Smartphones,
tablets, e-readers -- today's students have a variety of mobile technologies at
their fingertips.
What is m-learning ?
20 years back, pay phones still worked ,only doctors carried pagers,
laptop weighed as much as a bowling ball and only few has access to internet.
Back then Google, email, wifi and texting was not possible , where are we going
in next 20 years?
We are all going mobile? Tablets, smartphones these devices
only serve as the most recent iteration of mobile technology in the classroom.
Remember Netbooks? What if we go back further? What about chalk and
slate?
Now here we are in the year 2015, and things seem to
be changing for many schools.
It
seems that the smartphone is finally getting its due as a computer with
telephonic capabilities. Our phones are used as computers even as our computers
are now used as phones. Mobile devices have replaced desktop computers as the
primary access device to the Internet.
With
the acceptance of the smartphone as the truly personal computer of choice for
most students, it stands to reason that educators should be modeling and
mentoring its use for the very skills as we are touting as "21st
century." A digitally literate culture in a technology-driven society
should be teaching its children how to use the devices of choice to access,
curate, communicate, collaborate with and create information.
Communication has always has always been an essential skill
in the classroom. In the past, we strive to help our students become effective
communicators both orally and through writing. However, with the plethora of
communication tools made available by mobile devices , texting, instant
messaging, Skype and Twitter ,we may be doing our students a disservice if we
ask them to communicate only via one or two mediums. Not only do
students need to be able to present themselves in a face-to-face setting, but also
through video, audio and text. Crafting an articulate tweet or blog post may be
as critical as a five-paragraph essay, and in-class presentations may be as
important as delivering a Skype talk or Google Hangout. With the influx of
options afforded by mobile devices, not only do we need to teach students what to
communicate, but also how.
In mobile classrooms,
communication and collaboration are no longer limited by physical proximity or
time. Have a question? Tweet it. Need advice? Post it to a class wall. While it is still
important that we make face-to-face connections, it is increasingly critical
that we learn how to take advantage of virtual ones.
Through connection, students gain a larger audience for their
creations and through creation, we provide them an opportunity to construct their own knowledge. While it has always
been possible for students to create projects, mobile devices provide options
and choices that were previously inconceivable, pushing our thinking beyond the
constraints of an 8.5x11 page.
Beyond replacing outdated texts and cumbersome notebooks,
mobile devices enable students to create and share from anywhere and at any
time, unlocking creativity and removing the limitations to what's possible.
They provide students with cameras, audio recording studios, blogging
platforms, and multimedia tools allowing students to construct new learning
artifacts across their curricula and in a variety of contexts.
However, if we focus on a core set of essential skills communication,
collaboration, connection and creation and start to develop curricula that will
benefit our students regardless of
the technology, then we can truly embrace a mobile curriculum.
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