BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE TO A CLASSROOM: CHALLENGES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020 - a document that guides the most important developments in the area of education - envisions digital turn in schools by enabling modern infrastructure (personal digital devices, digital infrastructures in schools, interoperable information systems, web services, cloud solutions, open linked data)); providing high-quality digital learning resources for every subject; incorporating digital culture into learning processes; developing and implementing innovative teaching and learning scenarios. Instead of equipping every student with computers and tablets, the strategy foresees an extensive use of the concept of bring your own device (BYOD) to learning experiences. It is a rather common understanding and belief that current generation of students are digital natives who are proficient users of technology and their own mobile devices. This “belief” has been guiding the development of Estonian Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020.

We set out to investigate the actual situation in schools in terms of using personal mobile devices in classrooms. We illustrate through two case studies (2nd and 8th grade students) students’ knowledge and skills for operating their own mobile devices in the context of formal learning experiences as well as teachers challenges and problems with designing and implementing innovative learning scenarios with the concept of bring your own device. The results are contradictory. The case studies show that primary school students are not familiar with their own devices for learning purposes, lacking knowledge and skills about basic technological operations. Slightly better results were achieved with 8th grade students’ who demonstrated to be more knowledgable of how to operate with their devices for supporting different learning tasks. We also discuss and summarise teachers’ re-occurring problems and challenges while carrying out these learning scenarios.