Bring Your Own Device(BYOD) - equitable?

Since the BC Government came out with it's new "education plan," the tweetosphere has been abuzz with discussion and speculation. Proponents are quickly trying to slam the brakes on folks who question the benefits of the government's vision with calls for "out of the box" thinking, implying that those of us who ask questions are Luddites who don't want to see improvements for students and reform of the system we currently have. I will give the government credit. At least we're all finally talking about what the Liberals want to see, not just speculating. It's still pretty vague, but at least it's public. This morning, @MrWejr posted a tweet calling for discussion on @bkuhn's post on Equality or Equity. I'll bite, because I'm a teacher librarian who gets to play the equity/equality game on a daily basis. The whole reason libraries exist is to share knowledge and advance discussion. Today, that means trying to help students deal with accessing knowledge on the many devices that they bring to school (and I do mean many!) and try to assist in troubleshooting when the devices don't access. It also means trying to get up to speed on every new system that comes along. I spend my days discussing how to get Apple devices and PC's and Androids to work with a Linux system. I have to stay on top of the increasing number of apps that become available for various devices to be able to recommend learning tools for students and staff. I won't even begin to discuss what a nightmare e-books are when you're trying to decide whether to subscribe to Overdrive or use Follett's ebooks or just stick with an epub option so that students can read PDF's. (Apple's lack of Flash on iPhones/iPads drives me nuts!! - personal rant moment) I teach at a small high school with a generally middle-class population. Access to broadband at home generally isn't an issue, but it does exist. At least 10% of our school population doesn't have access to a home computer with broadband. Most students don't have their own laptop. Most have phones or iPods, but many of the phones aren't well set up for data use and don't have touch screens. I repeat, I teach at a school that is relatively well-off. What about schools where that isn't the case? What about our rural schools? What about First Nations communities? What about our students with disabilities? I don't know if equity will exist in a Bring Your Own Device world. When @bkuhn suggests that school districts simply need to be responsible for infrastructure (wireless networks, bandwidth,etc.), he ignores the increasing financial strain on families. I have significant issues with lost textbooks and library materials that cost the district thousands of dollars a year. Despite a supposed textbook deposit, which is ignored by most families, we still lose textbooks and don't recoup those losses. At our school, we still loan graphing calculators with deposits, so that all students can have access to a good quality device. If we supply devices to even 10% of our population to even up the digital divide, we have to be prepared to accept financial loss. Families struggling to make ends meet will often ignore costs they know they won't be accountable for. Teachers also have to be prepared to spend a significant portion of their time with students dealing with device "issues". We currently see our district tech support person every other day. The rest of the time, issues are dealt with by teaching staff who do simple IT troubleshooting off the ends of their desks. What the government appears to be proposing is that schools and students that are located in places which can provide easy access to devices and bandwidth (the Lower Mainland, larger communities on Vancouver Island and the mainland) will do well in a 21st century model. Families who choose to reside in rural communities will be choosing to accept that high speed access may not be possible. Families with financial issues will have to be prepared to accept rental or loan of a "standard" device with deposit. Students with special needs already have to wait significant amounts of time for experts to feel they are "ready" for certain devices. (We've been told my daughter needs to wait to be old enough to benefit from an iPad, despite the fact that she uses one at home at home with specific apps for learning. We don't send it to school because the whole family uses this device.) Despite my reservations about this, I think solutions are possible. I do want to think outside the box, but I believe in social justice. We need to make sure that our families and students who need the help, get the opportunity to access the technology that will make collaboration and connection possible. I think Library Learning Commons are the heart of the solution. If the basic premise of a library is knowledge and conversation, it makes sense to ensure that IT support, knowledge searching experts and teaching support staff are located in a central place which serves as a teaching and learning hub. Accessible resources for sharing and experts available to help when needed - the 21st Century School Library. Andrew Carnegie would be impressed.