BYOD versus District Provided Devices

Many school district across the country are struggling with the notion of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) versus providing district owned devices to their students.  I believe there are pros and cons to both sides, and will try to lay out a few of those below.  Feel free to add your own thoughts on the pros and cons of either program, including experiences in your own school district.  

BYOD
Pros:

• Low cost for the school district. 
• Students get to bring their personal and customized device that meets their needs. 
• Students are guaranteed to have access to that device 24/7.

Cons:

• Who supports the device during the school day?
• Students, parents, and schools are concerned about damage and theft.  
• How do teachers manage multiple devices in their classrooms?  

District Provided Devices 
Pros:

• Similar device for students make it easy to manage and support. 
• Easy to deploy district applications across a common platform. 
  

Cons:

• Higher cost for districts. 
• No guarantee of students being able to take the device home.  
• Students can't customize the device to their liking as much as they can in a BYOD environment.

I believe that regardless of the platform that a district chooses, they need to have conversations and discussions with their teachers, administrators AND students on what environment would best meet their needs.  The ultimate driver has to be Teaching and Learning, and they have to see the value that either of these programs would provide to the overall learning process.  Without that connection - both programs will fail.

JDS