I agree with Graham that bypassing the personal devices owned by student would be a shame, especially if desktop/wired solutions are deemed a higher priority. In comparison, it's amazing to see how in many "underdeveloped" parts of the world this desktop/wired network is completely bypassed in favor of wireless mobile devices, especially cell phones. Here is one example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6241603.stmA couple of related observations/thoughts:
*I can definitely imagine that in the foreseeable future learners will provide mobile technology for learning, not schools. Instead, educational institutions, like other entities, will be expected to provide the wireless network for access to electronic resources.
*Teaching WITH technology has become a crucial part of a formal education, in my view, and the view, for example of the New Media Literacy Project. See e.g.
http://www.projectnml.org/node/308. This is important because students need to develop a variety of skills that relate to literacy and the use of technology, such as multimodal literacy, networking, collaborative problem solving, and discernment.
*Teaching WITHOUT technology denies learners access to valuable and often essential resources.
One phrase that I see being increasingly associated with the 21st Centure is "participatory culture", meaning active engagement in the world around us and creation of new knowledge. Another phrase is "we-generation", as described in
this CNET article, a generation of youngsters:
who are naturally adept with technology and comfortable with having virtual access to friends, family and the world at large. They have a much more global outlook at a younger age, and experts from the research firm Iconoculture say that unlike the picture of entitled teens and 20-somethings that many pundits have dubbed the Me Generation, today's kids under the age of 11 are part of what Iconoculture dubs "Generation We."
So.... it's not necessarily the wireless mobile technology that is essential to focus on, but the fact that this technology allows us to be increasingly connected to others, from your friend across the street to a person on the other side of the world and anybody in between. But above all, I think it is the participatory capabilities of the technology that is key. Just think, you could use technology to change the world ... oh wait, it is already happening:
US Mobile Activism Coming to LifeBBC on Mobiles in Kenya: Revolutionizing the Economy and Local PoliticsSwiss Mystery Grassroots SMS Campaign for a New CapitalGoing Mobile: Text Messages Guide Filipino ProtestersSMS Monitored Venezuela's ElectionRural Women To Report Human Rights Violations Against Them Using Mobile Phonesetc. etc. etc.....
Community 
FORUM 
