Korea Goes Mobile Learning in 2015 – As We Predicted! (Sort of)

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…
Elliot: And Korea scooped us!
Cathie: Hmm.. It appears that Korea has been experimenting with mobile learning devices since 2000, in fact.
Elliot: And, it isn’t clear what device will be selected – it appears that Korea is leaning towards a tablet-sized device.
Cathie: Well, then, Korea hasn’t been reading all our prognostications and analyses since we have consistently come out in favor of smarthphone-sized devices since those devices are truly portable – not “carry alongs.”
Elliot: By using the cameras and audio recording capabilities in their MLDs, students can easily link abstract ideas from the classroom to concrete objects in their everyday world outside the classroom.
Cathie: Remember that Dave Whyley, in his learning2go mobile learning project in the U.K. pioneered that idea.
Elliot: And Dave just told me about the “Ladybug Survey” a new school-community project his students have just completed that showed again the powerful impact that portable MLDs can have on learning.
Cathie: While we may sound like broken records, that specific value of truly portable MLDs is definitely worth repeating. 
Elliot: And maybe Samsung and LG, two of the world’s most powerful mobile manufacturers who both just happen to be located in Korea will come up with a yet another form of MLD that preserves the mobility of the smartphone…
Cathie: … and preserves the increased screen real estate of the tablet. I have no doubt that those two companies can and will do just that!
Elliot: And I am sure that behind the scenes Samsung and LG have pushed their country’s educational leaders to make what is clearly the right decision – to move Korea’s educational system into the 21st century.
Cathie: Why aren’t America’s leading tech companies pushing America’s educational leaders towards mobile learning?
Elliot: Oh boy! That topic warrants more than a short blog posting…
Cathie:  Wrong! It is a short posting given all that our companies aren’t doing.
Elliot: Right on!
Cathie: Right on?
Elliot: Sorry, I’m an old hippie…
Cathie: Right on both accounts…
Elliot: She’s back!!

Comments

[Mike]

I showed this post to my father who sits on the board of education in my home town; an interesting question that he asked is "How will this help improve achievement in the lower half of the student body, where the most challenges are?"

Have you guys written any articles or read any studies that address this question?

[Jeff Shafer, Ed.D.]

The enthusiasm and interest I have personally observed in the so called "lower half" of the student body when exposed to mobile learning devices such as the iPod Touch and iPhone as well as the iPad makes me think that well designed mobile learning experiences coupled with formative assessment that gives immediate feedback to teachers as well as students will bring a whole new class of students into learning that is relevant to these students. I hold out a great deal of hope that teachers trained in our colleges and universities in the use of mobile technologies will "save" American public education and those children in the lower half of the students body. We must begin to think of our education problem of not one that is just K-12 but one that is preK-colleges and universities. One segment that gets it will not do it. We all have to be in "it" in order for "it" to work.

[Elliot Soloway]

Colleagues and I did a study a bunch of years ago in the Detroit Public School. We found that kids using Palm handhelds significatnly outscored kids who used pencil-and-paper with the same science curriculum (as much as possible). So, there is solid evidence that indeed, mobile devices can positively impact the lower half. In fact, mobile devices are the only way we are going to eliminate the digital divide! Embedded in their hands is a tool that enables all students, rich, poor, black, brown, white, urban, suburban, rural, to access, 24/7, the world's information bank, access other humans, access organizations, access events; this is an unprecedented opportunity. Mobile learning -affordable, effective, desired by our youth - can transform American education - worldwide education. I know, I know, I sound like a wild-eyed techie. But look around: mobile is changing everything! We are indeed at the dawn of a new era - the Age of Mobilism! ES (CN hasn't reviewed this post; gulp.)