Dubai: The benefits of handheld learning were highlighted at the three-day Gulf Educational Supplies and Solutions (GESS) exhibition and Global Education Forum (GEF), which concluded Thursday.
"Hand held and mobile learning is becoming an increasingly important delivery approach for teachers in the 21st century because it allows them to take learning outside of the classroom," said David Kirtlan, Education Consultant of Semperior Education, a UK based educational consultancy firm for private and public schools across the globe.
An engaging process
Students can gain the traditional knowledge of the world around them through an engaging process, rather than by simply listening to a teacher, Kirtlan said.
The firm held a series of sessions to demonstrate to how students and educators can both benefit from using hand held devices in today's various learning environments.
Unlocking potential
"No longer does learning need to take place within the confines of the four walls of a classroom, or even between the hours of 9am and 3pm, students can learn at any time, and in any situation, and mobile learning is a key way of unlocking this potential," he said.
He said that devices such as the iPad and iPod allow not only allow students to take learning with them, but it also allows students to take control of their own learning, and gain and develop key employability skills vital the future development of each student.
For example, a simple project using wi-fi connected iPods could be to use the Google Mobile application, that allows for traditional Google searches to be made from photographs.
So small groups of children, aged between 7 and 9, could be asked to investigate the world around them. Each group of three or four learners would be assigned an area, such as insects, wild flowers or trees, and would be asked to investigate their area in groups and report back to the full cohort of students at the end of the session, Kirtlan explained.
He continued: "So one group, perhaps investigating insects, would have to work out and decide amongst themselves various key things, such as what they are looking for, where to find it, how best to work as a team and who does what, and how long they have to do this. They then have to take an image of one of the insects that they have found using the iPod and the Google Mobile application, and understand and interpret the information, before reforming the information and presenting back to their peers."
Gaining popularity
Use of handheld devices for teaching students from kindergarten to universities is gaining popularity worldwide especially because students learn faster this way as compared to the traditional methods, according to Shahid Baig, managing director of Paratec Blu, a company which specialises in producing hardware assisting hand held learning devices such as iPads and iPods.
"Handheld learning takes away the walls of the classroom."
'Whole reference library in your hand'
These devices are like carrying a whole reference library in your hand, Baig said.
GEMS Royal Dubai School, who recently introduced handheld learning into their campus, said that the technique has benefitted their students tremendously.
Philip Redhead, director of ICT and Innovation at the school said: "We think it is very exciting."
From creating podcasts to using a variety of applications for learning languages, improving mathematics skills or publishing online, handheld learning gives the opportunity for students to personalise learning, he said.
