A new school year brings with it new and improved changes. This year, District 20 has decided to become a little more hip with the times and is enforcing a policy called BYOD: Bring Your Own Device.

This means that students are required to bring their own laptops, tablets, and/or smartphones to class in order to participate in the more modernized activities. The AAHS website states the following regarding BYOD: “In order to assure future-ready students who are effective digital citizens, Academy District 20 seeks to:

• Engage learners in implementing technology to enhance their learning, while taking responsibility for their devices and creatively accomplishing all learning goals.

• Provide learners the opportunity to engage in personalized digital learning while appropriately adapting to the technological, social, and academic environments they encounter.

• Develop student ownership of their learning at any time, any place, with changing levels of challenge as they engage in research, and global collaboration.”

Student Tamara Coy told me, “Teachers really expect you to have your own technology which is kind of difficult because my phone isn’t very capable so I have to drag my laptop to school which weighs down my backpack.”

On the contrary, Sam Wickham said, “I’m in AVP so I only really have two classes in which BYOD is enforced and they don’t really expect me to have anything with me.” It seems that opinions about BYOD vary on a case-by-case basis, including both positive and negative views, which is expected considering it is only the first year of its enforcement.

The Air Academy page about BYOD has answers for those who have concerns. When I asked Kat Dowell her opinion, she told me she was worried about theft; but Air Academy has taken this into consideration and responded saying, “The schools we visit and the research we read say this is not a problem.” If you have concerns or questions, click here.

This webpage might help you out. If you are a student who is confused about anything technology based, even if it’s an issue getting onto the WiFi, go talk to the librarians, go to the tech department or see Doug Duran in his lab.

The main idea of Bring Your Own Device is that schools want to help students to be fully prepared for their futures which are now becoming more and more technologically based, no matter what the job may be. Even if it may have some issues as of now, it has room to improve in the upcoming school years.