Beginning next school year, all Howard County middle schools will be participating in the school system's Bring Your Own Device policy, or BYOD, which encourages the use of cellphones, laptops and tablets in classroom instruction.
Starting in 2013, the school system piloted its new policy at Long Reach, Mt. Hebron and River Hill high schools. The pilot coincided with the school system's loosening of the cellphone policy, which now allows students to use a cellphone in the hallways and at lunchtime.
This school year, all 12 high schools and Thomas Viaduct Middle School implemented the policy, which allows teachers to look for new ways to incorporate technology in the classroom.
"Overall, teachers and students indicated a number of benefits associated with BYOD, increased student independence/autonomy, increased student engagement, and the ability of BYOD to facilitate student communication and collaboration," school system spokesperson Rebecca Amani-Dove said in an email.
Amani-Dove added that some anticipated challenges, such as increased student behavior issues and network connectivity issues, were not experienced during the pilot.
If a student does not have his or her own device, individual schools do provide devices, such as iPads or Nooks.
Now the school system will move forward with its plan of expanding the policy to all 20 middle schools.
"Once we have completed this year's evaluation, we will be able to make more comparisons and continual improvements to the program," Amani-Dove said. "We will also continue to evaluate and monitor the success of the program in the years to come."
Support from teachers
Scott Ruehl, principal of Mt. Hebron High School, said the implementation of the policy has gone "very well" over the past two years with teachers embracing the concept.
He added that teachers aren't using the technology in class every day, but instead look for a balance in lecture time, group work and technology use.
"BYOD just gives us another opportunity to present material," he said.
Shannon Davis, an 11th-grade English teacher at Mt. Hebron, said having the flexibility to find resources that are particular to the discipline is a nice addition to instruction.
One of her most successful examples is using a website and mobile app, called Socrative, that allows students to take a computer-based assessment.
Davis believes this provides her students a much more authentic practice environment than practicing with paper and pencil before taking an exam online.
"For some students, that disconnect is a really big deal," she said. "Having this free website that has mobile apps available allows me to make the practice in class much more authentic."
Davis added that having students use their own technology in class has sped up the research process when they've been given the assignment of writing a paper.
Depending upon the class, some students are using cellphones and tablets once a week, while others use the devices on a less frequent basis. The majority of students are using their Smartphones, while some use a laptop or tablet, Davis said.
Moving forward, the largest concern is keeping students on task when using their Smartphones, and that is where administration support, including enforcing consequences, comes into play, Davis said.
Davis added that the second biggest concern is battery life of these devices. If multiple teachers are using technology lessons throughout the day, students could find themselves without a device by the end of the day.
Student Member of the Board of Education Patrick Mikulis called the policy a "great tool" in the two years it has been in place at River Hill.
He said students have noticed a lot more teachers this year than last year have been using technology in the classroom.
"We're thinking as the years go on, more and more teachers are going to begin using it and finding more and more educational programs to add in with it," he said.
The amount of class time in which students are using their cellphone, laptop or tablet in class is dependent upon the unit in class, according to Mikulis.
"It's definitely a teacher-by-teacher thing," he said.
Overall, the policy has been received well by students around the county.
"We're certainly fully behind it, we think it's the way of the future," Mikulis said.