Handheld Learning

Hi Chris,

Don't confuse the device and the learning. Learning Platforms will provide the functionality and scope to allow students and teachers together to create rich learning experiences. Mobile devices are just one of the many ways that students will access the LPs. Sometimes they will also work locally to the device where connectivity is not available, or where that is the right thing to do.

I love Dudley, for example, where Primary pupils hang their eeePCs in bags on the backs of their chairs and get them out when they feel the need, no different to a pencil.

Whole local authories are completing training staff in hundreds of schools using Moodle, StudyWiz, Fronter, Kaleidos etc. It has taken a long time but the payoff is coming.

This is happening very fast and can be demonstrated with many real school examples with a wide range of devices.

I get fed up with forums where the richness of this is immediately put down by oh so clever remarks about particular hated devices and technologies? The point is that for those who actually bother to travel the country and talk to teachers, Learning Platforms and mobile devices are all part of the same picture - and it is a good one so we can be positive.

I will also bet that someone introduces an iPhone killer at £120 or less before long and the volumes that go into schools will be enormous.

Best wishes,

David
http://www.sums.co.uk
david@sums.co.uk

The 'failure' of mLearning is down to a number of things.  In the UK the Home Access Programme, for instance, has only just completed its pilot stage.  We know that there will be many valuable lessons learnt from that.
 
Another serious problem is that the expectation, by Becta, that all schools should have a VLE up and running by Spring 2008 patently did not happen.  In fact I was appalled to discover that in one school that had a VLE, the children did not know anything about it!

But perhaps the most important lesson that some understand but politicians fail to accept is that mLearning embraces a whole new mind-set for many teachers and particularly the older staff and those in positions of influence.  The truth is that we need a massive amount of INSET in order to make whole-school policy decisions about how we manage teaching and learning.   And inevitably the whole influence of the examination boards is critical.

Obviously where schools have a good VLE and 100% home/mobile access we can begin to establish the sort of practice that mLearning involves.  However, even where only one or two pupils do not have mobile access, teachers cannot really be expected to prepare two different lesson plans for every single class they teach.

Inevitably what has happened in many schools is that teachers are still delivering  within their comfort zone.  To ask all teachers to start with a completely different classroom management style, to admit that the pupils could go off in directions in which the teachers are not familiar, to ensure that all resources are equally available to all platforms is a very big ask for teachers.  Perhaps this is an example of the old adage of the farmer and the tourist, “If you want to go there, I wouldn’t start from here.”

As much as the American YouTube videos might clearly exemplify one scenario, we know that almost anything can be found in America or even Russia.  We could provide examples of outstanding practice from some of our UK schools – but, helpful as they might be, there are too many teachers in too many schools who feel that they are being asked to build pyramids without straw and without any vision of the finished product.

So, in my book mLearning has not ‘failed’ but is currently making slow progress.  We need more evangelists who can communicate and demonstrate the mLearning vision - and those schools seriously lagging behind need extra support.

Thought provoking article. It's brought out the evangelist in me and I've posted some musings on my blog... or should that be preachings.

It also means I have to rework some of my presentation for tomorrow at the Telling Tales event... oh well! 

With all due respect, I think you are missing the point somewhat. When I watched that video for the first time it was like a bomb had gone off. As an educator I felt utterly culpable. This may sound like emotive language, but I am convinced that it is going to take some shouting to get this message through.

Chris asked you to listen to those children. Not surprisingly, probably because they are children, you do not appear to have heard.

Marc Prensky asserts that this generation is so completely different to us as to have even developed different neural structures. That almost makes them a different species; I know there have been times when I have felt pretty distantly related to my students. How can we be expected to understand the inner workings of their minds? Unless you are under twenty-five it is unlikely that you ever will.

Unless, of course, they tell you.

If you wish to know your measure as an educator, listen to them and ask yourself how much you are willing to do. Don't make any excuses, because none are required. These are exceptional times and this is an exceptional challenge. What you do next is what counts. There will always be teachers who are unwilling to adopt or to adapt. There will always be teachers who refuse to use the latest editions of texts because it would necessitate them updating their lecture notes. On the whole, they are beyond redemption. The fact that you are reading this means it is unlikely you are one of them. The beauty of the task at hand is, I believe, that it can be entered into by individuals. We do not need permission to improve our teaching; in fact, it is actually written into my contract that I must. So get on with it: achieve and others will be forced to change. Don’t take no for an answer. There was genuine anguish in those children’s faces. I make no apology for sounding trite.


Revolutions are great fun and all. They stir things up and make life interesting. What counts though, is what happens as the dust settles. The leaders of revolutions don't always make good leaders in peacetime. We might be at the end of the revolution, (or at least at the beginning of the end,) but that is just the start of the next stage, isn't it?