At a recent EdSurge meet-up last month, the discussion was focused on mobile learning trends and the opportunities and challenges associated with these endeavors.
The nugget gleaned from that evening was that education needs more mobile applications that help with the 4’cs; Creativity & Innovation, Critical Thinking & Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration. These four C’s make up the “Learning and Innovation Skills” outlined by the Partnership of 21st Century Skills, a national organization comprised of both business (Apple, Intel, Adobe, HP) and education (National Education Association, Pearson, Scholastic) leaders.
The meet-up panel was made up of a silicon valley VC, an Oakland school district administrator, a google engineering manager and an AT&T director of innovation policy and investment. All of these noteworthy individuals were crying for educational mobile apps. One of the reasons for this demand is that mobile apps would help close the great divide of haves and have-nots. Many schools still don’t provide a computer or ipad for each student but almost every student has a smart phone.
They weren’t sure what types of apps were needed but these apps need to address the 4C’s outlined above. “Freshgrade” was noted as being particularly disruptive in the edutech space. Freshgrade is a “Learning Collaboration” tool for teachers, parents and students.
Since this meet-up, I have read numerous articles about improving communication with mobile and web tools and the use of mobile tools in higher education. See links below.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/03/03/parent-communication-542/
I have no doubt that using mobile apps will allow for better collaboration between teachers, students and parents and will lead to better outcomes but my heart still bleeds for teachers that have to keep a class on task, and prevent students from texting or gaming. Somehow there needs to be an app for immediate teacher notification if Johnny is playing “Slime Zone” instead of doing his math!
nbdassociates 