Higher-education institutions building online learning communities that foster student collaboration through mobile social networking applications, especially those with video conferencing capabilities, allow students to learn in a way that’s most native to their personal socialization habits. In addition, this presents an opportunity for educators to grow engagement and improve performance.
Accessible, productive learning
The final benefit of a mobile classroom is the role it plays in fostering greater accessibility to education. Because today’s student is accustomed to quickly accessing information at the stroke of a mobile keyboard—anywhere, anytime—it’s only natural that students leverage personal mobile devices to enhance the traditional learning experience.
Mobile devices provide a platform for unhindered access to courses, discussions, materials and assignments. Shifting focus to engaging, untethered course delivery over mobile devices will not only open courses up to a larger market; it will also give students a chance to fully self-direct learning and increase productivity.
A Pearson mobile device study reported a little more than six out of 10 students believed using mobile devices can help students study more efficiently and perform more effectively, and 67 percent believed mobile devices would replace textbooks in the next five years. Additionally, 64 percent of students who participated in a Wakefield research claimed that technology saves two or more hours of studying every day.
Moving forward, the mobile classroom offers one of the best growth opportunities for educational institutions and flexible, engaging learning environments for students. As educators look for ways to empower students for greater success in the classroom, there’s no better place to start than with the mobile devices students use every day.
Rony Zarom is the CEO and founder of Watchitoo, an online video collaboration platform that helps top universities, including Yale and Wesleyan, create powerful video classroom learning experiences.
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