Designing Better Futures

Though technologies may improve how much content a device can provide, the way people use them ultimately determines the impact of the user experience. The phone that opens the world to new ways of connecting must not be conceived as a mobile computer but as a unique space with its own implications and transformations. Young people, in their insatiable quest to embrace the new, have quickly adopted these devices into their lives in ways that emphasize the unique experience of the phone. Their uses and experiences are the key to understanding the changed world of mobile connectedness. This has many implications for society at large but in particular for the ways we think about education. Educators must embrace this drastic change and explore new ways to engage young people's new found relationship with their world, or continue missing the opportunity before us.