BYOD

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is the ‘right thing’ to do for our students. We need to provide them with the means and access to the best learning environment and future opportunities. E-learning and BYOD must be part of that.

Why BYOD

To enable our vision of ‘enhancing independent learning, collaboration and creative thinking in our students’, we need to:

• Create personalised learning opportunities that are flexible and authentic and meet students’ aspirations and educational needs
• support students to take responsibility for their own learning and enhance their learning through the use of collaboration
• integrate new technologies into the wide range of opportunities students are offered to enable them to participate in a global world

We acknowledge that the world is changing, becoming increasingly digitised at an incredible pace, resulting in opportunities for different learning pedagogies (teaching philosophies).

There are more internet enabled devices than people in the world. We need to engage in this digital world to remain relevant, make the most of the opportunities presented, and prepare our students for ongoing learning and future careers.

However, technology is only a tool to help enhance our current practice. The challenge is to strike the right balance between what we currently do very well and the incorporation of new technologies. This is often referred to as “blended” learning. It isn’t appropriate to use technology 100% of the time. It should be used, when it can, to enhance our proven practice. Teaching and learning at Macleans will always stay at the forefront.

The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) explicitly states that our vision is to foster young people who will be “confident, connected, actively involved and lifelong learners” (NZC, 2007). In the 21st century, eLearning is becoming fundamental to enabling this vision.