Cell / Mobile Phones in Education.   26/04/2008
Author : Graeme Daniel

 "This technology radically changes the idea of a classroom by extending a student's connection to the learning environment... the whole idea of online education is portability and accessibility, and what could possibly be more portable and more accessible than a cell phone?"  Dr. Alan Drimmer, cited in AIU Online’s Mobile Learning Initiative ...


    Telephone technology had a chequered beginning: according to Tom Farley's Telephone History (Affordable Phones), Alexander Graham Bell  was by no means the sole inventor of telephony; it was rather a shared accomplishment attributable to several players, most of whom didn't reap the credit they deserved.
    A Western Union memo from 1876 was dismissive of the recent invention: "This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." (Bad Predictions). However, by 1907, 8% of American homes had a telephone, though calls were expensive - according to You Just Have to Laugh ,  a three-minute call from Denver to New York City in 1907 cost $11, which converts to 2007 values of $190.20 to $4,498.59, depending on how you calculate it (Six Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount ).
    Current uptake of mobile phones is astounding by any standard  - see search results for 'cellular' at UNdata . Cellular Subscribers Per 100 Population   is a good place to start: filtering for  Afghanistan, Australia, Iraq, Pakistan, and the United States (years 2000 - 2006) provides food for thought.
    Although student use of mobile phones within educational institutions has long been considered something of a pest, the progressive convergence of phone technology with the mainstream online environment means that we now need to seriously consider the role of these devices in education as part of the broader range of handheld tools. This edition of WWWTools for Education looks at the situation so far, with some reference to future trends.


Background Reading.

Mobile Phone   (Wikipedia) - a comprehensive overview, linking to a host of useful additional references at the end of the article.
How Cell Phones Work   (Julia Layton, Marshall Brain and Jeff Tyson / HowStuffWorks, 2008) - an introduction, with links to more articles.


More on Consumer Usage Trends.

In Mobile Access to Data   (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2008) John Horrigan identifies data activities of U.S. adults using a mobile phone or PDA: sending / receiving text messages, taking pictures, playing games, sending / receiving e-mail, accessing the Internet for information.

Ronald Roach's review   of a recent MIT Media Lab report: Cell Phones Provide Significant Economic Gains for Low-Income American Households cites some interesting figures on the characteristics of Americans who don't have a cell phone - they are typically retired (37%), not higher education graduates (29%), make less than $35,000 p.a.(38%), and/or are unemployed (30%).

According to a New Survey from Bamboo MediaCasting  (individual.com: March 27, 2008), 'the number of mobile content subscribers is expected to grow to 462 million worldwide over the next five years' and has 'the U.S. audience for mobile video at 25 million+ by 2011.'

330m Africans Will Own Cellphones in 2008  (Charles Kazooba / East African: March 31, 2008) - a 22% increase in mobile phone subscribers, compared to the GSMA's projected 5% global increment.

Australia - Mobile Communications - Subscriber Statistics  (Paul Budde Communication) - the Australian mobile market is almost saturated, with over 20 million users and a penetration level above 99%. Growth in 2008 should be about 4%. For global comparisons, browse this site by Geographic Region .


Mobile Phone As Computer.

This idea has been around for a few years - see for example: Youths Use Cell Phones As Mini-PCs (eSchool News: April 05, 2006) - was this the beginning of the trend towards ubiquitous computing?

Central to the educational usefulness of the phone is its capacity for delivering Web-based information - see for example the range of online information available to phones from weather.com . However, this concept is hobbled by the intractable limits on screen size, and there are still problems with visual output to be addressed - the Bamboo MediaCasting survey   identifies concerns about 'matters like image quality, bandwidth limitations and the overall consumer experience.'

Gates: Cell Phones, Not Laptops, Will Best Answer Poor Students' Needs  (eSchoolNews: March 01, 2006) - Bill Gates was an early champion of this choice.

Jeremy Setzer compares relative merits of the $100 Laptop vs The Mobile Phone (Huddlemind Labs: March 18, 2008) as instructional delivery devices for the developing world.

One Laptop per Child v. Cellphones and Radio: A View from Malawi  (Katrin Verclas / mobileactive.org: January 30, 2008) - relays Martin Lucas' report on the One Laptop Per Child initiative.

Perhaps in cash-strapped environments the ever-more-sophisticated mobiles will morph back into a more affordable mode, A Cellphone with No Flips, No Folds - Just a Very Low Price (Victoria Shannon / International Herald Tribune: March 12, 2008) - the Spice phone may be more suited to the Indian situation.


Mobile Phones in Education.

What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? Almost Anything!   (Marc Prensky / Innovate: June/July 2005) - free registration required. Encourages educators to reconsider assessments of mobile phones as tools for learning. This article is well worth exploring in detail, despite its relative vintage. Lists features which make cell phones useful in education, with lots of practical examples, under these headings:

•     Voice Only
•     Short Text Messages
•     Graphic Displays
•     Downloadable Programs
•     Internet Browsers
•     Cameras and Video Clips
•     Global Positioning Systems

•     students learn decisionmaking by by making decisions.
•     they learn best when they participate.

•     Connected: The Movie, highlighting potential benefits when all players are  "connected".
•     Behind-the-Scenes Interviews with students and faculty.

•     school-oriented use of cell phones
•     safety guidelines
•     etiquette

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