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“The Future of Education: learning while mobile” by Mark Van’t Hooft (Learning and Leading Technology, March 2008, pp13-16)

In this article, Hooft discusses the concept of Learning While Mobile. Learning While Mobile concerns the constant mobility knowledge and technology and the learners. This learning is personalized, learner-centered, situated in the space and time, and life long. It also provides a bridge between the formal and informal learning, and a bridge between the schools and society. For example, “Frequency 1550” is a project to merge formal and informal learning. The students simulate that they are the pilgrims in 1550 in Amsterdam and try to find a special relic. The students need to do teamwork to explore the history of the city and develop their own stories.
In conclusion, Learning While Mobile is a way to connect the schools and the society. It puts more control in learner’s hands, and allows the students to explore, create, and access new knowledge through media.
Questions…
1. How to keep the students concentrate on their projects?
Teachers should select the specific topic to narrow down the related knowledge. Because it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the endless on-line information from links to links, students can spend a couple of hours without getting any progress. Teachers should help students to keep on working on their tasks, and let them concentrate on their projects. Teachers need supervise and check the status more frequently to put all of the students on the right directions.

2. Will this Learning While Mobile replace our traditional learning in a classroom?
Although this concept of Learning While Mobile is very valuable and practical to the students, it will not replace the traditional learning in a classroom. It is a good tool to explore more informal learning and connect with society. However, it does not teach the basic skills such as: reading, writing and math. We can only use this as a supplemental tool and can not replace our traditional learning in the classroom.