Portable devices like iPods and mobiles will become essential equipment that every student will need to own, rather than disruptive devices to be banned from school, according to a report prepared for the ACT Department of Education and Training. The report has been issued by national information and communications technology (ICT) agency education.au.
“In some ways the education and training sector hasn’t kept up with the technologies its students are using ... and appropriated them for education and training purposes,” says Gerry White, CEO of education.au. “It’s starting to happen, but it will be some time before the technologies students are using ... are also a regular part of their formal learning experiences.
“Infrastructure and purchasing decisions by education departments and organisations must take into account the technology future,” says White.
The report identifies a number of key trends for consideration such as mobility, interoperability and convergence, and provides examples of how the educational use of new and emerging technologies could benefit disengaged youth, distance education and disabled students.
According to White, today’s students are already “digital natives’” and the education and training sector needs to ensure that “students’ educational experiences are relevant to the modern knowledge economy and to their experiences outside the formal education environment”.
White predicts the mobiles of the future will carry a student’s lifetime of notes, essential references, assignments, presentations, portfolios—all in rich media—along with a personal library of songs, audiobooks, photos and movies. The device will be an “essential requirement in the digital backpack of students in the 21st century,” concludes White.