Educators, policymakers and members of the wireless industry gathered last week at the Mobile Learning Conference 2009 in Washington D.C. to discuss how cell phones can help kids learn in the classroom. That’s an idea bound to generate at least some controversy in places like New York City, where cell phones are banned from use in public schools.
“We are at the tipping point for mobile learning,” said Carly Shuler, a fellow of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, during a panel at the conference. “Just as television was a fundamental part of children’s lives when Sesame Street introduced millions of children and their families to its educational potential, mobile devices are part of the fabric of children’s lives today. When Sesame Street started, the question they sought to answer was ‘How can emerging media help children learn?’ This question is just as relevant today as we consider the role of mobile devices in the education of 21st century children.”
The panels discussed such disparate topics as using smartphones to aid in math tutoring, developing cellphone-based curriculums, and making better use of wireless broadband networks in the classroom.
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