Jean Piaget once famously said “the principal goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new things and not just repeating what people before them have done” (cited in Papert, 1999). I have always liked this quotation; however, until recently, I have only ever applied it in the context of the students I teach, rather than in the context of my personal pedagogy. The ever-growing, wide variety of educational stakeholders often call on teachers to be life-long learners, to engage as co-learners with students on an educational journey; however, traditionally, it’s still been the teacher who dictates where and how this journey will take place. Reflectively, I feel that this is not an indication of teacher’s blatant disregard of educational theory; but rather a result of a fear of the unknown. Traditionally, teachers are used to having the answers, to being one step ahead of their students; however, student familiarity with modern technologies changes this. Teachers lose a little bit of control and join students, as what Papert interprets Piaget’s theory to mean, as builders of knowledge (1999).
Obviously professionally, one of my key goals lies in student success. Pedagogically, I understand that one of the key paths towards student success is motivation; the motivation of students has a significant impact on their learning performance (Pei-Luen & Qin Gao, 2005). The teaching in the online environment website identifies that it is variety and differentiation that stimulates interest and gains the attention of students, thus building academic motivation. The 21st century student is clearly motivated by mobile technologies; however, it is in the interest of providing students with a variety learning experiences and differentiation of teaching instruction that I seek to motivate my pupils. I do not seek to replace traditional teaching practices, but rather enrich them with a variety of differentiated learning strategies that include mobile technologies.
As a teacher, I accept that my teaching practices need to reflect the era in which my students live. Although I feel comfortable reviewing the wide variety of online resources, blogs and support available to educators in relation to mobile media, implementing such pedagogical strategies into my current teaching practices will be a challenge. However, I believe that in making small steps in changing the overlying pedagogy of my teaching practices and by embracing the fear I have of engaging as a co-learner of digital technologies with my students, that eventually my pedagogy will transform. In the essence of starting small, below is a list of possible learning experience/ organisational strategies I have found that I can envision using within my classroom
Strategies to allow mobile devices into classrooms
1. The Internet houses a wide variety of potential lesson ideas for embedding mobile technologies into lesson plans. In particular, I liked the Innovative Educator’s example of using a mobile phone and the avatar building program Voki within a poetry unit. Students would not only choose an avatar who reflects the tone and theme of the poem they want read; but also make decisions about the pause, pace and tone of the Voki avatar themselves.
2. Contour Education have some incredible professional development opportunities and online resources that centre around GPS enabled mobile devices being used in conjunction with google maps/google earth for orienteering and virtual field trips in the KLAs of geography and history.
3. Personally, I would be lost without the organisational apps on my iPhone. I regularly keep track of events, appointments, due dates, etc with my iCal app and strategically set alarms to remind me of such things prior to the events. Why then can’t we allow our students to organise themselves in the same manner? Why can’t they use mobile phones to add assessment dates, college events and general reminders?
4. Joseph Rene Corbeil and Maria Elena Valdes- Corbeil explain that students can use their ipods not only as a device to download podcasts of relevant instructional material, but can also download e books and audio books on them. There’s a multitude to free ebook apps available, most with a selection of free books to download.
As a teacher-librarian-in-training, I acknowledge that my role as teacher librarian will be one of digital leadership. It is here that my biggest fear of mobile technology exists. Confidently advocating the viable pedagogical opportunities available for teachers to use mobile medias in their classroom; gaining the support and confidence of school administrative leadership teams to change school policy to enable the use of mobile technologies; and gaining the trust and support of the student parent body along with the wider community to allow modern technologies to be used as tools to shape the educational future of their children is a big ask. Again, I turn to the Innovative Educator who believe the answer to be in building relationships with all stakeholders, including myself. To trust in myself and to let go of the fear.
Any growth requires a temporary loss of security (Madeleine Hunter)
Mobile
phones are no longer simply used as a means of communication.They are
now used for a vast array of functions including games,
photos, as a calculator, street directory, stops watch, alarm clock, music
player, calendar and to connect to the internet; hence the reason they have called
the modern day Swiss army knife.
Dr. Patricia Wallace, Ph.D. in her jounal article M-Learning:
Promises, Perils, and Challenges for K-12 Education explains that
mobile learning is the next stage in technology enhanced learning, because the
devices are much more ‘promising compared to the desktop or laptop computer’. When discussing mobile learning it is
important to acknowldge that this is not limited to mobile phones and that MP3
players and other handheld devices certainly play an important role; however
the mobile phone offers more ‘versatility and convergence’ thefore for this discussion,
the focus is soley on the mobile phone.
A report by the Australian
Communication and Media Authority titledConvergence
andCommunicationshighlighted
the value that Australian consumers place on mobility and convenience which
wasdemonstrated by strong levels of
mobile-phone ownership. The relativly low costs of mobile phones has lead
to their widespread adoption in comparion to desktop or laptop computers.While
many lower income homes may not have a computer at home for children to access
the internet for school assignments most while will one or more mobile
phones.
The major problem that mobile
learning is facing in Australia and many other countries is that most schools expected
mobile phones to be handed to the office on the way in and collected on the way
out.They are seen as a distraction and
not considered for their educational purposes and endless potential.Aidan
McCarthy, a learning technologies expert,states that schools who simply ban mobile phones from the classroom are
failing to provide children a 21st century education.He goes onto to explain the importance
ofeducators keeping up with the
children of today and allowing them to express themselves with the contemporary
tools that are available such as mobile phones.
In May this yearChristian Brothers' College in St Kilda East did
something which was seen as radical when it decided tooverturned its ban on students bringing
mobile phones to school.It was not a
decision that the school took lightly, however the reality was that their students
(like most other teens) were bringing their mobiles to school anyway and hiding
them.The school therefore decided it was time to
embrace the technology and use it to their advantage.Principal Gerald Bain-King is quoted in The
Age as saying ''If there is too big a disconnect between school and the
rest of society, people start to think we have got our heads in the sand - and
the boys think we are even bigger idiots than they do normally".
I certainly do not mean to oversimplify the issue and do not pretent that the introuduction of mobile learning into schools would not be without problems or challenges.The first being the wide variety of mobile phone operating systems that are available, as well as the need for relaible networks and adequate wifi access points. Another issue that I had not considered before reading M-Learning: Promises, Perils, and Challenges for K-12 Educationwas the battle between software companies, in this instance Apple and Adobe.Wallace states that Adobe owns the Flash platform, which is widely used by educators to create interactive learning applications and videos. However Apple has refused to allow iPhones and iPads to run the Flash player, citing security concerns. It is hoped that this issue will be resolved in the near future but for now it puts educators in a quandary about which tools to use.
Technical issues aside the major reason that so many schools chose to ban mobile phones is due to the feared distraction they will create during class time.It would come as no surprise to anyone that a ringing phone during a class lesson is going to cause disruption.There are also concerns over other inappropriate useages of phones at schools such as cyberbullying, and students capturing embarrassing videos or photos of others, and then posting them online.
Schools that are currently using mobile learning programs have addressed these possible problems by requiring students to sign contracts about their mobile phone usage at school with priviallages being taken away if the contracts are broken. Just as teachers are required to monitor and manage student behavior in the physical relm so to is classroom behaviour enforced in virtual world.
Mobile phones remain most importantly a social device, they allow students to participate in society in a way that is familiar to them. Because of this the reality is that most high school students now have mobiles and many are bringing them to school regardless of whether the school allows them to.The size of the device is small and light enough to be carried all the time,therefore students will rarely forget to bring their mobile phones (unlike their text books which will often be left at home).This small, always-on, and always available tool can be used as an eductors friend rather than a foe with the right mindset and abit or creativity.
I agree with Wallacewhen she states that ‘The road ahead for m-learning is bound to be bumpy, but mobile phones are already in most teachers’ and students’ hands’ therefore surely it is worth exploring and empracing the endless educational possiblities they provide.
This link
provides some great ideas on how to use mobile learning in the classroom – go
on give a try, what have you got to loose!
Wallace, P. (2010) M-Learning: promises, perils, and challenges for K-12 education. Accessed 17/10/11 from http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Wallace
This blog entry is a response to an article written by Hollandsworth, Dowdy and Donovan (2011): Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village. Mobile phones are almost the must-have accessory for teenagers today and the processing power of one smart phone can match that of a laptop. "The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller (than the one computer at MIT in 1965) ..." (XPlane, 2009).
In light of the numerous school policies designed to either keep the mobile phones in lockers, at home or in the school office I hope that this post may challenge teachers, parents and administrators to reconsider such policies.
Mobile phone - safe and sound in the too hard basket at school.
Perhaps now is the time to take mobile phones out of the too hard basket and into the classrooms. Here are my four insights into mobile phone usage by students in the classroom inspired by Hollandsworth et al.'s article. I have composed them in a way to both inform and challenge.
Why bother?
Given the speed at which mobile phones have been adopted by young people Engel and Green (2011, p. 39) believe that the mobile phone has now become part of popular culture and that it has "morphed from a way to hold a conversation with someone into a way to consume more media." Although mobile devices have been the focus of numerous school policies which exclude their use in the classroom and discourage their very presence in school, Schuler (2009, p. 3) challenges us as educators to be "excited about their potential". In her report, Pockets of Potential, Schuler (2009, p. 4) recognises the "enormous untapped educational potential for today's generation". Sharples (2000), Kim et al. (2010) and Passey (2010) argue that the use of this technology represents an opportunity to learn wherever and whenever; such a small device harnesses the ability to connect not only with others but with information and blurs the line between school, home and play. It is not surprising that Engel and Green (2011, p. 39) ask the question, "Should these devices be used in schools?"
The benefits of mobile phone usage in classrooms are numerous and research suggests that such technology:
appeals to a range of students including those disenfranchised and disconnected (Schuler, 2009, p. 5; Kim et al., 2010, p. 468; Digital Learning, 2011) and therefore raises participation rates (Engel and Green, 2011 p. 43);
connects students in ways we never thought possible (Schuler, 2009, p. 5) through the use of innovative pedagogy (Passey, 2010, p. 69), the use of which was corroborated through improvements in assessment results and parental observations of work and results at home (Engel and Green, 2011, p. 43);
adapts to a variety of learning environments from school to home (Schuler, 2009, p. 5; Engel and Green, 2011 p. 40);
personalises the learning experience by empowering students with independence (Schuler, 2009, p. 5; Roschelle and Pea in Kim et al., 2010, p. 467); and
is economical for both students (and by default, parents) and schools (Soloway et al, and Zurita and Nussbaum in Kim et al., 2010, p. 468).
Embrace the Challenge
Mobile phones are, undeniably, disruptive by nature. Such operational disruptions include connectivity, battery life, screen and key size, bandwidth adequacy, file formats, frequency of updates (Digital Learning, 2011) as well as social and ethical. Cyber bullying is a valid concern. Those recorded video images of students at school fighting and uploaded on YouTube would be central to many school policies banning those tools responsible for such uploads. I would argue as Hollandsworth et al., (2011 p. 39) does "if we filter everything out of a school we lose that teachable moment".
" ... if we filter everything out of a school we lose that teachable moment."
Schools Can't Go it Alone Sharples (2010, p.5), Passey (2010 p. 68-70), Engel and Green (2011 p. 43), and Selwyn, Banaji, Hadjithoma-Garstka, and Clark (2011 p. 314) all recognise the need to draw together stakeholders: parents, teachers, administrators, academics, technology professionals, media specialists and students. Hollandsworth et al. (2010 p. 39) state that these representatives should be tasked to develop a program to deliver an effective ethical digital citizenship curriculum which is ultimately proactive rather than reactive. You can claim yourself to be an ethical digital citizen when you think about the good of the group, community, society or the larger world and that you can take the perspective of others. Add to this an awareness of your role and responsibilities in the online communities in which you practise, and reflect about the more global harm or benefit of your actions to communities at large (Davis, Katz, Santo & James, 2010 p. 126). I believe bringing together such a group of stakeholders would achieve a number of objectives:
development of a digital citizenship program constructed by the community;
confirmation that both home, school and the wider community share the responsibility of education;
consultation with academics to assist in the education of parents that schooling for the 21st century information age should shake of the shackles of the industrial age;
make explicit what it means to think morally and ethically;
role modeling the positive effects collaboration can have on the delivery of a program to students; and
open the lines of communication between these relevant stakeholders knowing full well that addressing this issue will not be the last of such collaboration. If we establish such a group now we will be better placed to handle future opportunities and better manage the challenges.
The GoodWork Project: Meeting of the Minds
I agree with Hollandsworth et al. (2010) - it does take a village to raise a child and perhaps for too long schools have operated in isolation. The GoodWork Project (2011, p. 18) would support this approach when they state that "the ethics of digital life must be co-created by adults and young people, and in communities as opposed to on the individual level." They note that through the adoption of a process which is explicit, reflective, and inclusive of diverse viewpoints we may be able to achieve an "age of ethical digital citizenship" which evolves "not from adults prescribing behaviour, nor through self-navigation and negotiation by teens, but rather only through an intentional meeting of minds."
Teacher librarian as facilitator advocate
As an aspiring teacher librarian, I can see myself arguing for the inclusion of popular culture tools; in this case, mobile phones. According to Dezuanni (2010), libraries and teacher librarians have long been held to be the media specialists in schools, they formulate the collection policies for resources held by the school and in turn these resources help to shape the curriculum offered. In the past, educational media were carefully selected to assure their educational value rather than the relevance it may have held for students and the informal learning they may have been pursuing outside of school. The use of mobile technology should be addressed by schools through an ethical and critical framework which will assist with the delivery of an ethical digital citizenship program. The challenge is for teacher librarians to assume the role as key collaborator and facilitator of the stakeholder dialogues proposed above.
Conclusion
What we do in the classroom with our students only marks the beginning of their learning. They continue to engage in lifelong learning in the workplace. Teacher librarians are well placed to recognise the value of such technology and mobilise stakeholders to better prepare students. Businesses such as Upside Learning (2011) are developing solutions for organisations who now value and recognise the potential of mobile phones to deliver efficient modes of collaboration for their employees.
How ready will our students be to act ethically and responsibly in the workplace and wider community if we keep telling them that their phones are to stay in their lockers or securely in the too hard basket in the school office?
References
Davis, K., Katz, S., Santo, R. & James, C. (2010). Fostering cross-generational dialogues about the ethics of online life. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 2.2, 124-150. Retrieved from www.jmle.org
Dezuanni, M. (2010). CLN647 Youth, Popular Culture, and Text [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved from http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_75617_1%26url%3D
Digital Learning: Arsenal of education produces new age weapon, m-learning. (2011). Retrieved September 20, 2011 from www.digitallearning.in/articles/article-details.asp?articleid=2727&typ=TECHNOLOGY%20FOCUS
Engel, G. & Green, T. (2011). Cell phones in the classroom: Are we dialing up disaster? TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 55(2), 39-45. doi: 10.1007/s11528-011-0482-z
Hollandsworth, R., Dowdy, L. & Donovan, J. (2011). Digital citizenship in K-12: It takes a village. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 55(4), 37-47. doi: 10.1007/s11528-011-0510-z
Kim, P., Hagashi, T., Carillo, L., Gonzales, I., Makany, T., Lee, B. & Gàrate, A. (2010). Socioeconomic strata, mobile technology, and education: a comparative analysis. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(4), 465-486. doi: 10.1007/s11423-010-9172-3
Passey, D. (2010). Mobile learning in school contexts: Can teachers alone make it happen? IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 3(1), 68-81. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2009.47
Selwyn, N., Banaji, S., Hadjithoma-Garstka, C. & Clark, W. (2011). Providing a platform for parents? Exploring the nature of parental engagement with school Learning Platforms. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(4), 314-323. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2011.00428.x
Sharples, M. (2000). The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning. Computers & Education, 34, 177-193. doi: 10.1016/S0360-1315(99)00044-5
Sharples, M. & Roschelle, J. (2010). Guest Editorial: Special section on mobile and ubiquitous technologies for learning. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 3(1), 4-6. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2010.7
Shuler, C. (2009). Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center.
The GoodWork Project. (2009). Meeting of Minds: Cross-Generational Dialogues on the Ethics of Digital Life. New York, NY: Global Kids, Inc.
Upside Learning. (2011, Feb 3). Revolutionary Mobile Learning Solution - Discover Upside2Go [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duGdkp_jJTw
XPlane. (2009, Sept 14). Did You Know 4.0 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
