Posts Tagged "featured"
What Apps Would The Greatest Thinkers of All Time Have Used?
“There’s an app for that.” – Socrates
Obviously, that’s not a true quote, but…. what if?
If history’s renowned “thinkers” and philosophers- Socrates, Plato, religious leaders, etc. – had mobile devices to use on a consistent basis, what apps and services would they have employed? We can’t say with certainty, but we can have fun speculating. One thing is conclusive: we are the generation that can use these amazing tools to reference and renew the thoughts and intellect from yesterday.
The apps listed below are widely known; framing their use from this perspective renews respect for what may be normally take for granted.
For those who really like to speculate, here’s a thought to chew on while you’re reading: if yesterday’s innovative thinkers had access to these apps, do you think we would have progressed towards peace and prosperity or regressed to further corruption?
This is intended to be a lighthearted post; I encourage you to post your thoughts and ideas (however “out of the box” they may be) in the comments section at the end of this post or on the K12 Mobile Learning Facebook page.
Here are four apps and services that I think some of the greatest thinkers of all time would have appreciated:
1. TED
Read More3 Ways to Integrate the Six Thinking Hats in Education with Mobile Devices
Developed by Edward de Bono, the Six Thinking Hats represent a form of collaborative thinking employed by organizations such as IBM. The growing popularity of mobile devices have made it far more feasible and appealing for educators to utilize this framework for group projects. With a little preparation, the tenets of the Six Hats can be easily integrated in all learning environments.
If you’re new to the Six Hats, the Wikipedia entry provides a great resource for further exploration. Additionally, I recommend reading the book on the Six Hats as it offers deep insight for effectively employing the Six Hats in any organization.
Brief Overview of the Six Hats in Education
With the Six Hats, students are assigned a colored hat which represents a method of thinking. Initially, time spent in this activity is more productive and more comfortable for students when they are assigned a hat color that represents their natural thinking structure. As students grow acquainted with the process, reassigning different hat colors promotes alternative views and new paradigms to see problems through.
3 Ways to Integrate the Six Hats with Mobile Devices
Below are three ways educators can effectively integrate the Six Thinking Hats using mobile devices in their classrooms. Selecting amongst these three methods is contingent upon factors influencing your classroom (grade level, content, policies, etc.) and may be more appropriate under different circumstances.
1. Six Hats iPad/iPhone App
Looking Ahead: 7 Future Developments with M-Learning
The idea of utilizing mobile devices to support learning in schools has faced understandable scrutiny and resistance for years, but trends reveal that mobile learning isn’t a fad.
Adoption of any breakthrough idea, method, tool, or technique requires a break from old ways of thinking and accepting new paradigms. I believe that the education field is rapidly approaching mass adoption of mobile devices to support and enhance learning. Once mass adoption occurs, we can fully expect new ideas to emerge and further research and development to be vested into mobile learning.
In The Singularity Is Near, Kurzweil discusses seven stages in the life cycle of all technology. I used this cycle to reflect on the current state of mobile learning in schools. While mobile devices have been adopted for general use in society, mobile (electronic) devices used to support learning in schools is a fairly new concept taking root. I believe integrating mobile devices to support learning is in the third stage of this cycle, where a community of innovators and tinkerers build upon the original invention, thus enabling the invention to mature and flourish.
Where will these new paradigms, innovators, tinkerers and R & D lead us? It’s very early to tell, but we can still interpret mobile trends and blend these with trends in education and learner-centered pedagogy. Here are a few emerging developments I predict – some concrete, some abstract – that I feel have serious implications in K12 learning environments:
1. Location-Based Group Texting
Complete the Mobile Education Survey for a Chance to Win $100
If you’re an educator, I encourage you to complete this survey for a chance to win $100! Ten prizes are being awarded. The results will help facilitate the delivery of mobile learning within the field of education and should take around 5-6 minutes to complete.
Good luck!
Read MorePiloting a New Program or Innovative Idea? Incorporate the Continuous Improvement Cycle
The continuous improvement process helps us evaluate the level of success for new programs or ideas implemented. Whether you’re deploying a program on a small scale or large scale, this system of evaluation will enable you or your organization to continually grow, excel, and self-assess.
Furthermore, this cycle is as applicable to mobile learning programs as it is to evaluating personal development and growth. When applying this system from alternative paradigms, the identified processes below may create an issue of semantics; however, the principles and basic ideas are static and timeless.
Here are the seven steps that represent the continual improvement process:
Step 1: Perform a Needs Assessment
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