Mobile Technology and Learning - In My Experience

Mobile Technology is a term that, to my honest surprise, contains more than just tablets and smartphones. I had originally presumed that all mobile technology were the kind of things that apple would make: iPads, iPhones, MacBooks etc. Upon doing some research I came across a publication from FutureLab which contained the following diagram:

Categories of Mobile Technologies (FutureLab, 2004)

With these extra categories in mind I saw the wider scope of what Mobile Technology consisted of. with that being said, I must admit that I have not used anything outside of category 1 within an educational context. I have used response systems, videoconferencing and electronic whiteboards in personal affairs as well as in art projects, but none in a teaching aspect.

I do, however, make regular use of my iPad during lectures. I prepare each lecture by having notes on hand to refer to, but having my lesson plan open and ready to switch to, by having Moodle open so I can update and reference files during the lecture, as well as occasionally sending out an e-mail to a student during class time. A key use I have for it is for fact checking; occasionally the class discussion will go off topic and the need to google-it arises. I also have an app that allows me to keep registers and contains all sorts of brilliant cross-referencing tools, but I'm afraid it's an app that I set up with all of the best intentions but have never actually used for its purpose.

I would like to conclude by saying that I intend to use more mobile technology within my teaching, but I feel that, for the moment at least, the technology I use is sufficient, at least in regards to my current modules.

References

FutureLab, (2004). Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning. [online] Birmingham, UK: University Of Birmingham. Available at: http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Mobile_Review.pdf [Accessed 17 Nov. 2015].