Tag: mobile learning

The company’s estimates have shown that tablets are becoming an important part of education.

The vice president of Hewlett Packard has recently released a statement that has shown that the use of mobile technology will be important to preparing students for life in the workplace, and he accompanied this prediction with an estimate of how much U.K. schools will be spending on this equipment.

In fact, in 2015, alone, HP has estimated that schools in the United Kingdom will spend £196 million on this tech.

According to Gus Schmedlen, the HP vice president of worldwide education, printing and personal systems, said that many schools have been adopting an attitude to “wait and see” how things go with new mobile technology devices, but they have been highly influenced by the trends being set by early adopters. Schmedlen stated that schools would be starting to make the digital leap forward.

HP feels that the time has arrived for schools to start using mobile technology as a part of overall education.

Schmedlen explained that “IT is an essential part of learning as it allows pupils to understand concepts such as the sourcing of information, skills such as coding and also prepares them for the workplace.” He went on state that “Additionally for the teacher, IT provides a value-add by attracting students’ attention as well as motivating, enhancing and complementing learning.”

HP feels that the use of mobile tech is going to change the way students receive their educations, saying that ongoing assessment of the use of various types of devices is going to play a vital role in moving ahead.

The statement released by Schmedlen expressed that using technology for formative assessment can give teachers feedback in real time (or close to real time), so that interventions and adaptations in the teaching strategy can be put into place in a timely manner, instead of having to wait until the end of a term or a lesson, when final testing and overall scores are tallied.

The idea is that mobile technology can allow the right actions to be taken throughout the learning process, instead of waiting until a child is already failing.

Post-secondary students will spend more time receiving their education online.

A recent study discovered that students engaged in post-secondary education spend a third of their time conducting school work online and this had nothing to do with the use of e-textbooks (electronic textbooks), the increase in online activity is due to mobile technology, which enables students to always remain connected beyond their desktop or laptop computers they may have in their homes or dorm.

Mobile tech gives students the power to create their own classrooms.

According to Canada research chair on information technology and communication in education at the University of Montreal, Professor Thierry Karsenti, “Mobile technologies are changing the landscape of the classroom, of post-secondary education.” Karsenti added that “Simply put students are capable of creating their own classroom, a classroom they can access almost from anywhere, at anytime.”

Karsenti explained that students underestimate how much time they spend online learning. For these students, using e-textbooks is normal so they don’t consider it as being online. There are times when they do not even realize that they are on the net.

The way in which students learn and how teachers provide course material is changing because of Mobile technology.

The study, which involved interviewing 845 students and educators, was conducted by H+K Perspectives, Hill + Knowlton’s research arm, and yconic. It found that the majority of online tasks in which students engaged involved collaborating with peers (87%) and communicating with professors and teacher’s assistance (86%).

That said, with the freedom to be online everywhere at anytime, this also means that the risk of engaging in distracting online activities, such as monitoring or posting on social media sites or playing games, becomes an issue. Thus, one of the challenges that professors face is to make certain their students will use mobile technology for the purpose of learning. Karsenti noted that “It is probably one of the greatest challenges teachers are facing.”

The professor also said that for students who are interested in using mobile technology for learning, they will want to invest in a device that is powerful, has a good battery life, and will suit their specific needs. It needs to be powerful and flexible so it doesn’t create learning barriers.