The Difference Mobile and Portable Technologies Make to Teaching and Learning or You Can Take it Wit

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The Difference Mobile and Portable Technologies
Make to Teaching and LearningorYou Can Take it
With You

• Gene Silverman, Nassau BOCES
• ASCD March 18, 2001

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Information AgeCommunication AgeThe Second
Renaissance
David Thornburg gives us perspective and
a wider view If you went into a library
in the 1400s, you would see books literally
chained to the walls. You had to get a priest to
get accessPeople guarded information and
restricted access to it.
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The Whole World in Their Hands
Bob Tinker and the Concord Consortium
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The BIG Deal Technologies

• Networks -- no need for hardrives or
  computational muscle (Tinker)
• Wireless -- remote access to servers, internet,
  each other, and more!
• Palms/handhelds (and smaller!) -- small enough to
  take everywhere, big enough to see!

DONT FENCE ME IN!
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The BIG IDEAS

• What difference does portability and mobility
  make?
• What does ubiquitous access to all the
  information, databases, resources and people in
  the world mean to education and the learning
  process?

Real time or on my own timewhichever makes sense!
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Lets talk about the most important thingoptimal
learning for students! Standards Assessments Stude
nt Achievement Content Process Effective
Instruction Constructivism, Inquiry,
Project-based Learning Learning Styles, Teaching
Styles, Mult. Intelligence's Etc., Etc., Etc.
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And can we all agree about the value of digital
content Information Graphics Data Video Photos Mu
ltimedia People Sounds Places Communication Etc.,
Etc., Etc.
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A World Without Wires

• Portable laptops
• Wireless LANS
• Wireless WANS
• Wireless classrooms
• Wireless pipes (?) SPEED

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Who has gone wireless?Colleges/UniversitiesClas
sroomsDistricts
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Keep focused on teaching and learning goals!

• Ubiquitous access changes the scale of the
  learning network
• Places the focus on the learner
• Anytime, anywhere empowers students to connect
  and exchange

• Facilitates feedback, communication, and contact
• The classroom gets a large as the wireless rim
• Experimental construction

Paul Bowers, Discovery-Based Learning Lesson in
Wireless Teaching Syllabus, January, 2001
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Other Important Issues About Wireless

• Professional Development is critical
• Administrative functions
• Communication
• Experimentation -- to go where no human has gone
  before! (which generation IS the next
  generation?)
  

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A Star Trek break what do you see?
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Information on Wireless

• apple.com/education/k12/products/airport.html
• symbol.com/products/wireless
• 3com.com/wireless
• wavelan.com/education (Lucent)
• aironet.com
• radiolan.com
• cisco.com
• dell.com
• cabletron.com
• breezecom.com
• gte.com
• centigram.com

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Oh the Places Youll Go!Dr. Seuss

• Handheld Technology in Teaching and Learning

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The World In the Palm of Their Hands
(Tinker)orHave You Clipped the Web Today?
The time has come to put the Web in your
pocket USA TODAY, Feb. 2000
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Learning and Reference Tools

• Thesaurus, dictionary, encyclopedia
• Calculators, productivity tools
• Drawing and graphics
• Digital images
• Webclippings
• Probes/sensor technology
• Software
• ebooks, textbooks
• Homework, workbooks

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And we found ourselves probing pears at lunch..

• Probes and sensors
• Computational power
• Visualization and Modeling power
• Sonar Ranger (Steven Bannasch, Concord
  Consortium Synergy Projects)
• Cybrary (Tinker)
• http//slic.concord.org/
  smartprobe.html

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Administration/Communication

• Attendance
• Grades
• Records
• Schedules
• Assessments
• Lessons
• Notes
• Digital images
• Productivity Tools

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Enhancing teaching and learning Putting power in
their hands to construct knowledge
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BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY!
SCANNING BAR CODES
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The BIGGER Picture

• Equity and Access
• Parents and Community
• Devices
• Hybrids
• Unique Relationships Private/Public Sectors

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More resources

• Concord.org
• imagiworks.com
• cesinc.com
• probesite.com
• hi-ce.org/palm/picomap/index.html
• palmpilot.org
• avantgo.com/frontdoor.index.html
• rainbowtech.org
• cilt.org/html
• symbol.com/education
• handspring.com
• palm.com/education/studies/
• mit.concord.org/tnscience.htm

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Harnessing the POWER of Dynamic Networks Thin
Client Broad Bandwidth Wireless
Laptops Handhelds Internet Productivity
Application Tools
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The Results

• Community of Learners
• Global (or as you need it) Communities
• Anywhere, Anytime, Anyone
• The Power of Video (asynchronous or synchronous)
  - people, places, things
• Immersive Environments (Chris Dede)
• Real World, Real Time Learning
• Create and Re-create Knowledge

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The main thing is to keep the main thing the
main thing! -- Stephen Covey
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Better learning will not come from finding
better ways for the teacher to instruct but from
giving the learner better opportunities to
construct.-- Seymour Papert

• Seymour Papert, Constructionist Learning. The
  Media Laboratory, MIT Cambridge, MA.,
  Introduction in Harel, Idit. (ed.), 1991. As
  quoted by Bob Tinker, The Futures of Networking
  Technologies for Learning

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Gene Silverman, Nassau BOCES 200 Second
Ave., Massapequa Park 11762 516.608.6640 gsilverm_at_
mail.nasboces.org
www.nassauboces.org/cit