Blog Post 2: Hand Held Devices

The use of hand held mobile computing devices in the classroom is still a rare occurrence in 2015 since the authors of this study could only find nine teachers to participate who were from Michigan, Tennessee, New York, Kentucky, and Mississippi.  The kinds of devices evaluated in this article includes IPads, personal cell phones, and e-readers. The kinds of barriers to this practice include the same kinds of factors that were present when computers began to be a normal part of educational equipment.  Unfortunately, many schools have banned the use of personal mobile computing devices due to concerns about distractions and security making the use of them for educational reasons impossible. However if the rules changed to include them, other barriers are still present including resources, training, and standardization.  Teachers most often complained that the school’s networks did not perform adequately to support the use of these devices.  Some teachers have managed to use the devices effectively but only when they received support from their administrative teams.  The most effective example was a teacher whose district issued an IPad to every student in the class that became theirs for the school year.  For teachers, record keeping was made mobile and fast with the use of personal cell phones or IPads.  Attendance and behavior issues could be recorded via text, photo, or video and recovered quickly for use in discussions with counselors, parents, administrators, and students.  The applications used most often were iMovies, Evernote, games, and PuppetPals.  Although the use of these devices in the classroom excited students, they are mostly used as a supplement to the regular curriculum instead of becoming central to instruction.

My hope is to integrate mobile computing devices into my library so students and faculty can use them creatively and often.  Distance learning for students with attendance issues due to health issues can be improved through the use of mobile computing devices.  These students with access to an IPad loaded with a reading application can have their reading and writing assignments in one place.  An e-reader can be used for reading assignments to use at home rather that dragging a pile of books to doctor’s appointments and hospital visits.  These students can write their essays and complete assignments and email them to their teachers who can use Evernote to annotate as they grade.  The average student can benefit from reading on an e-reader especially if it is equipped with a dictionary linked to the text, so students can quickly check the definition for unfamiliar words.  IPads in the library can be used for making movies and adding voice overs to PowerPoints  allowing non-test reader response journals. Students can use personal response systems to take quizzes during group library presentations to check for understanding.  Book discussions in the library can be enhanced with students sitting comfortably with an IPad or personal cell phone that they can use to look up events or unknown words mentioned in the text to improve their understanding.

Reference: Grant, M., & Tamim, S., & Brown, D.B., & Sweeney, J.P., & Ferguson, F. K., & Jones, L. B. (2015). Teaching and learning with mobile computing devices: Case study in k-12 classrooms. TechTrends, 59, p. 32-45.