In an article titled It’s not always over when the bell rings, Recordnet.com here rounds up some facts on how kids are continuing learning in their time outside of their class schedules in some example after-school programs. A sample fact from the article is:
In 2002, California voters approved a ballot initiative that, combined with previous funding, would direct as much as $550 million toward after-school programs for the state’s students.
Mobile learning offers on-demand any time after-school learning for each student who is participating. When learning assets are in his or he pocket, it is possible to pull out the device and do some learning any time. Numbers like $500 million can do a lot to put those mobiles into students’ pocket.
March 15th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Personally, I think that if there are large wads of cash such as this to be handed out, the greatest impact that can be made at present is in mobile learning content. If there’s a great selection of m-learning services that can be accessed with a mobile phone, then parents everywhere will ensure that a mobile phone is part of a young learner’s school kit; but at present, there’s a perception amongst many parents and schools that the negatives of mobile phones currently outweigh the positives.
Besides, getting mobile phones into the hands of young learners is not such a big issue as many people might think. According to the latest research, for example, some 60% of Australian 12-to-13-year-olds already have a mobile phone (http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/WP97.pdf). If there were great educational services and content available to mobile learners, I have no doubt this figure would increase significantly.