Sesame Workshop nonprofit petitions Obama for mobile learning
Most teachers and parents are skeptical about mobile devices' value in learning. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop wants to change that, petitioning the incoming Obama Administration to invest in mobile learning.
In a new report, the center has documented the potential of mobile learning. Based on market trends and model programs, the report offers a new national mobile learning strategy, along with a call for a Digital Teacher Corps.
"Almost analogous to the way television was used through Sesame Street and other shows 40 years ago to educate children, perhaps the most ubiquitous technology in children's lives today are mobile devices," said report author and Cooney Center industry fellow Carly Shuler.
The 56-page report, called "Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning," claims that mobile learning technology may be the new frontier for children in preschool, elementary school and high school.
Included in the report are 25 examples of mobile's power to transform learning, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Augmented Reality Games that use GPS technology to aid students in solving real-life environmental problems.
Another example is broadcaster PBS Kids' Learning Letters with Elmo that used video and text messaging to send literacy tips to lower-income parents of preschoolers.
Citing a British example, the report highlights the Wolverhampton Local Authority's Learning2Go effort that offers round-the-clock personalized learning to more than 1,000 students by letting them do science and critical thinking projects on their own schedule.
The Cooney Center defines mobile as any portable device, including PDAs, Apple's iPod and smartphones. Notebook computers and netbooks are not included.
"It's the learner that has to be mobile, not the technology," Ms. Shuler said.
Calling for government intervention
In her recommendations, Ms. Shuler has asked for new government and philanthropic investment to assess the effect of mobile technologies on children's learning and development, including brain and behavioral functioning.
Ms. Shuler has called for new industry designs and educational applications instead of simply adapting existing tools to mobile devices.
Creating a Digital Teachers Corps is another recommendation. Most teachers and after-school staff have little training in the use of mobile technology for education. A Digital Teachers Corps will equip them to handle digital media in this century.
Third, the report calls for the creation of a White House summit and digital investment fund to grow and promote mobile innovation for larger economic benefit.
The final major recommendation is to modify policies on mobile access to classrooms. Most school districts impose restrictions on mobile phones' usage in classrooms and some even ban their use outright.
Ms. Shuler wants to change that status quo.
In her report, she suggests steps to gradually introduce mobile devices in schools. Training teachers for integrating mobile media and acclimating students with the appropriate skills and behavior with such devices is a first step.
The report lists several challenges to overcome for mobile learning to become accepted reality. Included are the lack of large-scale evaluation evidence, public concern over the disruptive nature of mobile, privacy issue, varying mobile technology and the need for design standards.
Mobile is child's play
Pearson Foundation, PBS Kids' Raising Readers and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting supported the publication of the report.
Named for Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney, the Cooney Center is an independent nonprofit that looks at the role of new technology in learning and literacy.
The organization is supported by Blackstone Group chairman Peter G. Peterson, movie maker Harvey Weinstein, Mattel, Genius Products and Sesame Workshop. It is based in New York.
The report was released Friday Jan. 9 by Sesame Workshop president/CEO at the Summit at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Mobile devices stole the thunder at CES last week, making it an ideal platform for the Cooney Center to release the report.
According to Ms. Shuler, 93 percent of households with kids age six to nine have mobile devices. Also, more than 50 percent of kids nine and up have mobile devices. And mobile device growth is in the double digits with kids age four to 14.
In South Korea and Japan, an estimated 80 percent to 90 percent of children have mobile phones, Ms. Shuler said.
The United States has little time to lose with the adoption of mobile learning.
"I think we know that a third of our fourth-grade students are not reading at fourth-grade-level," Ms. Shuler said. "This correlates to students not graduating.
"If we can address this problem early, it's going to solve a huge problem for society," she said.
"So why mobile? We have all of these new tools in our toolbox which could be used for education and we're not using them and we're missing a major opportunity."
