TBReLearning Faculty Mobilization Meeting

Friday was a good day. I was invited to attend TBR's first ever TBReLearning Faculty Mobilization Meeting at the Renaissance Center in Dickson. That's the official name. I've been calling it AppFest.

The day was dedicated to conversation about how the availability of portable internet devices like smartphones, tablet computers and iPads are changing how we teach and how students learn.

You didn't have to be an iPad true believer to be there, but it didn't hurt. The morning started with a video of Steve Jobs announcing the birth of the iPad2 at this years Apple conference. The video was a pretty slick commercial designed to make you love the iPad and believe in its magic. And what's not to love? An intuitive interface, highly portable and rich with accessibility features for the deaf, blind, autistic and newborn. I already love the iPad a lot, but that's a subject for another post.

After the opening video, Dr. James Kelley, an Apple education technology consultant, presented Apple's vision for the future of education. It is a vision in which learning takes place outside the classroom more than inside the classroom. Where students are encouraged to explore their innate curiosities. Where knowledge and information are available upon demand to help solve interesting, challenging problems. Where entire libraries go where people go, and where everyone in the world can be in instant contact with anyone else in the world at a moment's notice. Pretty exciting stuff. Like I said, it is Apple's vision. It also happens to be the vision of Dr. Robbie Melton and many other faculty from across the TBR system.

Dr. Melton is working with all elements of TBR (universities, community colleges and TTCs) to build the infrastructures needed to realize a truly mobile learning environment. She has been busy. There are teams testing tablets and other mobile-friendly equipment. There are teams developing apps. There are teams compiling lists of apps and developing rubrics and best practices for the use of those apps in the classroom. There's a lot going on. You will hear a lot more about the mobilized faculty movement in the weeks ahead. For now, just know that no other state is doing what Tennessee is doing on such a broad level -- training today to deal with what's next.

Here are a few of the highlights I carried away with me:

• We are living in the post-PC world. Ironically, the devices that have replaced the personal computer are the most personal computers yet.
• Learning is becoming less about how much information you can keep in your head and more about how much knowledge you can put your hands on when you need it.
• You can't educate without first engaging.
• Today's learners are creative, mobile, multitasking, collaborative and productive.
• We don't always recognize our student's abilities and desires to learn because most of their learning takes place outside the classroom.
• Our students want to be challenged.
• Digital learning happens when students are challenged to create, distribute and access information.

Having met some of the talented, creative faculty who are already working with mobile technologies in their classroooms, I know TBR will become a leader in mobile learning. I am grateful and excited to get to play a small part in helping us get there.