Bring Your Own Device

Over the past few years, it has become popular for employers to allow and even encourage their employees to utilise their own computer and mobile devices within the workplace. The idea of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an interesting one, and it presents both benefits and challenges for workers. As BYOD becomes more common, these advantages or disadvantages may become even more apparent. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of bringing your own device for use at work, and examine how this idea might apply to IT training.

Why BYOD Makes Sense

Employees at many companies in various industries are now being permitted to bring their own device for use in the workplace. In many ways this makes a lot of sense. For an organisation, eliminating the need to supply each and every employee with a computer, iPad, or other device would save tremendously on operating costs. Nearly everyone these days has a personal computer or device, so asking employees to bring their own would not generally be considered a burden. A portable device such as a laptop can also easily be transported from the home to the office, encouraging employees to "take their work with them," perhaps even catching up on projects while outside of work.

Bringing Your Own Device Could Have Real Benefits in Work and in Training

Using your own computer or device for work has the potential for great benefits. Both in day-to-day work and in the training environment, having your own device gives you a great advantage. While performing work on your device, using your own means you have a greater sense of the layout and organisation of the device. This may help make you more productive and efficient with your work. Existing familiarity with your device means you'll feel more comfortable using it. and when undertaking IT training, you will more readily be able to adapt to new concepts and technologies. As the device is your own, you can also easily bring it home to consider working on your IT training. This might mean that the BYOD idea allows trainees to more quickly acquire and improve upon new skills.

Challenges of the BYOD Concept

Despite the advantages, the BYOD concept presents some significant challenges. For the employee, the device must be supplied at your own cost, which could be an obstacle for some. In the event that you misplace the device or it gets stolen, the company won't replace it, and it will be your responsibility to purchase a new one. In terms of company safety, a personal device has the potential to get a virus and negatively affect the rest of the company. There is also the possibility that your device could be compromised, causing a leak of confidential information or a tragic loss of important business data.

Device Diversity as a Smart Option

For businesses who want to stick with the BYOD idea, there are options to protect both the business and the employee. A concept known as device diversity can ensure that there remains a division between devices and the overarching systems of the company. Device diversity connects business applications and programs to user identities as opposed to devices, allowing the users to access the programs from any device. The business IT department controls the companies data, leaving the individual users to control their own personal data and programs. This is a great approach both for work and for training, giving the employee to freedom of easy access to their data, while providing security for the business.

The Importance of Soft Skills

With fresh, highly-skilled graduates swarming into the job market, degrees in hand, it may seem as though “hard skills”--those specific, industry-related skills necessary to excel in the IT world--have become most important. A recent study of younger career individuals--those dubbed “millenials”--revealed that these youthful jobseekers rank hard skills as being of the highest priority for a potential candidate, particularly within the IT world. However, older, more-seasoned career individuals surveyed asserted that “soft skills” are as much, if not more in demand.

What are Soft Skills?

Soft skills are those attributes and abilities which are more connected to personality, such as communication, patience, flexibility, and conflict resolution. Hard skills may be more readily identifiable. For IT, these are the types of skills you would mention on a resume--knowledge of particular programs, applications and operating systems, expertise in programming language, or even basic typing skills. These are all tangible skills which can be visibly improved upon and may provide measurable results. Soft skills often have no obvious criteria for measurement. You might discuss these kinds of attributes during the interview process. Similar to the notion of “attitude”, soft skills represent an individual’s interpersonal skills and ability to problem solve, effectively deal with conflict, and handle stressful situations.

Can Soft Skills Be Taught?

Many industry professionals believe that soft skills are much more difficult to teach than hard skills. Soft skills can certainly be improved, but much of the associated abilities are shaped and developed by inherent individual personalities. As well, time and experience seem to be important factors in the growth of these soft skills. This might suggest that those in the IT industry who have several years of workplace experience are better equipped to handle the pressures and demands of a professional position, and do so with more equanimity and poise.

Although it may prove easier and more straightforward to train in hard skills--programs training, workshops, further education, etc.--soft skills can also improve with guidance. Alongside hard skills training, companies may consider providing workshops for communication, interpersonal skills, conflict resolution and more for their employees. This could be especially useful when hiring fresh graduates with less work experience, perhaps integrated in the form of induction workshops.

How are Soft Skills Important to IT?

Soft skills are an important element in businesses of all industries. Within the IT industry, soft skills may help an individual better succeed within the workplace. One important soft skill is processing feedback from supervisors or superiors. Within the IT environment, this will be vital for employees adapting to new technology and improving their work. An ability to effectively process feedback, which assists individuals in the building of their skills, sits alongside the ability to receive criticism and utilise it constructively, as well as the skill of integrating suggestions successfully into one’s work.

Another way soft skills will be useful to an IT professional, is in his or her interaction with fellow coworkers and supervisors. Communication skills are an absolute necessity; an IT professional needs to be able to effectively and clearly communicate regarding their work, often using highly technical language. Conflict and other issues are also much better handled by one with solid soft skills, as they can express themselves assertively and tactfully and are able to interact professionally and tactfully with others.

Train for All Skills

As we’ve seen, both hard skills and soft skills appear to be vital within the IT industry, as well as within other business environments. With this in mind, it is beneficial to provide training which supports both ends of the spectrum for all employees, especially those new to the career realm.

IT and The Future of Learning

Incredible growths in technology and innovation have begun to completely transform the reality of learning and education. In the face of these changing technologies, new approaches and methods for education have popped up in response. How is technology changing the landscape of learning? It would appear that these adaptations will alter everything from the way we learn to who is teaching and what information is being taught. As technology mutates education itself, new research and discoveries surrounding the workings of psychology and neurology are also constantly appearing. This fresh information about how the brain functions further influences the ways in which technology is affecting the future of learning.

Education in the Digital Age

The math department at Arizona State University recently undertook a unique approach to integrating technology and education. Most of the students completed their mathematics work inside a computer lab. A computer program the department developed would collect the students’ responses, analyse them to determine strengths and weaknesses, and then produce and individualised lesson plan for each student. In this example, the power of IT was harnessed to assist in improving the learning experience for each and every student. Unlike a blanket education method which may not be equally appropriate for all students, this program emphasised the importance of individual needs, utilising data as a guide.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education Professional Education program runs a project known as the Future of Learning Institute, or FoL, which explores innovative learning and training methods for professionals. One focus has been an implementation of digital programs social networks as part of blended learning solutions. This type of participatory learning which uses various methods and encourages ample discussion and collaboration, has proven very useful in training for professionals in the education field and in many other industries.

Finding What Works

In education and training, both methodology and engagement are important, and typically go hand in hand. With learning and skills development, a common practice is to focus on repetition and memorisation. According to psychology professor Dr. Mark McDaniel, these methods do not support long-term retention of material in any subject. He, along with other researchers, supports a blended approach that incorporates practicality into the training environment. Real experiences and interacting with the topic create memories or stories which we will better recall and which we can look to in the future when using those learned skills or pieces of information. In terms of IT training and learning, this means working through digital problems using the applications and skills we’re beginning to apply, with full instructor support available to guide us.

These technological advances are certainly no substitute for a quality teacher, however, which further substantiates the need for a mixed approach that blends a variety of methods and ways to grasp new skills. A vital aspect in these types of learning should always be an instructor-lead environment. Interaction and cooperation builds trust and confidence, and that is surely one of the greatest tools for learning.