Current uses of mobile
technologies in
elementary education
Types of mobile technology use
In-class engagement:
Mobile games (Kahoot!, Quizlet, etc.), and apps to reinforce learning (Studyladder, Prodigy, etc.) are widely used by teachers to increase student engagement and encourage independent practice of skills.
Distance learning:
Mobile technologies have become a necessity for distance learning, and many students have borrowed devices from their schools to continue learning from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Herold (2021) reported that "the district purchased 30,000 Chromebooks, distributed thousands of mobile hotspots, adopted a new learning management system, and worked with city and state officials to help build fiber-optic networks in neighborhoods around the city" in order to support distance learning. Additional distance learning options have emerged, such as “Elevate K-12 (which) offers districts certified teachers who live all over the country, but run synchronous classes that can be livestreamed anywhere. … A little over half the company’s current clients are fully remote, while the rest are mostly hybrid.” (Herold, 2021).
Assistive technologies:
Many built-in features of mobile devices, such as touch screens and screen-readers, as well as apps with speech-to-text and closed-captioning, to benefit all students. (Castelo, 2020)
VR headsets to support students with autism spectrum disorders and individual learning needs. Used with Google Expeditions, "the immersive VR experience helped students stay focused and engaged during their lessons" (Castelo, 2020).
The Livox app, for students with disabilities “uses special algorithms to interpret motor, cognitive and visual disorders, as well as machine learning to predict and understand what the person might want or need ... parents and teachers at Freedom Elementary said the app has been transformative for their special needs students” (Jong, 2020).
The mobile experience:
EduVenture adds value to in-person field trips with “inquiry-oriented field trip-based learning in the natural environment ... (it is) an open-access ambient learning system for educational researchers and practitioners to create digital GPS-supported ambience-aware materials for facilitating learners to conduct outdoor, self-directed field trip-based learning” (Jong, 2020). Students can access the learning materials in the field using mobile phones or tablets.
Collaboration:
Numerous student-friendly mobile apps are being used for collaborative work, such as Google apps for education, Pear Deck, Flipgrid, Padlet, and Nearpod. Most of these can be used on any device, in any location with internet access.
Spatial learning tasks:
For the study of mathematical concepts, such as symmetry, angles, area, and perimeter, tablets have been used successfully, and students perceived the work to be more fun and easier (Fabian and Topping, 2019).
The world in the classroom:
Virtual field trips are an increasingly popular way for young students to see the world, via on-screen or interactive experiences (see example platforms here). Regarding Google Expeditions, Park (as quoted in Minnick, 2019) states, “The Expeditions team works with schools to provide immersive experiences within the classroom. Something like placing planets in the middle of the room or creating a virtual model that shows the anatomy of the human body, can really make a learning experience special.”
The use of applications and websites to digitize and mobilize learning has become commonplace in elementary education, but so much more is possible with mobile technologies. Many elementary teachers are using platforms that enable collaboration between students and/or their teachers, plus apps and games which help students learn or practice educational outcomes. Less common are the use of VR and AR, as well as applications that take students outside the walls of their building. Why is this? How might mobile technologies be better utilized in the younger years?