1. Mobile Learning: Providing 1:1 Access for ALL Your Students
Verizon Wireless & GoKnow
A Unique Opportunity for K12
Mobile Learning: Providing 1:1 Access for ALL Your Students
Cathleen Norris, PhD
Co-Founder & Chief Education Architect
Regents Professor, University of North Texas
Elliot Soloway, PhD
Co-Founder & CEO
Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, University of Michigan
Schools are realizing the they need to rollout 1:1 programs for their students. Computers in particular, and technology in general have been shown to increase student motivation, increase student attendance, decrease behavior problems, and increase student achievement.
But, the old way of providing traditional laptops to students is simply unsustainable; they cost too much money to maintain and the hidden cost of creating a WiFi network is also beyond most school’s budgets.
Let me show you how Verizon Wireless can help you rollout a 1:1 program that is sustainable at reasonable cost. And, let me show you how GoKnow Learning can help your teachers take their existing curriculum and integrate it Verizon’s mobile computing devices to create complete and comprehensive lessons that are standards-based – and are exciting and energizing and help students re-engage in learning.
Here we go!

2. The Challenge: Making 1:1 Happen
Mobile Learning is the future – and the future is NOW
Each and every student uses a mobile computing device 24/7 for learning
21st Century Learning requires 21st Century Tools
New, unique opportunity – Verizon Wireless + GoKnow
Use Verizon Wireless’ cellular network & “cellphone computers”
Use GoKnow’s educational software & professional development
Mobile learning is the future – and that future is now. Mobile learning means using devices such as smartphones or netbooks for curricular purposes. We call a smartphone a “cellphone computer” to emphasize the fact that first and foremost a smartphone is a computer. There are desktop computers, laptop computers – and now we have cellphone computers.
You can rollout a 1:1 program by putting a mobile computer into the hands of each and every student. And, because those mobile devices are using the Verizon network – the most reliable network in the nation – students will have SAFE access to the Internet from school and most importantly from home.
Do you want to close the digital divide? Cellphone computers are the way to go. Cellphone computers let ALL students, independent of economic situation at home, have access to the Internet from home, from the school bus, from the mall, from the everywhere. And that access is safe; Verizon provides a filtering service that keeps our children safe, while they are on the Internet.
Schools must prepare students to be productive and prosperous citizens in the increasingly global marketplace of the 21st century. If schools are going to teach 21st century skills, they need to use 21st century tools. And mobile devices such as cellphone computers and netbooks are quintessential 21st century tools.
The students on the left are from Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller TX. These 5th graders are trying to identify which room in the building has the most area. You can see they are using a tape measure and their cellphone computer. On the right, these children use their cellphone computers for ALL their core subjects: language arts, science, math, and social studies. Yes, the students use paper, pencil and books; but the hub of all their work is their cellphone computer.

3. Technology Solution Economically Sustainable
Verizon Wireless provides the network connectivity & devices
Students connected 24/7 both in school & at home
Safe – Verizon provides free filtering
Students use cellphone computers - smartphones with keyboards – or cellular netbooks
Affordable & Sustainable for 1:1
So, here’s how you would rollout a 1:1 program. Let’s start with the technology and then move to how that technology would be used in the classroom.
Verizon Wireless provides the smartphone – the cellphone computer – and the network access. If you want a netbook for your students, Verizon Wireless can provide that too. Both are mobile devices.
Since it is so important, we will repeat ourselves: when the students use Verizon Wireless’ network to access the Internet, they are safe. The Internet is filtered through a Verizon service; children are not free to roam anywhere they please on the Internet – at home or at school.
Adults oftentimes ask: how can a student do anything meaningful with such a small screen? Or such a small keyboard. We ask that question since we are seeing the cellphone computer through adult eyes – not through the eyes of our children. Children report that cellphones are essential to their lives outside of school. But, when they come to school, they have to “power down their brains” and turn off their cellphones in order to enter the school.
Rather than fighting a losing battle, wouldn’t it be better to use all that positive energy associated with cellphones for educational purposes? Indeed, we are here to show you how that can be done in a speedy and cost effective manner.
Cellphone computers- or netbooks – are affordable now and they are sustainable. You can expand your pilot 1:1 rollout to all your grades at a reasonable cost. A cost, by the way, that is constantly decreasing.

4. Education Solution Educationally Effective
GoKnow provides curriculum & classroom integration strategies
District’s existing curriculum + Cellphone computers =
Engaging lessons
21st Century Skills & Knowledge require 21st Century Tools
Makes differentiated instruction easy to do
Makes it easy for teachers to collaborate
Verizon Wireless is partnered with GoKnow Learning, an Ann Arbor MI company started by two professors. Dr Elliot Soloway of the University of Michigan and Dr. Cathleen Norris of the University of North Texas. GoKnow has been in business for 9 years has sold over 40,000 units of its educational software. The design of their software products is based on over $20 million in research support and 15 years of classroom experience. GoKnow is recognized as the leading educational company in mobile learning. They have installations literally all over the world – from Singapore to the United Kingdom – with the US in between.
While Verizon Wireless provides the technology, GoKnow provides the educational services to make a 1:1 rollout a standout success.
First, GoKnow provides educational software for the cellphone computers that turns a business and communication tool into an educational learning device. GoKnow’s software system also provides a Learning Management System that supports both the students and the teachers.
Second, GoKnow provides training for teachers in how to integrate the cellphone computers into the daily fabric of their classrooms. GoKnow helps teachers transform their 2 foot high stack of paper-and-pencil curriculum material into lessons that are geared for mobile learning, lessons that are exiting and engaging. These lessons are sure to re-engage your students in learning.
Using GoKnow’s software, teachers will be able to differentiate their lessons to address the different needs of their talented and gifted students, their struggling students and those in between. GoKnow’s software helps teachers build a professional community of practice where they get together to talk and help each other.
Most importantly, you will see increases in student performance: from increases in student attendance to increases in student achievement, mobile learning using GoKnow.
See increases
in students’ performance

5. Don’t Be Left Behind! Use Mobile Learning NOW
Use 21st century tools to engage and educate today’s “mobile generation”
Join with other leading districts
Verizon Wireless + GoKnow provide a unique solution
Rollout a pilot - Fall !
Mobile learning is not something for the future; mobile learning is for today! There are schools all over America that are rolling out 1:1 programs using cellphone computers. Your district can be a leader in your area and set the pace for what a 21st century school uses for technology.
It is not too late; you can rollout a small, pilot, 1:1 program this fall. Start now to prepare for the future.
Here is the next step: let’s set up a webinar with Dr. Elliot Soloway of GoKnow. I have just whetted our appetite; let’s let an education expert lay out the full vision of how cellphone computers can be used in your school now to improve student performance.