Mobile Tools and Technologies for Learning and Instruction

What’s a Mobile Computer?

There is no consensus on the definition of mobile computers; some use this term to mean laptops as well as smartphones and tablets. However, from a K–12 learner’s perspective, a mobile computer is one that is ready-at-hand—very lightweight, palm-sized and able to be turned on instantly—so that it can be used outside the classroom as well as in the classroom. This can enable, for example, a student to take a picture, for inclusion in his or her school project, of the impressive root system of a Banyan tree spotted while walking home from school. Given that definition, laptops, although they are transportable, are not mobile computers and are not discussed in this entry. A mobile computer enables a student to make connections between what are often abstract ideas (e.g., roots of trees) explored in a classroom with his or her concrete, daily experiences (e.g., seeing the exposed roots of a Banyan tree) outside the classroom.

Early Mobile Devices

The introduction of the Palm handheld computing device was initially hailed as “the educational computer” because of its relatively low cost. Although there were major projects in the United Kingdom, United States, and Singapore that used Palm devices and Windows PocketPCs as essential tools for activities such as reading, writing, and drawing to support instruction, rather than just supplemental tools (e.g., drill-and-practice games) to support pieces of instruction, the reality is that the generation of mobile devices (e.g., Palm devices, PocketPCs) that appeared before Apple’s introduction of its iPhone had little practical impact on elementary and secondary education. The cost of those devices was still relatively high ($300 to $600), and it was a challenge to link them reliably and consistently to the Internet. The promise, then, of mobile computing for education, during the period from 2000 to 2007, remained just that—a promise.

Mobile Revolution

Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007 was the beginning of the mobile revolution. The device was easy to use, and it was constantly connected to the Internet— Apple required that the iPhone be purchased with cellular connectivity to the Internet. The iPhone revolutionized culture in developed nations of the world, but educators in elementary and secondary schools were still not convinced. Mobile phones had been banned in virtually every classroom in the world and smart mobile phones weren’t any more acceptable. Although a small handful of classrooms worldwide explored the use of iPods and then iPod Touches for language learning, the iPhone, continuing the tradition of Palm and PocketPC devices, had essentially no impact on elementary and secondary education.

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