The future of learning is in your pocket
Afew weeks ago, as my daughter and I were watching the animated film “Onward,” I noticed the mom walking around their home while looking at her phone. As someone who didn’t grow up with smartphones, it was strange to see. Later that night after I put my daughter to bed, I caught myself checking Instagram while walking into the living room. I don’t think I am alone in using my phone to both scroll mindlessly and work on emails. I’m sure if we all counted how many times we checked our phone today, that number would be fairly (maybe even shockingly) high.
We’ve all heard the tales of digital natives and students who spend hours upon hours a day on their phones. Yet, cell phones are often not used intentionally to support student learning. Cell phones have become increasingly sophisticated and the capabilities of this technology are tremendous. Pair the increasing capabilities of phones with near-ubiquitous ownership and we can see incredible potential for leveraging this technology to both improve student learning and to increase access to high-quality educational opportunities. Students are quite literally carrying the future of learning in their pockets.
First, let’s explore how using cell phones can improve student learning. Imagine if students were able to participate in a course using their phones. Let’s go back to when we tried to count how often we look at our phone (or how often our kids look at their phones). Let’s say a student is looking at their phone 1,000 times over the course of a few hours. What if just 10 of those times, a student saw a message from an instructor and created a video to participate in a discussion. Or what if a student used virtual study cards that quizzed them throughout the day for an upcoming exam? By redirecting even a fraction of the time students spend on their phones to coursework, we can see how using cell phones could support student learning in new and exciting ways.
Next, let’s imagine how leveraging technology students already have can increase access to school. Cell phone ownership is nearly-ubiquitous across the United States. In fact, the PEW research center found 96 percent of 18 to 29 year olds owned a smartphone in 2019. Though cell phones may be nearly ubiquitous, access to high-speed internet and computers is not.
COVID-19 has highlighted painful inequities in internet access and computer ownership. A COVID response survey at Bakersfield College found that 22 percent of students lack access to reliable internet. For many families, having to pay for internet can mean making a choice between food and school. In other cases, internet access may be unreliable, particularly if students are living in a rural area. Even if you have typically high-speed internet, multiple users and occasional outages cause difficulties for students trying to participate in coursework remotely.
Schools have worked to meet these issues of access and to ensure that all students are able to learn remotely by offering WiFi in parking lots, loaner Chromebooks and loaner hotspots. These strategies have helped to provide students across Kern County access to school during the pandemic. For all families, not having to buy a computer for your kindergartner to complete remote schooling is a blessing.
While not all students have access to reliable internet at home, an increasing number of people are relying on smartphones to access the internet and a number of households rely on their phones to provide access to the internet. By offering mobile-friendly courses, we can offer students who may not have access to reliable internet in their homes an opportunity to participate fully in a course with technology they already own.
Of course, not every course can be completed entirely using a mobile device. Instead of thinking of this as an all or nothing, what if we created a continuum to indicate to students the mobile-friendliness of a course? By creating a continuum of mobile friendly courses, we are able to level the playing field for students who face inequitable access to technology and the internet. In one course, a student could complete the course entirely on their phone. In another course, a student would complete the course predominately on their phone, but would need to be able to make arrangements to come to the library or borrow a friend’s computer for the final paper. In each of these cases, the student would know the mobile-friendliness of each course before the semester even began, allowing the student to plan accordingly.
One of the many lessons learned from COVID-19 is the importance of offering multiple avenues to connect with individuals. Stores have pivoted to offer omnichannel services so a consumer can shop via an app, online, or in the physical store. Similarly, Bakersfield College is leading the way to offer a multitude of avenues for students to access high-quality educational opportunities. By intentionally leveraging cell phones, a technology that many students already have, we can both increase student learning and increase access to high-quality educational opportunities.