Class Project

Blog 2: Handheld Devices

I read “Learning Environments and Rapidly Evolving Handheld Technologies” by J. Evans Ochola, James R. Stachowiak, John Achrazoglou, and David B. Bills.

The authors pointed out that “handheld technologies can increase communication and cooperativeness among students within the classroom, thereby creating an atmosphere of discussion and paralleled growth and having a positive impact on education (p. 5).” As educators, we need to understand the impact of these handheld devices in the classroom. They are great tools to motivate students to want to learn and they are definitely great tools on enhancing communications with students. These devices help “students and teachers integrate and make connections in diverse ways in diverse ways with all the various features they have to offer (p. 6).”

The authors also pointed out that the use of handheld devices has great potential to benefit students with disabilities. There are assistive technology being used in the classroom for reading, writing, communicating, and understanding social stories. These applications can read text aloud while highlighting, print dictated text, produce speech from typed text, and also link audio to written notes on mobile devices. But there are also disadvantages of using these devices, such as “cost, stigma, startup time, and mobility (p. 7).”

With the ever changing technologies, our society needs to be aware of what our classrooms will look like in the future. Educators need to be taught on how to “use technology as an effective tool for educating students, and preparing students to enter and successfully compete in the ever-expanding, high-tech global marketplace (p. 9).” The students now need to be packed “with 21^st-centry skills such as collaboration, problem solving, creativity and innovation (p. 9).” Teachers need to create 21^st-centry learning environments to prepare the students with the right skills.

Using these handheld devices in the classrooms seems to be a trend in education. I know there are a lot of school districts in North Texas that are allowing students to bring their own devices and they can use the WiFi services provided by their schools. There are also school districts that provide various technology devices for the students to use. I want to work as a librarian with a library that has WiFi services available for all the students who have technology devices. I also would like to have sets of tablets where staff and students can check out for ebooks, research, or other purposes. There are a lot of free applications for tablets that are educational and are aligned with state standards and objectives. Not only these applications can be used to enrich instructions, they can also be used in tutorial to enhance learning. I want to have these devices available in my library so I can assist students and staff for higher achievement.

Reference

Ochola, J. E., Stachowiak, J. R. 2., Achrazoglou, John3,4,5, John-Achrazoglou@uiowa.edu, & Bills, D. B. 6., david-bills@uiowa.edu. (2013). Learning environments and rapidly evolving handheld technologies doi:10.5210/fm.v18i4.3932