If you’re a teacher thinking about lesson design, you may be overwhelmed by the enormous quantity of advice that’s available online, in teacher trainings, and from colleagues. Building lessons that use the necessary standards, make effective use of technology, and deliver a truly meaningful learning experience can be a challenge. Traditional learning design models, such as the Waterfall Model or the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) Model, don’t always make for the most effective plans. These methods are static, often failing to leave room for adaptation. That means missed opportunities to meet students’ needs.

 

The key word here is agility. The corporate world is makinga massive shift toward agility in every aspect of business, and with good reason: Today’s economy and culture require businesses to change directions quickly and smoothly. Educators will note that the ability to adapt quickly in response to changes in the classroom isn’t new at all. In fact, it’s part of a teacher’s job.

Many of the old models have merit, but they don’t leave room for agility. Adapting quickly to student needs has always been important for teachers. Agile Learning Design (ALD) brings agility to the ADDIE model of content development and delivery. ALD is any approach to content development that focuses on speed, flexibility, and collaboration. With ALD in mind, teachers can create lesson plans that allow them to quickly adapt content, delivery, and assessment to their students’ needs.

Agile classrooms deepen learning, enrich relationships in the classroom, and broaden the future for students. In the agile learning environment, teachers and students become collaborators. Interactions are made more valuable for learners. Agility is an enormous asset in education.

How Mobile Learning Promotes Classroom Agility

Mobile learning is an outstanding tool for boosting classroom agility. As Irwin Jacobs, a chairman for Qualcomm said, “always on, always connected mobile devices in the hands of students has the potential to dramatically improve educational outcomes.” Teachers have always had to be flexible in delivering lessons, and now that flexibility can be enhanced. Through tools and capabilities such as wireless projectors, wireless display, and screen mirroring, classrooms can be more agile than ever.

How Does Mobile Learning Work?

Mobile learning has become the standard way of delivering content in many of today’s classrooms. With mobile learning, the teacher can walk around and interact with students instead of being tied to a computer or a projector. In classrooms where each student is assigned a mobile device, curriculum and instruction can be highly customized.

In addition to customized curriculum, mobile learning facilitates a learning management system that features enhanced proximity control. When teachers aren’t stuck behind a projector or computer desk, they’re free to walk around, monitoring students and helping them focus. Proximity control has always been a popular behavior management technique because it works. Mobile learning makes the time-honored tactic even more powerful by allowing teachers to combine it with individualized instruction.

Why Mobile Learning Is Well-Suited for the 21st Century Classroom

The technology available today lends itself to ALD and agile learning. Here are some of the advantages of using mobility in today’s classrooms.

It Promotes Collaborative Engagement

A traditional classroom and curriculum restrict meaningful collaboration in many ways. Mobile learning removes those restrictions. Instead, they have real-world materials and real interactions at their fingertips. Student engagement increases when they can see the relevance of what they are doing. Students are further engaged when they can collaborate in meaningful ways. Mobile learning technology can facilitate collaboration and positive working relationships among students and between the students and the teacher.

It Teaches 21st Century Skills

To compete in today’s job market, graduates need skills that are compatible with 21st century business. Corporations are going agile, so having agility in the classroom helps to prepare students for collaboration in a high-tech environment.

It’s Convenient

In its early days, classroom technology was often difficult to implement. Things are different today. Screenbeam, for example, is easy to connect and compatible with many mobile devices. It’s getting simpler every day to use technology in the classroom. Now, the right devices and software make curriculum design, instruction, and assessment easier, not harder.

It Promotes Self-Paced Learning

Mobile learning frees students from having to do exactly what everyone else is doing. When mobile learning systems such as Screenbeam are used in the classroom, students can work individually or in small groups with content that is geared specifically toward them. Students who need to spend more time with a particular concept can do so while the students who have mastered it move on.

It Blends Learning Styles

Learning style is another age-old concept that’s made new through ALD. Educators are always looking for ways to address the diverse set of intelligences and learning styles in the classroom. Mobile technology enables teachers to cater to many different students at once by blending learning styles in a single lesson or differentiating instruction on a student-by-student basis.

It’s Cost Effective

IT departments in schools are usually on tight budgets. Fortunately, technology tends to get more affordable as time passes. Today’s best e-learning solutions fit within school budgets. In fact, they’re designed to. It’s entirely possible to find a cost-effective solution that lends itself to ALD. Schools can work within their budgets by selecting devices and software that work within a school’s existing infrastructure.

ALD and Mobile Learning

The use of mobile learning in the classroom can increase students’ engagement, help them be more competitive in the 21st-century job market, and positively impact their lives by optimizing their learning. The right tools make it all possible. When educators add agility to their planning processes and implement mobile learning, more students find success.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. If you’re attending ISTE 2017, please visit us in booth #1326. We plan to debut our new wireless orchestration solution for Windows 10-equipped classrooms.