Education on the Go: Mobile Technology Mobilizes Learning Opportunities
Posted: July 28, 2009
Mobile literacy
By Moria Byrne
Educational institutes, software innovators and mobile phone companies are taking mobile education from Web 1.0 to Web 3.0 with the dawning of the smart phone.
The advantage of using cell phones to communicate information is that the students can spend less time in the classroom and more time actively building their educational skills. As mobile phones become more sophisticated and inexpensive, students can read and email documents, do research on the Internet and manage their school assignments all from their cell phones. Teachers can send podcasts and hyperlinks within a document to encourage students to read further on topics that might interest them.
Smart phones help users communicate through audio, video, Internet, photography, games, texting and calling another user or group of people. The #1 smart phone on the market may be the iPhone, but there are many other less-expensive models that allow customers with a 3G network access to email, voice-activated GPS, WiFi and all the superstar quality accessories such as a touch screen and type pad. Leaders in the smartphone race include: NokiaN97 (60 v5 platform), HTC Hero, LG Incite, Samsung BlackJack and the Blackberry Curve.
A recent United Nations report on global cell phone use revealed more than 50 percent of the world’s population owns a cell phone. In response to the popularity of cell phones, mobile phone companies are fueling smarter, more innovative approaches to education in both first world and developing nations. Nokia, AT&T, Verizon and others are building educational resources and applications in order to attract teachers, students and content builders to read content from their mobile phones.
Pearson Consulting Solutions, an international media company, is working with Nokia, AT&T and other mobile phone carriers to provide software to build educational content. The company is embracing technology to change the way that people learn. Pearson provides multi-media tools, testing programs and other educational information for pre-school to high school, early learning and professional certification.
“Pearson’s comprehensive offerings help inform targeted instruction and intervention so that success is within reach of every student at every level of education,” says a Pearson media representative. Pearson recently won three major educational publisher’s awards (Including “Miller & Levine Biology” and Longman’s NorthStar/MyNorthStarLab Earn Distinguished Achievement awards in 2009).
Nokia, in cooperation with the Pearson Foundation, started a Mobile Learning Institute to incorporate mobile phone technology into public school curriculums. Participating students learn how to use mobile phone technology and then broadcast their work on the web through Nokia Ovi platform. The Mobile Learning Institute provides these services to students, teachers and school administrators in classrooms and community-learning centers across the United States.
“There’s a huge opportunity here to educate many people, ” says Chris Morris, a Nokia spokesperson.
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