Mobile Devices and 21st Century Skills: Part 1 – Communication

Back in 2007 when I began this blog, the main thrust was sharing ideas about why mobile devices can improve teaching and learning. Now in 2013, not only has the use of mobile devices become much more widespread both in schools and society at large, but the attitudes toward the use of mobile devices for learning has changed. Many in the education system are much more willing to accept mobile devices as learning tools. Where in 2007 school districts were banning cell phones in schools, in 2013, they are being embraced with the goal of creating new and rich learning environments for students.

As a result, I’ve decided to shift my focus a bit on this blog from the why of mobile learning to the how. By how I mean ‘how can mobile learning be used to develop 21st century skills?’ I hope to answer this question in a series of blog posts that look at various 21st century skills and ways mobile devices can be used to support their development.

We begin with the most basic of human skills – communication. It is this skill that allowed individual humans to band together into groups. It is this skill that allowed those groups to form civilizations. It is this skill that allowed ideas to be shared, be it through oral language or the written word, between civilization both across expanses of space and time. As technology has charged, so has access to information and as a result, communication needs in the 21 century are different. In no other time in human history has anyone able to communicate with anyone else anywhere in the world and with groups of people in the millions. This new ability to tweet a statement that can be read by millions instantaneously requires a new skill set.

How Do We Develop Communication Skills in the 21st Century?

1) Incorporating Multimedia: Audiences consume information in a variety of ways. Where ideas were once shared via direct oral communication or through the written word, audiences can now share ideas by listening to audiobooks, watch them portrayed in online video or look at them expressed in imagery. Students today need to be able to communicate ideas that include multiple forms of media. Asking students to create a blog or wiki that may or may not be written on their mobile devices is not enough. They need to augment their ideas. One way can be by posting images or video taken from their mobile devices and upload it to their blog or wiki alongside text not to regurgitate the same information but to express an idea in different ways.

2) Know Your Audience: This is an indispensable job skill today. Communicating ideas that are relevant to the target audience is not a new concept – businesses and the marketing industry have done this for generations. The difference today is that being able to access anyone and everyone on the globe through communication technologies now means that we must all now frame our communication to an audience. In order to communicate to our target audience, we must know something about them and that is where mobile devices come in. One can use online tools such as Google Forms to poll one’s audience or use Twitter to engage in conversation with them. The better one knows an audience, the better one can frame communication for them.

3) Connecting Ideas and Supporting Ideas with Evidence: Today’s civilization is extremely connected to information. At our finger tips, we have access to the largest library humans have ever created, the Internet, and the starting point is often one of the largest single source of information on the Internet – Wikipedia. As a result, communication needs to incorporate and connect with other supporting ideas and these ideas need to be supported with evidence. While it is easy today to tweet a 140 character message to a large audience, that audience will not pay much attention if that is the extent of the substance if the ideas shared. Social media is great at connecting people to ideas, but those ideas need to be flushed out, developed, connected to other ideas and supported with facts for anyone to pay attention. Having access to all this information make our communication more about making sense of what’s out there instead of just stating it. Mobile devices can be used to help students research their ideas on the web, use social media to discuss ideas with peers in order to better make sense of them, and the use the mobile device to create a blog or wiki sharing their ideas to a target audience.

In sum, by using multimedia, knowing your audience and connecting and supporting ideas, students can begin to develop the communication skills they need for the 21st century. Mobile devices are support tools that students can utilize to record data (including pictures and video), communicate with audiences and research information.

Using Mobile Devices to Increase Community Engagement

I have just recently been appointed to the role of principal and began my new leadership role the first day back from the Christmas break in January. After blogging about the use of mobile devices from the perspective of classroom instruction and student learning for over five years, I now find myself considering how these same tools that can be used to help students learn can also be used to strengthen the home-school connection.

In experimenting with new ideas and practices, I have turned to two of my most trusted tools – my iPhone and Twitter. Immediately after beginning in my new role, I set up a school Twitter account and started tweeting; tweeting images of some of the work our students have produced; tweeting links to resources for parents and community members; tweeting reminders about upcoming school and board events; tweeting updates about bus cancelations after the most recent snow storm. In discussing the purpose of this account with staff, parents and admin colleagues, I have described my use of a school Twitter account as a daily newsfeed between monthly newsletters. I’ve also mentioned that the best part is that I update the Twitter feed from my mobile device so that I can really tweet updates from anywhere.

As Twitter doesn’t compile statistics as a blog would, it’s hard to say just how many people are accessing these tweets. One could look at follower counts but I have expressly stated to the parent community in other communications that the profile is public and one does not need a Twitter account to access tweets. This makes it difficult to know what the depth and breadth of use is after only 5 weeks of tweeting. I would definitely be open to ideas on how I could track traffic.

The other consideration is that this type of use of a social media tool is still really new for schools. While using Twitter as a school communication tool may seem obvious to those who are already engaged in these tools, it may not be so obvious the the wider community who so not use social media tools as often. Building community capacity is part of the work that needs to be done in order to really make the use of social media tools a viable way to communicate with the wider school community. What does help is that Twitter is now a well known tool used by celebrities and traditional media so the task of explaining what Twitter itself is has mostly been taken care of already.

I believe that using Twitter as a school communication tool helps to inspire public confidence in the work that we do everyday with their children. It opens up the school in a way where the community can be updated on a daily basis on the dynamic work that teaching and support staff do with their children that has typically not been communicated well enough in the past.

When I sense that the account has started to become an entrenched tool, I would like to experiment with other communication ideas that use other web tools. What could those be? One idea could be conducting surveys to gauge community sentiment using Google Drive. I know there are many ideas and examples on the web and I look to my PLN on Twitter to point me to interesting examples and ideas.

I am interested in your thoughts and ideas on using mobile tools to increase parent engagement in the school community. Please use the comment box to share. If you are interested in seeing what I am doing with Twitter to communicate with my school community, you can see/follow the school Twitter account here.

Some Thoughts Around ‘Digital Bombardment’

On December 7th, my employer school board used a PA Day to organize and connect all education staff of the board from their remote locations via an internet stream to watch two speakers discuss the issue of 21st century fluencies. It was a mammoth undertaking I am sure but one I found successful as it used communication technology to demonstrate the power of communication technology as staff listened to two speakers talking about the power of communication technology.

The two speakers, Ian Jukes and Will Richardson, both discussed how education systems in general, and schools in particular, need to do things differently because of the nature of new technology and how it’s transforming society as a whole. One of the ideas that really struck me was the idea of ‘digital bombardment’. Presented by Ian Jukes, it is the idea that all of us, including kids, have this pervasive exposure to digital technology.

When Jukes first mentioned it, the first idea that came to my mind was that this was a new and novel way of discussing the mature topic of information overload. Upon further reflection, however, I’m seeing that digital bombardment is about more that just information overload. It is the fact that all day, everyday, we are interacting with a multitude of different devices exposing us to content in many forms and that this exposure is nonstop. Another striking element to this notion is that unlike information overload, digital bombardment may not be just a phenomena in western society. With cell phones and smart phones connecting people to the Internet in less privileged countries in a way computers have never been able to accomplish, for the first time ever, we may be seeing a global social shift brought about by mainly mobile devices.

We could go on and on here about stats. We could discuss the amount of content being uploaded to the Internet on a daily basis or how many internet-connected cell phones there are globally and how this is connecting people in areas that were previously unconnected. We won’t do that here because I think you know this already. It’s really the implications of this that I find interesting.

One implication is how this social shift is being driven but mobile devices. I have stated many times that I often write my blog posts from my phone. I listen to music from my phone (both purchased music and streamed music). I listen to radio programs and podcasts from my phone. I watch, read and listen to news stories and books from my phone. I communicate with others and stay current from my phone. I get directions and ask for directions from my phone. I can even control my TV now from my phone. I’ve been doing all this for some time now so none of this even phases me anymore. What has struck me now is that many of these activities and more can be done by anyone with a smart phone and these are becoming ubiquitous in geographic areas never seen before. The lower entry costs of mobile devices vs. computers is truly connecting and bombarding people globally.

Another implication is how we are connecting with each other. While I am definitely and advocate of the wider use if mobile devices, I sometimes can’t help but to feel that this constant screen watching is creating this Orwellian world of external social control through information dissipation through technology and its only getting worse. Everywhere we look, we see screens – the mall, the doctor’s office, schools, the gym, etc. and we bring our own screen to fill in the void in those public and private places that may not have one. Access to unlimited information is a good thing but what happens if access and exposure to information is directed maliciously by some external source?

Bring it back to education, Juke’s point was essentially that we have to adapt and do things differently in a world where digital technology and screens invade every space that we all inhabit – kids and adults alike. Rather than bemoan the state of affairs which are beyond our control, let’s work on what we can control and leverage what kids bring with them to help them learn. This is what this blog has always been about – leveraging technology to improve learning. It continues to be relevant and becoming more important as the years go on. The key piece, however, is not just leveraging technology, but leveraging technology to improve learning.  If technology use is not planned around specific learning goals aimed at meeting specific curriculum expectations and is only used by children to surf the web or Youtube with no real learning aim, then it would be better not to integrate technology at all.  Technological tools need to help students learn if they are going to be relevant and useful.

Children entering kindergarten this year will graduate from high school in 2026 and the oldest mobile technology they will know is a first generation iPad or an iPhone 3. Given this reality, what do our schools need to become in order to meet the needs of these children graduating in 2026?

Mobile Learning: A 6th Reading List

It has been over one year since I last provided a list of recent articles/blog posts that I have read that have helped to develop my thinking on the topic of to mobile learning.  Below is the 6th list in this series of lists.  The other reading lists can be found by following the links provided at the end of this post.

1) Dispelling the Myths About 1:1 Environments: An Edutopia article outlining 5 myths about 1:1 environments and responses to the myths stemming from experiences with a 1:1 iPads and Google Apps for Education launches at an American High School;

2) Siri, Take This Down: Will Voice Control Shape Our Writing: This article from The Atlantic looks at how our technology has shaped our communication and how voice activation my be doing it again;

3) Being a Digital Native Isn’t Enough: This blog post argues that the idea of today’s children being digital native applies to the social uses of technology, not the academic uses.  We need to teach children how to use technology to learn;

4) Bring Your Own Device: A Guide for Schools: this support document comes from the Department of Education of the Province of Alberta and focuses on strategies in the implementation of BYOD in schools;

5) Mobile Phones in the Classroom – Teachers Share Tips: This article reports on different ways teachers are using mobile phones in teaching and learning;

6) Top Apps for Professional Development: A list of mobile apps divided into categories that teachers can use for their own self-directed professional development;

7) New Guide! Mobile Devices for Learning: What you Need to Know: This publication by edutopia supports the successful use of mobile devices in classrooms by providing ideas and resources ranging from using the technology to getting parents involved.  A free registration to edutopia is required to access the pdf;

8) The Teacher’s Guide to Digital Citizenship: A look at what a digital citizenship curriculum could look like.

Links to the other reading lists:

Mobile Learning: A Brief Reading List

Mobile Learning: Another Brief Reading List

Mobile Learning: A 3rd Reading List

Mobile Learning: A 4th Reading List

Mobile Learning: A 5th Reading List

The Power of Networks

In this RSA Animate video, we learn about the shift in thinking about the connections of life. What is presented is the idea that our increased understanding of the complexity and inter-connectivity of life has resulted in a shift in the metaphor we use when categorising this inter-connectivity – a shift from the use of the tree metaphor to a metaphor of network or web. While this video is not about mlearning per say, it does provide insight into just how complex our world is and allows us to deduce that mlearning devices can help us navigate and develop these connections.

Is eLearning on Tablets Really mLearning – My Stance

In the blog post, titled, “Is eLearning on Tablets really Mobile Learning (Chime In)“, RJ Jazquez discusses his opinion on on the question of whether eLearning is really mobile learning after having the question posed to him in a comment on another blog post.  In the above linked blog post, Jazquez argues that eLearning on a tablet is not mobile learning as he feels that in order for learning to be considered mobile learning, a uniquely mobile experience must take place.  This uniquely mobile experience is one that cannot be replicated on a desktop computer or in any other way.  As RJ states:

Here we are fully immersed in the most amazing computing shift in history, armed with mobile devices that set Learning free and all we can do is convert traditional desktop eLearning for consumption on the iPad, but with nothing to show for in the way of being uniquely mobile?

Unacceptable! It’s time to set the bar higher!…Ask yourself this question, is the learning experience UNIQUELY MOBILE?

While I agree with RJ that this is an excellent question, I disagree with his conclusion.  I don’t believe that using a mobile device to replicate learning that can be done on a desktop computer and calling it mobile learning necessarily sets the bar too low.  In fact, defining mobile learning as a learning experience that is ‘uniquely mobile’ creates too narrow a parameter which ultimately limits the true power of mobile learning.

In my humble opinion, I believe that the true power of mobile learning lies in the ability of one to replicate learning on a mobile device and then use the uniquely powerful features of a mobile device (i.e. learning at a distance) to enhance it. RJ lists 7 criteria that he believes one should use to judge whether a learning experiences can be defined as a mobile learning experience. True, in the title, RJ focuses on tablets but I believe that mobile devices are also smart phones and media players (i.e. iPod Touch). Below, I list his criteria and my responses to each of them (which are coloured in red). Keep in mind that my responses assume that smart phones and media players can also be used as mobile learning devices :

• Is the experience re-imagined for touch or is it just a conversion from something that was intended for the precision of the tip of the arrow of a cursor? Not all mobile devices are touch screen and defining it as such creates too narrow a definition of mobile learning.  Traditional iPods can be used to help students listen to audiobooks or read text.  Blackberries are mobile devices too that can be used for mlearning but many models are not touchscreens.
• Does something magical happen when I rotate my device from landscape to portrait and vice versa? In other words, when in landscape view, do I get additional resources when I turn my device into portrait mode? A great example of this is the YouTube app, it provides a unique experience in both portrait and landscape mode. Being able to get a different view when you rotate the devices doesn’t make the experience ‘uniquely mobile’.  The landscape view is a way manufacturers try to incorporate more resources on a smaller screen to try an mimic the desktop.  This is not a ‘uniquely mobile’ function – is an attempt to be more like the screen of a desktop computer.
• Is the content itself the navigation? In other words, can I swipe left and right to advance forward and backward, or do I have to use those next and previous buttons I used back in the 20th century? This has nothing to do with mobile learning – this is simply a hardware/software feature set.  By the way, I can swipe left and right on the touchpad of my Macbook.
• Does this learning experience take advantage of at least one of the sensor superpowers built into these amazing mobile devices, for example the GPS or the accelerometer? I’ll agree with this one.  This is one of the reasons mobile learning is so powerful.
• Does the location of the navigation change accordingly between devices to make the experience seamless for learners as they shift from device to device? This is more of an ease-of-use argument, not an argument for mobile learning.  Location of navigation buttons are not an important element in defining mobile learning nor is it an important element when trying to make the case for the importance and effectiveness of mobile learning.
• Does it look great not just on the iPad, but also on all other devices? Agreed.  However, the list of those ‘other devices’ also needs to include laptops which, in my opinion, are also mobile devices and strictly speaking, a laptop is also a computer.
• Is this learning experience uniquely mobile? If so, in what way? My opinion: being ‘uniquely mobile’ is too narrow a definition for mobile learning.

In essence, this is a question of definition.  In defining mobile learning, I believe that we need to focus more on the activity of learning at a distance using a mobile device and not on the devices themselves.  Devices change but the activity remains the same.  Mobile learning is about:

• Learning on the go by connecting to the Internet to access/create content from both inside and outside the school day and the school building – this can include, but is not limited to, listening to audiobooks or reading preliminary information on a topic on Wikipedia;
  
• Engaging in on the spot, just-in-time learning using a mobile device that can access the Internet, the largest database of information humans have ever created;
  
• Engaging in conversations with other students/colleagues on the content of learning from wherever one finds themselves using the Internet, the largest chat forum humans have ever created

Therefore, is eLearning on Tablets really mLearning? Yes.  mLearning is eLearning and a whole lot more.

Will Voice Dictation Change the Nature of Writing?

Digital mobile technology is changing our society.  The ease at which we are able to convert information into digital formats and then consume this content on a mobile device is changing how we consume information.  A good example of this is with audiobooks.  The increasingly widespread use of digital audiobooks has led to an increased discussion over whether the mainstream use of audiobooks will change the nature of reading.  While audiobooks themselves are not new (i.e. books on tape, books on CD), the advent of digital files, digital downloads and the widespread availability of audiobooks in digital format for consumption on mobile devices have led many to believe that audiobooks may weaken reading ability and render reading written text less important.

Digital mobile technology is also changing the way we create content. This much we know.  The new change is in how we record ideas.  As digital formatting is changing the nature of reading through audiobooks, voice dictation software is beginning to change the way we create content through the writing.  With the advent of voice input software for mobile devices, such as Apple’s Siri, and voice dictation on Apple’s computers, we are seeing the beginning of the mainstream use of voice commands and voice dictation.  Once again, voice dictation is not new (i.e. someone dictating to a scribe, Dragon Naturally Speaking software). Unlike the recent past, however, voice dictation software is now coming included when once purchases a particular hardware device and the software is becoming much better at understanding natural speech without any sort of ‘training’ period.  This is leading some to wonder whether this is going to change the nature of writing.

I recently read an article on this very topic titled, “Siri, Take This Down: Will Voice Control Shape Our Writing?“. In this article, there is a discussion of how the nature of writing changed with the advent of the typewriter.  The article quotes philosopher Martin Hiedegger,

In the time of the first dominance of the typewriter, a letter written on this machine still stood for a breach of good manners. Today a hand-written letter is an antiquated and undesired thing; it disturbs speed reading. Mechanical writing deprives the hand of its rank in the realm of the written word and degrades the word to a means of communication. In addition, mechanical writing provides this “advantage” that it conceals the handwriting and thereby the character. The typewriter makes everyone look the same.

Growing up and living in a world of typed text, I personally find the concept of a person’s character coming through in their style of writing/penmanship interesting.  I’ve always read typed text and learned to focus on the ideas presented rather than on the character of the person writing.  Nevertheless, the idea is presented that a shift in communication style occurred when people began writing words down. Then a shift in writing style occurred when people began typing words rather than writing words.  The question now becomes, ‘If we can now dictate our words, will our writing style change again?’  The article makes the point that voice dictation may shift our writing away from a formal and reflective style to a conversational style.

In reading this article and taking some time to reflect on this issue, it struck me just how our technology changes us.  We created the technology of writing to allow for ideas to be recorded, compiled and shared over time and space and this changed the way we communicated.  It became less important to speak well and more important to reflect and record well.  It appears that voice dictation is bringing us back to our evolutionary roots in terms of communication.  If we begin to write less and dictate more, then product of our work may be less formal and more conversational and it will force us to become better oral communicators as well.

How does this all affect education?  Really, it’s revolutionary.  The grand focus on reading and writing may begin to give way to a grander focus on listening (audiobooks) and oral communication (voice dictation).  Sitting quietly at desks reading and writing may give way to more talk and listening exercises.  In addition to reading comprehension, we will also need to focus more on oral comprehension.  This shift may come faster than we anticipate as it is already possible for students with the most updated Mac OSX software to dictate their work to their computer and produce a written piece for their teacher.

Another point to consider is whether this change is a ‘bad thing’.  Some may say that if one can simply talk their ideas into a device, then they will lose the important skills associated with writing and writing conventions.  Personally, I don’t believe that ‘goodness’ or ‘badness’ is the correct way to approach this change.  If our goal as a school system is to humanize children and to prepare them for life in civilized society, then our instruction has to reflect the social requirements demanded by society.  If our society demands critical thinkers who are strong oral communicators, then that is what our instruction must focus on.  One way to look at this change is that writing was invented to address a need; namely to create a record of ideas.  Voice dictation can now address another need; to simplify the manual task of writing to allow us to focus more of our mental power on thinking and developing new ideas instead of focusing some of that mental power on the mechanics of writing.  Some may even argue the merits of developing critical thinkers instead of suppressing critical thinking through an overemphasis on the mechanics of writing.  It is important to have people able to write well but what is the purpose of excellent writers who really have nothing to say? I am not suggesting that we abandon reading and writing altogether.  After all, written text is still the backbone of our social fabric and written ideas are still what make our civilized society tick so effectively and efficiently.  Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the importance of oral communication and how, through voice dictation, the nature and style of what is written may change because of mode of input is beginning to change.

The striking part for me is that all this can really be accomplished on a mobile device.  We can dictate text messages and other short text pieces now.  What will our world sound like when we begin to dictate larger pieces of writing to our mobile devices as well?