Handbook on Digital Learning for K-12 Schools

Abstract

• Within five years every student in every grade in every school in the U.S. will be using a mobile computing device, 24/7. At the time, with cellphone bans in schools, and with the relative high cost of smartphones, our pre-diction was met with skepticism—at best. Fast forward: 2015 is upon us, and " mobile learning " has most definitely become a real category in educational tech-nology. So, in 2015, what is the status of our 2010 prediction? In order to better understand our 2010 prediction, and the new predictions we will make in Section 4 about 2015–2020, we will first look back at those early—and heady—days (2000–2010) when handheld, mobile devices were exploding onto the consumer electronics scene. Next, we reflect on our current epoch: 2010–2015. Simply put, the skeptics were right: our 2010 predic-tion was too optimistic (i.e., we were wrong). Indeed, it was wildly optimistic (i.e., we were wildly wrong), since as we argue below, we, for good reasons, do not consider a 10-inch-screened iPad to be a " mobile device. " As K–12 has a tendency to miss good oppor-tunities, it invested in a range of non-mobile technolo-gies, described in Section 3, that are now being viewed as either detours or downright dead-ends. Finally, we will sneak a peek into the near future, 2015–2020, and update our 2010 prediction. While our track record on predictions isn't particularly stellar, we guarantee you can take this one to the bank: • Within five years (by 2020, but probably during the 2017–2018 school year) every child will have his or her own personal, mobile, computing device, 24/7. While K–12 students will, without question, experi-ence universal computing access—the K–12 Holy Grail of Educational Technology—we are less sanguine that our children will reap the educational benefits of such universal access. The real benefits for learning with mobile computing devices become available in an in-quiry-oriented or project-based classroom. But K–12's track record for transitioning from direct-instruction pedagogy to inquiry-oriented or project-based peda-gogy is…. But we are getting ahead of our story. First, let's talk technology. 2. 2000–2010: The Very Early Days of Mobile Computing and Mobile Learning With the launch of the Palm Pilot in 1997 and its subsequent cousins, the diminutive m100, the color-screened Palm IIIC, etc., some educators saw the opportunity for finally providing a computing device for each and every child—in the developed as well as developing nations. Prices would surely drop and the devices were programmable—those devices could support educational software, not just the phonebook