Mobile Technology in the Classroom is the Topic for the Next Mobile Monday Ann Arbor Meeting

Sept. 11, 2010 - PRLog -- ANN ARBOR, MI – Featured speaker for the next meeting of the Ann Arbor Chapter of Mobile Monday Michigan will be Professor Elliot Soloway of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor College of Engineering, and owner of GoKnow, Inc., who will be speaking on the topic of “The Use of Mobile Technology in the Classroom; Now and In the Future”.  The event will be held on Monday, September 20th from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. at Conor O’Neill’s located at 318 S. Main Street in Ann Arbor.  Attendance at this event is Free, and those interested in attending may register at http://meetup.com/MoMoa2. Other speakers for the event will be Don Burnett, Partner at Calder Entertainment and Media Corporation and a Designer/Developer at UXMagic.com who will speak about the Windows Mobile 7 Platform, and Mike Burns, President of Handeholder Products, Inc. speaking about the firm’s HandEHolder accessory product for use with the iPad.
 
Confirming the importance of Professor Soloway’s topic, an article by Moria Byrne entitled, 'Education on the Go: Mobile Technology Mobilizes Learning Opportunities' indicates, “A recent United Nations report on global cell phone use revealed more than 50 percent of the world’s population owns a cell phone. In response to the popularity of cell phones, mobile phone companies are fueling smarter, more innovative approaches to education in both first world and developing nations. Nokia, AT&T, Verizon and others are building educational resources and applications in order to attract teachers, students and content builders to read content from their mobile phones.”
 
Professor Soloway’s prediction: "Within 5 years, every child in every grade in every classroom in America will be using a mobile learning device (MLD – schools don’t like the term “cell phone”), and you can take that prediction to the bank – even though 99.9% of schools today ban cell phones!  Mobile devices are essential for how kids live their lives – outside of school; and they will become just as essential inside of school in short order.  In schools that have been using smart phones, we have seen test scores improve 20 – 30 points." As part of his Mobile Monday presentation, Professor Soloway will describe how MLDs are currently being used in schools, and will speculate about the technology (hardware and software) that needs to be created in order to make ‘mobile learning’ that much more effective for the world’s, not just America’s, children.

Elliot Soloway is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor the Dept. of CSE, College of Engineering, School of Education and School of Information, University of Michigan.  For the past 10 years, Soloway’s research has been guided by the vision that mobile, handheld – and very low-cost – networked devices are the only way to truly achieve universal 1:1 in schools – all across the globe.  In 2001, the undergraduates selected him to receive the “Golden Apple Award” as the Outstanding Teacher of the Year.  In 2004, the EECS College of Engineering HKN Honor Society awarded Elliot the “Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award.”  Elliot is a co-founder and Chief Innovation Architect of Ann Arbor – based GoKnow, Inc., a firm that provides mobile learning solutions to K – 12.

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MobileMonday (MoMo) is a community of mobile industry visionaries, developers, influencers, and users fostering cooperation and cross-company business development through virtual and live networking events. The groups programs are designed to facilitate idea sharing, best practices development, trends identification, and Mobile Industry growth locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. The Michigan branch executes on these objectives, through our Ann Arbor and Detroit chapters, by delivering a balanced approach of business and technical content from within the Michigan business community, as well as beyond our State, in order to insure the Michigan community is made aware of developments taking place outside our area that can aid local businesses. Those interested in learning more about Mobile Monday Michigan can find the group’s website at http://MobileMondayMichigan.org ; information about the International organization can be found at http://MobileMonday.net.