Mobile Learning

Using technology and coping with the fast-moving pace of information in today's world can be extremely overwhelming. As an educator, I remember when and how I first decided to open the floodgates, as it were, and let mobile devices be used in my classroom (though with a very firm set of guidelines and limitations).

Perhaps the chief factor in making this decision was recognizing that resisting technology and the use of mobile devices was an extremely inefficient use of my time and energy. Enacting a no-internet policy in a classroom fully equipped with Wifi and a student body totally plugged in to their devices and social media profiles was nothing but an uphill battle. The more I resisted the use of technology in my classroom, the more I had to fight to keep it on lockdown.

It was, and is, an outmoded approach. There's no use teaching grammar points of a foreign language from a 10-year old textbook with faded pictures, rudimentary graphic design, and tedious subject matter. While we may always have to learn from or focus our courses around some piece of text, teaching a foreign language or foreign literature to young students is never going to have an educational appeal without a link to the world outside. In other words, refusing technology and internet in the classroom is resigning yourself to the same old, same old in teaching--hardly innovative, hardly interesting, and hardly appealing to the student that is already aware and completely immersed in an active virtual world.

As such, I folded. I started scouring online video sites, educational resources, and extra exercises and practices for engaging real-world applications of language. I began relaxing and letting my students use the types of technology they had learned in other classes, or on their own-- the types of programs, apps, and websites that interested them, or had platforms they easily understood and were good at manipulating. I began integrating technology-based options into assignments, mini-presentations, and projects--and then I sat back and observed as my students became more engaged, and more prolific. I learned at least half a dozen new programs and technologies that were out there for users to access and create things with.

This has led me to what I feel is a very important conclusion in my professional development: A teacher needs to be prepared to integrate and use technology in his or her classroom.

That being said, using technology and mobile devices in a classroom isn't a catch-all. What follows are some principles I've created for myself when integrating technology in my classroom:

1. Utilize information wisely. 

Information and resources available through the internet or digital apps shouldn't replace teaching, or what you are doing in the classroom. Rather, the availability of this information is a priceless tool you as an educator can use to guide your students to new ideas and ways of understanding material. In an ESL classroom, access to this kind of information provides an endless source of authentic English material, and can link important skills and concepts from lessons and curriculum to real-world applications.

A good way I've found to "dip" students into using online resources in my classroom is by getting them as involved as possible on a Learning Management System platform. There are hundreds of such platforms out there, but what my school is using currently has an appeal to class/course design, and not just a virtual quiz-maker and gradebook. When I created my courses this year, I did it with using this system to create an online enclave for my classes in mind. Since then, I've been able to link to my lesson materials, link to additional resources that reinforce the lesson materials, create assignments and monitor submissions, and also create class discussions as quick assessments of lesson material. Encouraging students to communicate with me and each other in a safe online space is a potentially great springboard for teaching responsible online behavior, as well.

2. Make mobile learning activities relevant & meaningful.

The power that you have a teacher to access and utilize this information is great, and with it comes great responsibility. Information should be relevant, useful, and appropriate for the classroom, not a source of empty entertainment or pop-culture fluff that will keep students interested, no doubt, but not exactly demonstrate a teaching point accurately.

When using online content, or using specific apps or online tools for lessons and learning outcomes, you always have to know what you are doing. Is the online tool/content/app appropriate for the activity--is it a good fit?

For example, I plan to give students the option of using an online infographic creation tool for an upcoming assignment to create and present a poster with interesting facts about a World City. IN order to do this, I have to locate and provide a list of resources they can use to complete the activity--resources with free, user-friendly tools, not subscription-based or designed for advanced users. I also have to decide how to guide student decision towards using this resource--is it convenient for use on a tablet? Across Mac/Windows platforms? Will it be easy and cost-efficient to export and print for display purposes? And, I expect I will always have to explain why they can't create such materials using their smart phones.

These are all very important considerations for the success of the activity.

3. Make activities measurable.

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges in using technology and mobile devices regularly in your classroom is that you have to put some time and effort in to re-think your assessment scheme. How cna you measure the student's use of their devices, or the technological tool you have guided them toward? How can you account for a digital divide in classrooms where technology is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)--is it a group ro partner-based activity? How can you assessment all group members' involvement?

As we connect our classrooms to online worlds, extensions, and applications, we also have to be able to connect them back to the classroom. It isn't enough to create an online set of Vocabulary flashcards and then say to students, "OK, go do this." The measurement of a student's ability to access the flashcards and complete the exercise has to come back to a hands-on application of skills in some way.