CYOD
Discover more from Technology Should Be Simple
This post is part of an ongoing series of chapters from the book CHOICE. Please view this post for an introduction and table of contents. To keep up with each new chapter published, please subscribe.
Let's introduce a new model for an educational 1:1 program, Choose Your Own Device (CYOD).
The acronym is a play on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), that has long been around in education. The acronym CYOD came from the business world. It is used at many companies in a variety of industries. When you start a job at a CYOD company, you get a choice for what hardware you want to use.
Schools prepare students for life after graduation. By borrowing CYOD from industry, schools are providing another way to prepare students. A job is focused giving you the tools you need to produce the work. The tools are secondary to the work, so use what you are best with.
CYOD has been around in schools, in some form, since computers have been used in the classroom. It wasn't called CYOD, and was reserved for special cases and circumstances. The model usually works like this. A district picks the device for the 1:1 program (i.e Chromebook), and gives every student the same device. The district then provides specialized devices (iPads, Windows, etc.) for special use cases, usually involving an IEP or some other accomidation plan.
Why did it take a special use case for a student to get the device that best fit their needs or are most comfortable with. The option and choice of technology should be provided to every student from the start.
Choose Your Own Device is about letting student use the technology they are comfortable and productive with. Choice in devices helps lower, maybe remove, the technology barrier to education in the classroom.
A student spending time learning how to use a Chromebook, when they already know how to complete the task on an iPad, or Windows, or Linux, is taking away time spent on other educational tasks. When a student is using a device they already know how to use, teachers are freed to teach the lesson, rather than teach to the device.
The lesson shouldn't need to be "how to write an essay on an iPad". It should be "how to write an essay."