How Do We Address the Needs of Kids Without Mobile Access?
April 4, 2011 | 3:00 PM | By Tina Barseghian
* DIGITAL DIVIDE
FILED UNDER: Tech Tools, achievement gap, digital-divide, mobile-learning
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Flickr:Shlala
The $64,000 question in education: Does access to mobile technology actually help close the achievement gap?
Bill Ferriter, a sixth-grade teacher in North Carolina, has been thinking about this issue, and writing about it on his blog, The Tempered Radical.
In this recent post, he addresses a question from one of his readers, who sites Ferriter's source, about how to address the needs of the minority of kids who don't have mobile access?
"75% of students are good to go, but do you just leave the other 25% to "fin for themselves", leave them out of the equation all together, or do you do something to supplement such as the school providing a temporary cell phone" the reader asks.
Here's his response.
One of the stumbling blocks to almost every reform initiative in schools is our stubborn refusal to move forward until the conditions are perfect for change.
The result: Change never happens.
Mobile digital devices rocketed to popularity around 10 years ago with the release of the iPod. Mobile computing went mainstream with the release of the iPhone in 2007. With the release of the iPad just one year ago, we are now seeing a significant shift in the dynamics of computer purchase and practice - moving away from desktops and laptops to iPads and other mobile devices. Their cost relative to laptops along with the promise of mobile computing has raised tremendous interest in iPad use in education.
So what does a mobile devices environment look like? How will the students and teachers react? Is it the right direction to go? Five steps to keep in mind as we implement the Connected Learning Community Initiative - an education, not technologies initiative.