- Shared vision: Without a shared vision, every stakeholder group defines a mobile learning model differently. Schools should gather stakeholders and created a shared vision to decide what it is they are trying to accomplish.
- Policies that match and model this shared vision: Most districts have in place policies that have been around for a long time and that don’t match what the district is trying to do (such as policies requiring students to leave technology devices in lockers, blocking certain web content, etc.). It’s worth a look at school and district policies to see what might be updated or removed.
- Easier processes: A mobile learning initiative should include ways to make it easier for students and teachers to access apps, install software, store and send digital work, collaborate, and provide quick ways to unblock relevant websites. “Coming together with the vision and finding the policies and procedures that make it easier for teachers” will help, McConnell said.
- Infrastructure for actual capacity: Students will be bringing and using more than one device, McConnell said, echoing Schad’s observation. “We were creating the learning environment, but students were choosing the tools, and we broke our network,” McConnell said. “We were no longer a one-to-one environment, but we were a three-to-one environment.”
- Untethered classroom: This includes wireless access from anywhere on campus, access at home and in the community, and wireless projection from mobile devices. Identifying ways to help students take learning outside of the classroom will help them develop skills they will need in the future, McConnell said. Finding access for all students, including those who might not have at-home internet service, is crucial. “[We are] finding ways to make internet access easier for students, but also to start looking at our communities as places of 24-7 learning,” he said.
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Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland's prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
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