Initiative to let students use personal technology in class | The Augusta Chronicle

Once topping the list of items forbidden in the classroom, iPhones, iPads and other smartphones are now being welcomed in some Richmond County schools.

Three schools will launch the Bring Your Own Technology, or BYOT, initiative this year, which lets students bring personal smartphones or other technical devices to use in class.

Teachers will have the option to determine when students can use their iPhones to research a topic or whether to designate certain times in the school day, according to Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Schools Cheryl Jones.

“I think what we’d like is for it to stop being a secret,” Jones said. “Kids are looking things up already, and they’re interested, so we just see this as a way for us to greatly expand their learning in the classroom.”

Every school has wireless capacity in at least some areas on campus, but it is only school-wide at Hephzibah High, A. Dorothy Hains Elementary and Richmond County Technical Career Magnet schools. The BYOT initiative will begin at those three campuses, but the district plans to expand its wireless capacity throughout this year to offer BYOT to all schools in 2014-15, Jones said.

To participate in the program, approved by the Richmond County Board of Education Student Services Committee on Tuesday, students and parents will have to sign an agreement.

via Initiative to let students use personal technology in class | The Augusta Chronicle.