Volume 1 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal for K-12 Educational Leadership - Page 8

6 small tablet promising flexibility and instant access to cur - rent information and instructional content. Many schools searching for a 1:1 option began adopting the platform, making IOS devices like Ipads among the most popular de- vices in the educational market. Although Microsoft Win- dows devices such as traditional laptops remain the overall leader in the fragmented educational technology market, in the third quarter of 2014, Apple’s IOS laptops and Ipads allowed it to retain a small lead on Google’s Chromebook netbooks with a 31% market share compared to Google’s 27% (Luckerson, 2014). Some of the concerns with tablet devices include lim - itations on their abilities, the long term cost due to the need to purchase new apps constantly, rapid obsolescence, and incompatibility with many existing educational products. Additionally, many educators argue that while tablets do many things well, the lack of an integrated keyboard and limited options for expansion of memory and accessories means that they will never be standalone devices and will always work best as a complement to traditional computers or even laptops (Barrett, 2012). School districts across the country are beginning to allow students to bring their own personal computing devices to school,apolicythatwasformerlytheprovinceofexclusivepri- vate institutions with the wherewithal to require computers of all of their students as a conditionof enrollment. These pro- grams are often referred to as BYOD for Bring Your Own De - vice policies. Mobile technologies as used in BYODprograms are defined in many ways. One study defined mobile technologies as “hand-held devices (smartphones, cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, pocket PCs, tablet PCs, and other hand-held devices) that can create, transfer, or display information via the Internet or other means” (Nelson, 2012, p. 13). The key distinction in defining a BYOD program, though, is not necessarily in the type of device used, but rather in the private ownership of the device. Many schools cite fiscal constraints as the primary rea - son for implementing a BYOD policy instead of a 1:1 policy. In this age of ever tightening budgets, providing funding for educational technology is a huge challenge. As educa- tional budgets are tightened, the rapidly shifting technology landscape works the other way and makes specific devices smaller, cheaper, and more affordable for individuals and families. This proliferation of smart phone, tablet technolo- gy, and smaller, cheaper, netbook devices has made shifting the burden of providing personal computing devices from the government to the average family feasible for the first time (NPD Group, 2014). The shift that many schools are making from school sponsored laptop programs, netbooks, or tablets to a BYOD model raises many questions regarding the effec - tiveness of the various models. Perhaps the most inter- esting aspects of a change to BYOD policies are in the im- pact on student achievement that occurs when students are given the option to provide their own technology instead of doing without or relying upon school issued equipment. The Study The study’s purpose was tomeasure the educational impact of school provided laptops and tablets against the use of per- sonal technology inside a school that had been issuing a vari- etyof computingdevices toeverystudent. Toaccomplish this, the researcher utilized the results of a district generated technology questionnaire to classify students into groups based on their preferred technology platform: school is- sued netbooks or tablets; or the student’s personal de- vice. Achievement results were then measured using scale scores from the State of Texas Assessments of Academ- ic Readiness (STAAR) tests. The groups were compared using a series of ANOVA tests to determine if their results were significantly different and, when appropriate, post hoc tests were run to determine which technology deliv - ery system produced the highest STAAR results and what the effect sizes were. Results, Findings, and Implications In the current study, the researcher focused on one mid- dle school in a large, urban North Texas school district that has issued computing devices to high school stu- dents since 2002. Using technology in instruction was a primary goal of the district school board and central ad- ministration and all teachers received extensive train- ing in digital pedagogies. The specific middle school se - Eric Creeger, Ed.D.