Mobile Learning at the Tipping Point! Echo, Echo, Echo.....

Elliot: Were back!
Cathie: Yes, we have had a nano-sabbatical, but now we are BACK!
Elliot: With a VENGANCE! Mobile learning is at the tipping point – so sayeth the soothsayers! Sooth1 & Sooth2.
Cathie: And they are right!  Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, has just published a report on the use of mobile technologies, based on surveying over 300,000 parents, teachers, and students over the Internet.
Elliot: Julie says, and we quote: “mobile learning is at the tipping point.” Go to the URL and put up with Blackboard’s desire to snarf up your name and email….
Cathie: … easy Elliot…
Elliot: … and download Julie’s amazing report.  And then avoid reading the front page of the New York Times, Dec 3rd, 2010, above the fold, where Bill Gates tells us that digital video recording of thousands of teachers is the answer to the education problem in the U.S.
Cathie: You are feisty; maybe you need to get more sleep?
Elliot: I do need more sleep, but the absurdity of what the Gates Foundation is doing is so patently clear.
Cathie: As expressed in the article that you have been counseled to not read, the Gates people are promoting the idea that digital video recording of thousands of teachers will lead…
Elliot: .. magically …
Cathie: …to models of better teaching. Isn’t that exactly the way it works with children?  You just show them a video of what you want them to learn and then they know it???
Elliot: That’s exactly the same silly reasoning!!  In the article, there was not one shred of argument as to WHY recording thousands of hours of thousands of teachers would benefit education. Hundreds of millions of dollars – yes, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars are going to be spent on digital video of teachers.
Cathie: It is upsetting..
Elliot… upsetting.. UPSETTING…
Cathie: … calm down, calm down… It is upsetting that there are ways to improve student achievement but  the most important philanthropic organization in the world doesn’t see it.
Elliot: In the palm of a child’s hand …
Cathie: … along with support from educators…
Elliot: … is the means to educate that child. Mobile learning works and it works well.
Cathie: 2011 is going to be the Year of Mobile Learning. Julie isn’t the only one saying mobile learning is at the tipping point –see article 1, and article 2.
Elliot: YEAH!!! 2011 is the year that Mobile Learning Takes Off!
Cathie:  Let’s end on this upbeat note – better for Elliot’s health!