Ella+Felty

Mobile Technologies – The Future of Learning   Look at a classroom in today’s school. Students are using smartphones, tablets and computers to research, collaborate and prepare multimedia presentations. Think of the classroom from ten to fifteen years ago, students were using computers to type papers and create PowerPoint presentations. Twenty-five years ago, if a classroom had one computer for thirty students to share, it was an advanced classroom. Back when I started my career, we were excited to be teaching on electric and electronic typewriters instead of manuals.  So, are mobile technologies the future of learning? Not the future, it is the current learning. Our students are in the mobile device generation. Fifty-one percent of students today use a computer daily, 47% report using a tablet daily and 65% are using a smartphone daily. Over half of all high school students carry a smartphone to school every day (TeachThought, 2013).  Parents are already buying in to the idea of their students using mobile technologies for learning. Over seventy percent of parents think that by using mobile devices, schools are able to open up learning opportunities and over fifty percent think schools should make more use of mobile devices in education (TeachThought, 2013).  As educators, we need to be prepared to incorporate mobile devices into our curriculum and should be excited about the opportunities that are available. Instead of having a few computers in a class for students to share, or scheduling a computer lab for a short period of time for a class, the availability of mobile devices opens the digital world to individual students. The capabilities of smartphones merge technology with mobility. As the price of mobile devices decrease, the growth of sales is exploding. In 2012, the number of smartphones sold exceeded the number of PCs and tablets sold combined (Evans, 2013).  With the integration of mobile devices into the classroom, educators need to be prepared to continue learning how to best utilize the devices. Students need to be taught proper digital citizenship as they connect with people outside of the classroom. Students are excited to use the new tools and are always looking forward. Today, mobile devices are valuable tools that can enhance learning by expanding the classroom and aid in collaboration inside and outside of the school. As teachers, we also need to continue to look forward. Because although tablets and smartphones are the tools of the day, we don’t know what new technologies lie ahead. We need to model lifelong learning and continue to grow. We want to be ready for what the classroom will look like ten years from now.

References Evans, B. (2013, May). Mobile Is Eating the World. TeachThought. (2013, June 9). //50 Mobile Learning Statistics For K-12 Education//. Retrieved from TeachThought.com: www.teachthought.com

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//Ella Felty is currently a business educator at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, MO. She has served as department chair and academic dean. She earned undergraduate degrees in accounting and business education from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. MO. She is currently working towards a Masters in Educational Technology from Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis, MO. //=====