Some troubling news has appeared in media over the past 24 hours. Many news sites and blogs have been citing an Associated Press article that claims that teachers and administrators are dismayed by students’ use of mobile devices to cheat in the classroom. The question is, why not “cheat?” If students will use similar or better information retrieval tools and knowledge generation tools in the workforce, why should they be prevented from using them in the classroom? In the world of desktop and handheld supercomputing, why are we limiting students to primitive pencil and paper technologies? Furthermore, why are we subjecting students to rote memorization when they could produce new knowledge and solve personally meaningful problems?
The Chinese have already figured this out, and are building mobile learning (m-learning) devices for use inside and outside of the classroom. On Monday, I will demonstrate two Chinese m-learning devices, the Noah NP890+ and the Ozing V99, at the Horizon Forum. Reviews of each device will follow on this blog later in the week.
If the Americans can’t figure it out, we will leave all our children behind?
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