Managing the More Mobile Workplace

071of365[NTR23] by licensed by ntr23 CC BY SA NC

As I have been working on my PE iPod trial I have had to do some research on different issues that I hadn’t really thought about when I began working with mobile technology.  I knew that there would be issues, we are in Vietnam and running a server and network that is limited for many reasons, but I hadn’t really thought deeply about how this would impact us as a school and what might need to be used/built/employed for greater functionality.  I am going to share some of my research over a number of blog posts, but what I really want is to find out what other multi-mobile device and BYOD (Bring your own device) schools are doing in an attempt to share and research in order to help UNIS make some decisions about how to move forward.

A more mobile workforce…

According to a recent study conducted by VNware New Way of Life 2013, employees are closing the gap between work and personal life and with this  employees are happier and more efficient, especially if they can use their own technology to complete their work.

Highlights from this study (conducted on 2142 participants over 12 Asia-Pacific countries with 60% from the Millennium Generation – born 1977-1992) include the following:

 Infographic from the study linked above

The most interesting for me as a personal device user at work and in the Asia-Pacific region are that I am not alone.  83% of employees take their own devices to work and that my IT department is fully aware but that they struggle to offer IT support to me – this seems to be a trend, but I also question whether my IT department should be offering my this assistance?  Is it their job to be able to offer help to all BYOD at our school – apple, blackberry, android etc.  Can this be possible?  But I also like knowing that I am not alone in feeling happier, I know what my devices offer and I am comfortable using them at work, so are over 69% of those surveyed.  And using my iPad and Android nexus phone allows me to be less stressed because I am used to the apps and layout, I have the tech configured for my use and my class use.  I can be more functional and productive and a lot less stressed – all reasons why others also prefer their own devices.  So, armed with new research, maybe one option to consider is to have students BYOD to school to use in PE.  If we know that we are filming and screencasting and then sharing, maybe we should be exploring how they could use their devices to do this – not just relying on our own class devices – but still have these as the fall-back or instructional model.

Did you find any of this infographic and stats interesting?  How does this relate to you school and your own practice?