Mobile learning benifits at-risk students

Via @MindShiftKQED: Mobile Learning Proves to Benefit At-Risk Students | http://t.co/5gkkz1o #MobileLeadless than a minute ago via Tweet Button Favorite Retweet ReplyLucy Gray
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This week, Lucy Gray tweeted a posting by KQED's Mind Shift about a program using mobile phones in Algebra classrooms.  Project K-Nect provided smart phones to at-risk youth at a school in North Carolina.  Students used the phones to solve math problems and collaborate with each other via blogs, instant messaging, and email.  They used photos and video to capture their problem solving strategies.  And the program seemed to work.  Most all students demonstrated proficiency by the end of the course.  In addition, compared to students not given the smart phones, Project K-Nect students were more likely to say math was easy, express interest in taking more math classes including AP classes, report being more engaged, and express interest in going to college.

The results presented here are fantastic.  Many students find math difficult and unengaging, and giving them smart phones to do it seemed to really address these problems, not to mention they became much more proficient.  Yay math!

My question about studies like this is how much of this is a novelty effect?  Presumably these students did not have smart phones before the study.  If the students were already proficient and prolific smart phone users (as many students are), would using smart phones to do algebra make algebra more engaging?  I guess my problem is - how sustainable of a model for engaging students is this.  If the effect is due to the novelty of the smart phones, then when all students have smart phones, this model will no longer work.  However, if the effect is due to the interaction with the other students, then I'm not sure that smart phones are necessary.  This sort of interaction could be fostered by working in groups on algebra during and after class.  So I guess I need some more information and some long-term thinking on this issue before I can get too excited.