I’ve been thinking a lot over the past couple of months about one on one learning with mobile PCs. You have likely heard about both technologies. They inspire learners and educators to set new benchmarks for increasing learning rates as envisioned by romantics and dreamers for centuries.
We can count on the utility of one on one learning and of mobile PCs in schools today. We also know that neither lead to perfect teaching and perfect learning. Yet, hundreds if not thousands of educators use mobile PCs with students and for themselves.
Most of what each of us know we learned from another person. In this sense, we learned it through one on one learning.
To me, one on one learning describes an individual conveying to another person how to perform a task. The task may be intellectual or tangible. Conveyance can occur by word or deed.
We say we know the conveyance occurs when the receiver performs the task in the same way as the sender. Then, we say that the receiver learned something.
I eventually came to distinguish one on one learning from one to one learning. The latter infers that someone has a right or claim to give something or do something to another person in order for them both to perform the same task in the same way. I prefer the neutral phrase one on one in order to describe the conveyance without valuing either sender or receiver more highly. Perhaps a more neutral phrasing would be one with one learning.
We know from common sense the essentials of helping other people learn with one on one learning.
As a point of reference from pre-electronic classrooms, we can each think of examples when someone used one on one techniques with groups of learners. Teachers walked classroom isles watching each student completing a worksheet or taking notes.
Now, many teachers and students use mobile PCs to complete, monitor and comment about each student’s work. This seems a more efficient use of a teacher’s time. With appropriate planning, it seems such uses of mobile PCs in classes can increase learning rates at a faster pace than through manual walk-arounds.
To generalize further, it seems that mobile PCs offer a way to simplify workflow automation of one on one learning. Maybe that’s a little jargon, but I think you know what I mean. Probably you have had the same thought. I know some people have worked diligently to improve the automatic flow of information between educators and learners.
People are still working through rules and responsibilities of using mobile PCs for one on one learning. Objectives are not always crystal clear even when agreement exists on common rhetoric. I appreciate when colleagues discussing R & Rs use the touchstone of reasonableness and whether students perform selected tasks successfully.
Given the common sense about one on one learning and the apparent utility of mobile PCs to support the ancient ideal of one person with one learner, I wonder why more teachers don’t initiate use of mobile PCs in our classes?
Who’s stopping that initiation? What barriers are personal with teachers? What barriers are systemic?
Why don’t individual teachers ignore or in other ways swamp the systemic gates and just uses mobiles to the advantage of their students?
I wonder how many will use mobile PCs in classes this fall for the first time?