Student owned devices

An interesting question was raised today during the Effective Teaching and Learning in a Digital Age event at the University of Birmingham. Organised by the Higher Education Academy, the one day conference attracted around 40-50 people from a number of universities across the UK. One of the invited speakers was Professor John Traxler (University of Wolverhampton) who spoke on how mobile technologies are extending and enhancing learning. In a 'hot off the press' publication from the HEA, which he also edited, John writes about mobile technologies, (of which he includes smart-phones, media players, games consoles, netbooks and handheld computers):

"By now almost everyone owns one and uses one, often more than one. Not only do they own them and use them but they also invest considerable time, effort and resource choosing them, buying them, customising them and exploiting them. These handheld devices express part or much of their owners' values, affiliations, identity and individuality through their choice and through their use. They are both pervasive and ubiquitous, both conspicuous and unobtrusive, both noteworthy and taken-for-granted in the lives of most people. This explains in part why mobile learning is not just e-learning on mobile devices; it also hints that we might leverage learners' own devices and in doing so take education into new modes, spaces and places." (Traxler, 2011, p 4-5)

The entire 44 page booklet, published by HEA Subject Centre for Education (ESCalate) is a thoroughly good read, but the paragraph above has provoked some discussion already. Here's the question: Should students' personal devices become a part of the delivery strategy in higher education, or indeed elsewhere in other sectors? If student owned devices are brought into play (and in many contexts they already have been) what issues are raised?

What about digital exclusion? Some students don't own personal devices such as mobile- or smart-phones. Would any widespread or persistent use of such devices cause them to be digitally excluded and thus disadvantaged? On another issue, if student owned devices are personal, they will no doubt contain a great deal of personal data and information. Would the integrity of these personal data be compromised at all during everyday use in a formal education context? What safeguards might institutions put into place to ensure that this would not occur? Finally, is it ethical or indeed desirable to ask students who have purchased their personal devices, to use them for purposes they may not have expected them to be used for? What about wear and tear, or accidental damage of the devices during learning? Who would pay for replacement or repair, or insure the devices during these kind of activities. OK, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I wonder what other possible objections might be raised in relation to student being asked to use their own personal devices in formal education? Your omments are as ever, most welcome.

Reference
Traxler, J. (2011) Introduction, in: J. Traxler and J. Wishart (Eds.) Making mobile learning work: Case studies of practice. Bristol: The Higher Education Academy.

Image source by ilamont

Student owned devices by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.