Rankin, Mobile Learning Initiative featured on Icelandic televisionPosted September 07, 2012
Known the world over for his work on ACU’s Mobile Learning Initiative, Dr. Bill Rankin, associate professor of English and director or Educational Innovation, has conquered more new territory. He recently traveled to Iceland, where he was featured on a national television news report.
On August 19, Rankin appeared on Visir, a leading news station in Iceland, as a mobile learning expert. Rankin provided insight on how ACU's initiative has created an interactive and dynamic learning environment across campus. Students, he said, now have a wealth of information at their fingertips with which they can gain more knowledge alongside the traditional education they receive.
“There’s been a fundamental shift in the way we interact with information as we’ve moved from laptops and desktops to these new very mobile devices,” says Rankin. “Laptops are portable, but these devices are mobile, which means I can take them anywhere, and that means I can have class anywhere as well.”
ACU Connected gives students the opportunity to seek information outside of class lectures and material, and helps them learn to process that information to create new solutions to the problems facing the world. Rankin seeks to share this innovation in education across the globe, making a difference and changing how students learn all over the world.
Faculty members are equally impacted by the rise of mobile learning. “Faculty benefit because students are more engaged. They are more interested in the material, they operate at a more advanced level and it has actually been the most rewarding teaching I’ve done in 25 years,” says Rankin.