Using Mobile Technology to Expand Your Reach

So you have an iPad and/or an iPhone and you spend some of your free time downloading apps, playing games, and enjoying the ease with which you can now access your email, Facebook, and the Web, but how can you use this technological mobility to expand your reach with your students? How can education go mobile?

Bill Zobrist the Director of Online and Emerging Product Strategy at Pearson Learning Solutions recently shared some insight and a lot of examples on this very topic at Cite 2012 in Orlando, Florida. According to Zobrist, teachers in tune with technology are having a huge impact on their teaching by utilizing mobile options not to mention that students are blown away when their professor says something like, “it’s okay to “tweet” during class.”

In addition to sharing stats on the trends in technology purchases – the massive spike in tablet owners and Smartphone users – he provides a list of apps that could potentially enhance the learning experience for students as well as the teaching experience for faculty. Some of the apps Zobrist highlighted were:

·   Evernote – this app allows you to organize everything from thoughts to presentation files. It can be accessed from any device so you can take course materials with you wherever you go.

·   Wiffitti – takes user-generated content and collects it onto a dynamic bulletin board to spur interaction from any distance. It can be used in class or to generate discussion outside of the classroom. Students “write” on the board by texting and messages appear in seconds for anyone else using the app to see.

·   Panapto – works in conjunction with a mobile app. First you use the lecture-capture program and then use the app to access the lecture from anywhere.

·   Poll Everywhere – allows faculty to instantly poll students in class through Twitter, Facebook, or text.

·   Highlight – is an interesting app that alerts you to the proximity of anyone you follow on Facebook or Twitter. If you’re physically close enough to trigger this app, you can also chat via mobile device – a great way for students in the same class to bump into each other and study together.

Going mobile is more than just incorporating apps like those above that provide support to what is being done in class. Going mobile also means making technology a part of the course itself. Zobrist proposes using Smartphones to break the ice with students. Ask them about their most-used apps, what apps they use for school, how they use their calendars. You can even take it as far as Ida Jones from Cal State, Fresno did by “Twearing.” Jones, the Director of the Center for the Scholarly Advancement of Learning and Teaching and a Business Law professor requires her students to tweet during class. This course-specific Twitter account provides a central location to post on course content, provide weekly summaries, and address any misconceptions students might have about the course material. Because students tweet during class and beyond, Jones estimates each user tweets 50 times per week. Does something like this really make a difference you ask? Well yes, it does. Jones tracked letter grades from before and after incorporating Twitter into her class and saw a definite increase in A’s and B’s. Who would have though Twitter could improve student success?!

With so many apps out there and new ones being released everyday it’s hard to dream about where technology and education will bump into each other in the future. It’s so amazing to think that just a few little apps make the learning experience that much more engaging for students though and could potentially inspire those lukewarm about learning to really take an interest in their own education.