I was hanging out at Fort Mason getting my first look at kids working on their documentary projects. It took me two days to understand the deeper meaning around this project and the Mobile Learning Institute. This post serves as my first impressions.
I’m watching middle school kids (11 to 14) working on scripts. They have a model they have been following which provides the classic beginning, middle and end format. Some of the kids are playing with Nokia phones, they are all sitting at groups and have been doing some research on laptops. They looked ready to get on with the next step to me.
I came here with questions:
- Why and where do mobile phones fit with education?
- Are they just trying to “sell” phones?
- Is there really a role for the mobile in the classroom?
- What’s the impact on teachers etc.
- Why would an organization like Pearson be involved and how does the hook-up with Nokia work?
By Wednesday afternoon I realized I didn’t know very much. I did have a better understanding of intentions and how “mobile” could add to learning and potentially empower students and teachers alike. Did I mention there were a couple of teachers here too? They weren’t shy sharing that the kids sucked up and mastered the phones far faster than they could.
Some place in these events I also had this new concern or epiphany. The kids were all using smart phones. They had a mini computer in their hands and I thought back to just a few years ago about schools and computers. I’ve even been involved with private schools where every kid had to have a laptop. Much of that debate seems to have passed us by. It wasn’t economic, and it seldom seemed to be about learning.
Yet we are on the cusp of a new phenomenon. It’s been dawning on me as I watch my daughter and her friends take their “mobile computers/smart iPhones to school. We are indeed moving closer to a world where the kids come equipped to school with computers and yet it’s not defined as a learning tool or incorporated officially in any way.
It’s no surprise then that the teachers aren’t really equipped to address mobile computers in the classroom and yet here I am watching a group basically prototype a learning session. It’s effectively been sold to the kids as “make a video”, or “get yourself on YouTube”, or just think… you could be a “director” of the next great documentary. It is here, within this framework where I start to see the value that may emerge from this program.
We are showing kid how to harness the power of a mobile tool, but more importantly the aim is to make a documentary. It’s actually not about the movie or using the phone at all. It is about researching, reading, writing a script, working out how you are going to storyboard a story, working in a collaborative team with others etc. It’s possible these couple of days may really change the lives of one of these kids.
There’s also got to be a degree of realism. In time perhaps, carrying the mobile is little different from a generation carrying a pen and note pad. Yet here I am also seeing the teachers trying to elicit responses via Twitter, having set up accounts for the mobiles and effectively enabling polling and updates from the kids. Could the playground watch take on new meaning?
Even this first view or look in is one to see that “mobile” is really closing in on the point where it will hit the classroom. In fact I remember looking up Teachers on Twitter for groups quite some time ago. There’s a number of resources for it although most aren’t focused on teacher – student.
From the little I saw – when kids can “report” and “capture” they also have more powerful ways to share and learn. If mobile learning leads to a world where they are both more engaged and empowered then that’s valuable and provides a big payoff for society.
The motives here with the Mobile Learning Institute are apparent and it’s not being used to place yet another coke or snack machine on campus. There’s real merit in raising the discussion and broadening the conversation around how “mobile learning” (and my interpretation – more learning anywhere) takes off. I’ve seen some of this in my own life. For example being at a historical site and reaching out to Wikipedia when there was nothing to see on location. On location sharing or problem solving etc.
While much current focus is on how the latest devices bring games, entertainment and more… there is also an angle that suggests we should continue to look at what they can give back or contribute to the community. I’ve only read about the update on the Nokia Pearson project. Yet here the mobiles help with routing, while next week I will be seeing how mobile data gathering accelerates learning.
I used to say my blog helped me learn faster and participate in conversations I might not otherwise have had. Increasingly that statement applies to my mobile and it can be more efficient and effective than any laptop. Add in location, and all the new signaling opportunities and we are on the cusp of something new. We are well past the initial moblogging and yet we are only just getting to the place where it’s simple and seamless and perhaps the evolutionary actions more akin to using a bic pen.
For many kids it is already social, only for a very elite few is the latent learning potential there to be harnessed. It may be time to bring those mobiles out from under the desks and in the pockets and find ways to really make them effective parts of the classroom.
