Tally One for Mobile Learning

So I picked up the November issue of Fast Company Magazine today and I was put up on a pretty interesting (and inspiring) method of teaching. I read about an initiative called Project K Nect, a project that helps kids learn math by infusing mobile phones (usually SMART phones) into the curriculum. You may be asking yourself, "Phones + Math . . . yeah so, what's the big deal?" I was skeptical too but here's how Qualcomm and Southwest High School (in Jacksonville, NC) boosted both student interest and proficiency in mathematics.

So Project K Nect requires each kid who is enrolled in a math class to have a cell phone. The same old dry math content that we all learned as kids is still dictated to the students. The difference is in the assignment: the kids are given the challenge of mastering the concepts and then documenting their mastery via mobile video. All mobile phones are required to have video recording capabilities in addition to the traditional voice and text capability. A free digital toy, coupled with new (more interesting) expectations seem to have done the trick for these high school students. Their proficiency scores and their interest in the subject to skyrocketed with the introduction of this new curriculum format.

This gets me to thinking, is there a link between successful mastery of an unfamiliar subject and the expectation of explanation? I thought about it and I think that if you know you will be expected to explain what you are supposed to have mastered then you will put more pressure on yourself to make sure that what you present is up to snuff. When I took math in high school, I was rarely put in a position where I had to explain myself or defend my assumed mastery of the subject. Only tests showed how good (or not good) I was for any given topic.

The video explanation component is even more pressure in this age of critiquing user generated content. But students shine under pressure when they are able to infuse their creativity on top of their mastery. This might even be more of an incentive to master a subject; kids may want to sprinkle their unique flair onto something MORE than they actually care about mastering that something. But if mastering that thing is what it takes to permit the opportunity to be creative then so be it. Just a theory but I think this is the case in these days in times where everybody wants to be witty, flashy, funny, hot, cool, on camera.

So to conclude, I would like to thank Elizabeth Svoboda for blessing me with this article. I think that this method of learn stuff --> prepare presentation --> exhibit mastery is a very powerful way to get kids to really learn and retain information. I'm gonna be playing with this for a little while and will be back with the my findings. Stay tuned.

mr. live love learn