For several years now, my volunteer work has centered on students and education. I’m the chair of IEEE's PreCollege Committee, which encourages students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), partially by assisting teachers with curricula and awarding grants for innovative projects. 

 

My professional life and personal interests have lead me to every imaginable small device and their supporting technologies: PDAs, cell phones, MP3 players, Game Boys, Modos, mobility, RFID, portals, intranets, extranets, eBiz-eBooks, CMS, DRM, CDMA, SMS, EV-DO, WAP, RIM. 

 

Fortunately, students and consumers don't need to remember acronyms, battery life, pixel count, or screen resolution. But, up to now, very few educators have focused on using the ubiquitous devices kids of all ages embrace today. To make matters worse, politicians, academics, superintendents, and principals blame this technology for lower test scores, jaded learners, disconnected teachers, disillusioned parents.  Pervasive Computing has been a phrase used and recognized for years. 

 

IEEE (News - Alert) publishes Pervasive Computing, described as “a catalyst for advancing research and practice in mobile and ubiquitous computing.” Manufacturers, prodded by Wal-Mart, have implemented RFID; analytics and dashboards add value to the supply chain. Enterprise employees bring consumer electronics into their cubes, adding more headaches for corporate IT departments worldwide.  

 

Today, we have children, teens, and adults texting, listening to music, gaming, betting, all on any number of battery powered, wireless devices. And, we're not even discussing the sophisticated uses implemented by industry, or video and camera phones. 

 

These so called, embedded systems, are not new. Just stop shopping in your favorite mall for a minute, and observe the number of devices in use. Suddenly, embedded and ubiquitous computing has a more profound meaning. Games, conversations, music, pagers, schedules, e-mail; try counting the thumbs in motion. You'll soon see my point that we have attained an entirely new definition of pervasive or ambient technology. 

 

The viral concept of technology, once limited to marketing campaigns has spread everywhere, but who is listening today?

 

Thumb-enabled devices, or TEDs, are here to stay—as is this new definition of ambient technology. Now it is up to the technologists, and engineers to leverage the ambient aspects of TEDs to push learning and education in a new direction. It is just as easy to send text messages containing specifically developed curriculum, as it is answers to tests, gossip, or today’s grocery list. 

 

A student can carry around simulations developed for chemistry or biology; math and science games can be as compelling as the latest Blast-Bully edition (played on a TED). Reading Steinbeck? Anywhere. The classroom is no longer inside four walls, but in the mall, or anywhere the screen shows a signal and battery power is left. 

 

Because our children are learning all the time, “ambient education” is inherent in every cell phone, gaming device and MP3 player. The supporting knowledge of these devices is shared as easily as learning the bus route, or texting a new music download link. Our children are evolving into ambient learners, and our schools must catch up.

 

Another aspect of all is this is the ability to beam and transfer learning materials from one device to another. A teacher should be able to transparently send course work to a device, and students share the concepts as effortlessly as they've shared favorite study tips, URLs, and music for years.

 

This type of “sharing” is not new, but ambient technology is making it possible for a new learning center model to emerge. It should come as no surprise that our children “get” this. Twenty-first century kids learn differently and need “school” presented to them creatively. 

 

Our teachers desperately need help to understand these concepts, and teach all students, not teach to pass tests or provide tablet PCs to a privileged few. Our teachers must learn how to reach every student who has learned to use a cell phone, work a remote, or chase a ball with their thumbs around a display. 

 

Our youth are ready for ambient education. Are we? The good news is many of us, around the world, are already hard at work, building these new models. Want to help? E-mail [email protected].