Some administrators still prohibit cell phones and other mobile devices in the classroom. They do not change their minds when their teachers send them articles about the benefits of mobile learning; in fact, they may not even have time to read the articles. Often when a teacher approaches the administrators with a statement like “Mobile learning is great,” they turn a deaf ear. They are not interested in technology per se.
These administrators focus on student improvement. However, when a teacher says, “I want to show you how much more students have gained in their learning since the beginning of the year,” the administrators become interested. For example, Miss Thorp shows her administrator, Mr. Verona, how students have grown in their learning on a major subject area goal. She demonstrates the low starting scores on math word problems and their now high scores. She does not talk about or show mobile learning. Once Mr. Verona acknowledges the students’ major learning improvements, then she shows that students used mobile learning to work on grocery store word math problems with students in other states and tells how important the mobile learning was to the learning. Mr. Verona now realizes that mobile learning can be a valuable tool in the math class.
How do you show your administrator improved student learning as a result of mobile learning?
cross-posted at http://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com
Harry Grover Tuttle teaches English and Spanish college courses at Onondaga Community College and blogs at Education with Technology. He is also the author of several books on formative assessment.
