Going Mobile

Elliot (speaking loudly): YAR, YAR, YAR! Yet Another Rant in the New York Times about the lack of technology's impact in America's K-12 schools.

Cathie: Yes, and highly visible; smack dab in the middle of the front page, above the fold, of Sunday's New York Times.

Elliot: Did you read the article about the Khan Academy in Wired Magazine? Cathie: Yes; about a thousand colleagues sent me the link!Elliot: The Khan academy has clearly touched a nerve. Cathie: Yes, and it worth analyzing why.

Elliot: There must be something in the water; how else can we explain the sudden growth in mobile learning “events”?  For starters,  within a span of a few days, two other bloggers(Blog#1, Blog#2) have pointed out the coming “revolution” in K-12 due to mobile technologies. Why now?  WHY ALL OF A SUDDEN?

Elliot: Someone in Korea has been reading our District Administration column!Cathie: How do you know that?Elliot: Well, Korea just announced that they will provide a mobile learning device for each child by 2015 and they will require all educational materials to be in digital form and thus accessible on the MLDs. Cathie: Yes, we did predict that by 2015 every child in the U.S. would be using an MLD…

Context: While Cathie and Elliot were attending a UNESCO-sponsored meeting in Paris (no, not the one in Texas, but the one in France) the Museum d’Orsay was also holding an exhibition of Eduard Manet, the Father of Modernism , the first such exhibition in 30 years in Paris. While it wasn’t an easy process, they bought tickets and spent about 3 hours at the show.

Cathie: I know you adore the limelight, and being #1 out of “2,329 professors, lecturers and Graduate Student Instructors for the fall 2009 and winter 2010 semesters” at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) definitely puts you in the limelight, but…Elliot: … #1 for being the EASIEST GRADING instructor at the University of Michigan!  But I can explain!