Is There an App for That and The Last Child in the Woods

Earlier this week, I read the article "Learning: Is There an App for That?" which presented a great deal of information on the current usage of mobile devices from both adult and children's points of view, an investigation of the "pass-back effect" (when an adult hands or lends a mobile device to a child for use), and, most importantly, presented a section on turning the research into practice, an area that I find many academic studies lack.  One concern in the practices section caught my eye, that of increased mobile learning and dependence on digital technology might lead to "both physical and academic lethargy. This concern was substantiated in the Parent Survey as the number-one reason that parents reported for restricting technology

use. They believed such use would prevent their child from getting physical activity or exercise." 

The article continued by assuaging those fears with the results of studies that showed that children spent an average of 20 minutes engaged with mobile learning devices, rather than the extended periods of time spent watching TV or playing video games.  While this explanation does mollify the concerns to some extent, it ignores the fact that the remainder of the article is calling for an increase in the use of mobile devices for education and meaningful play, which, if successful, will eventually make their point of 20 minute-averages moot.

At our boarding school, we have a required staff reading list for professional development.  Among the tomes on Multiple Intelligences, active learning, meaningful assessments, etc. is a book called The Last Child in the Woods which discusses the shift of late from children playing outside during their free time to sitting in front of a screen, be it TV, video game, computer monitor or, more recently, mobile device.  This has led to, what he calls "Nature Deficit Disorder."    See a review of this great book here: http://www.hookedonnature.org/lastchild.html

When I was a boy, my twin brother and I would leave the house after breakfast, dissapear into the woods and would not return until dusk for dinner.  We would get filthy, scratched up, bitten and bruised from rock climbing, running from bulls in pastures, holding epic battles with briar bushes and thistles, catching crayfish and frogs, and generally having a ball.  This is also where a great deal of my learning took place.  Not simply the Tom Brown Jr.-type of learning of  "If you eat that weed, you'll get sick" or "Pine knots make great tinder" (although a great deal of that learning took place) but more sophisticated learning of how to work together and get along with my brother and friends, how to problem-solve, and to reason spatially.

Enough waxing nostalgic.  My point is that mobile learning has the opportunity to enhance these types of activities with the right applications.  As a child, we searched for treasure and created sophisticated battle plans.  Couldn't an app lead children to engage in these activities, and actually enhance them with maps, augmented reality, history, biology and botany, among many other possibilities. 

I think so.  It may take the development of water proof I-pads, but I hope mobile learning and battling pirates in the forest aren't made to be mutually exclusive.