BYOD Policy - Personal Electronic Devices at School

This year our school has adopted the following policy regarding Personal Electronic Devices:

Personal Electronic Devices (PED’s) have the potential for positive communication and enhanced student learning. Along with these benefits come associated risks and concerns.At St. Patrick Regional Secondary, P.E.D.’s must only be used to enhance safety and as a tool to promote student learning and achievement.  P.E.D.’s are limited to authorized educational uses only.

Some prohibited uses of PEDs include: academic dishonesty (cheating), interference or disruption of the teaching-learning environment, violations of a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy, compromising personal and/or school safety and any other illegal and/or unethical activities.Failure to comply with this policy may result in the confiscation of the PED and/or disciplinary action. The school assumes no responsibility for the loss, recovery, repair or replacement for any PED brought onto school property.
When unauthorized for use, PEDs are to be kept out-of-sight, turned off and not used within school premises or during school-sanctioned events.  

This policy is a start of a much larger initiative linked to our 21st Century Learning Plan .   As move forward with the idea of leveraging the student's own devices to enhance learning, a couple of early observations and ideas emerge:

• As we embrace mobile technology and social media we need to all be intentional in our approach to teaching and modelling digital citizenship.
• We are discussing the idea of a adding a mobile device (specs to be determined) to our list of recommend school supplies for students.  Of course this leads to issues of access.  How do we fill the gap for those students that cannot afford a mobile device? 
• We need to be clear on the role technology plays in the teaching/learning process.

All thoughts and insights are welcome!