cAsTa Ways: An Interview with Travis Allen
Posted By Barbara Lindsey on July 6, 2010
For Travis Allen the gift of an iPhone for Christmas in 2009 quickly became much more than the increasingly common rite of passage coveted by many American tweens and teens. As you’ll hear in this interview, the iPhone profoundly changed how Travis experienced himself as a learner. At the time, Travis was just seventeen.
We first became aware of Travis through a video he posted to YouTube while still a high school senior, that as of today, has well over 18,000 views. In the video, Travis outlines his vision of mobile learning which he calls the iSchool Initiative. One year later and Travis has turned his iSchool Initiative into a non-profit organization that includes:
- a student team that tests, evaluates and recommends educational applications for mobile devices
- an iSchool community that connects learners and educators around the world who share a common interest in the educational potential of mobile technologies
- a Facebook group and newsletter that posts events and project updates
- and a website that pulls everything together
Why is Travis’ work important to us as language educators? As we noted in a previous post, not only do almost all of our students come equipped with mobile phones, but, when used appropriately, they can provide our students with differentiated learning options, access to anytime, anywhere authentic resources, and the ability to connect and collaborate with other learners, native speakers and content experts inside as well as outside the classroom environment. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills ranks world languages second under the core subjects deemed essential for students in the 21st century and global awareness first under its key interdisciplinary themes. And under vital Life and Career Skills they list initiative, self-direction, leadership, and adaptability, as well as social and cross-cultural skills. If we strive to help our students appropriately and effectively engage with the global community and direct their own learning, then we language educators need to listen to and learn from students like Travis Allen.
For additional information on Travis, his initiative and how you can participate, check out the following links:
- The iSchool Initiative Home
- The iSchool Initiative’s YouTube Channel
- Our archived LearnCentral session with Travis held in ElluminateLive! Scroll down to ‘Other’ and click on the ‘Post-Event’ link to access our recorded session.
- Travis Allen’s Blog: The Life of a 21st Century Student
- Travis on Twitter
- The iSchool Initiative Facebook Group
- Huffington Post Article: Helping Students Learn How to Enjoy Learning: An Interview With Travis Allen
- Kennesaw State University Students in Free Enterprise Team
The three educational applications Travis mentioned in our interview can be found here:
Sundry Notes
Cramberry
iStudiez Pro
And don’t forget the power of a community—join the iSchoolinitiative Ning community to share and learn with others the ways in which mobile technologies can support our language learners.
As always, if you know someone who is doing great work integrating technology into the language curriculum or have a tool to share that would be of interest to our readers, please let us know!
The wATw Podcast: An Interview with Travis Allen [ 36:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1821)
cAsTa Ways: An Interview with Travis Allen by Barbara Lindsey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.worldatways.com/suggest-topics/.
Music for our podcasts is courtesy of George Wood and is called Travelogue. You can find more of George Wood’s music at podsafeaudio.com
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