Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning

Readers of this blog know my passion for pushing thinking around instructional technology and may remember my post “The Value of Using Cell Phones to Enhance Education and Some Concrete Ways to Do So” and also the hoopla around the class I taught which resulted in some press coverage including, “Despite School Cell Phone Ban, Course Sees Them as Aid.” Following this I was asked to consult on Roland Fryer’s Million Cell Phone program at the NYC DOE which I wrote about at Thinking Outside the Ban Pays Off - NYC DOE’s Million Project Explores and Finds Educational Value of Cell Phones (Then abandons the project).

Now, it looks like the idea of using cell phones to enhance teaching and learning is gaining new momentum in a recent report which highlights five opportunities to seize mobile learning’s unique attributes to improve education. The report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning, by Cooney Center Industry Fellow Carly Shuler, makes the case that our nation’s leaders should not overlook the role mobile technologies can play, if well deployed, in building human capital and in helping to stimulate valuable innovation. Report highlights include:

Key Opportunities in Mobile Learning

1. Encourage “anywhere, anytime” learning

Mobile devices allow students to gather, access, and process information outside the classroom.

They can encourage learning in a real-world context, and help bridge school, afterschool, and home environments.

2. Reach underserved children

Because of their relatively low cost and accessibility in low-income communities, handheld devices can help advance digital equity, reaching and inspiring populations “at the edges” — children from economically disadvantaged communities and those from developing countries.

3. Improve 21st-century social interactions

Mobile technologies have the power to promote and foster collaboration and communication, which are deemed essential for 21st-century success.

4. Fit with learning environments

Mobile devices can help overcome many of the challenges associated with larger technologies, as they fi t more naturally within various learning environments.

5. Enable a personalized learning experience

Not all children are alike; instruction should be adaptable to individual and diverse learners. There are signifi cant opportunities for genuinely supporting differentiated, autonomous, and individualized learning through mobile devices.

5 Goals for Mobile Learning

The report makes a case for wider experimentation and new investments in the design and deployment of mobile technologies to advance children’s learning in the U.S. and outlines five goals — learn, develop, promote, prepare, and stimulate — and an action plan to transform mobile learning from state of uneven and scattered innovation into a force for dynamic educational impact. Below are some of the reports major goals, strategies, and action items to transform mobile learning from a state of uneven and scattered innovation into a force for dynamic educational impact.

1. Learn: Understand mobile learning as a unique element of education reform

Handheld technologies and their learning applications require a systematic research inquiry to determine how they can become an important driver of technology integration in education. There should be public and private sector support for needed R&D.

2. Develop: Build mobile learning interventions

Mobile devices have features that are distinctive, and developers of applications must leverage unique mobile assets and surmount special challenges. Industry should be given more powerful incentives toward this end.

3. Promote: Engage the public and policymakers in defining the potential of mobile devices for learning

Though numerous studies and a growing number of experts believe that mobile devices have significant potential to transform children’s learning, most parents and teachers do not yet view these devices as educational allies. To promote public understanding and prepare for the effective use of such devices, government, industry, and philanthropic organizations should expand resources.

4. Prepare: Train teachers and learners to incorporate mobile technologies (MY FAVORITE!!!)

Often the bulk of spending in incorporating technology into education is on the technology itself; however, preparing teachers and learners to use these technologies effectively should be a higher priority. Recommendations include:

• Modify and gradually eliminate classroom bans – Most school districts limit cell phone use in classrooms and some have banned their use altogether. We recommend the gradual introduction of mobile devices in schools. By devising established norms of behavior, we can build acceptance among teachers, parents, and students themselves to discover mobile devices’ educational value.

• Build capacity: Digital teacher corps – Teachers cannot teach what they do not know, and most have not been trained to use new technologies in their classrooms or afterschool settings. It is not just a matter of showing teachers how to use the devices; rather, it is crucial to provide them with methodologies for ways in which they can incorporate technologies within their curriculum. Professional development is essential to the future of mobile learning. To build professional capacity, we recommend the creation of a “digital teacher corps,” which would be established to enable educators to help students learn to transform information for discovery and problem-solving by working with a range of digital media.

• Integrate mobile themes in media literacy curricula – State and school leaders should educate students on mobile etiquette and capabilities, expanding media literacy to include a new “mobile literacy.”

5. Stimulate: Generate new leadership support for digital learning

As a new administration that has committed to improving education and rebuilding public infrastructure for economic renewal begins, we recommend that priority be placed on how mobile technologies in particular, and digital media more generally, can advance children’s learning in the global economy.

The report concludes…

“Mobile devices are an integral part of children’s lives and they are here to stay. The social and cultural phenomena, market opportunity, and, most importantly, the “pockets of educational potential” documented in this report must not be dismissed. Our national debate must shift from whether to use these devices to support learning, to understanding how and when they might best be used. Just as Sesame Street introduced generations of children and their families to the potential of television as an educational medium two generations ago, today’s children will benefit if mobile becomes a force for learning and discovery in the next decade.”

A full-text PDF of this document is available for free download from http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/.

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Become a Mobile Computing Professional and Let the World Be Your Office

When I began my job with the NYC DOE Office of Instructional Technology my then Director Brian Osborne explained, "We equip people, not places, with instructional tools." At the time a decision had been made by our office to put Tablet laptops in the hands of school coaches rather than desktops because a coach’s job is not at a desk but rather in classrooms with teachers. That simple thought resonated with me and was built upon further after hearing educational gaming expert Marc Prensky share that a student told him, "without my laptop I feel like I'm missing a part of my brain." I could relate.

I rely on my laptop and internet as the extension of my brain that goes with me wherever I am allowing me to be a true mobile computing professional. I do not work from a work office, home office, or mobile office. The world is my office and “I” am my work space. My laptop, internet connection, and cell completely allow me to be a mobile computing professional who can operate effectively, efficiently and immediately anytime, anywhere, on-demand in the entire City in which I work. I can also connect to whomever I choose, instantly, bringing the world to me. I am immediately accessible, reliable, responsive and productive and do not ever say, “I will get back to you on that,” because I have everything accessible to me anytime/anywhere. As my current Director will attest, before we leave meetings, events, visits, etc. the people we have come in contact with already have everything we said we'd deliver. We are in a time where we can share, store, and collaborate on limitless information from anywhere, anytime, and for FREE. For me, “I’ll get back to you on that,” went the way of the 8-track and vinyl record long ago and has been replaced with, “Here you go.”

I feel extremely fortunate that technology has transformed the possibilities for the way we work by allowing us to spend less time in offices and more time being able to provide service and work in the learning environments we support rather than being tied to a desk. Now if I could only figure out a way to be in two places at once...(hmmm...upcoming post on video conferencing and UStream?)

You have read this article Educating Innovatively / Mobile Computing with the title Mobile Computing. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2008/08/become-mobile-computing-professional.html. Thanks!

How I Lost 20 Pounds in One Month On a Paperless Diet

I walked into my interview for a position at the Office of Instructional Technology with a huge blue wheelie bag containing 25 lbs of necessities for my literacy coach position. Inside my bag was the balanced literacy curriculum (in what was known as the big red binder), a bunch of notebooks containing the latest reading and writing workshop units of study, binders with notes on the work I was doing with teachers, and folders containing information that supported my coaching work. I was interviewed by Troy Fischer who looked up, pointed to my wheelie bag and said, "If we are to consider you for this position you'll have to get rid of that thing." I protested explaining I am the type of person who needs to have all resources at my fingertips wherever I am so I wasn't quite sure I could agree. Additionally, I explained that in my position I had no access to a laptop or digital material and though I had access to a desktop it was shared by numerous people making it difficult to reliably access. Mr. Fischer said, "Well, I'm looking to hire someone who’s ready to change all that."

A few interviews later I was offered the position and my first responsibility was to digitize all the literacy and math materials that coaches would need as part of an initiative to equip NYC Coaches with 21st Century Toolkits comprised of fully loaded Tablet laptops. I worked with all our partner organizations and was able to get a treasure trove of textbooks, resource materials, and even that big red binder in digital format. At the same time I was committed to going completely digital. It was surprisingly easy and was ultimately an absolute blessing because once I made the decision to do this I never had to worry about printing or locating a file again and I had all my work with me wherever I was.

Here are my ten steps to a successful paperless diet:
1) I converted everything I was currently working on to my laptop computer so that I had everything I needed at my fingertips at all times. As a result I would never need to print anything because I had everything with me on my laptop.
2) I didn't worry about converting and transferring everything over. I just did it per the project I was working on making this a very manageable task.
3) I committed to traveling with my 3 lb laptop which is surprisingly light when you're not carrying a lot of books, notebooks, and binders.
4) Prior to meetings I emailed the organizer with a request to receive digital copies of the materials in advance of (rather than following) the meetings.
5) I started ordering books digitally and read them using eReader allowing me to read books directly from my laptop. This was great because I could search, highlight, play the audio if I was driving or unable to read at the time, and more.
6) I joined Audible and ordered audio books. I found audio books are better for fiction rather than nonfiction.
7) I carried a usb drive with me so I could easily and instantly take digital files from others when necessary.
8) I backed up weekly
9) I started using wikis and Google Docs for my materials rather than my hard drive to make everything easy to share and collaborate on and to free up my hard drive.
10) Lastly I got a Verizon wireless card for my laptop enabling me to have internet access anywhere I had cell service. I highly recommend this purchase and believe that is the wave of the future. While this may seem a bit expensive (about $50 a month) I no longer have to pay wireless fees anywhere and there is never a hassle getting on the internet.

Within a month I was able to shed the 20 pounds of paper and could finally fit into a sleek shoulder bag. After a life-time of paper training, I have successfully been able to keep the paper off for three years now. I vow never to be bulky again.

You have read this article Educating Innovatively / Mobile Computing / Paperless with the title Mobile Computing. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-i-lost-20-pounds-in-one-month-on.html. Thanks!