Why Mobile Learning?

In the current climate, Education Queensland is investing in mobile learning via the use of predominantly iPads. Many schools have purchased iPads for the use of teachers and students. The Learning Place is providing significant opportunities for teacher professional development to develop the skills and knowledge to utilise these devices across a range of curriculum areas. The Australian Curriculum is also being developed to provide learning tasks that utilise the benefits of digital tools, with a variety of mobile devices being encompassed in these tasks.

In saying this, there are still many classrooms and learning environments that are not taking advantage of mobile learning. Teachers will need considerable support and time to embrace this form of technology. Significant money is being committed to improving access to stable broadband infrastructure to enable regular and widespread internet access in school settings, but many educational settings are a long way off achieving this.

It is recognised that mobile learning is going to be a part of every school setting and that with technology evolving at an ever increasing pace that schools will need to embed these practices to provide students with skills needed for future life skills. This will take time, professional support and monetary commitment to make this happen. There are lighthouse schools that are taking on the challenge and showing the way. By sharing these success stories, teachers can be shown what is possible if they step outside of the box.

NB: this post has also been shared in the Topic 1 Discussion Forum