Bringing Your Own Device - Technology on the Fly - Is This the Way to Go?

For many school systems the idea of 1:1 education, a system where each child has a tablet or laptop provided by the board of education is affordable because of grants or other actions.  Steps are taken to free up capital to purchase the hardware and provide teacher training. Many companies sweeten the deal by providing free apps and loading the computers with the appropriate text books. Other school systems are experimenting with allowing students to bring their own devices with appropriate releases signed by parents.

I was an early adopter of technology when Mac's entered my teaching life.  I had the computer lab to myself for almost two years while other teachers didn't feel that comfortable taking thirty students to the lab without an aid.  In the mid-to late eighties, students loved playing Oregon Trail when they finished using a software program that allowed them to create plays.  They wrote poetry, feature or hard news stories, research papers and learned all the bells and whistles associated with Power Point. I had read about a piece of software that could take your writing and change it to sound as if Charles Dickens wrote it, Shakespeare or some other famous writer. After repeated searches, I never found it. (If you find it - I'll send you a gift card to Starbucks - I promise!)
Things got a lot easier once we hired a person to be in charge of the computer lab, but by then other teachers had decided to take advantage of the lab and the state of Virginia had put in computer curriculum objectives. The lab was not just my sandbox anymore.

I am concerned with the implementation of technology in the classroom.  That is why I found two examples: https://www.academia.edu/7964178/Web_2.0_Internet_Activities_for_Lower_Level_Learners 
and http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=edd5f8a1a0ad4e2fbacee11257dd2950 that could serve as good springboards for setting up technology.

I hope teachers will take the time to have a solid plan for when and how technology will be used.  Additionally, I hope you will work with students to monitor and adjust any outcome-based projects you assign so that random use of "devices" is limited. Managing behavior under normal conditions is challenging and without more adults available for oversight - I can see many opportunities for misuse of a very powerful teaching tool. 

For a complete view on BYOD check out this Washington Post article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/stem/schools-move-toward-bring-your-own-device-practices-to-boost-student-tech-use/2014/09/14/4d1e3232-393e-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html  
Finally, here is a sight that demonstrates how to control security issues with "Bring Your Own Device: For more information on how AccessNow can facilitate BYOD in education, visit: 
http://www.ericom.com/AccessNow-BYODForEducation.a... 

Since it will take a lot of effort to get the use of technology right, try and team with other teachers and use Cloud file sharing to create your lessons and projects. You should not try and go this alone. I also found my computer lab coordinator to be really helpful when she wasn't in total overwhelm. Make finding a teacher or teachers to work with a goal and you may be able to find money to support any great ideas you create.