Edutopia: A guide to mobile devices for learning

Edutopia is a part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and it has developed a new, free guide with Google to help teachers use mobile devices, including cell phones, tablets and e-readers, to engage students – and to help parents wrap their head around how mobile technology fits into their child’s education.




In my opinion, there are not enough resources out there to support parents to get their heads around this stuff. Of course, we may all be GeekDads who love our technology and happily allow our children to be early adopters like us, but how much do we know about how new and emerging technologies align with our own children’s learning and development? The Edutopia “Mobile Devices for Learning” document is in no way all you need to read on the subject, but it is a great start for helping us develop a shared language and support the idea that technology is a place where learning takes place – if it is supported and used in specific ways. The tech is just a tool – it can hinder, as much as help depending on how it is used.

What I was most pleased about was seeing names like Mimi Ito and Cathy N. Davidson involved in the development of this resource. Mimi Ito is a leader in this field, a cultural anthropologist, professor in residence, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation chairperson chair in Digital Media and Learning Department of Anthropology and Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, while Cathy N. Davidson is professor of English and of Interdisciplinary Studies, and co-director of the Ph.D Lab in Digital Knowledge at Duke University. For people of this caliber to put their names alongside the document means it actually has some valuable contributions to make. And it does.

Along with the usual app recommendations, the guide offers some analysis that looks at the positives, but also the challenges, of using mobile devices to support learning. It presents a wide range of diverse resources for teachers and parents to access as they undertake a journey to using technology to support learning. The whole process can also be overwhelming, so the guide doesn’t feel like it has excessive information, but instead acts as a launching pad for those interested in exploring how these devices can be used with students both inside and outside the classroom.

Plus, it is free. Of course, free these days means signing up to the Edutopia site, but if you do you’ll find the complete guide at http://www.edutopia.org/mobile-learning.

Source:  Wired