Phones in the classroom

We've dabbled with using mobile phones in class, and in other learning contexts, but maybe we should give more serious thought to the issues surrounding young people and their personal digital devices. A while ago I heard the always interesting Stephen Heppell talking about the need for flexible learning spaces with lots of white walls free of displays so that students could create all manner of interesting media products and share them with each other using simple, portable projectors. Today, whilst idly browsing the interweb I came across the above image of young people displaying their videos/webpages/whatehaveyou on all kinds of surfaces direct from their mobile phones. This technology doesn't yet exist, but a company called Microvision is making sure that it soon will. Imagine every student with the capability to create media rich content on their mobile digital device and then show it to their classmates for immediate feedback. That sounds like the kind of learning experience we should already be planning for in our thinking about new technologies and enhanced opportunities for creativity.