First steps to Mobile Learning

As Technology Coordinator, I decided to take my first steps to include mobile learning in school at the beginning of this year. I have to say, I was very pleased when they included this topic in my current MAET course. Just as many other educators, I also had to convince the authorities and parents that phones aren’t that bad in the classroom. You just have to plan your classes a little differently if you decide to use them.

I’m proud to say that I’m now a member of the Classroom 2.0 Social Network and joined the Cell Phones in Education Group. This is an image of my first contribution to the group:

As I mentioned in my Classroom 2.0 post, my first experience with mobile learning was in my Computer Science class using the mobile Twitter App. I like to try new things with my students first, to gain some experience and then motivate the other teachers to try it in their class. It is complicated to have so many smart phones in class. You have to be prepared for the possibility of your students getting distracted. In my case, I try to keep them busy all the time and tell them to put their phones in a visible place while we are not using them. 

In other classes we’ve tried to incorporate other mobile technologies like cameras but those seem less scary or distracting. Students use them to take photos and record short videos. Most of them really enjoy using MovieMaker and online image editors like Picnik to make their class projects. I also have under my care 25 laptops that I can lend to teachers or students to use them inside the classroom. My school has wireless internet access in all classrooms and hallways which makes it really easy for students to search information on the Web. Usually they work in groups of three or four and they take six or five laptops to their class. The laptops aren’t that small, so I don’t see them as portable as other devices. I work at a K-12 school, so I worry about the little ones carrying a 7 pound laptop around the school. I hope we can invest on another type of portable device like Tablet PCs for our Elementary Kids. That would be awesome!

I just learned about PollEverywhere and the possibility to vote using Twitter, so I will try this on my next class coming this Thursday. I was supposed to do it las week but we had time off  for Holy Week. I will post a small update of how it went with my students. You can see a screenshot of my poll underneath:

For the coming months I would like to encourage the use of ipods and phones in other classes. I’m also very excited about developing mobile apps in my CS class.

I think it will take time for the school to open up to these technologies. I have to work with the school's authorities and help them become more flexible about the use of mobile technologies in the classroom. They are still very worried of what the consequences might be if they allow students to bring their phones, ipods and cameras to school.