With the release of the New Media Consortium's 2011 Horizon Report for K-12 there is no doubt that the future of education is mobile. But, despite what tech-evangelists would have us believe it will not be enough to put mobile devices into children's hands and expect the education system to improve or their learning to suddenly take off. The revolution in technology, and subsequently educational technology, is an opportunity, but not a guarantee.
The most recent Horizon Report repeats what it has stated for a few years now: "Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession." And, it is for this reason developing children's skills across multiple literacies like visual, digital, media and networking is important and using technology to do it is a no-brainer. Similarly, for mobile technology which has been placed on the "near term horizon" rating of less than one year to adoption by the global research and advisory team at the New Media Consortium the immediacy and importance is clearly stated:
Mobiles are a category that defies long-term definitions. With more than 1.2 billion new mobile devices produced each year, the pace of innovation in the mobile markets is unprecedented. Mobiles, especially smartphones and tablets, enable ubiquitous access to information, social networks, tools for learning and productivity, and hundreds of thousands of custom applications. Mobiles were listed in previous years because they could capture multimedia, access the Internet, or geolocate. Now they are effectively specialized computers for the palm of your hand, with a huge and growing collection of software tools that make use of their accelerometers, compasses, cameras, microphones, GPS, and other sensors.
Last year, I made a few waves when I posted, "Why I Returned the Apple iPad Tablet to Rutgers University." Now, I'm requesting an Apple iPad 2 to use to teach my Social Media Marketing and Digital Marketing courses in the Rutgers Mini-MBA program. So, have I changed my mind, or has the iPad changed to become what I had in mind all along?
Here's the backstory: In July 2010, Matt Bailey, the president and founder of SiteLogic Marketing, Cindy Krum, the Chief Executive Officer of Rank-Mobile, and I taught some of the courses in the first Rutgers Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing course. In December 2010, Heidi Cohen, the president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, Liana "Li" Evans, the co-founder and CEO of LiBeck Integrated Marketing, and I taught some of the courses in the first Rutgers Mini-MBA: Social Media Marketing course.
The Rutgers Center for Management Development (CMD) had supplied all the students in both courses with their own free Apple iPads, which contained pre-loaded instructional materials. The participants in both courses liked their iPads.
More importantly, they liked the courses, as the video clip below shows.
Read more from the full article from Search Engine Watch here.
Not just a new computer, they are serving up a new way of digital living
Rolling backpacks are lame. There, I said it. No one wants to be that kid rolling into class, crushing people’s toes and running into desks with their weapon on wheels. On the flip side of that coin, no one wants to be the kid in the back brace either. But textbooks are heavy, and there’s really no way around them, or is there? Trinity College in Melbourne Australia recently conducted a study to find out – they dispatched iPads to a small group of students and teachers at the start of term, and monitored how the new technology affected the classroom. The results of their study – called the Step Forward Pilot Project – were recently published online and outline a few of the pros and cons of iPads as a learning tool. Trinity College isn’t alone – schools around the world are incorporating iPads into their daily routine and changing the way students of all ages access and learn new information.
iPads in education are a hot topic at the moment, with entire websites dedicated to thediscussion of their use, and the general consensus is positive. The results of the Trinity College study were generally positive as well, though the conclusions are based mostly on qualitative statements about how much the students and teachers liked using the iPad, without much data to support conclusions. Some of the key findings include “iPads are effective, durable, reliable and achieve their educational aims of going further, faster and with more fun” and “Past TCFS students and current TCFS students in other intakes have expressed interest in iPads and a wish that they had the chance to use iPads at Trinity.” A recent study conducted at Notre Dame provides a slightly more quantitative view of how students used the devices, ultimately concluding that the devices were mostly a good thing.
The Silicon Valley startup reveals its establishment investors, an intriguing business model, and the future of interactive textbooks -- on iPads and beyond.
Some technology advances change everything for their users in a way that is deeply visceral and memorable. I still remember, for instance, when I started using a Palm Pilot in 1997. The clunky device certainly was radical and all, but the epiphany for me was the sync-able desktop software that went with it, digitizing my calendar and contacts (but not email). I immediately realized that Palm had re-invented and obsoleted my Rolodex and Filofax, constant professional and personal companions for me at the time.
I had the same feeling recently when I saw an iPad app from Inkling that replicates a college textbook in a digital format. Inkling, a San Francisco startup, recently added textbook giants McGraw-Hill (MHP) and Pearson (PSO) to its roster of investors, which includes Sequoia Capital as well as Felicis Ventures, Kapor Capital and Sherpalo Ventures. Interesting though the business story of Inkling is, what's amazing is how the company has re-invented the textbook experience. Or, in the words of company founder and CEO Matt MacInnis, Inkling is "gently deconstructing the textbook and rebuilding it."
iPad? Nope, "iPlod" is the word on college campuses this year for Apple's magical new device.
In 2004, Duke University gave every incoming freshman a brand new iPod loaded with practical information: schedules, campus tours, and even the Duke fight song. This year, the school is taking a more cautious approach with the iPad -- and it's not the only one hesitant to adopt.
