Educational Technologies Blog
Today,
we face a crossroad in education: Do we
continue to teach as we have in the past and ignore the new technology? Or do we embrace this new technology and
change the way we present our material and use the new tools that are available
to us? We have mobile devices that are
always on and we are always plugged in.
This offers a tremendous opportunity for educators to enhance learning. Education is vital for workforce development
and economic prosperity but it is in need of serious reform and mobile learning
represents a way to address a number of our educational problems (West,
2013). The Mobile Economy Project (2013)
looked at ways that mobile devices with cellular connectivity improve learning
and engage students and teachers. They
found that mobile devices transform the learning environment for students
inside and outside the classroom.
It
is believed that taking advantage of mobile devices and technology allow for
customization of educational content for individual students. The Project Tomorrow survey (2013) reported
that teachers see a number of positive benefits from their use of digital
instructional tools. 52 percent said
their students are more motivated to learn, 36 per cent believe their students
are developing creativity, 29 percent think the tools encourage problem solving
and critical thinking, 7 percent say their students are applying knowledge to
practical problems, and 26 percent report students are taking ownership of
their own learning.
The two mobile application that I believe will
benefit and enhance learning are notebooks and tablets. According to InfoSmart Technologies, Inc.
(2013) both of these mobile devices work better when used with an interactive
white board. This allows the instructor
to use whole class participation, then move to small group work, and finally
individual learning. InfoSmart also
found that educators using high levels of collaboration technology are up to
three times more likely to report positive results on the following range of
education outcomes: increase in student achievement,
decrease in student absenteeism, and decrease in discipline referrals. I chose these two mobile devices to be used
with an interactive white board based on my research because they are small,
mobile, user friendly, have multiple educational application, and the majority
of students are familiar with these two mobile devices.
Examples
of how I would incorporate these technologies into my professional practice would
be to first introduce the interactive white board to the students and allow
them to become comfortable working with the technology. Then, I would introduce the notebooks or
tablets and use the two congruently.
Activities would be designed around the learning objectives to include
research, collaboration, analyzing, and application of the material
presented. Students would be allowed to
use the interactive whiteboard as teams or as individuals along with their
notebooks or tablets. The benefit of
using this technology will improve motivation, research skills, teamwork
skills, critical thinking, and application.
References
InfoSmart
Technologies, Inc. (2013). How does instructional technology impact
learning? Retrieved from: http://infosmarttech.com/
Mobile
Economy Project (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/about/projects/mobile-economy
Project Tomorrow (2013). From Chalkboard
to tablets. Retrieved from: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU12_EducatorsandParentsTEXT.html
West, D. M. (2013). Mobile
learning: Transforming education, engaging students, and improving
outcomes. Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2013/09/17%20mobile%20learn ing%20education%20engaging%20students%20west/brookingsmobilelearning_final.pdf
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