Mobile Teaching and Learning: The Planning Charter

NOTE: The Mobile Teaching and Learning Charter is a planning document that makes policy recommendations. is a joint recommendation from the Instructional Technology Policy Advisory Committee (ITPAC) and the Provost's Council.

The Institutional Strategic Vision
Fort Hays State University (FHSU) has long been recognized for its "high-tech/high-touch" vision. The underlying assumption of the vision is the integration of leading edge information technology with he humanizing aspects of personal attention to achieve the most productive learning environments available in higher education. Faculty are valued for their creative use of desktop, laptop classroom and lab-supported technology in developing pedagogy that is student-centered, interactive, participatory, problem-solving, practical, engaging and team-oriented. The result is acquisition of information literacy and transferable computer skills that will serve students for the rest of their lives.

The logical "next step" in this institutional vision is the continued development of a wireless and mobile computing environment whereby each faculty member and student can learn anywhere, any time in the context of increased interactivity, engagement, communication, productivity, equity of access and continuous pedagogical innovation and improvement. This enhanced institutional strategic vision is best realized through a mobile computing initiative preceded by the completion of a ubiquitous wireless campus infrastructure add a performance-based faculty development program. Ultimately, this strategy will result in a faculty-led effort to implement pedagogically sound and student engaged laptop-tablet learning experiences that will reflect the very best and most innovative aspects of the institutional "high-tech/high-touch" vision.

First Principles

• Policy and planning should drive technology; not the other way around.
• Any plan should be incremental and calibrated
• Obtain the optimal buy-in from faculty and staff before initial student acquisitions
• Provide faculty support for laptop pedagogical uses in both traditional and virtual learning environments, for learning software applications, for wireless connectivity, and for hardware issues. When faculty engage students by requiring digital portfolios, Web page creation, collaborative projects, digital audio and video submissions, etc. , then student acceptance of the programming increases and behavior problems such as Web surfing, instant messaging and e-mailing are greatly reduced.
• Provide adequate lead-time for acceptance of a mobile computing initiative by current and prospective FHSU students.
• Provide time for the wireless infrastructure to be put in place and advertised to prospective students.
• Provide the highest quality technical support for students and faculty at all times and most responsive maintenance and laptop repair for university-owned equipment.
• Provide adequate resources for pilot projects and experimentation.
• Provide platform choice.
• Provide a plan that complements the fact that 80% of new students are likely to have a laptop/computer of their own upon admittance to FHSU
• Financially disadvantaged students must be accommodated along with virtual and part-time students in any demand- or supply-driven mobile computing initiative. Keep all fees and other costs as low as possible.
• Standardize as much a possible and support only specified hardware and software.
• Establish a monitoring agent for the mobile computing initiative such as a “Mobile Teaching and Learning Steering Committee” consisting of faculty, staff and students to provide oversight and make software recommendations.
• Establish student expectations for use of laptops/tablets/smartphones.

Draft - 4/18/2005
2nd Draft - 5/05/05
Final Draft - 5/10/05
Revised Draft - 4/13/09