Aug 05 2009
Smartphones And Mobile Education
Posted by: CameraPhonesPlaza in Smartphone
Nowadays, we can see a trend which is connecting mobile education and smartphones. More and more academic institutions are integrating the technology into the classroom, into their educational system. If a few years ago, you needed only pencils and paper to get ready for school, now you can rely on
laptops or other electronic devices. Technology is a very important factor for promoting education, and it really enhances the educational experience. This means, that instead of reading a book, people who want to learn can watch a video or they can watch an interactive presentation about their interest subject. Similarly, smartphones can provide them the information needed, through educational platforms, or through Internet connections.
Even if there are many arguments against using cell phones inside the classroom, because the students are distracted with messages or applications, there are many positive aspects of using mobiles in the classroom. There are academic institutions which recommended to their students to use Apple iPhone, just like they were listing the required textbooks and other materials with some years before. This relationship, between smartphones and mobile education is on an upward trend, and it tends to develop very much in the near future.
It is normal for students to make an effort to attend classes/lectures, but there are situations when this may not be possible, and here comes the innovative solution. Instead of copying the notes from classmates, or asking them to explain the lesson, the students are able to download the whole syllabus and lecture support, just like they would download music or other files from Internet. This lectures download is similar to downloading content from iTunes. It is very important that these course supports are downloadable, because even going to each class, you can miss some information or can miss some key points.
Reviewing the lecture, students can re-read it and find the missed material. It is very comfortable for universities and colleges to develop specific applications for students, and then publish them in the iPhone App Store, because they avoid problems with students who can not reach the lectures every times, and the problems created by borrowing the courses from another colleague, which can contain mistakes, or can be incomplete.
Another very important aspect in mobile education is that the costs for printing are minimized and most of the times, reduced to 0. Next to the costs, I must mention the smaller amount of textbooks a student has to carry each time he has classes. So we have a very good environmental effect and a social one, both brought by mobile education through smartphones.
An interesting way of communication between students and teacher are specific websites. Each professor builds a simple website for the class they teach, and students can access information easily, connecting it to what they have listened to the course. The information available on the websites, often contains notes, office hours, contact data, class cancellation announcements and many other useful things for students. These websites require a simple connection to a database, which includes personal information about the students, marks for the tests, courses and homework. This database can be queried easily through a secure login process, and this way students can check their test scores, or any other information, even if they are in the campus, at home, studying in a library or having fun out.
The opportunities brought by smartphones and mobile education are actually limitless. In the future, the classic academic system can be replaced by virtual classrooms and in my opinion this is only progress.
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