Classroom

The ABCs and 1-2-3s of Mobility

The new Technology Insights app from CDW is designed to educate and engage school stakeholders in all things mobile.

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Marla is a contributor to EdTech: Focus on K-12 magazine.

Mobility isn’t yet ubiquitous in schools as it is in the business world, but that’s slowly changing — because it has to.

According to 2013 data from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 56 percent of American adults (18 and older) and 47 percent of teenagers own a smartphone. Tablet ownership also is increasingly pervasive among both adults (35 percent) and teens (23 percent). Younger students aren’t immune to the trend, as indicated by Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up 2013 finding that significant numbers of elementary and middle school students carry smartphones and tablets as well.

This “Golden Age of Mobile” undoubtedly will affect generations of students and their readiness for college and the workforce. But it also affects the IT leaders, administrators, teachers and staff who come to school each day with the singular goal of helping young people be successful.

There’s an App for That

How do such diverse audiences acquire the knowledge they need to successfully leverage mobile devices both inside and outside the classroom?

The new Technology Insights app from CDW provides an interactive roadmap to help users with varying levels of expertise to better understand the mobility maze. The app is organized into eight sections: Mobility Today; Plan; Enable; Protect; Support; Empower; Mobility Profile; and Resources. Each section offers detailed overviews of every aspect of a comprehensive mobility program. Practical roadmaps and checklists and links to multimedia assets — among them, reference guides and white papers, videos, magazine articles, case studies, research data and infographics — can help beginners, early adopters and even IT staff with already robust skill sets propel their educational and implementation journeys forward.

Administrators, teachers and staff who are curious about mobility but not well versed in the particulars of what it takes to build a secure, robust wireless network will find the resources in the “Apprentice” track (signified by a “single person” icon) especially helpful. Those with a basic understanding of the mobile landscape will benefit from “User”-designated content.

App users who have done their homework and are just getting started in a mobile implementation will find the technical and business case specifics they need to maximize their deployment along the “Early Adopter” track. And IT staff with technical know-how and mobile deployment experience can boost their existing knowledge — and discover what their peers are doing — by navigating the assets designated for “Expert” users.

Still have questions? Calls to action throughout the app give users the opportunity to obtain more information about CDW’s Total Mobility Management service offerings and help with mobile device management, help desk support, policy planning, cross-carrier activation and more.

The CDW Tech Insights App is available on the following devices:

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