Mobile Phones Set to Eliminate the Digital Divide
Posted At : February 15, 2011 1:58 PM
A recent article in The Journal claims that within five years, every K-12 student in America will be using a mobile handheld device as a part of learning.
This is according to Elliot Soloway a professor at the University of Michigan and founding CEO of GoKnow an education consultancy.
Soloway makes compelling points in support of the claim, which resonate with many of the findings from the Learnosity Voice customer projects.
With the falling cost of both devices and phone usage fees, he claims that it will be possible for every child, rich or poor, to have a mobile phone 24/7.
Phones are relevant to students; they themselves are already bringing the devices to school. As users they are already highly competent so the learning curve is low.
Portability is key and Soloway claims that this is a more important factor than screen size, battery life and keyboard size. Students are comfortable with using devices of this size and, as smaller people, the devices are in proportion.
Phones are the technology of today, and by using them in learning we are preparing students for 21st century life. Soloway encourages schools to adopt mobile phones into learning and teaching in order to benefit from the enormous advantages of mobile technologies.