keeping the list of supported system up to date and you need to spend resources dealing with investigations (even if your automatic default answer is 'go away, we don't care', there's still even a resource cost involved in saying that).

 

Yes, and if you have a generic cost set against setting up the various desktops / laptops that are part of your network (for time, etc) then it might be that reduced workload here can be off-set against supporting BYOD ... as long as it doesn't mean a change involving a) too much work or b) too little work.

[Roberto]

That of course depends on whether or not you see BYOD supplementing your current deployment, or replacing part of it. We see it as likely to be supplemental, for a while at least.