The future of mobile technology: learning 'on the run'?

... The combination of powerful personal computers and high-speed access to the internet has already begun to transform the way many schools approach teaching and learning. Martin Owen, Director of Learning at NESTA futurelab, is confident that mobile phones will have the same impact: "The notion that you've got this tool which can be a camera, a cinecamera, a television, a computer and a calculator as well as something you use for talking to other people in your pocket all the time means that you're armed with a very powerful learning tool."

Mobile phones are already being used in education, but so far the uses have been fairly modest. "We already see some education authorities sending truant 'text alerts' to parents. It's also used for notification of lesson and classroom changes, as well as to relay information about health visitors coming in," says Mike Short, Vice President of Research and Development for O2 and chairman of the Mobile Data Association.

In Higher Education, says John Traxler, Research Fellow for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wolverhampton, text messaging has been used in several small-scale projects, for example, to inform students that a lecture has been cancelled or that library books are overdue...

Read full story in NESTA futurelab in colleges and schools within the next five to ten years.

[via Putting people first]

cf Related article from The Guardian

emily | 9:05 AM | SMS and Students |
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