EXCERPT: Classroom teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, special educators, and others interested in reaching today’s students are gathering in Phoenix, Arizona April 11-13 for Mobile Learning Experience 2012.

Mobile Learning Experience 2012 has already received registrations from all over the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It’s very powerful to network with those in attendance. In fact, even if there was no program the conference would still be incredible because of the passion those in attendance bring.

Read the full post here.

Let’s look at some of the mobile learning cases implemented in schools.

School: Southern University of New Orleans

Devices: Multiple, iOS devices, and PSPs.  Students also recorded learning diaries with their cameras or cellphones.

Objective: SUNO created the Department of Mobile Learning which was set up not only to help learners stay connected to the university, but to help SUNO compete in a university atmosphere were mobile education is experiencing “massification”.

How mobile learning was used: The Department of Mobile Learning at SUNO’s goal can itself be used as good definition of mobile learning.  Its goal is to “reach, recruit, retain and provide students with quality education attainable regardless of location, have uninterrupted access to technology, curriculum and activities that were meaningful to their lives and provide immediate feedback to maximize their achievements”.

The final opinion: SUNO was able to reinvent itself as a hybrid campus with strong distance and mobile learning programs.

Read More here: http://www.anthonyteacher.com/anthony/mobile-learning-case-study-2-disconnected

School: Howard School of Academics and Technology

Devices & Technology: Apple iPod Touches & Mobl21

Objective: To increase student achievement and engagement.

How Mobile Learning was used: To deliver English Grade 9 content in the form of study guides, quizzes, flash cards, video and audio content.

The final opinion: “I have created study guides for students to use to prepare for the English 9, End of Course state exam,” said Ms. Wilbur, “putting some ‘wow’ into what might otherwise be a difficult and boring task for the students.”

Read More here: http://www.mobl21.com/blog/13/mobl21-puts-some-%E2%80%98wow%E2%80%99-into-boring-study-tasks/

Mobl21 extends the learning environment for students via mobile devices, which they are always carrying around like iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, Androids & Blackberrys.

The Mobl21 system can be used for any subject, at any grade level.

For more information contact sales@mobl21.com

Designing good, usable content for mobile learning can seen to relate to the interaction design research (e.g. Jones & Marsden, 2006), which offers general principles for human-computer interaction on mobile devices. These have been supplemented by more specific findings from mobile learning projects (Naismith and Corlett, 2006).

These general principles are:

• create quick and simple interactions,
• prepare flexible material, that can be accessed across contexts,
• consider special affordances of mobile devices that might add to the learner experience (for example, the use of audio; or employing anonymity of the user),
• use mobile technology not just to ‘deliver’ learning, but to facilitate it,
• make use of the features in the mobile devices for voice communication, note-taking, photography, and time management.

It must be kept in mind that the learning content, (and not the mobile technology itself) must be the core focus of any mobile learning initiative.

• Once the learning objective is defined look at various ways of delivering content that will work towards that objective.
• Fragment the content into slivers of information, which can be consumed in 10 minute periods.
• See how audio, video and animation can be used to support the subject material
• Check for free app that provide interactive activities, which would reinforce the learning
• Locate and list veritable blogs and discussion groups which allow email entries for queries

Mobile learning opens subtle channels of communication, which can encourage students who don’t actively participate in classes to respond and express themselves. By exploring and testing new forms of content and exercises, you’ll come across ways to engage your learners both inside and outside the classroom.

According to Doug, modern mobile phones are like pocket computers which can connect young people to a world of information and learning. But not all teachers want to see mobile devices used in the classroom. Some point to a “digital divide” between the have and the have-nots. But the real divide is the “digital use divide”, otherwise known as the “participation gap”. Banning is a form of censorship, a futile attempt at maintaining a status quo. One only has to take the example of pocket calculators to see how banning a useful, transformational technology can be initially resisted before becoming ubiquitous (and extremely helpful) in schools.

You can read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/oct/26/mobile-devices-classroom?newsfeed=true

Also published is a method on how to get the mobile learning ball rolling in schools and colleges, and ideas to teach with mobile devices in classrooms.

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.”

Steve Jobs (2007)

Apple founder Steve Jobs was the man on stage to announce the arrival of the iPhone and with it, he also ushered in the industry of smartphone apps. iTunes alone now sells over 500,000 apps. Schools have already started implementing mobile learning pilots using iPhones and educational apps, to extend student’s learning environment and engage them on the devices “that are just cool to use”.

Duke University began to use mobile devices to access symposiums, class material, and school news through iTunes. The program, called iTunesU was started by Apple in 2007, and enabled faculty and students to create and carry course material with them on their iPods, another Apple product. iTunesU is now used by several institutes including MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley offering access to courses, faculty lectures, interviews and more.

And then came the iPad.

Suddenly across US and the rest of the world, universities and schools began to see the iPad as the device that would take classroom education into the digital era.

According to CIO Today, over 2,300 K-12 school districts have implemented iPad programs, including schools in the New York City, Chicago, Arlington, Va, and Manatee County, Fla. More than 600 K-12 schools have launched one-to-one iPad programs in which at minimum, schools are providing an entire classroom of students with their own iPads to use throughout their academic school day.

While the Macintosh was always a popular school computer choice, the iPad became a game changer. Educators in particular, feel that tablets will change education because they dovetail with the goals and purposes of education in the digital age. In the third quarter of 2011, iPad sales to the K-12 market surpassed all of Apple’s educational Mac desktop and laptop computer sales combined.

“Last quarter, we sold more iPads in K-12 than we did Macs. To do that in just five quarters is absolutely shocking. We never would have predicted this.”  Tim Cook (2011)

What Steve Jobs did for Apple is synonymous with what Steve Jobs did for mobile learning. He charmed, pushed, cajoled, and bullied the way so that other products and ideas could follow. Today mobile learning has moved from the crossroads to the implementation stage, and those of us in this field of educational technology have a big “Thank you” to say to the man whose destiny helped put a learning device in the hands of every student.

SOURCES:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/alan-kay-steve-jobs-ipad-iphone,10209.html

http://dynastii.com/best-steve-jobs-quote-read-them-enjoy-them-and-admire-him

http://www.apple.com/iphone/built-in-apps/app-store.html

TeachKind, the humane-education division of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) and Punflay the maker of educational and consumer applications, have launched a new program to help teachers and educators make science classrooms, a more compassionate place for both students and animals.

Get Virtual Frog Dissection apps donated to your classroom

Here’s how the program works: Talk to your science teacher or principal, and get your school to agree to offer a formal student dissection choice policy, and TeachKind will offer free Virtual Frog Dissection apps to your science classrooms. Which means that all students in your school will now have a choice to work on real animals for dissection, or use digital alternatives!

Once your classroom or school agrees to implement a student dissection choice policy, just write to JulianC(at)peta(dot)org with your name and school details, and request for Punflay’s Virtual Frog Dissection app for your classes.

Be a hero to animals

Get the ball rolling by starting an animal rights discussion in your class. Learn how to approach your teacher, principal and school board with the information on this awesome PeTA website Cut Out Dissection.

If your school is already equipped with interactive whiteboards, laptops, desktops or iPad, then there’s more reason than ever for them to allow you to choose humane dissection methods. Especially if you point out that they’ll be getting award-winning software absolutely free!