mobile-potential

Mobile tech offers potential for formative assessment, authentic learning


Mobile learning has potential for continuous assessment, ‘out-of-the-box’ instruction

mobile-potentialPolicy makers and educators should not ignore the fact that mobile technology holds great potential for student engagement, continuous formative assessment, and authentic learning experiences, according to speakers during a Brookings Institution panel on mobile learning.

During opening remarks, Peggy Johnson, executive vice president at Qualcomm Technologies and president of Global Market Development, noted that e-Rate reform should include an emphasis on mobile learning’s potential to transform brick-and-mortar school walls into virtual walls. Learning is 24/7, and the e-Rate should reflect that change, as well as mobile technology’s role.

“We can’t continue to education students by ignoring the technology that is essential to our lives,” she said.

One of the most likely things to limit mobile learning’s potential is the “old wine in new bottles,” phenomenon, said panelist Chris Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor, Learning Technologies, at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. He added that the hardest thing about mobile learning is the “unlearning” of old strategies or methods that are now outdated and that hinder learning as it occurs in today’s world.

But educators and policy makers who are seeking to harness mobile’s potential should begin by defining the problem or problems they want to address, and then find the technology and skills to fix those problems. They should ask: “Does mobile technology give us new ways to address these problems?”

“We can’t possibly prepare students for the 21st century with the classrooms we have now,” Dede said.

There are concerns that accompany the transformative potential of mobile learning, said Shirley Malcom, head of Education and Human Resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. These include equity, ensuring authentic experiences, and arming teachers with positive preparation.

“We are always imagining solutions for teachers without engaging teachers,” she said.

(Next page: Take our poll on mobile learning)


But when it comes to mobile learning’s potential, “one of the critical issues is that of culture,” Malcom said. “I’m not sure we are, because quite frankly, principals are still basically making judgments about teachers’ work in the classroom based on old standards,” including whether a teacher is lecturing to the class and whether students are seated and quiet.

“Culture has to shift in order to allow the plane to take off,” she added.

“We are preparing kids for careers that don’t exist yet,” said S. Dallas Dance, superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS). “The way we deliver and write our curricula has to change.”

Children have to learn critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration skills in order to be successful in college and careers, and mobile technologies have potential to help educators personalize learning and help children nurture those skills.

“We talk about this whole notion around personalized learning–there’s no way you can personalize learning for a student when a teacher has 25-30 students, unless you leverage technology to do that work,” Dance said.

BCPS has a one-to-one plan in place, but the district has not even started to think about purchasing devices, Dance said.

“We said, ‘We’re not going to go out there and purchase devices.’ Even if I had the money to do that, I wouldn’t take that route. In order to make sure it’s meaningful and sustainable, you have to fundamentally change your curriculum–we’re starting with our curriculum first,” he said, adding that the Common Core standards offer a perfect time to revamp curriculum. Infrastructure and budget restructuring also are key priorities on the path to realizing mobile learning’s potential.

“We have to create a culture and environment where teachers feel protected to think outside the box,” Dance said.

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(Next page: What a second panel had to say about implementation)

“The current period represents one of the most dramatic…we are on the cusp of major progress in education,” noted moderator Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings. West released a paper, Mobile Learning: Transforming Education, Engaging Students, and Improving Outcomes, in conjunction with the event.

A second panel addressed ways to leverage mobile technologies’ potential into successful programs.

“To change, we must come together and leverage resources to help prepare teachers differently,” said Kathy Spencer, former superintendent of North Carolina’s Onslow County schools and a speaker on the second panel, which was moderated by Project Tomorrow’s Julie Evans. Spencer is a 2011 eSchool News Tech-Savvy Superintendent winner.

Ensuring that all stakeholders support mobile learning initiatives, and that culture truly adapts to embrace mobile’s potential, is essential, said panelist Elizabeth Foster, vice president of Strategic Initiatives with the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

But making sure that infrastructure, access, and equity are all in balance is a tricky thing, and the nation’s education system needs creative solutions, said Bob Hirshon, program director of Technology and Learning with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mobile devices have the potential to let students take their learning and their collaboration outside of the classroom, said Michael Flood, vice president of Education Markets for Kajeet.

Follow the conversation on Twitter with the #techCTI hashtag.

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Laura Ascione
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