Planning for an ICT “expert-group” meeting next week, I’ve produced the following diagram to start and stimulate discussion.

Any comment would be most welcome.

We are not constrained by the shackles of the National Curriculum so anything (within reason and my ability to sell it to SMT/governors) goes.

How is the mobile technology revolution impacting on education?

Are our schools ready?

The American Organisation Mindshift has listed its  Major Mobile Learning Trends to Watch For they are:

1. Location-based integration.
Museums and commerce have woken up to the fact that smartphones and tablets know where they are and have responded with location dependent content and advertising. Schools need to think about this.

2. The domination of ebook. Amazon is one of the biggest retailers of books, but in the past year, their sales of ebooks has outstripped that of traditional books-yet traditional paper text books are still renewed every 2-3 years (as my science syllabus gets tweaked)

3. Cloud computing in schools. Cloud computing is a big buzzword these days, with tech companies like Microsoft and Apple pushing their devices and applications — Schools are increasingly looking to cloud computing as a way to provide access to information and to close budget gaps but this is reliant on fast and reliable broadband connection….is the infrastructure there yet?

4. Bring-your-own-device classrooms. “Since most kids these days already have access to a mobile device, schools are seizing the opportunity to turn these gadgets from distractions into learning tools by incorporating these devices into classroom lessons and projects”. er…actually they are not….most schools actively discourage their use and ban them from lessons. This Christmas millions of kids will receive the latest mobile tech from Santa only to have its use denied to them for formal education. In my my opinion, schools need to completely rethink this stance.

5. Online collaborative learning. Most teachers would be amazed at the amount of online collaboration that happens between their pupils. As a profession, we are seriously missing an opportunity here.

6. The rise of the tablet. Any teacher who has endured the hell of a lesson involving a class set of badly managed laptops will be wary of technology that gets in the way of learning. Tablets go some way to making that tech transparent…we are on the verge of a revolution here.

7. Online class management. Online class management systems like Moodle and Blackboard have grown exponentially in their number of users in recent years but are still largely confined to tertiary and higher education. Are younger learners ready to take part….I think so.

8. Social media for education. Most schools still regard social media as a problem…another conduit for bullying and a potential nightmare around the blurring of pupil/teacher/parent relationships. We need to find solutions quickly and embrace a new way of communicating.

9. Snack learning. One of the criticisms of the digital generation is that they have short attention spans. I have a problem with this one. My son shows incredible concentration over long periods whilst ridding the world of terrorist tyrants on his Xbox; I don’t see why this behaviour cannot be replicated for his A level physics next year…………we’ll see!

• Schools are, at best slowly reacting to the changes in communication technology.
• The vast majority of working teachers are almost completely ignorant of these changes.
• The gap between  pupil’s learning environments in school and out is increasing at an alarming rate.
• There has never been a more important time for teachers to learn.