REACHING ALL CHILDREN WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

REACHING ALL CHILDREN WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES. Reaching students in the classroom Educators often face a love/hate relationship with technology in their classrooms. On one hand, computers and the Internet can bring a wealth of information to a lesson and help build essential digital and media literacy skills; on the other hand, hardware and software can be fickle, hard to maintain and update, and disruptive to the flow of a day. Rima Shore (2008) recently reported on the difficulties inherent in integrating technology in the classroom: Educational technologists say that it has been especially difficult to integrate technology into elementary school classrooms, despite the availability of good applications and tools for younger children … “In a really good elementary classroom,” said Jim Pollard of Intel’s Education Group, “the teacher is continually adjusting activities to kids’ emerging interests and needs. 

There’s an organic flow. Technology can be disruptive in that environment. You have to stop and turn on the machine, and in elementary schools that’s almost always problematic. The network may be slow, or you need to reboot.” The portability of mobile technology may be an attractive choice in the classroom for several reasons. Compared to desktops, mobile technologies can stay close to the child. Mobile devices can be used anywhere the child is, making unnecessary a special trip to the computer lab or a return to the desk. In addition, with the price of mobile technologies decreasing, a one-to-one paradigm that encourages personalization and self-paced learning may become more possible. The ability of mobile learning to accommodate many different needs and learning styles can also make it an attractive choice for teachers. 

 Studies have shown that a range of learners can benefit from mobile learning: “mature-aged, gifted, international and remote learners, as well as those with cognitive, behavioral or social problems, or with physical or mental difficulties” (Savill-Smith and Kent, 2003; Strom and Strom, 2002; Rodríguez, Nussbaum, Zurita, Rosas, and Lagos, 2001). Mobile learning can also support a wide variety of teaching methods: real-time, synchronous and asynchronous discussions using voice, text, and multimedia messaging.