Mobile Technology Impact on Education is Focus of Mobile Monday Detroit

Feb. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- DETROIT, MI – Mobile technology is on the minds of education professionals now more than ever before. More and more schools, including K-12 and higher education institutions, are increasingly embracing mobile technologies as a teaching tool, as a way to communicate with students for classroom projects, as a means of insuring student safety, and as a way of accessing resources. Educators are learning to use mobile tools, and students are happily engaging in using a tool they’d be using anyway –and experiencing substantial increases in their testing as a result.

It’s no mystery why the use of mobile technology is on the rise in the classroom: Studies indicate that 40% of teens plan on buying a mobile device within the next three months, and in the last three years, the smartphone penetration rate among the 18-24 year-olds has risen by nearly a fifth. It’s expected that nearly all of the Class of 2015 will have smartphones by the time they graduate. Meanwhile, studies indicate that nearly half of all college students are using their phones to access the mobile web.

In Michigan, we’re making progress on bringing mobile technology into the education environment on a variety of fronts. Mobile Monday Detroit explores some of those initiatives in its’ March 12th event at Compuware starting at 5:30 p.m. Presenters will include:

•  John Sowash, High School Teacher / Director of Online Learning, Southfield Christian School
•  Dr. Mary L. Waker, Director of Technology for Teaching & Learning, College of Education, Wayne State University
•  Alar Elken, CEO, XanEdu
•  Ted Stebbins, Business Systems Analyst, University of Michigan

Topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

•  The potential that can be achieved by the utilization of mobile learning, and transitioning the educational community’s thought of the technology from “nuisance” or “distraction” to “necessary” and “valuable”.
•  How mobile learning in the classroom impacts teacher preparation
•  Utilization of mobile devices to access a wide variety of published content; higher education's digital transformation
•  In-classroom and out-of-classroom uses for mobile technology in an educational environment

Once again Mobile Monday Detroit will take place at Compuware headquarters in downtown Detroit, and as always, attendance is FREE, but advance registration is required at http://meetup.com/Mobile-Monday-Detroit.  Free parking is available (with ticket validation at sign-in) in Compuware’s parking deck directly behind the headquarters building, and refreshments will be served.

Mobile Monday Detroit is sponsored by Mobile Monday Michigan, Compuware and the Mobile Technology Association of Michigan.

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MobileMonday (MoMo) is an open community of mobile industry visionaries, developers, influential individuals, and users fostering cooperation and cross-company business development through virtual and live networking events. The group’s 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 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; and information about the International organization can be found at http://MobileMonday.net.