Exploring the Future of Mobile Learning on the Future Trends Forum

What Might Mobile Learning Look Like in 2027?

I had the pleasure of sitting in on another fun Future Trends Forum discussion recently, this one exploring what mobile learning might look like a decade or so down the road. Below I've shared the recorded video of the session, followed by a few bullets regarding some of the topics we got into.

I've written here before about Bryan Alexander's Future Trends Forum on Shindig, and suggest that readers consider watching and participating in one of these events (just enter your email in the “Follow Bryan …” box on the right side of this screen to be informed about upcoming forums).

If the future of mobile education is of interest to you, I think you are likely to enjoy this rich, interactive dialogue (you may want to jump ahead to 7:00 or so, after Bryan explains how the platform works … that being said, if you want to learn more about how the Shindig platform works, start at 3:00).

The Discussion 

I joined Bryan “on stage” (as they say in Shindig parlance) as he asked the audience to consider and explore the current state of mobile learning in their own schools and experience. We are then joined by author, librarian, and mobile app expert Nicole Hennig, and then by Joseph Murphy, Director of the Center for Innovative Pedagogy at Kenyon College in Ohio, and later by others. As you will see, Bryan attracts a diverse, experienced, and highly informed audience of educators (and me, lol!).

Some of discussion the group got into:

• When will the smart phone become a commonly accepted learning tool in our classrooms? How do we get there?
• What kind of new mobile hardware and interfaces might we see (wearable, AR & VR, AI assistants, Natural User Interfaces, etc.)
• Maya Georgieva from digitalbodies.net (where she and Emory Craig explore the evolving relationship between mixed reality, wearables, and education) discusses a wide variety of interfaces and experiences
• Automated language translation devices, breaking down the barrier of language
• Synchronous mobile learning as a replacement for the classroom: when will all of these changes enable us to cast away the fixed classroom and replace it with an engaging mobile learning experience? Students should be able to join a class and participate from anywhere, and not have to travel to a specific location.

It is pretty fascinating to consider the idea the some day we may be able to engage in formal learning anywhere and anytime, using a variety of natural interactive interfaces.

I hope you enjoy the dialogue, and are inspired to watch and listen, or better yet, join in, on one of Bryan's upcoming interactive Shindig sessions! Tomorrow (10/12) Bryan will have Robin Hanson, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Chief Scientist at Consensus Point, as his guest (learn more here: https://gateway.shindig.com/event/ftf-hanson).

I also recommended Bryan's excellent monthly FTTE newsletter which tracks trends in education and technology: https://ftte.us/.

To learn more about the platform being used in the above video, Shindig, check out this post: https://www.emergingedtech.com/2017/08/shingdig-pioneering-technology-school-of-tomorrow/.