Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Developers, Educators, and Learners (Wiley and SAS Business Series)

by Scott McQuiggan

Augmented reality apps like Elements 4D and StarWalk provide access to otherwise unattainable experiences. With Elements 4D students can safely see the visual representation of each element, but more importantly, they can combine elements, view the resulting chemical equation, and see how they react. Similarly, StarWalk presents visual support for the generally hard-to-grasp, abstract concepts of space. Without the use of expensive telescopes, each student can simply hold their device up to the sky and see the location, physical attributes, and movement of planets, stars, and satellites. Through creative app stacking, almost any problem-based activity can be accomplished efficiently with a single mobile device. Want students to make a movie? They can shoot, edit, narrate, and annotate an entire short film on the same device. Want students to experiment with Newton's laws? Give them a soccer ball and a GPS-enabled mobile device, and they can run experiments, collect data, and document their findings in the palm of their hand. Unbound by the restrictions of paper and pencil and computer cables, mobile learning juxtaposes the power of technology with our innate knack for exploration to produce irreplaceable opportunities for deep, meaningful learning.