Mobile Computing and Information Access

When looking at new ways of learning using technology, I always try to think how can this benefit or be used with the students at my school.  Being an elementary school administrator, I look at the possibilities for students in Pre-K through 5th grades, students with disabilities and without, students who are academically advanced or developmentally delayed.  I want to impact as many students as possible in the most effective way possible, but in doing so, I need to also consider the teachers and the parents and how the use (or lack of) technology with students affects them as well.

My school is in a rather affluent, suburban area and access to electronic devices is not limited.  Even our students who are bused in from our Choice areas (lower SES) have iPods to listen to on their hour long ride to school.  Our Kindergarten students bring cell phones to school and,  despite our district ban on cell phone usage during the day, our 5th grade students are texting under the tables at lunch.  How then can I use mobile computing with our students?

Our district has recently embraced Podcasts, at least at the district level, with even our Superintendent creating podcasts regarding relevant information for employees.  But, to my knowledge, very few teachers are using podcasts with students.  And that goes back to teacher training.  In the past year, there have been 3584 professional development courses available from our district.  Of those courses, only 20 have been related to technology training--11 in SmartBoard, 7 in Podcasting, 2 specifically for teachers's tools including mine.  No trainings, other than mine, involve wikis, blogs, visual literacy, or any other Web 2.0 technology.  The technology that students are using is not being taught to teachers so that they can use it with their students.  (Don't get me wrong.  SmartBoards are wonderful but I don't know of too many students who have one they regularly use at home.)  The District does provide training in podcasting, but all but two of the trainings is simply how to put a podcast on your website.  So, in the 8th largest school district in the nation, we have two courses to teach our teachers who to use podcasts in the curriculum areas and both courses are aimed at high school teachers.

Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus aside, I think our elementary students could use their iPods for something other than music.  Mobile computing for elementary school students could be as simple as vocabulary lessons in content areas, study guides for tests or reviews of difficult math concepts taught in class that parents could then use to help their students at home.  Podcasts could be put on the teachers' webpages or made available to mobile computing devices so that students (and parents) could access them at any time.  Students who are absent (or on vacation in our case) for extended periods of time could have access to classroom learning despite not being IN the classroom.

Ellen Wagner's questions to think about regarding mobile learning is a great place to start.  It gives teachers an overview of what they will need to think about before beginning a mobile learning project, challenges such as funding and, most importantly, content questions to think about.  Her session is an excellent resource to use when training teachers and one that I intend on using when I train my own teachers on Podcasting this spring.



References

Wagner, E.  (2007).  Mobile Matters: Why Learning Professionals Need to Care (ID: ELIWEB072)