We’ve all seen it! Strolling through the mall, walking down the street, in restaurants, fast food joints and on airplanes. The arch of the back and the glow of a face embedded in the screen-world of a small, oblong object. The 21st Century yoga-like pose of “Smartphone Crouch”. I have no doubt that at the first varsity football game of the season this evening, I will see myriads of teens multi-tasking between the game and the social construct of attending and relating their experience to the world contained in their smartphone through a plethora of selfies and real-time Vines, status updates on social media, Instagrams and convos.
Smart devices are taking over - and from a report from the UK in August, 2015, it would seem that these devices have a strong hold over not just us, but the next generation too. The BBC reported that smartphones were now edging ahead of laptops as the choice of device for getting online. Portable and with the power to connect from almost anywhere, these devices do mesh into everything that our students want to do - and keep them constantly connected as well. But what does this fact do for teaching and learning?
I had the joy of being in a science classroom this week with a group of middle schoolers. The unit that they were doing was called “It’s a zoo in here!” and indeed, if you ever get the pleasure of walking into Mr. Leonhardt’s science classroom, then you will quite understand the premise. The sights of birds, vertebrates, invertebrates, reptiles and birds of all colors and sounds just stimulate the senses alone. However, watching students in the “Smartphone Crouch” in this context brought hope to my educator mind. Angled up to the ceiling above each tank, cage or animal enclosure, the students captured data about their classroom occupants through QR codes posted there to delve into an inquiry cycle of not only identifying the animal genus, latin and scientific names, but deeper dives into learning more about animal habitat, climate zones, species and variations - documented in collaborative Google Docs in an open inquiry cycle. I really do wish I could have bottled the student engagement in this lesson!
Every year, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), issue a report based on what they see to be the near and the distant horizons in technology in education. The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition is invaluable reading for educators and schools as we navigate the waters of figuring out what technology is about to become the “vogue” and what can sustain in our schools. Faculty are always trying to embrace the newest technologies to “bottle” the engagement described in the science lesson above. The panel look at the trends and challenges facing schools and signal the “important developments in technology that could support these drivers of innovation and change.” (p. 1). Their 2015 thinking aligns to what is already creeping into our school building at Saint Edward’s, “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and makerspaces are expected to be increasingly adopted by schools in one year’s time or less to make use of mobile learning and cultivate environments where students take ownership of their education by doing and creating. The time-to-adoption for 3D printing and adaptive learning technologies are estimated within two to three years, while digital badges and wearable technology are expected to be mainstream in schools within four to five years.”
The near horizon is coaching the use of the personal, handheld device and it’s even likely that the BYOD of choice may well be a tablet or a Smartphone in the very near future. As a 1:1 school, it’s behoven to us to consider the distant horizon - will laptops be the device of choice in five years? As our Lower School students can testify with their 1:1 iPad use, that may well be a consideration as we endeavor to sustain technology that really will serve the student that holds a tablet in their hand in 2015 at the age of five and what technology will prevelate in their world when they graduate in in 2029. Let’s hope the “Smartphone Crouch” does not do permanent damage to their postures as it’s unlikely the device causing this phenomenon is going to be absent from their hands any time soon!
Bibliography
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report:
2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Click here to download a copy
Smartphone web use overtakes laptops - BBC News. Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33799051
Smart devices are taking over - and from a report from the UK in August, 2015, it would seem that these devices have a strong hold over not just us, but the next generation too. The BBC reported that smartphones were now edging ahead of laptops as the choice of device for getting online. Portable and with the power to connect from almost anywhere, these devices do mesh into everything that our students want to do - and keep them constantly connected as well. But what does this fact do for teaching and learning?
I had the joy of being in a science classroom this week with a group of middle schoolers. The unit that they were doing was called “It’s a zoo in here!” and indeed, if you ever get the pleasure of walking into Mr. Leonhardt’s science classroom, then you will quite understand the premise. The sights of birds, vertebrates, invertebrates, reptiles and birds of all colors and sounds just stimulate the senses alone. However, watching students in the “Smartphone Crouch” in this context brought hope to my educator mind. Angled up to the ceiling above each tank, cage or animal enclosure, the students captured data about their classroom occupants through QR codes posted there to delve into an inquiry cycle of not only identifying the animal genus, latin and scientific names, but deeper dives into learning more about animal habitat, climate zones, species and variations - documented in collaborative Google Docs in an open inquiry cycle. I really do wish I could have bottled the student engagement in this lesson!
Every year, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), issue a report based on what they see to be the near and the distant horizons in technology in education. The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition is invaluable reading for educators and schools as we navigate the waters of figuring out what technology is about to become the “vogue” and what can sustain in our schools. Faculty are always trying to embrace the newest technologies to “bottle” the engagement described in the science lesson above. The panel look at the trends and challenges facing schools and signal the “important developments in technology that could support these drivers of innovation and change.” (p. 1). Their 2015 thinking aligns to what is already creeping into our school building at Saint Edward’s, “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and makerspaces are expected to be increasingly adopted by schools in one year’s time or less to make use of mobile learning and cultivate environments where students take ownership of their education by doing and creating. The time-to-adoption for 3D printing and adaptive learning technologies are estimated within two to three years, while digital badges and wearable technology are expected to be mainstream in schools within four to five years.”
The near horizon is coaching the use of the personal, handheld device and it’s even likely that the BYOD of choice may well be a tablet or a Smartphone in the very near future. As a 1:1 school, it’s behoven to us to consider the distant horizon - will laptops be the device of choice in five years? As our Lower School students can testify with their 1:1 iPad use, that may well be a consideration as we endeavor to sustain technology that really will serve the student that holds a tablet in their hand in 2015 at the age of five and what technology will prevelate in their world when they graduate in in 2029. Let’s hope the “Smartphone Crouch” does not do permanent damage to their postures as it’s unlikely the device causing this phenomenon is going to be absent from their hands any time soon!
Bibliography
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report:
2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Click here to download a copy
Smartphone web use overtakes laptops - BBC News. Retrieved September 8, 2015, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33799051