On Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, Bring Your Own Technology was launched at Bel Air High School, bringing a new source of Wi-Fi to students and teachers in efforts to create a new-age learning environment.

This new resource provides students the opportunity to access information online for classroom assignments, while also being safely filtered. Now, instead of students using their cellular data when a teacher assigns an online assignment, or the teachers having to pull all the laptops out, the students will be able to easily sign into their own devices on their school campus.

On Bel Air High School’s Edline page there are directions to connect to the Wi-Fi categorized by type of phone, along with some other interesting information.

Faculty at our school worked hard to get this program running, including Mr. Benfield, Ms. Todd, Ms. Niemen, Ms. Campell, and Mr. Wit.

Mr. Benfield said, “Things are going very well…few issues, no real complaints so far.”

At first, there were a few device issues but nothing some help didn’t fix.  Around more than half of the student population is on the Wi-Fi now.  Since there is such a high demand for technology use, this allows students the choice to use technology if it’s a better fit for them.  Personally owned technology allowed includes, laptops, yablets, iPads, iPods, electronic readers, cell phones, and other devices.

Mr. Benfield, a teacher, coach, and contributor to BYOT said, “We were pleasantly surprised at the lack of technology issues the students faced.”

The use of BYOT is being slowly rolled out across the county during the 2015-16 school year, and we are very lucky to have a great resource at Bel Air High School.  Take advantage of BYOT!