Thursday, October 18, 2012

Mobile Learning Gangnam Style

Mobile devices have long been a bane for educators in the traditional classroom setting. When I first started delivering SAT preparation programs for Kaplan in South Korea a decade ago, my colleagues and I had to take extreme measures, and collect mobile phones from students at the start of each class. I was teaching in the Gangnam district of Seoul, Korea, in the early 2000's, where Korea's Miracle on the Han economic boon had produced an upper class wealthy enough to send their children to prestigious boarding schools in the US, and then to SAT prep courses back in Seoul over the summer holiday. This was Gangnam Style SAT prep, as the students had the latest LG or Samsung phones, carried to class in Gucci, Prada, or Louis Vuitton bags.