Three 3rd graders sit on a rug, each engrossed in working with a brand-new iPad issued in their school's new one-to-one program. They're trying an app designed to reinforce last week's spelling words.
"Is this an effective use of mobile tech?" asks Beth Holland in her media presentation called "Used Effectively or Simply Used?" at the 2015 ASCD Annual Conference. It is a good way to introduce the iPads, review spelling, and engage kids, the participants agree. But had this picture been taken at the end of the school year rather than at the beginning, and had these kids consistently been doing similar activities with their iPads for two semesters, what a waste of both the technology and the children's learning potential. They would have missed out on experiences using mobile tech to construct understanding, create something, prove their learning, and reflect on and share their work.
This issue of Educational Leadership examines the whys and hows of what is a huge jump for many educators—embracing mobile technology on behalf of rigorous learning. The challenge comes at a time when many schools are pressured to both comply and innovate. On the one hand, numerous standards and tests create a mandated agenda for schools. On the other hand, our 3rd graders—the class of 2024—will soon need to step into a fast-changing world, informed, creative, and purposeful. They are champing at the bit for exciting and relevant learning now. So, despite the difficult (but not insurmountable) management and preparation challenges of learning to teach well with mobile tech, in the words of another conference participant, "it is time to let the kids be awesome." Our authors—some students, too—suggest ways to make this happen.
Listen to your students. Julie Evan of Project Tomorrow, a group that regularly surveys thousands of K–12 students, parents, and educators about digital learning, reports that K–12 educators would do well to listen to students' ideas on how to leverage mobile tech for learning. Evans discusses what the results of recent Speak Up surveys reveal about K–12 students' vision for mobile learning and how schools might adopt these practices.
Plan your learning goals. Getting devices into the hands of students won't be much to shout about if we simply replace notebooks with notebook apps, Tom Daccord and Justin Reich concur. To move beyond reproducing old practice with new tools, educators need to create together a focused vision for learning. The authors suggest a Someday/Monday approach: Someday-based changes require teachers to rethink pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and teaching practices (someday). On the other hand, teachers need to start somewhere; they need something manageable that they can try out on Monday that will take them one step closer to wider change. The authors' numerous examples of "what awesome learning looks like" range from a whole school that teaches "reasoning from evidence" to students from around the globe who create collaborative books about geography and culture.
Face the fear. High school teacher Catlin Tucker sympathizes with fellow teachers' concerns about the chaos they assume will occur if students are allowed to bring their devices to school and use them during class. She knows firsthand how important it is to establish and maintain expectations for responsible use of mobile devices, and she also knows that some learning objectives do not benefit from the addition of technology. She's found five strategies that help ensure that mobile devices enhance, rather than distract from, learning. (For more ideas, see pp. 30, 75, 79, online.) Mobile devices offer teachers with limited access to hardware an opportunity to transform learning in their classrooms. As the author points out, "The moment students enter the room (with mobile devices in hand), my low-tech classroom is instantly transformed into a buzzing technology hub."
Throughout this issue, authors provide dozens of strategies (pp. 42, 54), resources (pp. 8, 66, online), and insights (p. 36, 48) that will help you make your classrooms and schools learning hubs. As Carol Ann Tomlinson writes: "Teachers' relationships with technology, kids, content, and instruction" (with the support of their leaders) "will write the unfolding story of how we all use mobile tech in the classroom." Let the story unfold, and let it be awesome!
<P ID="scherer-audio"><!-- Start of Brightcove Player --><!--div style="display:none"></div--><!--By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C found at https://accounts.brightcove.com/en/terms-and-conditions/. --> <!--<iframe src="https://players.brightcove.net/10228042001/default_default/index.html?videoId=4174800683001" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe>--><!-- This script tag will cause the Brightcove Players defined above it to be created as soonas the line is read by the browser. If you wish to have the player instantiated only afterthe rest of the HTML is processed and the page load is complete, remove the line.--><!-- End of Brightcove Player -->
