Mobile Technology Helps All Students and Teachers

Elliot: I am still haunted by the eSchool News article reporting on studies showing that one-to-one classrooms are only as good as the teacher…
Cathie: In the hands of a good teacher, students perform well in one-to-one classrooms…
Elliot: … but in the hands of a struggling teacher, no gains are seen.
Cathie: Yes, we’ve talked about his article on several occasions; you are right, it is not a finding educational technology advocates want to see.
Elliot: This finding means that one-to-one is no different than any other classroom innovation. In the hands of a good teacher, the innovation works. Yawn.
Cathie: But technology should afford an advantage to all the students independent of the teacher. Technology is like the tide – it raises all the boats.
Elliot:  Kyle Peck, at his One-to-One Conference this past week in State College, PA suggested that technology is like a multiplier – some teachers can leverage it greatly, but at the core, it helps all teachers.
Cathie: The problem in the one-to-one classrooms in the studies is the implementation, not the technology per se.
Elliot: Absolutely! We know that technology engages students to work harder.
Cathie: How many times have we heard: “The boys write more when they use technology.”
Elliot: Or: “The boys will read ebooks but they won’t read paper-based books.”
Cathie: And, in Nan Chiau Primary School, in Singapore, the teacher was not a trained science teacher…
Elliot: … not only that, she wasn’t comfortable teaching science…
Cathie: … but her class scored higher on the science test than any of the other six 3rd grade classes!
Elliot: Technology does confer an advantage; technology does “raise all the boats.”
Cathie: It is tricky…
Elliot: … yes, you are right; it isn’t “just technology” it is technology that engages the students.
Cathie:  And I don’t think it is a coincidence that it is mobile technology that we are seeing engage students in school…
Elliot: … since it engages them, mightily, outside of school! The recently released Pew Report has a whole raft of stats about teen usage of mobile technology.
Cathie: Like… “Some 75 percent of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45 percent in 2004.”
Elliot: And essentially the Pew data are a year old already... so the percentage is probably close to 90%!
Cathie:  While the Pew report is all about the powerful role of texting in the lives of teens, two, female, 5th graders, at Haverstraw Middle School in Garnerville, NY who are using smartphones in their classroom equipped with educational software for writing, animating, concept mapping, eBook reading, etc. have this to say about texting:
“I actually started texting less now that I have this…” The ‘this’ refers to the smarthphone loaded with educational software.  And the second young lady had this to say (again, the ‘this’ refers to the smartphone loaded with educational software):
“It’s kinda more fun to go on the internet on this and experiment with it.. when I’m at home … instead of texting all day … doing nothing.”
Elliot: That’s it! Great quotes! Mobile technology in the classroom does confer an advantage to all teachers and all kids…
Cathie: … You’ll not hear me disagree… but we will hear that more studies need to be done…
Elliot: … and blah, blah, blah…
Cathie: Now, be nice, Elliot…
Elliot: I know, I know… <smiles coyly>