Wave of the Future: Cellphones as Instructional Tools

While scanning over the July 15, 2009 Education Week,an education newspaper,notice for an upcoming webinar sponsored by Sprint caught my eye. The topic: Cellphones as Instructional Tools intrigued me. For those not familiar with webinar,the definition of webinar provided on the notice states: “Webinars are just like seminars, except you participate at your desk, using your computer to view and listen to the presentation (or,you can listen through your phone).”

The topic fascinated me enough that for the next several hours I was on the computer surfing the internet looking for information on the topic. Much to my surprise, what I learned was there are currently already several pilot programs in U.S. schools, North Carolina public schools being one of them, using this mobile device as an instructional tool.

In March, 2007, NC Department of Public Instruction announced “a pilot education program, Project K-Nect, using smartphones as a supplemental resource for secondary at-risk students to focus on increasing their math skills. Ninth graders in several public schools in the State of North Carolina received smartphones to access supplemental math content aligned with their teachers’ lesson plans and course objectives. Students communicate and collaborate with each other and access tutors outside of the school day to help them master math skills and knowledge. The smartphones and service are free of charge to the students and their schools due to a grant provided by Qualcomm, as part of its Wireless Reach™ initiative.”

It appears that the movement to mobile-learning is gaining attention and momentum around the world. According to the article by Katheleen Kennnedy Manzo in Education Week’s Digital Direction, “The Mobile Learning Conference this past winter drew educators and researchers from around the world, and a research conference in London this fall on hand held learning devices is expected to draw some 1,500 participants, many of them already convinced of the value of the tech tools.”

One of the proponents of using mobile technologies to engage and motivate students, Elliot Soloway, University of Michigan education and computer science professor, points out that mobile devices are already a must have piece of equipment among young people and its critical role in workplaces today. According to Soloway, “This is the knowledge-worker age, and every knowledge worker has mobile learning, mobile computing; the mobile device is their hub around which all work takes place.” Soloway argues that, “If we’re going to prepare kids for the knowledge-work marketplace, then mobile learning’s got to be what we prepare kids to use.”

Technology use is unstoppable. As educators for 21st century citizens, we need to be up on what is currently happening with technology use in the schools. Whether we agree with the use of mobile device in schools as an instructional tool or not, we better be prepared for it because “mobile-learning proponents are now working more aggressively to document the effect that small, hand-held technologies can have on learning, and to come up with evidence-based recommendations for using them.” We can either embrace the wave of the future or step off the speeding train and retire to the Island of Isolation-your choice.

For the article “Making the Case for Mobile Computing” go to http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/06/29/04neccmobile.h02.html.
Additional information on Project K-Nect can be found on www.projectknect.org/Project K-Nect/Home.html.