Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

I was somewhat bemused by many of the exhibits this year at NECC 2006 as well as the many discussions that I had with exhibitors and presenters during the conference.

It seems that the imagination for a classroom of the future or "intelligent classroom" doesn't extend much beyond an interactive whiteboard (replacing a chalk board) continuing a 100 year old tradition of lines of desks but with laptops on them.

Where handhelds were in evidence, exhibitors and conference speakers were keen to demonstrate how such devices (and the students) could still be controlled by the teacher by either integrating them within existing interactive whiteboard practice or using software that pushes out information to the devices or controls the pace at which the learner is allowed to work.

Here are some example pictures taken on my treo 



Pay attention now!



The Intelligent Classroom



This is more like it 



Origami's in the Microsoft booth

Mark - you are a show off!   
How boring that they stick to lines of desks and laptops.  Not very future.  Not very present either actually.  My classroom isn't like that.  But one the worst things about teaching Science in the UK has to be the design of old labs.  I have a new lab since Easter but my first few years of teaching with no way to move any desks, that was a real pain.

Hi Mark

Yes, there was certainly a feeling of déjá vu at this years NECC 2007 especially when we almost bumped into each other taking pictures of the same booth thinking the same thought! - something about "changing the face of education" with students receiving a lecture sitting at desks in rows but with handheld student response systems and a classroom management system. The future indeed or old methods with some new gadgets!

I guess it's all about control, that was certainly something that I was hearing repeatedly, i.e. more like harnessing rather than embracing technology.

What I found interesting was the way in which 1 to 1 computing has been interpreted in the US. I was getting quite excited during the exhibition build-up as so many stands had graphic panels mentioning 1:1, there were also many conference sessions devoted to the same. Unfortunately when the show opened it pretty much seemed that 1:1 meant either attaching boxes with a myriad of cables to an existing PC so that it could be shared by umpteen users in a room with their own screen, keyboard and mouse, recycling office PC's on their way to becoming toxic landfill or programmes for laptops. Not that I have anything against such things but it just seemed to defeat the object, i.e. the solutions were still costly and didn't embed technology within the curriculum.

However, we did have a few "penny drop" moments on the Handheld Learning booth when we were demonstrating the use of a Sony PSP, an HP smart phone, a Samsung Q1 and a PDA (remember those?) all working together in a learning environment. The main comment being "so we can use the technology our students already have!" which was the good news, the point being that 1:1 wasn't far away as long as people can shift their paradigm. The bad news comments were something along the lines of "a pity that we ban the use of these [PSP and phones] devices at school".

Ultimately there was enough positivity to make me optimistic but I think it'll take a while for opinions to shift.

There's always NECC 2008