A school implementation of “BYOD” scheme in Hong Kong from the perspectives of a socio-cultural ecological approach

Abstract

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) schemes have been prevalent among secondary schools in recent years. At the same time, there has been relatively little research on the impact of BYOD schemes on students in K-12 environments. Moreover, those studies that do exist have focused on technological affordances rather than the socio-cultural impacts of BYOD schemes. Further, nearly all of the studies of BYOD schemes that have adopted a socio-cultural perspective have been conducted in western countries. Hence, this study intends to fill this gap in the literature by demonstrating how the media and mobile devices facilitated in formal and informal learning environments in an Asia secondary school by examining the benefits and challenges of the BYOD scheme. A three-year case study was conducted in a Hong Kong secondary school during the 2017-2020 academic years to explore the introduction of a BYOD scheme. The Socio-cultural Ecological Approach was adopted in this study to capture the impacts of the scheme from socio-cultural perspective. The primary concern were the benefits and challenges of the BYOD scheme on each of the main stakeholders involved in the scheme. To understand these impacts, five main sources of data were utilised: Questionnaires from all 234 participating students, 36 teachers and 153 parents; audio-taped interviews with five students, five teachers and five parents, school documents, digital artefacts and participant observation. In 2019-2020, the school shifted from in-class lesson to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at which time all of the data was collected from audio-taped interview with a teacher and five students and participant observations. All the sources of free-text data were analysed through the use of all three components of the Socio-cultural Ecological Approach, including the structures, agency and cultural practices components. The most significant findings are how media, through the use of mobile devices, enhanced the educational process, as a result of phenomena such as; curriculum changes beyond the institutional boundaries, enabling the production of user-generated content and facilitating conversations in support of teaching and learning. Notably, the BYOD scheme provided teachers with a number of new tools and practices that allowed them deliver better lessons and be more efficient, it also enhanced the motivation of the students to learn, and improved communications among students and teachers. However, the BYOD scheme also brought different challenges. First, a school imposed lock-out policy restricted the ability of the students to use their mobile devices freely, and the stakeholders could not come up with an optimal solution. As a result, a few students did not use their mobile devices for daily life and informal learning. In order to solve these problems, incorporating students and parents in planning policy is essential for the BYOD scheme. This timely study offers insight for other schools and governments on how to successfully implement a BYOD scheme. The findings provide suggestions for policymakers, educators, schools and teachers who may be planning future BYOD schemes. Recommendations are offered in a number of areas including professional development, technological support and school-based policy.