The availability and prevalence of mobile devices has grown
so much in the recent past, that a majority of students that we teach will have
some personal experience in their daily lives with some form of these devices.
Whether this be with iPods, iPads, smart phones or another tablet device. They
come to the educational environment already knowing how to navigate and utilise
mobile devices. There are many educational benefits to using these devices in
the school environment, but there is a need for a pedagogical change to
maximise the potential of these benefits.
“If you change the technology but not the method
of learning, then you are throwing bad money after bad practice.” (Davidson. C,
2011)
In order to address the change in pedagogy, it is first necessary to
identify the affordances of mobile devices. This then allows links to be made
to ways to harness the potential of these devices for 21st Century
learning. As I predominantly use iPads in the educational environment, this is
the mobile device that I have created an overview of with regards to its
technical features, affordances and limitations.
Davidson, C, 2011, Pointed response to NYT article on iPads in
schools, retrieved 1st July 2014 from http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/pointed-response-nyt-article-ipads-schools
