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The Most Dominant Trend in the Next Five Years: BYOD

The American classroom has changed dramatically in the past 100 years. No longer do
students write on personal chalkboards and sit in poorly lit one-room school houses. Even the
past 30 years has seen some dramatic technological advances - from film strips and overhead
projectors to televisions and document cameras, the physical learning environment is always
evolving. Today, there are currently five educational trends that are emerging with promises to
alter the American classroom in ways the printing press changed the way we read books. Of the
five - the virtual classroom, game-based learning, 1:1 computing,flipped classroom, and bring
your own device/technology (BYOD), the latter has the greatest promise to be the most dominant
within the next five years.
The virtual classroom is a classroom or school without walls. Students learn online from
home. This concept is gaining traction, but thus far the data is not very positive; however,
districts and states continue to pour money into these virtual schools because the idea is popular.
Gary Miron and Jessica L. Urschel (2012) assert in their report Understanding and Improving
Full Time Virtual Schools: A Study of Student Characteristics, School Finance, and School
Performance in Schools Operated by K12 Inc. that: Before promoting or even enabling the
expansion of full-time schools, more research is needed concerning two key issues:
understanding why the performance of full-time virtual schools suffers, and how that
performance can be improved (p.iii).
A lack of positive data is a similar problem with 1:1 computing through Chromebooks,
iPads, and the like. 1:1 computing puts the same device into the hands of each student. So, for
example, a classroom of 20 students and one teacher will have 21 iPads. Teachers and
administrators claim that students like the devices and are more engaged, but the data does not

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overwhelming point to students learning more and faring better on tests. Moreover, 1:1
computing can be costly at the beginning and for maintenance.
Game-based learning can be a whole new way of doing learning like Paul Andersen has
done. He has set his classroom up like a video game (Vu, 2014). However, the odds of this
concept catching on greatly in the next five years seems unlikely. It is a lot of work. If, however,
Andersen were to sell his game-based learning as a curriculum for many different subjects, the
idea might become more popular. For most teachers, game-based learning is just another tool in
his/her toolbox for teaching a particular concept. And, using games to teach is not a new concept.
Teachers have been using games for years to teach, but now those games are linked to a screen.
Screens are integral to the flipped classroom, or flipped learning. Students listen/watch
lectures at home on a computer or personal electronic device and then come to class ready to
tackle the higher levels of thinking activities like labs, projects, math problems, etc. Flipped
learning will continue to grow as more teachers realize the benefits behind being the guide on
the side rather than the sage on the stage. But, like game-based learning, the amount of work
a teacher must do can be quite substantial. Flipped learning, along with the virtual classroom,
game-based learning, and 1:1 computing, is growing, but BYOD, or bring your own device, will
be the most dominant trend within the next five years.
BYOD will be most dominant because it incorporates some of the other trends and it
doesnt cost schools much extra money with the exception of providing the bandwidth to get
students online. As long schools work to comply with President Obamas federal effort to get all
49.8 million students online by 2017, BYOD will be the most dominant trend (Scherer, 2014).
If students have devices at home that they complete assignments on, it would seem
logical to then use those devices within the classroom. The students are already comfortable with

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the devices, but now the teacher can help unlock the hidden potential of them. Students can learn
to use their devices to amplify their own learning at home, at school, and in the real world. 1:1
computing is a great idea to get the same device in each students hand, but it can be costly to
purchase that many devices and keep them up-to-date. Also, game-based learning is made more
interactive and fun when each student has his/her own personal electronic device. The flipped
classroom only works if students have access to Internet-connected devices at home. For many,
these are their personal electronic devices like tablets, iPods, laptops, and smartphones. Now
those devices that they use to watch flipped learning lectures or movies, listen to music, or play
educational or video games, can now be utilized within the classroom to amplify in-class
learning. They no longer need to be stowed away or hidden during school hours.
Now some may ask, What about students without a device due to poverty? According
to Don Boulware in the article Digitally Aided Education, Using the Students Own Electronic
Gear he found an inverse relationship between income level and sophistication of devices
(Ritchel, 2013). Meaning, just because a student may be poorer does not mean he/she lacks a
quality electronic device. What about the students who just dont have a device? There could
be a used device drive. People would drop off used devices that they no longer use that could
then be donated to students directly or the school. Or, the school could just purchase a few
devices to loan out to students that do not have their own technologies instead of whole
classroom sets like in the 1:1 model.
Educational technology is always growing and changing to meet the diverse needs of
learners. There are many trends out there right now, but the one that will be most dominant in
five years will be BYOD. Other trends have promise, but more planning, research, and money
have to be available to make them work well and for them to become the most dominant stand

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alone trends; those things take more than five years to become widespread. Many students
already own devices that they enjoy using for entertainment purposes. With BYOD, schools have
the opportunity to utilize those personal devices for educational purposes without substantial
costs.

References
Miron, G. & Urschel, J. (2012, July) Understanding and improving full time virtual schools:
A study of student characteristics, school finance, and school performance in schools
operated by K12 inc. Retrieved from http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/understandingimproving-virtual
Ritchel, M. (2013, March 22). Digitally aided education, using the students own electronic
gear. The New York Times. Retrieved from

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/technology/in-some-schools-students-bring-theirown-technology.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&emc=eta1
Scherer, M. (2014, October 20). The paperless classroom is coming. Time 184(15), 36-38.
Vu, P. (2014, February 7). Classroom game design paul andersen at TEDxBozeman
copyright from youtube [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/7ppKJT0aGVc