Creating Mobile Learning Apps Adds Another Layer to Learning
March 8, 2011 | 4:02 PM | By Tina Barseghian
I’ve written a lot about mobile learning – and there’s a lot more to write about because it’s a quickly growing and changing study.
But today at the Cyberlearning Tools for STEM Education Conference, I heard about the value of kids not just using mobile apps, but actually creating them.
Chris Thompson, Associate Director Evaluation & Technology, Georgia Tech, talked about the university’s Mobile Learning Laboratory (MoLLy). Thompson enumerated some of what kids learn while they’re creating apps:
- How to create media (animation, audio, video)
- Game design (different genres, set of rules and play, how to best engage users)
- Programming, user interface and instructional design
- Robotics (there are robots in mobile devices inside mobile phones, he says).
- Collaboration (working with other kids on the app)
- Critical thinking (identifying what’s most important and relevant in the game)
- Marketing and business practices as well as promoting and public speaking (how to sell it to the public)
- And last but definitely not least, they become mini-experts in the subject the app and game they’re creating.
Again, it goes back to the idea of how creating media makes learning a subject more relevant and interesting to the digital generation.
Read more about Thompson’s project.
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