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Posted By Ian Jukes

While educators have been busy trying to understand and teach to Millennials and Generation Y over the past several years, a new generation of mobile natives has been growing in the background.

Generation Z, which includes those born after 1995, now fills our K-12 classrooms, and they’ve brought their mobile habits with them.

To give you a better understanding of these students, including the role mobile devices play in their home and school lives, we’ve put together an infographic, titled Generation Z: Growing and Learning with Mobile.

Mobile Trends Around the World

Studies show that, by the year 2017, the percentage of smartphone users in the US will reach 80 percent – triple the percentage of users we saw in 2011. In the UK, this number is set to reach slightly more than 80 percent, while in China and India, the percentages are set to rise at a slower rate.

Globally, mobile learning is growing at a rate of 18.2 percent per year, suggesting that learning organizations will need to adopt appropriate technologies in order to keep up with growing demand.

Mobile in the Classroom

Today’s middle schoolers use mobile devices for everything from checking grades to writing papers. Of those students using mobile devices:

• 78 percent use devices to check grades
• 69 percent to take notes
• 56 percent to access text books
• 64 percent to write papers

Teachers are also on the move, with 35 percent using a tablet or e-reader in class in 2013, up 20 percent from 2012.

Impact on Student Achievement

Studies show that standardized test results are higher in classes where students have access to mobile devices.

In one case, test scores of low-income students climbed as much as 30 percent after being given access to smartphones – an increase attributed to the fact that students were able to keep connected with teachers and classmates, even while at home.