Fifth-graders at Chormann Elementary School in the Southgate (Mich.) Community Schools are in their second year of using iPods. This year, they are discussing the novel Coraline with Peers in Australia, England and Singapore.
As cell phones—with ever-expanding possibilities of texting, Web browsing, and game playing—have multiplied in recent years among teenagers and even preteens, so have the concerns of teachers and administrators about the distractions these devices can cause. A survey of students and parents earlier this year by the group Common Sense Media found that almost 70 percent of schools around the country ban student cell phone use during the school day.
But some districts and administrators are realizing the untapped potential of cell phones. It’s part of an “anytime, anywhere” learning movement that leaves laptops and even smaller netbooks behind, proponents say, in favor of more mobile, affordable and reliable handheld devices—from “smartphones,” which can run operating systems such as Windows Mobile and a host of software, to iPods, known more for playing audio and video but adaptable to more interactive applications through new educational platforms (see the sidebar on mobile devices).
“Technology has finally progressed to where mobile devices are cheap enough and powerful enough to use,” observes Elliot Soloway, a professor at the University of Michigan and at that school’s Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education. Soloway, who believes that cell phones are the true one-to-one computer option for schools, is also co-developer of GoKnow, a mobile learning environment that runs educational software on handheld computers.
"I integrated the phones into everything we did."-Matt Cook, fifth-grade teacher, Trinity Meadows Intermediate School, Keller, Texas
Earlier this year, a study of 25 mobile learning initiatives worldwide by the Joan Ganz Cooney Foundation Center at the Sesame Workshop anointed them the wave of the future. “Just as Sesame Street helped transform television into a revolutionary tool for learning among young children four decades ago, advances in mobile technologies are showing enormous untapped educational potential for today’s generation,” the report’s authors wrote. And last February, the two-day, first annual Mobile Learning Conference in Washington, D.C., presented case studies, research and policy discussions about the emerging field.
From a Ban to Creative Lessons
At West Elementary School in the St. Marys (Ohio) City Schools, District Technology Coordinator Kyle Menchhofer helps fifth-graders use cell phones to learn vocabulary terms and definitionsin social studies.
Not everyone is convinced, though, and doubters point to the lack of enough software programs to make mobile devices a worthwhile substitute for laptops and desktops, not to mention the limitations of their small size and their reputation for causing trouble on campus. At Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller, Texas, in fact, students caught using cell phones have them confiscated, and their parents have to pay at least $15 to ransom them.
So it was all the more remarkable this past winter and spring that the fifth-graders at Trinity Meadows spent most of their days on their HTC 6800 smartphones, using GoKnow’s platform. Rather than violating district policy, though, the 55 youngsters were leading the way in a pilot program using the new generation of cell phones and their advanced technology for educational ends. The program was cobbled together by fifth-grade teacher Matt Cook, who used new devices donated by HTC, a cell phone manufacturer, as well as free connectivity from Verizon and complimentary use of GoKnow software.
“I could have students draw solar system orbits on their devices,” Cook points out, “and then animate them to show them in real orbit.” In math, Cook’s students used animations to change number values by moving around decimal points. And for joint research projects, they used their smartphones to take pictures, explore relevant Web sites, fill in spreadsheets, and compose Word documents that they shared by pointing the devices end-to-end and beaming the information to each other.
“I integrated the phones into everything we did,” says Cook. “For lessons traditionally done with a paper and pencil, we now were able to do them in color, with animation, and with more depth and complexity. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done.”
Based on data from the pilot and vendor support, the district’s technology director, Joe Griffin, says the district will be conducting several pilots this fall to determine the best tools and applications for content delivery, student collaboration and assessment.
Reducing the Digital Divide
This past winter and spring, fifth-graders at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller, Texas, spent most of their days on HTC 6800 smartphones in a pilot program.
The affordability and extreme portability of handheld devices have also raised hopes of reducing the digital divide. “They may make technology more accessible to more kids sooner,” says Mary Ann Wolf, executive director of the State Education Technology Directors Association in Glen Burnie, Md. “If you had to wait for other technological resources, students would be left out.”
“People are saying, ‘Here’s another opportunity to look at one-to-one computer initiatives and revisit the goals for these projects,’” adds Mike Flood, vertical manager for K12 education at Sprint. “There’s been an explosion of applications for cell phones, and a lot have made it into the learning space.”
Cell phones also perform more reliably than typical computers, their advocates say, and telecom companies such as Nextel, AT&T and Verizon have developed a reputation for robust Internet service and speedy resolution of connectivity problems, if and when they arise.
