A Mobile Direction For Learning

We’re not necessarily talking about replacing print. We’re talking about supplementing print.

A smartphone screen is usually quite small, leading many of us to think that screen reading is somehow a diminished experience. But what if we shift our thinking and view mobile media as a new pathway for reading and learning?

In the college classroom today, smartphones and tablets are ubiquitous. Instructors may harbor lingering doubts about the shift away from print, but most students have no such qualms. For a visually impaired student, screen reading software means a fair chance at an education. For a student who holds down a full-time job, mobile means access to assignments and class discussions on the go.

Educator, editor, and author Michael Greer urges textbook authors and college instructors alike to recognize that mobile has surpassed desktop as the preferred point of access for most online readers, and he urges them to seize the opportunity this presents for a new direction in learning.

“I’ve been an evangelist for mobile for some time, and I want to reassure people that we’re not necessarily talking about replacing print. We’re talking about supplementing print. I’ve found that if we think about mobile as one part of a learning ecosystem that includes print and web-based platforms, that’s a nice way to think of it,” he told CCC’s Chris Kenneally while both were attending the annual conference of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association in Santa Fe.

“People tend to think of the small screen, and they think of it as a diminished experience of a printed book. Let’s stop comparing it to a print book and think about what can mobile do as mobile,” said Greer, who is an online instructor at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and author of the latest editions of The Little, Brown Handbook and The Little, Brown Compact Handbook.