One of the most useful educational tools ever created is the cellular phone, and we are just beginning to see its use in education. As the capabilities of handsets and wireless networks increase, so will the value of handsets for fostering life-long learning.
I hate writing so much about Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), but the iPhone and iPod touch really are helping to point the way. Apple's iTunes offers an iTunes U section that enables colleges to post all types of content. Some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , Princeton University , Stanford University , Yale University, the University of Oxford , and the University of Cambridge, offer everything from brief audio interviews to audio and video podcasts of entire courses. MIT has an especially rich selection -- including course notes and student content -- that also may be downloaded from the university's OpenCourseWare site. iTunes U also offers downloads from high schools, museums, and educational organizations.
Abilene Christian University (ACU) started offering entering freshmen the choice of an iPhone 3G or iPod touch with ACU software, reports Network World. Students may use the devices to check their class schedules and events, see a 3D map of the campus, and view information about the surrounding city. Teachers post course notes, podcasts, and video clips, as well as questions for tests and polls, where the responses change online in real time.
ACU is among the schools working with Google for online services through Google Apps Education Edition. One interesting feature: Students can allow teachers access to their online files to write comments about the students' class papers -- as they are being written, Network World says.
Stanford University offers iPhone school-related software for registering for or dropping courses, viewing grades, paying bills, and viewing sports scores. Interestingly, the administration asked Terriblyclever Design, which was co-founded by a student, to develop these Stanford iApps. Stanford also offers an iPhone software course and will mentor students who develop applications for the school.
By the way, Apple just hired the dean of Yale's School of Management to direct an initiative called Apple University, which Apple isn't yet discussing!
Cellphone open-book tests Cellphones are popping up elsewhere in education. In Sydney, Australia, the Presbyterian Ladies' College, which, contrary to its name, is for girls through the 12th grade, has a pilot program in which students in class may phone people to obtain information for their assignments! This certainly gives new meaning to the term "open book" test.
Some pioneers in education are trying to force schools kicking and screaming into the cellphone generation. One educator is offering a class for New York teachers about how to use Google SMS in classrooms -- even though the city bans cellphones in classes. Another teacher has established a Weblog about using phones in class. Example: fourth-grade students posting podcasts from phones.
The mobile phone is a revolutionary educational device with global implications. Unfortunately, most schools around the world ban cellphone use in classrooms because it's considered a disruption or a way to cheat on tests.
I understand these problems. But the cellphone is too important to education's future for knee-jerk bans. Schools should experiment with ways to integrate phones into the curriculum. The future heralds greater collaboration between students and teachers on course content. Cellphone users will be able to learn throughout their lives.
I completely agree, obviously, that technology, when used correctly, is extremely useful for education. A few educators are coming around to that point of view. Unfortunately, most consider technology a distraction (which it could be) and/or are scared of it because they don't understand the value of, for example, cellular phones (which also could be distracting).
Thanks very much for the "A VC" link (I read that blog) as well as posting a link on "Technology in the Classroom."
Education is definitely an industry whose time has come to be disrupted.
Not only is the technology available, but the demand is there - students are so used to integrating Web 2.0 services into all aspects of their lives that the pressure for innovatation is reaching critical mass.
I'm glad you like the links. Some of the resources are amazingly good, with complete videos and course notes. It definitely is the future.
I hope -- and expect -- this is just the beginning of online educational information that will be available for free. Now, if only cellular phones were able to play all the videos (I want Flash!) and if only all cellular phones had good enough screens for reading the text!
Do you realize that a reasonable slice of the worlds knowledge is only a few clicks past the links in your post? A great link collection- and a great point of view. Many more people can afford and access a phone than a PC.
I haven't taken a philosophy course for a long time, but perhaps cellular phones afford omnipresence or, as you mention, connectness. It's the ability to learn wherever you are.
Thank you for a very thought-provoking post. Someone says that every technology affords a certain kind of use. For example, a chair affords sitting. My question is: what kind of learning does cell phone afford? Its sound is intrusive and cannot be ignored. Its connectedness opens the user to disturbance. What do you think?
I've written that it's tough enough to be a good teacher without dealing with cellular phones. But computers are distractions, too, and schools learn to deal with them. School Wi-Fi and/or cellular connections with a laptop create in even more distractions. And with netbooks starting at about $300, that's the price of a high-end phone -- even less if it's an unlocked Nokia Nseries! (Not that many kids have that much money to spend.)
Proper technology security and etiquette are, obviously, important. I believe children should learn about the Internet when they are in elementary school, in addition to receiving help from their parents.
But the value of cellular as well as connected laptops outweighs the disadvantages. Kids can write profanity on a blackboard with chalk or on a piece of paper with a pencil and stick it to the teacher's chair. Kids have been bullying other kids for millennia -- it doesn't make it right, but technology isn't the "bad guy."
Progressive educators explore the value of technology, despite the significant challenges.
I think that phones do have a place in the educational sector. I know some teachers who use twitter to let students know on their cell phones that they have homework. Nice reminder.
But, at the same time, we must be dilligent on protecting the students and teachers. Today I was at a conference and was texted by a student of unknown origin with profanity. It was sent during class with the sub. The can of worms of first, how did they get my personal phone number, not responding to an underage student using sexual profanity, and using a cell phone when they are not supposed to.
Yes, use in the classroom, but we need to educate proper usage and tighten up security first to protect teachers and students.
There's no doubt -- the best telepresence today is very expensive. But students using Web cams while a teacher is being broadcast with an inexpensive video recorder can be "good enough" for many situations. This certainly isn't the optimal futuristic scenario that I envision, but for viewing classes on your phone, it could work out fine in many instances.
I agree that human interaction has many advantages, but so does viewing lectures whenever and wherever you want. As we all know, in many countries the first -- or only -- Internet experience is via phones. It's a tradeoff.
One thought: Many people now telecommute -- once a week or even all the time. Education via cellular doesn't mean you could or should completely dismiss the classroom, but it does offer tremendous options.
Look at how fewer students are using libraries and, instead, researching via the Web. I'm not suggesting that solely using the Web is a great idea, but it's a tremendous help. However, the future is not visiting libraries; the future is the digitization of every publication so they can be viewed on any type of electronic device.
In the future, I can certainly see many schools offering remote learning for some or even all of their classes. I can also see students thinking that having to physically attend class is primitive. When you start looking at the advances in cellular phones, wireless networks, video and the Internet in general -- and the project out many years -- the use of phones for education certainly isn't farfetched.
The future of most human interaction -- such as for business and education -- could be via digital.
Thanks. I agree that class presence can be substituted by highly advanced virtual communication but we will have to pay for it not in sense of money but in sense of reduction in human interaction that will not be very comfortable to go along with. It will result in more problems than slutions indeed. But if we just talk about being in school while away, yes it will be a fortune for those having issues.
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