If we wrote it as an equation, this key idea would be
M + W = 24/7
Miniaturization plus Wireless equals 24-hour access 7 days a week. From anywhere.
We see students in the library, but not using the books -- they are instead working with their project group to research a new idea from sources available only online. Working adults use their laptops to learn at a distance, enjoying full human interction with the rest of the class. Young students go home with a bookshelf of new stories and texts on their iPod or Kindle. College students review illustrated podcasts from their professors as they commute to campus. Students in the chemistry lab analyze reactions frame by frame through video shot with a Flip camera. As the tools shrink smaller, the intellectual resources available to them grow broader.
Next to the iPod on the table in front of me is a projector of the same size. I connect the two with a short cable and I can present slides to my seminar anywhere. And show student work. With one miniature device in each pocket, the portable professor can be quick on the draw, ready to shoot ideas onto the nearest wall.
The same iPod houses hundreds of books, from The Odyssey to Paradise Lost to Programming with PHP/SQL. As well as video of Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet, music of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, and dozens of podcast lessons in learning Chinese. And an animated school bus for beginning readers, along with an interactive number line for learning fractions.
What's on the iPods of your students right now? If you had your druthers, what would you want to see on there?
They are devices smaller than a breadbox that let students learn. The list includes laptop computers, iPods, Kindles, SONY Readers, small digital cameras, data probes, and some smart cell phones. The world is full of mobile digital devices, that's for sure; but few of them are used for learning. Most are used for entertainment and personal communication. But they harbor the potential to be used for serious academic purposes.
These devices enable students to learn in new places, at new times, and in new ways. Students can carry materials for the entire curriculum in their pocket, and work with them in school at home, on the bus, and in the park. Teachers can publish lessons in new formats, such as the podcast, which seem more suited to how today's students learn. Properly configured, some these devices can add a new channel for teacher-student communication. And with some of these devices, students can more easily collect data and information and documentation from the field and bring it to school for analysis.
They can store and display academic information in many formats: text, images, video, voice, music, graphics, maps. They can present exercises, quizzes, and tests that develop students' understanding. They can connect to the internet for access to research. They can record text, voice, images, video, music, and real-world data. They can be turned into a graphing calculator, a geographic information display, or a response clicker. They can manage a student's schedule, contacts, classes, and assignments. They can communicate through email or instant messaging. In fact, the best of today's mobile devices can do anything that a personal computer can do except for advanced video and image editing or complex database programming.
The least-expensive iPods an video cameras cost about $100; the most expensive smartphones cost $300. The most popular mobile device, the iPod Touch -- really an iPhone without the phone -- costs about $200. Only the Blackberry and the smartphones require a monthly fee; the others are free to use.
To use these devices in school you need a robust, standards-based wireless network. Even more important (and sorely lacking in most schools), you need a robust, standards-based online curriculum that can be displayed on the mobile devices and takes full advantage of their possibilities.
Among young people, Apple's iPod and iPhone products have captured the bulk of the market share. In some communities, upwards of 80% of high school and college-age people own one of these devices. Among working adults, the Blackberry is the market leader among smartphones, with Palm in second place. Single-purpose devices such as the Kindle or the Sony Reader have yet to penetrate the mass market.
Read these articles pro and con to find out.
Are You Ready for Mobile Learning?
Pros and Cons of iPods in School,
http://ezinearticles.com/?Pros-and-Cons-of-iPods-in-School&id=1922814
The Mobile Curriculum,
http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=105
New iPod rules touch off heated debate,
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=58886
No ipod, blackberry use in school proposed,
http://www.wickedlocal.com/weymouth/news/x702317041/No-ipod-blackberry-use-in-school-proposed
An iPod for School?,
http://atlantis2.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3244378n
High-Tech Cheating: What every parent needs to know, http://www.commonsensemedia.org/hi-tech-cheating
Mobile Devices: Facing Challenges and Opportunities for Learning,
http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/03/19/mobile-devices-facing-challenges-and-opportunities-for-learning.aspx
Northridge Electronic Devices Policy ,
iPod touch. Touching student lives in the classroom,
http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=16472
Mobile Learning: Getting Started
The current interest in using mobile devices for learning -- items like iPods that students carry in their pockets, and use to read books, connect to the internet, listen to podcasts, and learn their lessons -- has spurred many teachers to ask how to get started in this direction, how to channel these entertainment devices to academic purposes. This chapter provides a quick hands-on introduction to this task, as well as a reflection of what's possible.
The best way to sink your fingers into this topic is to borrow an iPod Touch or an iPhone and carry out the following assignment, step by step, as if you were a student. This little lesson uses applications that are built-in the to device, so you won't need to download any software. Once you've done the assignment, we'll talk about what it means. I thank Paul Tarantiles of Apple Computer for coming up with this lesson idea.
If you went to the zoo, and brought one of the animals home with you, would it survive? Why?
You will use your iPod to answer this question. As you proceed, you will be using the following resources:
- The web site of the zoo (to choose your animal)
- Various online web references (to better understand your animal's needs)
- The iPod Weather application (to investigate the conditions at each site)
- The iPod Calculator application (to compute differences in habitat measurements)
- The iPod Notes application (to record your findings)
- The iPod Photos application (to save pictures of your animal and the various site habitats)
Your objective is to deliver a short illustrated report of your findings.
Proceed as follows. You'll need to be connected to the internet with the iPod's wireless for this to work.
- Choose an animal. For help with this, you may use the Safari web browser application on your iPod to connect to your favorite zoo. Or to the national zoo in Washington, DC.
- From the zoo and other web sites, find the answers to these questions:
- Where does the animal live? (What is its native habitat?)
- What is the environment like in that habitat right now? (e.g., temperature)
- What does the animal eat? (What is its diet?)
- Take notes as you go along, using the Notes application on your iPod. (To copy text, tap and hold until you see the Copy button, then drag the blue dots to expand the selection. To paste text, tap and hold until you see the Paste button.)
- Gather an image for each fact, by tapping and holding the image until you see the Save Image button. (The images you save go into the Photos application on your iPod.)
- Compute the percentage difference in temperature between the animal's native habitat, and your home, using the Calculator application on your iPod.
Be prepared to deliver a brief oral report of your findings, illustrated with images from your photo collection.
How did you find the process of learning with a mobile device? How did it compare with learning in the library? With learning on a computer?
This short simulation simply scratched the surface of the possibilities of using a mobile device for learning. As we watch schools and students take advantage of iPods and their pocket-sized cousins, we see them acting as a library, a teacher, an organizer, and a communicator.
It has more books and other resources than your school library. Or the town library. But it's much easier to use, and is always with you.
The Safari web browser connects you to the reference resources of the world-wide web, from pictures of animals in the zoo to the latest news to databases of historical information. Just type your search words into the Google box at the top right of the window.
- The built-in Maps application helps you find places, see what they look like politically or geographically, and learn how to get there.
- The free Stanza app opens the window to more than 50,000 free books, including most of those included in the canon for K-12 literature. (To use a free app like Stanza, connect to the App Store and download it directly to your iPod. The largest selection of free books is in the Project Gutenberg collection.
- The free Dictionary.com app lets you look up words and find out what they mean.
- The free Wikipedia Mobile app is an excellent general reference work with more information than Britannica.
- The free New York Times app puts the front page onto your iPod.
It can't evaluate your essays, but it can teach you some of the things you need to know, through educational podcasts on a variety of topics, and educational applications that target specific skills.
Educational podcasts are created by teachers, publishers, professors, and even students. Most are available for free. You can find hundreds of them in iTunes, following this path on your iPod:
iTunes --> Podcasts --> Categories --> More Categories --> Education --> K-12
iTunes --> More --> iTunesU
Educational Apps are created by publishers and programmers to develop specific skills, from English grammar to fractions and decimals. Follow this path to see the free ones:
App Store --> Categories --> Education --> Top Free
Just as the grown-ups use their Blackberries and Palm Pilots to manage their schedules and contacts, their children can use the iPod to manage their academic work.
The built-in iCal app can keep track of class meetings, assignments, events, and responsibilities. And notify you with an alarm just before they are due.
The built-in Mail app lets them use email to communicate with teachers and colleagues.
The built-in Notes app enables them to type their thoughts, or paste quotes from online sources.
The built-in Contacts app keeps track of teachers and colleagues, their email, telephone, address and photo.
The ideas you found in the iPod library, or learned from the podcasts, can be saved and presented with the same device.
The built-in Photos app can save images from Safari (with one click), and present them as a slide show.
The built-in Voice Memos app can record oral history, research reflections, or oral communication practice. And play them back through the speakers.
The built-in Notes app can organize text, and present it page-by-page on the screen.
...and those are just the built-in and free tools. Thousands of two- and three-dollar apps can extend these four functions even further.
The mobile device is just beginning to find its way into the academic lives of our students. Try one yourself to get a feel for its possibilities.
Case Study: Who needs a computer?
With all these new handheld and laptop devices, who needs a computer? Are the days of the desktop machine with its monitor, cables, hard drives and power cords over? Can we do everything we need to do with the iPod, the iPad, the Blackberry and the tablet?
We presented this challenge to a group of middle school teachers in Texas. Each of their seventh and eighth grade students is about to receive an iPod Touch that will be all their own, in school, at home, on the playground and on the bus. These are for the most part working-class students who have never before owned a computer, neither at school nor at home. How much digital work could be accomplished with a tiny device that looks nothing like the computers we are used to? More importantly, how much learning could take place with this diminutive device?
The teachers rose to the challenge. New themselves to the iPod, they worked with it for a few days and learned its possibilities. They created their own podcasts and browsed the podcasts at the iTunes Store. They explored apps galore at the App Store. They downloaded and played with many a new software tool for the iPod, on the lookout for educational purpose and effect. And the health teacher even took off his shoes in the middle of it all, which you will find out about later.
On its face, the iPod seems like a foolish device for education -- it's forté is playing popular music and silly games on a tiny screen. Many schools ban them because they distract students from teaching and learning, turning them into anti-social automatons sporting white earbuds. But this group of teachers saw beyond this stereotype. In a day of work they designed lessons that enhanced learning in ways they'd never seen. Here are some examples.
While Texas was under Spanish rule, missions and presidios were established. Keep in mind the three major reasons that the Spanish had for coming to North America--wealth and land acquisition, power, and to spread Catholicism. It was for these primary reasons that New Spain was established in North America. Also, bear in mind the obstacles that the Spanish encountered in Texas--primarily border disputes, rapid expansion of the newly formed United States, and Native American Indians. In this lesson you will take a closer look at the missions and presidios of Texas and discuss the role they played in our state at that time.
On your iPod, go to Safari to access the following sites. You are strongly encouraged to take notes on your iPod's Notes app as you view these sites.
- Go to the Early Texas Missions and Missionaries web site at http://www.sonofthesouth.net/texas/missions.htm and read it.
- Next, go to La Frontera Vieja at http://www.houstonculture.org/spanish/missions.html and read it.
- Now, go to the Texas Missions site at http://www.flickr.com/groups/texas missions/pool/ for a pictorial tour of Texas missions.
Answer the following questions in the Notes app on your iPod.
- Describe a typical mission or presidio in Texas. Include information about the structure itself, as well as it's operation and function.
- Name the various Catholic Orders involved in establishing Texas missions and indicate which mission a particular order was associated with.
- Name the Native American Indian tribes associated with specific missions, as well as the location of the mission.
- Over time, how have the Texas missions fared? Have they increased in number? Decreased in number? No longer exist?
Many careers involve the everyday use of mathematics. Your task is to search for a specific career that involves math and is appealing to you, and research it.
You will use your iPod to search the internet for career choices involving mathematics, and choose one. Focusing on your chosen career, research the following:
- Number of years of college, type of degree, and list of classes required
- Average starting salary
- Examples of companies (how many are available in a certain area)
- Specific types of math used on the job, and what the job entails
- Opportunities for advancement in the field
You will use this information to take notes and give a presentation to the class about the career you chose.
You will use the following apps on your iPod to complete this assignment:
- Safari - for research and pictures
- Wikipedia - for research and pictures
- Notes - copy and paste information from the internet to your note pad for later use in creating your presentation
- Photos - collect and save images related to the career in your photo app
- iTunes - find a podcast related to the career
Make sure you document the websites where you find your information, you will need to include this in your presentation. You may do this by copying and pasting the web address into your notepad with any information you save. Once you have all the information you need, write a paper, at least one page in length, about what you found. Create a slideshow using the pictures and podcast(s) you found that will accompany your paper. The presentation should be approximately 3-5 minutes in length.
Resting Heart Rate Compared to Active Heart Heart Rate.
Find your resting heart rate and your heart rate after activities, and calculate and graph the difference between the two.
You will use your ipod to find the data required. As you proceed, you will use the following applications, and resources.
- The ipod heart beat per minute application (to calculate your heart beat at any given time)
- The Nike + ipod application (to calculate calories burned, pace per mile, distance traveled, and time traveled)
- Use various online references online to find your ideal body weight, and maximum heart rate.
- Use ipod Notes to record your findings and record your data.
- Use the Numbers program on the computer to draw graphs and to visually compare data.
Your objective is to deliver a report of your findings.
Proceed as follows. You'll need to be connected to the internet with the iPod's wireless for this to work.
- Find your resting heart rate. Record your data on the iPod
- Put the Nike iPod sensor in your shoe. Walk around the room. Then use the Nike + iPod app and get your distance traveled, pace per mile, and calories burned.
- Now do a vigorous activity (run in place, jump up and down) and get your active heart rate along with calories burned. Do this vigorous activity for one minute.
- Compare your data to three other people in the class and from the data you collected and determine if your health is better than, less than, or equal to that of the people whose data you collected.
One of the Texas state objectives for seventh and eighth grade math is:
The student will demonstrate an understanding of numbers, operations, and quantitative reasoning. The student represents and uses numbers in a variety of equivalent forms. The student is expected to:
Compare and order integers and positive rational numbers.
Convert between fractions, decimals, whole numbers and percents mentally, on paper, (or with a calculator).
You will use your iPod to practice the skills that meet this objective. You will be using the following apps on your ipod touch:
• The ipod Number Line as a source of practice problems.
• The iPod Calculator application (to compute differences decimal values of fractions)
• The iPod Notes application (to record your findings)
You will e-mail me report of your findings.
Proceed as follows: You'll need to be connected to the internet with the iPod's wireless.
- Work in your assigned groups of three:
- One person will operate the Number Line app.
- the second person will do calculations with the Calculator app.
- the third will record the problem and answer in the Notes app.
- Do fifteen "problems". Change jobs after each five problems.
- Record the problem, the Number Line answer and the answer all in decimal values for each problem
- Open Number Line on your ipod. Review the instructions if you like
- Select "play". Level 1 is the first problem, level 2 the second etc. Notice the difficulty increases between each level. When you have completed 15 "levels" answer the following:
a. What does an improper fraction look like as a decimal?
- b. What does an improper fraction look like as a percent?
An Exploratory Investigation of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
As we study British authors, our attention is turned to the poets, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. What can we learn about the Brownings? What did they contribute to literature? What can we learn from them? Where can we see a collection of their works?
You will use your iPod to answer this question. As you proceed, you will be using the following resources:
- The web site of the Armstrong-Browning Library (to see a collection of the Brownings works
- Various online web references (to better understand the Brownings and their contributions to literature)
- The iPod iTunes application (to investigate and download some of their poetry)
- The iPod Notes application (to record your findings)
- The iPod Photos application (to save pictures of the Brownings and the Armstrong-Browning Library)
- The Photos application (to deliver a presentation about Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Your objective is to deliver a short presentation of your findings.
Proceed as follows. You'll need to be connected to the internet with the iPod's wireless for this to work.
You may use the Safari web browser application on your iPod to connect to the Baylor University website to visit the library. Search Google for Baylor University and locate the library.
From the Baylor University website and other web sites, find the answers to these questions:
- Who are Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning? (And where are they from--share background information on each of them)
- Show some examples of their work.
- Give us as much information about the Brownings, as succinctly as possible.
- Take notes as you go along, using the Notes application on your iPod. (To copy text, tap and hold until you see the Copy button, then drag the blue dots to expand the selection. To paste text, tap and hold until you see the Paste button.)
- Gather an image for each fact, by tapping and holding the image until you see the Save Image button. (The images you save go into the Photos application on your iPod.)
- Be prepared to deliver a brief Keynote presentation of your findings, illustrated with images from your photo collection.
(Thanks to the teachers in Hubbard and Dawson for permission to share these activities with you.)
This is serious learning, accomplished with a tiny device, and extending the reach of these students to new areas of study and new methods of learning. So who needs a computer?
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