Why higher education must fully embrace going mobile for today’s students.
Nearly two decades have passed since the advent of the internet and already the face of education has been fundamentally turned on its head. Schools of every kind around the world have had to make sweeping changes to the way curriculum is designed and delivered in the internet age.
For instance, reportedly, more than three quarters of American homes now have a smartphone or other tablet mobile device. People from every age group are accessing the internet for several hours each day, the way the previous generations did with television. However, there is a big difference between being a passive consumer of content that is served up on a static device like a television, and the interactive, exploratory nature of learning via online investigation and discovery. Teachers and students alike have had to adjust from a linear way of accessing information to a much more fluid, organic approach to learning.
One of the most radical changes in the past few years has been the implication of mobile devices within and beyond the classroom environment. Since mobile devices are intimately personal and fluid by nature, teachers are developing new and innovative ways to increase student engagement with a more personalized approach to how they guide the student in pursuing and sharing information.
According to education expert Dr. Steve Perry, “For decades, higher education has followed a tried and true, largely unchanged format since the Industrial Revolution. While modern-day technology has transformed other critical aspects of society, from the way products are manufactured to how goods and services are delivered to the way people manage their day-to-day lives, the approach to higher education had resisted opportunities for game-changing advancements. Fortunately, in the last several years, new entrants and approaches within the education arena have spurred the industry’s rapid adoption of new technologies, and substantially enhanced the options available to continuing education students.”