September 13, 2010

ITForum was inactive for while but now the discussion on the Prof Herman van der Merwe's paper, "Mobile Learning: Why, how, what," with the author has generated a tremendous amount of traffic on the listserve.  How exciting for the group to post a paper to discuss with each other and the authors! This is a fantastic professional development opportunity. I can also relate to those students with their handheld devices searching through the e-birding guide. I have three e-birding guides on my iPhone (of course, these guides are for birds of North American and the Eastern North America.) These students were not only motivated and actively engaged in their learning by going into the field to study birds but the researchers used tools (technology) that the students love to use. These students are digital natives, although Prof. Merwe considers everyone digital aliens. I am not surprised that the students used the technology in ways other than the researchers had predicted, such as, recording the speaker, and photographing birds and speaker. Students will figure out new uses for the mobile devices, if given the chance.The quality of the student's work increased as a result of using the technology. I agree with the author that "pedagogy and not technology that makes a programme successful." The technology is just a tool, it's what we do with it and the students that makes the difference.