Learning Anywhere, Anytime

We know that younger children engage in problem solving before they know addition and they partake in sophisticated reasoning and questioning about stories before they can decode words (Peterson, 1989).

Regardless of whether or not we like it, or even admit it, technological advances have changed and continue to change the world. Today, we can communicate, make purchases and learn, almost anything, with a cell phone. Consider situations you know where we are still teaching typing and calling it keyboarding.

“One and a half billion people all over the world are walking around with powerful computers in their pockets. The fact is often they do not realize it, because they call them something else. But today’s high-end cell phones have the computing power of a mid-1990’s personal computer (PC), while consuming only one one-hundreth of the energy“(Marc Prensky, Innovate, June-July 2005). In fact, cell phones are more powerful than the computers that went on the Apollo mission to the moon.

These advances in technology undoubtedly create opportunities for learning and this article from Marc Prensky provides further insight.

The next time you hear a cell phone ring, in addition to looking around to notice whether it’s a student who turned it off or a colleague who steps out of a meeting after answering the call, think: Ringing cell phone=learning opportunity. Now, that’s learning anywhere, anytime.

From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Accommodating All Learners