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Welcome to Day Three of Echoing Green’s Mobile Technology in Social Innovation online series. Today’s focus is on Education and Learning.

Panelists: Allison Druin of Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland and Nick Ehrmann of Blue Engine

How does your organization use mobile technology?

Allison Druin: At the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland, we work with children to design mobile technology for children. It is our belief that technology designed for mobility should take into consideration the affordances of mobile devices. By this, we mean that we find value in designing technologies that encourage children to move, to go outdoors, and to collaborate with others utilizing mobile devices.

How are the innovative organizations in learning using mobile technology?

Nick Ehrmann: I feel the biggest push in using mobile devices in education stem from the low costs and increasing ubiquity of this technology, especially in developing countries. Where computers break down and cost a ton (especially for programs), many students already have access to the more reliable smart phone with free apps. As an educational tool, phones have many possibilities. They can be “pocket libraries” with free Amazon access to the classics through Kindle e-books. Texting and mobile chats (even Facebook posts) can increase information sharing on both the teacher-student and student-student level.

It provides a new approach to submitting reflections to assigned readings, posting homework, or for students to ask for help outside normal class time. In the Philippines, there are projects like Text2Teach that boosts the availability of video resources for the classroom by having teachers use SMS to request for instructional videos that can then be downloaded via satellite into schools.

In India, they are working on developing mobile games to promote language acquisition and number sense. On the teacher side, mobile devices can be used to have easier access to electronic grade books and trackers. Teachers can be in a better position to share data with students “on the fly,” rather than always waiting for a scheduled time at the teacher’s desk.

What roles do language and literacy play in mobile learning?

Allison: Children can and should be continually surrounded by language and literacy. Our mobile app, StoryKit, encourages children (and adults!) of all ages to tell stories at their level...so a three-year-old can draw a picture and record an audio telling of his visit to a National Park, and a ten-year-old can take a photo of his soccer game and type a narrative for it, and both can share these stories with their grandparents.

Nick: The biggest point I want to make here is that students need help with their formal writing. Many students write in the same manner in which they speak, including words like “umm” and “like” and frequently use incorrect verb tenses in essays, not realizing that there is anything wrong with it. I feel the issue stems from the fact kids aren’t corrected when they speak, but rather, only when they write.

We have become so accustomed to let vernacular and colloquial trends “slide” as long as we get the gist of what they’re trying to say, that adults forget that students are still learning that there is a difference between their “spoken voice” and “written voice.” Humanities teachers get frustrated when they see essays full of errors and informalities, especially when it’s five paragraphs worth of them, but it can be minimized if literacy was truly seen as all teachers’ job.

Here’s an example on how mobile devices can help… imagine an English teacher communicating with students on mobile device modeling good sentence structure (in dialogue) and giving students an opportunity to respond in one or two sentences. Right there, if the teachers can hold students accountable to all the conventions of proper grammar in those one to two sentences, it will reinforce the expectation for their “written voice” on a smaller, more frequent, scale. Also, because it’s in written form, students will probably put more thought into the words they choose because they cannot rely on body language or offer other context clues to help communicate what they need or what they are thinking. I already talked about the availability of ebooks, but you can couple them with devices that play audio books to help students with reading and language acquisition.

How will the introduction of tablets change group learning?

Allison: We believe that, as with all technology, designers must consider the affordances of tablets such as iPads in designing for them. iPads provide great real estate and portability for technology such as our International Children's Digital Library, on which children can search and read a library of books from around the world. Children have thousands of books at this website and, using an iPad, they can read these stories outside under a tree with their friends, in bed with their Golden Retriever at night, or in a tent with a flashlight with their little brother.

Nick: Tablets in themselves will not change group learning, the apps will. There is nothing a tablet can do that a computer can’t, so the only question is “Which one is more portable?” Of course the tablet is, so it’s the sexy choice for what we wish all students have. Don’t forget, not too long ago, schools were writing grants so all students could have their own laptop, so I imagine the same will be true for tablets (just look at the school Florida that spent $900K on iPads).

As long as we focus on the apps and not the tablet themselves, we can do wonders. On the cost side, apps are far cheaper than their program counterparts, so right there schools will have more options. As I said, there is nothing a tablet can do a laptop can’t in terms of group learning, so the innovations teachers were using in web-based testing, group-response gathering, and multimedia presentations, tablets have the challenge of making sure the tech that allows for practices like that to happen stays reliable.

What is the greatest hurdle facing mobile learning adoption?

Nick: Professional development for teachers and equal accessibility for students: The technology is great, but is every teacher willing to learn something new and will administrations hold teachers accountable in using the new technology? As for students, are schools providing the equipment? Is it an expectation for students to have smart phones? Who makes that call?

Allison: One of the greatest hurdles facing mobile learning adoption is that mobile devices are often discouraged or outright banned in many learning environments. Teachers and administrators are concerned that students will be distracted by their mobile devices and be taken out of the learning situation. We believe that educators should leverage the ubiquity and power of mobile devices and encourage their use in ways that are appropriate for the learning task at hand.

Nick: In using texts and other social media to communicate with students, does that potentially open teachers to more problems in dealing with the teacher-student relationship? Is education promoting texting? Facebook? YouTube?

Then there’s the age old question, “Is technology replacing teachers?” I don’t think this is the case, but I bet you there are some people who watch The Terminator too many times and will find a way to get their two cents in.

How do technology interventions affect human capital?

Allison: We believe that technology interventions should enhance and support human capital. Far from replacing humans, we feel that technology should make the play and work of children and adults more efficient, and more enjoyable.

Nick: I mentioned this a little above, but it forces teachers to learn something new, because teachers who effectively utilize it will be more efficient at their jobs. Every new invention provides the opportunity to do things a little better, a little easier, and this sentiment is right there in education. Now technology is a tool to enhance, not replace, human capital.

Think about the medical profession. Advancements in medicine occur because doctors push the limits of the technology available, sparking new ideas and in turn, new invention. From the invention of the X-ray to using MRIs, doctors have remained the driving force in the treatment of patients, making sure they use the best practices and equipment available to cure people. The same should be true for teachers, but I feel there’s a tension with the idea that technology is trying to replace the teacher’s role in the classroom and I feel that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The synergy between technology and human capital isn’t being met because either teachers are being ill-prepared to use technology or they are not held accountable to using the new practices that have shown to work. Going back to medicine, in the 1800s, hospitals didn’t have the fancy equipment they do today that help doctors monitor patients’ statuses. Could you imagine a doctor today going “old school” and just using pure observation to cure a patient? Crazy to even think, but I feel teachers do this all the time, for either of the reasons I mentioned above. The effect technology should have on human capital is to remind us teaching is a practice and that the goal lies within the student. In medicine, it’s for people to be cured, in education, it’s for students to learn.

How will mobile phone technology be different in 5 years?

Allison: Mobile phone technology will become even more ubiquitous over the next five years. We believe that more and younger children will have mobile phones—and given the power that these phones have now, it is our responsibility as designers of children's technology to innovate creative and developmentally appropriate uses of these technologies.

Nick: In five years, the transition from computer programs to phone app equivalents is the next phase in the evolution of smart phones. They are already mini-computers, running operating systems with functional apps and it’s only going to get better. Also, I feel with the push for a “cloud” market, phones will benefit the most by having near limitless storage space and access to files on the go.

In an education setting, accessibility to smart phones will change the name of the game with them being smaller and cheaper. Attaining ubiquity will make it a true viable option as a school resource, where I imagine teachers posting and storing cloud resources and students pulling them down on their devices.

With students spending more and more time in front of technology, the handheld device have the responsibility to make sure communication stays paramount in the learning process. The new ways we interact with each other through social media will be integral in the design of new phone, where someday even phone numbers will become obsolete in how remote communication occurs. We aren’t too far off since Skype already uses user name for their peer-to-peer connection and Apple’s Face Time connects through registered email addresses.

Excerpted interview. Download full transcript.

Add your voice to the conversation by commenting below or on Facebook and Twitter (use hashtag #mobileinnov).

Join us tomorrow to discuss Learning and Education in Mobile Technology, and for the global Twitter chat on June 22, 2011 from 1-2:30pm EST.

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