The practice of students bringing their own device to school BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has now become reasonably common in New Zealand primary schools after being first introduced in the late 1990s. It has become a strategy that schools can use to provide 21st century learning opportunities for students without having to provide school-­‐owned devices. This study raises important questions for teachers and schools to ask themselves before implementing BYOD.

This study explores the experiences of three New Zealand primary school teachers as they introduce BYOD into their classrooms. The case study sought to understand what factors impacted on their ability to implement new pedagogical practices and how professional learning might help support teachers with BYOD.

The literature review examines national and international literature on the implementation and impact of BYOD. It discusses how and why teachers do or do not engage with ICT in classrooms and how BYOD impacts on their practice. This case study utilises SAMR (Puentedura, 2006) and TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) in order to analyse the data and discuss the findings. The findings suggest that, in order for teachers to maximise the potential of BYOD, professional learning and technical support is essential. The teachers experienced a number of challenges as they introduced BYOD, yet all managed to persevere and remain positive as they trialled new teaching methods, and utilised new programs and applications.

The study concludes by making a number of pertinent recommendations that can be actioned by schools in order to ensure implementation is smooth and successful. It is very important that teachers are supported adequately by the school and are given opportunities to engage in relevant and timely professional learning.