#AIM9: Mobile Warming: A New Approach To Student Engagement

Wednesday, October 10th, 2012

Kyle Bowen

102 D & E, Frontier Airlines Center

It’s no surprise that the students sitting in the back row with their cell phone in hand probably aren’t following along. We can’t be certain if they are taking notes, texting that cute girl in the next row, or contemplating their next Facebook status. Regardless of their intent, these students carry with them the technology and social connections necessary to engage each other in meaningful discussion. This presentation will explore the development of new mobile applications designed to take advantage of the mobile and social technologies students are already using. A growing interest in connection and conversation creates new opportunities to engage students both in and out of the classroom – not by creating new destinations, but by taking the conversation to where they already live.

Notes:

“That’s clever – they were crowd sourcing their rescue”

Could have reached more people with a picture of the tunnel.

Digital natives, immigrants, refugees.

The construct of the classroom has gone virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

Cone of distraction.

Pagers are the fanny packs of mobile devices.

Backchannel:

  • Let’s have the conversation where you already live: fb, twitter, …
  • The students who get As and Bs are those who interact twice as much as the Cs and Ds.
  • Students who interact feel like their voice is being heard.
  • 86% interaction in initial tests.
  • Extreme sport for profs.
  • Allows for real time fact checking.
  • Not a source of misinformation.

Creepy tree house – such as when a faculty friends a student on fb.

purdue.edu/studio

Every project starts and ends with a story.

Minimum viable functionality. The question shouldn’t be who should do the most. It should be the who can do the least and still get the job done. We need things that just work.

Native vs. neutral device sites?

  • Doesn’t matter what you think is best
  • Need to find out what students use
  • Study: 70% prefer native apps
  • They think native apps are faster & easier to use
  • 84% are on iPhone or iPhone

So…

  • Technology can’t replace the talent on the team
  • No sale implementation – these are new things. No data to sell it. Get early adopter partners and partners who are skeptical.
  • Waffle house index – look for indicators for what is happening on the ground.

Don’t ask for permission – if you have success, you will get backing!

Wow!

This was an incredible presentation. Very best that I have seen this year. Great job.

 

 

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