Mobile devices can be anything from a mobile phone with internet capabilities, a MP3 player which hold audio files, a tablet computer with apps or a laptop with word processing. Today’s students, myself included, use mobile devices every day and are used to being able to find information readily and expect school to be the same (Dale & Pymm, 2009). But with most schools having a no tolerance policy for mobile phones students are not getting the social connectedness and instant knowledge satisfaction that they get from their devices. Some schools have waived this no tolerance policy and bought them into the classroom to grant students the satisfaction they get outside the classroom (Sharples, Arnedillo-S´anchez, Milrad & Vavoula, 2009).
By incorporating the students outside school technology into the classroom this means that there is no longer a restriction on when and where learning can occur (Dale & Pymm, 2009). To succeed in mobile learning projects there are some critical aspects that need to be present: access to technology, owning the technology or treating it as if it were, connection to the internet, integration with the curriculum and support of the school in the form of resources such as tech support. When treating the device as your own Sharples et al (20009) suggest that it is important to socialise and learn on the same device as this will help engage students in the content and learning to become more personal. Also successful mobile learning projects have a content based goal and use mobile devices to facilitate learning rather than using mobile technology as the goal (Sharples et al, 2009).
Dale & Pymm, (2009) state that mobile device features such as podcasting and video can help develop and facilitate collaborative learning. Sharples et al (2009) also suggests that this is the case because of the connectedness of social networking and the importance of it in students’ lives. However there has been little research into how a student learning through mobile devices and because of this, it is difficult to frame traditional assessment items around this technology (Sharples et al, 2009).
I disagree with Sharples et al (2009) when they state that learning becomes more personal if used on the same device as social networking. As a mobile device user myself I look up information whenever and wherever I want. If I want to know something I know where I can find it. The knowledge that I seek from my mobile device is generally very superficial, for instance: which pizza place in my area will be open the latest? Also I would be happy with the first result I find rather than the most reliable one. If I need to do research for an assignment; I will wait until I am at home on a desktop computer. Therefore I believe that if learning was to occur through these mobile devices there would have to be more research into how students learn through mobile device and what can we do to facilitate learning.
This video shows how well even very young children can use mobile devices.
References
Sharples , M., Arnedillo-S´anchez, I., Milrad M. & Vavoula, G. (2009). Mobile Learning Small Devices, Big Issues. In N. Balacheff et al. (Eds.), Technology Enhanced Learning (pp. 233-249). Nottingham: Springer Science + Business Media. Retrieved from http://library.uq.edu.au/search~S7?/rEDUC1049/reduc1049/1%2C1%2C1%2CB/eresourcee1001529~2421996&FF=reduc1049&1%2C1%2C
Dale, C. & Pymm, J. (2009). Podagogy: The iPod as a Learning Technology. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10(84), 84-96. Retrieved from http://alh.sagepub.com/content/10/1/84
Eric Crouch. (2013, January 31). iPads In Classrooms [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzSNdxsfk0Q
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