Teachers Testing Mobile-Learning Methods

Best practices are emerging as educators begin to figure out how to incorporate mobile devices into classroom learning.

It’s no surprise that students want to use cellphones and other mobile technologies in class, but getting teachers on board with the idea may be more challenging.

In fact, incorporating mobile devices can change classroom dynamics and significantly affect the way teachers teach, all of which requires technical and instructional support to be successful, experts in educational technology say. Such implications, in turn, are creating a demand for more high-quality professional development in this area.

“The important thing to understand with mobile devices in general, especially for education purposes, is it’s still in a state of infancy,” says Nabeel Ahmad, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a learning technologist for Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. “We’re...