BYOT and Me: Teacher Perceptions of a Bring Your Own Technology Initiative

BYOT and Me: Teacher Perceptions of a Bring Your Own Technology Initiative Ilana Jones Abstract Educational institutions have begun to implement Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT also referred to as Bring Your Own Device or BYOD) initiatives. The purpose of a BYOT implementation is to encourage active student learning resulting in increased student achievement through the use of personal, mobile technology devices. To achieve implementation success, school-leaders and teachers must develop effective strategies to manage the integration of BYOT into classroom teaching practices. The purpose of this research was to explore teacher perceptions regarding the implementation of a school-based BYOT initiative. This case study consisted of asynchronous online interviews of 12 high school teachers working in a Title I School in Charlotte, North Carolina currently involved in a school-wide BYOT initiative. Follow-up email exchanges and a document review phase of nine teachers as well as school-building administrators were also included in this research. The results of this study indicate: confidence in personal technology ability may not be a factor in a teacher’s willingness to integrate BYOT; personal technology use and experience may not influence a teacher’s decision to incorporate BYOT; technology-centered teacher training offerings may have little influence on the classroom integration of BYOT; in order to be deemed effective, BYOT professional development opportunities should be relevant to specific content areas and customized to meet the needs of adult learners; and finally, teachers in this study reported that BYOT initiatives may actually increase the digital divide amongst students resulting in classroom management issues that outweigh BYOT benefits. The implications of this study are significant in that it is imperative for school district leaders and professional development designers to understand the factors that influence a teacher’s decision to revise current teaching practices to integrate new technologies as well as understand the classroom challenges associated with a BYOT implementation. Obtaining this knowledge will assist school-leaders in building a foundation in which effective professional development sessions are developed to better address the needs of teachers being asked to carry out BYOT initiatives