Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

2.15.10 | In 2008, the most recent date for which figures are available, 88 percent of the U.S. population had a mobile phone, according to CTIA: The Wireless Association. So maybe it’s not surprising we’re seeing so much movement in the mobile media and learning space. But game experts Kurt Squire, Colleen Macklin and Jim Matthews say it’s important to look beyond access when considering mobile for learning.

The release of the new iPhone G3 on July 11, 2008 was a game changer: it provided, for the first time, a real Global Positioning System (GPS) and better broadband capacity than anything that had come before. GPS opens the doors for all kinds of learning-based applications, perhaps most intriguingly: augmented reality games. And better broadband means designers can depend on their users having instant access to the Internet.

Game designers such as Colleen Macklin, associate professor at Parsons School of Design and director of PETLab, and Jim Matthews, a designer and project assistant at Local Games Lab at the University of Wisconsin, would not be creating the kinds of games they’re creating without these two things.

Designers also give kudos to the iPhone App store, which makes their work available to the public. Sure, there’s still an approval process to go through, but it’s nothing compared with getting a game on one of the consoles. And, according to Macklin, the App store means no more tiresome syncing with the PC.

Kurt Squire, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin and a researcher at Local Games Lab, also points out that kids love their iPod touches and the App store. If you believe passion for something increases engagement, then kids may be open to the idea of learning on the device and buying learning applications through a portal they already enjoy.

For youth, says Squire, “the combo of broadband media connection and a private screen is huge. Plus it can follow them across school, home, work, etc.”

Oh the other hand, there’s not-so-good news.

Not everyone has a GPS-enabled smartphone, so there’s still a bit of a waiting game going on, Macklin says. The biggest hurdle still to be overcome, however, involves changing cultural attitudes toward these technologies.

“The hurdle is social,” Macklin says. “Cell phones are seen as disruptive technologies in schools. And depending on when and how they’re used, they can be. But they can also be social platforms for learning. Once there are more good applications out there, they will, hopefully, be viewed like laptops and calculators.”

“I think one cultural issue is that many people frame the use of mobile media as ‘kids gone wild,’” Matthews said. “While we should be cautious when we consider how emerging technologies might be used to support learning, this view is far too narrow.”

Matthews also said that even when mobile devices are used in schools, more often than not, they’re just reproducing methods of teaching and learning that “do little to challenge traditional models of schooling.”

So the real challenge to the future of mobile media and leaning may not be a technical one at all. But rather, as Matthews says, one of getting schools to reconsider how they think about learning and then finding ways to use mobile devices to reinforce a new mindset.

Photo courtesy of Mobile Quest Summer Camp. For more on this camp see Spotlight’s Q&A with Katie Salen.