Potential for Using Mobile and Networking Technologies in Teaching

Abstract

The article investigates the accessibility of mobile and networking technologies to schoolchildren of different ages living in various areas and how they use these technologies. The author considers the potential ways in which modern technologies can be used in education. The potential benefits of such technologies are particularly promising for rural schools. The article comments on the modern trend to create a seamless educational environment on the basis of e-learning.

Funding

This study was carried out under the Basic Research Program of National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) and funded within the framework of the “5–100” Russian Academic Excellence Project.

Notes

1. According to data provided by the International Data Corporation (IDC), sales of personal computers have been steadily declining since 2010 while over the same period mobile phone sales have continued to grow.

2. The working concept of the “ICT landscape” was coined by borrowing the archaeological term “landscape,” which offers an activity model that has been transformed into a spatial arrangement of elements and reflects the external forms of human activity models [12]. The abbreviation “ICT” indicates that our study is focused on information-communication technologies that shape the modern school landscape.

3. “Federal’nyy zakon ot 29.12.2012 no. 273-FZ ‘Ob obrazovanii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii’.”

4. “Federal’nyy gosudarstvennyy obrazovatel’nyy standart osnovnogo obshchego obrazovaniya. Prikaz Minobrnauki Rossii ot 17.12.2010 no. 1897.”

5. “Federal’nyy gosudarstvennyy obrazovatel’nyy standart osnovnogo obshchego obrazovaniya. Prikaz Minobrnauki Rossii ot 17.12.2010 no. 1897.”

6. The “eLearning Industry” page on the Facebook social network (171,000 people), “eLearning Industry,” https://www.facebook.com/eLearningIndustry; the “Blended-learning” forum on Pedsovet.org, “Smeshannoye obucheniye,” http://pedsovet.org/forum/topic11274.html; the “Education Innovators” page on the Facebook social network (3,000 people), “Innovatory obrazovaniya,” https://www.facebook.com/groups/ed-innovators.