Pockets of Potential:
Blending social and academic uses of mobile devices for a compelling form of anywhere learning.
More K-12 schools are considering using students’ own mobile devices inside of school. Yet, many educators are still very unaware of the possibilities of using mobile devices for academic learning. In this article, we provide two vignettes that illustrate the opportunities that mobile learning devices could create for today’s students. These vignettes demonstrate where we currently are with mobile technology and academic learning and where we could be. The first vignette portrays Amy, a typical 7th
grade student
who uses her mobile device outside of school for social communication. Thus, in the following vignette, while mobile devices are very much a part of Amy’s home life and social world, they are not allowed inside of the classroom.
Vignette 1: Amy
Monday morning at 6:50am, Amy’s cell phone begins to play Lady Gaga. Amy yawns, turns over in her bed to see her fully charged cell phone playing the “Born This Way” music video. She lets the song continue to play but swipes to open her text messages. Her friend Katrina has texted her “u up??? What u wearin 2 skl?” Amy texts back “hoode.” Amy then uses her Facebook app to check if any friends have commented on her post last night: “Tried watching Rise of the Planet of the Apes…it freaked me out.” A couple friends liked her comment and Jasmine commented, “ALL of the planet of the apes movies freak me out!” Amy scrolls through the new Facebook posts since she went to bed last night and notices that Crystal posted an article from the Washington Post Social Reader, “Report: Will and Jada Split.” Amy is surprised that they are still together. Didn’t they already break up? She quickly skims the article… and thinks, “Too bad.” Amy browses through the remaining new posts and notices a depressing picture that Jordan, her friend from
8 | SPRING/SUMMER 2012 | MACULJOURNAL
By Debi Khasnabis and Liz Kolb
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