http://winksite.com/site/site_profile.cfm?susid=28736

We have experienced that over time these mobile devices are smaller and more capable; and in general technologies get cheaper except for the most cutting edge devices. We see that users who wish to be first in line to experience the latest offering on cell phones pay higher premiums that we have seen dropped considerably over few months later. A good example is the first iPhone when people were making big lines on stores and willing to pay $600 for the devices. Soon afterwards the price dropped to $300.00.

It can be that one of the reasons why these devices are getting cheaper and cheaper is because it can be compensated by the high prices on the services that are needed to use the full capabilities of the cell phones. And users are willing to pay higher fees for the new services. We hope that competition will make these services cheaper and cheaper and finally free Internet. I think Internet browsing on cell phones should be free like in other countries like Japan.

Mobile phones are everywhere, and they are constantly getting new features such as Internet browsers, games, cameras, televisions, electronic wallets/train passes, GPS/navigation and music players. And all these features are possible because they are offering more processing power, more memory, and more storage capacity, than can be compared with personal computers. But now it seems like the need for a comfortable keyboard and bigger displays is desirable to be able to use them for mobile computing. So it makes sense that maybe the next trend will be to offer alternative displays and input devices. 

It was mentioned that possible display devices can be eyeglasses that can offer facial recognition capabilities, or for input devices a fully voice recognition and command capabilities and fold-able or project-able keyboards.

About Distributed computing.

Mobile devices can function as  terminal devices rather than a stand alone computing devices, where the computing and storage power resides on powerful computers. These powerful computers can provide the processing speed and storage needed to run powerful functions like voice recognition command, combined with the increasing speed and availability of Internet access on mobile devices.

About ubiquitous computing.

For this topic I had to read more to understand it. And I found that other names are pervasive computing, physical computer or tangible media. And all this is to have everywhere all the information that we now look on Web browsers of cell phones at any time. Something like that instead of having a desk-top or lap-top machine, the technology we use will be embedded in our environment (like in every object). While I was looking for more info on this topic I found this video that I found interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TY4z7JylZA.

About Education.

There is a great potential on ubiquitous computing to improve education. Educators need to know that all this technology is changing student’s life and they are finding new ways on how to learn. Students are teaching the teachers that they belong to a different generation with different skills and needs.This technology should provide more individualized learning models to students in their search for knowledge.

1. User expectations
2. Technical characteristics of the device(s)
3. Formats
4. Development environment

It is very important to identify the users that will benefit from the application. Since users expectations varies from person to person and from generation to generation, identifying the audience’s needs and expectations should be the first step in the process. When creating content for mobile devices it is better to choose simplicity and reliability vs complexity and uncertaintly. We also need to find the best format that can be supported for most devices, taking into consideration the technical features or limitations and exploit device capabilities to provide an enhanced user experience.  The content should be created to serve a valid purpose that will cover user’s need and contribute to the learning purpose as a powerful tool

What type of content do you consume using a mobile device?  The user expectations varies from generation to generation. Age is a very important factor to consider. I see it very clear with my 4 year-old daughter, she has a Sansa Shaker MP3 player. With this device she can shake the device to jump to the next song, or use the colorful controller bands to advance or rewind songs, it has two headphone jacks and a built-in speaker. She loves it, and I download  music files and princess stories audio-books. When we are in the car she likes to listen the music, the built-in speaker is not that loud to disturb others, and when a friend is with her, both have the headphones and they can listen the princess stories. Very good and appropriate for their age, they don’t have to go through menus to select songs, they just advance or rewind songs  by shaking it. 

In my case what I like to have on my iPod is music, videos, audio-books, pictures, podcasts, contacts, calendar items. What I use most are podcast from topics that I like and audio-books that I download with my subscription. I also buy TV-show programs for my daughter. And of course I have a lot of pictures of her

What kind of content have you created for mobile devices? What kind of content would you like to create for mobile devices.

My very first content that I’ve created for mobile devices is at http://winksite.com/site/site_profile.cfm?susid=28654, it is just a menu of topics for this class. I found winksite.com when I was doing the assigments for session 3, I was surprise how easy is to build a mobile application with this tool. But I want to try something that I can use when I teach. Some of the ideas that I would like to create is “Flash cards” to review questions for tests or quizzes.  So I can ask my students use the application to prepare themselves for a test, or to review chapters covered on class by using their phones.

Thinking of my daughter, and because she is starting to read, I would like to create an application for my iPod what will teach her how to sound the letters on a word. I’ve seen software that does this with great graphics and a lot of functions, but if I can find something like this for mobile devices will be great. And if I can’t find it I would like to try to create one.

Twitter is a service that lets you micro-blog your life by dashing out very short notes (140 characters max) to a select group of friends or other subscribers, who can receive them as text messages on their cell phones. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. The service is free over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Twitter is a sort of cross between a rudimentary social networking environment and instant messaging. The idea is that you let people know what you are doing . People can follow you, and you can follow other people. In this context, “follow” means the same as “friend” in other social networking environments.

I use this service to send/receive tips on excel problems.

I can see that this service can be used on the classrooms on the following:

• as  classroom-communication tool.
• for keeping in touch with colleagues, and finding out what’s going on at events you might not be able to attend
• to make quick class announcement

• as class collaboration on finding answers to a problem, question or project.

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is a simple text message voting application that works well for live audiences. People vote by sending text messages (or using Twitter) to options displayed on-screen. The poll that is embedded within the presentation or web page will update in real time.

The basic plan is free. It allows up to 30 votes per poll.

Applications on education:

• It’s an easy way to gather live responses in  classrooms.
• Good for surveys, quizzes, reviews, checking for understanding.
• To promote classroom participation and attentiveness
• Automate taking attendance

EDMODO

Edmodo is a private microblogging platform that teachers and students can use to send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other.

Teachers sign up for accounts, and then create groups. Each group has a unique code which is distributed by the teacher to the class. Students then sign up (no email address required) and join the group using the code.

During the initial stages of edmodo, when a teacher signs up they are automatically added to the edmodo and support groups in order to give all early-adopters a chance to connect and report bugs.

Microblogging enables teachers and students to:

•  share resources,
• send notices to each other
•  keep in touch regarding school matters.
• teachers can set assignments, inform students of their deadlines or of school or college events

• students can use it to send queries to the teachers or even to send links to their work, if it can be found online, like in a blog or personal web page.

Winksite

Winksite a standards-compliant mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls.

Winksite makes it easy to build and publish mobile websites and build simple social connections via mobile phones.

Winksite is a leading mobile content management and social networking software company whose solutions connect publishers to their audiences and audience members to each other.

You can  immediately promote your mobile site to 100,000 mobile users around the planet. WINKsite’s Conversation widget aggregates all their communities into a blog sidebar where mobile and desktop users find each other by interest and location.

I’ve been playing with this web application, and I created my first mobile site at http://winksite.com/site/site_profile.cfm?susid=28654, I’ll keep playing with this, but so far it looks very interesting.

I looks like teachers can post their website content in this application, and the students can access it from their cell phones. I found some tutorials at http://www.technogogy.org.uk/winksite_create.html and http://www.technogogy.org.uk/winksite_edit.html

Your Name: Sandra Horvatich

Project Title: HTC Hero mobile phone capabilities.

Project Focus: Device Capability Review

Project Timeline:   Start Date: July 4th 2009  End Date: July 26 2009

Project Description:
(Explain what the project is, what it is to do, why it is important, why you chose it. Explain what you expect to learn by doing this project.

This project’s scope is HTC Hero mobile phone capabilities. The project will outline the technical features of today’s mobile phone. By knowing the device capabilities, new ideas on how to use the device for educational purpose can be drawn or generated.

I chose this project to know and explore other available mobile phone besides what the media redirects everybody to buy. I’m interested myself on finding more about the phones capabilities and new trends. What I expect by doing this project is to be more informed and understand about the device capabilities and to find ways to apply it to a curriculum on a classroom.

Review completed project at: http://winksite.mobi/etec676/HTCHero

HTC Hero Phone has the latest Google Android Operating System. 

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• HTC Hero is optimized for Web, multimedia and other content while maintaining a small size and weight. It also boasts a broad variety of hardware features including a 3.5mm stereo headset jack, includes a dedicated Search button that goes beyond basic search, providing you with a more natural, contextual search experience that enables you to search through Twitter, locate people in your contact list, find emails in your inbox or search in any other area in Hero.
• HTC Hero Phone has the latest Google Android Operating System. 
• HTC Hero Comes with HTC Sense that allowed user to customize phone according to their requirement and get information quickly.
• HTC Hero gives options to user  make number of  widget those can be placed on the phone home screen on right bar and widget can be customize as user requirement.

HTC with Flash.

Hero HTC is the first Android smart phone with  flash support which gives the excellent web browsing speed to the user. User can change their profile status on facebook, upload pictures on Twitter and YouTube.

Mobile phones have long been considered underpowered for a proper Flash experience, and Adobe tried to push a cut-down version of the technology in the hope that companies would create mobile-specific content. But simplicity demands a single standard, and with the increasing processing power and memory of mobile handsets Adobe has finally achieved a single platform that will work across mobile and desktop environments.

Browsing the web on a mobile phone, even when connected to a decent screen and keyboard, can be a frustrating experience. Just about everything is possible – viewing YouTube, navigating AJAX sites and uploading media – but many things require more effort than the desktop equivalent and the lack of Flash support can make some sites hard to use.

The capability is something of a coup for HTC, though the company isn’t planning to limit Flash to its flagship Android handsets, but has joined the OpenScreen project to create an open-source implementation of the Flash 10 client so it can be easily ported to any handset.

That probably means some mid-range handsets will soon be struggling to render animated menus and video interfaces, but as the capabilities increase Flash could find a comfortable home on a wide range of mobile phones.

HTC Participates in Open Screen Project
HTC also announced its participation in the Open Screen Project, a broad industry effort to deliver a consistent runtime across screens and to provide access to all Flash technology based Web content in the future.

My Summary:

After researching on the capatilities of this device, I found it very interesting that around 80% of all videos online are delivered with Adobe Flash technology. By having a device using Adobe Flash it becomes ready for a broad range of software that has been created for Flash. Users can browse web content and applications normally not supported by past mobile phones.

1. Comments on Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes: Digital Immersion, Teacher Learning, and Games
   Ronald D. Owston
   Educational Researcher, May 2009; vol. 38: pp. 270 – 273.

   http://edr.sagepub.com.libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/content/abstract/38/4/270

2. Mobile Devices: Facing Challenges and Opportunities for Learning  By Patricia Deubel 03/19/09. The Journal
   http://thejournal.com/Articles/2009/03/19/Mobile-Devices-Facing-Challenges-and-Opportunities-for-Learning.aspx?Page=2
3.  Cell Phones for Education
   http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/sum2008/roberson/index.htm
4. Technologies That Are Changing Education
   http://www.ddj.com/mobile/217201083
5. Enabling Mobile Learning  © 2005 Ellen D. Wagner  EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 40–53.
   http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume40/EnablingMobileLearning/157976
6. Anywhere, anytime: Using mobile phones for learning
   by Thomas McNeal and Mark van’t Hooft In Vol. 2, No. 2 (2006, Winter) / Practice
   http://www.rcetj.org/?type=art&id=79575
7. Attewell, J. (n.d.). From research and development to mobile learning: tools for education and training providers and their learners. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from http://www.mlearn.org.za/CD/papers/Attewell.pdf
   http://www.m-learning.org/docs/The%20m-learning%20project%20-%20technology%20update%20and%20project%20summary.pdf
   http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/content/view/60/60/

1

Citation:
Thomas McNeal and Mark van’t Hooft (2006). Anywhere, anytime: Using mobile phones for learning. Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology. Vol. 2, No. 2
 
Summary:
This article starts analyzing the increasingly popular mobile platform, especially among younger generations. A survey results are reported to show that more than nine out of 10 12-year-old in the UK have a mobile phone.
 
A point is made about that despite the global proliferation of cell phones, they have not been widely used in education, as many adults are still reluctant to allow widespread access to the devices in formal educational settings.
 It follows explaining examples of educational projects that illustrate the power of mobile phone use for teaching and learning. Because of the portability of the technology, most projects that include cell phones take place outside of the classroom. A few examples that the article include are:

• Frequency 1550.Using mobile phones with integrated GPS, students learned about the history of their city and created and shared digital media in a location-based experience.
•  MOOP. Primary school pupils use a mobile phone to observe and analyze their surroundings and communicate within groups.
•  MyArtSpace:  a British project that “enables students (as part of a school visit) to collect physical objects from a cultural venue using a mobile phone, learn more about the objects that they collect, and then publish their own gallery online” (MyArtSpace, 2006).
• National Museum of History, Taipei, Taiwan. This museum features a comprehensive self-paced tour system with wireless transmission of information about exhibits to mobile phones and other portable devices such as tablets and handheld computers.

The article continues explaining the Desktop Videoconferencing (DVC) Project. It started investigating the use of video cell phones to bring community resources into the classroom in 2005. The idea for this project sprang from the limitations of traditional video-conferencing tools (like bandwidth, firewalls, T1, security risks, cost, etc)
It talks about the need for something portable, wireless, and easy to use, with the ability to send and receive video, like video cell phones.
The goals of the initial project were to:
Investigate video phones as an educational tool.
Provide a form of video-conferencing to schools that had none.
Demonstrate how resource sites can be valuable tools.
Give students the opportunity to talk with local experts in many different fields.
 
The conclusion on this article is about the DVC Project, the  plan is to keep adding more classrooms to the Video Cell Phone Project.  The project will also incorporate new software that can be closer to real-time videoconferencing, called PocketCaster. This tool makes it possible for anyone to do a live video broadcast to a global audience from a mobile device. With PocketCaster, they will be able to send a video stream from the cell phone via server to students, without having to worry about bandwidth or firewalls. Students in the classroom or other locations will be able to view the video in real time on a computer or on a mobile device. The video can also be archived for viewing at a later date. While this is not true real-time videoconferencing because the video is only one-way, they will no longer be limited to 15 seconds per clip. In order to add a real-time component, a second phone could be used for a live phone conference with the site at the time the video is shot.

Review:
Some of the scenarios where cell phones are being used for Desktop Videoconferencing, can also be accomplished by the use of video cameras. The use of cell phones with video capabilities is more appeal to young students, and it becomes natural for them on how can they use it an applying it to a different scenarios.
 
I found this article interesting it gives real applications on how cell phones can be used to replace the real two-way video conference at a affordable cost for schools, teachers, and students. It shows also with videos and pictures the scenarios whey they were able to use it. Video conferences are very useful tool for education, but in many cases the high cost associatedwith implementation and use of this tool makes it cost prohibited for many schools. But if schools and teachers believe that videoconferencing is a valuable resource that enriches their curricula, DVC using video cell phones can be used to mitigate the high cost.

2

Citation: Attewell, J. (n.d.). From research and development to mobile learning: tools for education and training providers and their learners. Retrieved December 6, 2007, from http://www.mlearn.org.za/CD/papers/Attewell.pdf

 Summary:This article lists the findings from the work with young people, mentors and teachers in the learner research, systems and learning materials trials in the second year of the project.

Key findings indicated that mobile learning:

• allows truly anywhere, anytime, personalised learning
• can be used to enliven, or add variety to, conventional lessons or courses
• can be used to remove some of the formality which non-traditional learners may find unattractive or frightening and can make learning fun
• can help deliver and support literacy, numeracy and language learning
• can help learners and teachers to recognise and build on existing basic literacy skills
• which allow young people to communicate in notational form via text messages
• facilitates both individual and collaborative learning experiences
• enables discrete learning in the sensitive area of literacy
• can help to combat resistance to the use of ICT by providing a bridge between mobile phone literacy and PC literacy
• has been observed to help young disconnected learners to remain more focused for longer periods
• can help to raise self-confidence and self-esteem by recognising uncelebrated skills,enabling non-threatening, personalised learning experiences and enabling peer-to-peer learning and support

 Some key lessons learned during the m-learning project were:

• A mixture of online learning and learning using materials previously downloaded onto handheld devices helps to reduce costs and the inconvenience of signal disruption whilst traveling or poor signal in some remote rural areas.
• The use of software layers to insulate learning materials from device-specific features and delivering learning materials in a browser helps overcome some lack-of-standards issues but does not offer full platform independence.
• Attempting to deliver a monolithic mobile learning system leads to inflexibility, limits ability to take full advantage of the heterogeneous mixture of hardware and services available and detracts from facilitating blended approaches to learning delivery.
• An iterative approach to development informed by learner feedback results in better learning materials and systems.
• Whilst it is possible to re-purpose learning materials developed for PC delivery to run on mobile devices, this approach may not make best use of the strengths of the mobile technologies.
• A flexible, collaborative and pragmatic approach to development works well in an environment where the technologies are new and standards are evolving. This is aided by working within a small consortium.
• It is important to be aware that, when delivering learning or offering support services to learners’ mobile phones, one is encroaching on their personal space.
• For our target audience teacher/mentor enthusiasm and involvement seem to be very important for successful mobile learning.
• Sufficient training preceded by training needs analysis is important for teachers/mentors as mobile literacy and confidence varies.
• Fast response to mentor and learner problems is crucial to avoid disillusionment and stalling momentum and proactive support for those just starting to support mobile learning plus ongoing access to advice is helpful.

 The article talks about the creation of a toolkit for teachers that includes authoring tools which teachers use on a PC to create learning materials which are then accessed via learners’ mobile phones or transferred onto learners’ palmtop computers. The tools include:

• An SMS (text message) quiz authoring tool this tool allows teachers to set up an automated response system for a multiple choice quiz. The quiz can be presented to the learners in any way e.g. a paper handout, a poster, a website or on a whiteboard or in a PowerPoint presentation. When the learners send the answers to the questions by SMS they receive almost instant feedback.
• A mediaBoard authoring tool this tool allows teachers to create interactive learning tasks and projects for groups of learners. Each mediaBoard a teacher creates is rather like an Internet message board but consists of a visual image. Learners can attach audio, text and images to areas of the image, sending these by e-mail, or by multi-media message (MMS) from a palmtop computer or a mobile phone.
• A Pocket PC authoring tool this tool allows teachers to author multiple choice quizzes, including pictures and text, for delivery via any device supporting the PocketPC operating system. They can also author simple Pairs or Snap card games and small pages of text. Piloting and evaluation of these tools will include consideration of ease of use and usefulness to teachers as well as exploring the different uses teachers find for the tools, the contexts in which they use them and the learning materials they develop.

The development of this toolkit draws upon the experience of the m-learning project and is the next step in a process starting with research and development and resulting in practical easy to use tools which will allow teachers to develop mobile learning materials and experiences tailored to the needs of their particular learners in their specific context.

This article really explains the benefits on the use of mobile devices in education. The research also describes a standard toolkit for teachers with a lot of options available to use and incorporate in the classrooms. The teacher will choose what works best for an specific assignment.

 It is good that projects like this show an interest from educators to incorporate mobile devices and new technologies into the curriculum. And it seems like they are really exploring several options to accomplish the task. Young students are using technology and mobile devices regardless of what schools are doing. Young students should be more involved in the choice of technology that teachers will incorporate in the classroom. They are the ones that know what capture their attention, they know what methods will me more productive in their learning. They know what is fun to use, and they know what stimulates to them to learn. Sometimes teachers by trying to incorporate something new into the curriculum, miss the student’s needs.

 3

Citation: Ellen D. Wagner (2005). Enabling Mobile Learning. EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 40, no. 3 (May/June 2005): 40–53. http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume40/EnablingMobileLearning/157976

Summary: This article states that the mobile revolution is finally here, from toddlers to seniors, people are increasingly connected and are digitally communicating with each other in ways that would have been impossible to imagine only a few years ago, and this mobile technologies clearly have already changed life as we’ve always known it. It explains that mobile experiences in the United States lag behind the connectivity options available in other countries and that when it comes to mobile adoption, the United States is relatively behind the curve. Mobile networks and services in the United States are just at the beginning of broadband and broad-scale adoption.

   Claims made about Mobile for Learning

• The value of deploying mobile technologies in the service of learning and teaching seems to be both self-evident and unavoidable. Notebook computers are ranked as the most important hardware issue on campus today, followed in second place by cellular telephones.
• Users in Asia and Europe are finding that their broadband connectivity and their computing needs can be met through a single device. And increasingly, that device is a mobile telephone.
• U.S. mobile users are starting to get some tastes of what mobile multimedia looks like.
• U.S. wireless service providers still do not offer the kind of broadband distribution capacity needed to ensure a high-quality experience for mobile users.
• The heightened interest in mobile possibilities for teaching, learning, and research can be attributed to a number of factors:
  • the continuing expansion of broadband wireless networks;
  • the explosion of power and capacity of the next generation of cellular telephones; and
  • the fact that mobile telephones, a familiar tool for communications, are already fully ingrained in contemporary life as part of our social practice.
  • there is very little extra effort required to get people to adopt and use mobile phones.
• U.S. educators are finding themselves in the awkward position of knowing that the mobile revolution is coming, without really being able to imagine what it’s going to look like or what the possibilities for mobile learning may be.
• Whether we like it or not, whether we are ready for it or not, mobile learning represents the next step in a long tradition of technology-mediated learning.
• It will feature new strategies, practices, tools, applications, and resources to realize the promise of ubiquitous, pervasive, personal, and connected learning.
• It responds to the on-demand learning interests of connected citizens in an information-centric world.
• It also connects formal educational experience (e.g., taking a class, attending a workshop, or participating in a training session) with informal, situated learning experience (e.g., receiving performance support while on the job or taking advantage while riding the train or sitting in an airport waiting for a flight).

Review: I recommend this article. Here the author explains the key points for implementation of mobile devices in a scholastic environment. It shows that mobile for learning is growing rapidaly and that United States is relatively behind the curve when compared with other countries like Korea. This new trend forces educators to pay attention to the devices that students are so readily adopting. Also the potential that this devices offer to educators. The article compares mobile for learning with with e-learning by specifiying the lessons learned on e-learning process. The statment that I think is very important when talking about mobile for learning is “Learning is a deeply personal act that is facilitated when learning experiences are relevant, reliable, and engaging”. Sometimes teachers start using technology that is not relevant to the curriculum and it is not engaging to the students, then it becomes unnecesary extra work for students and teachers without benefits in the leaning process. Technology by itself does not guarantee better learning. It is important to understand that different kinds of learning demand appropriate strategies, tools, and resources. Using the wrong tools and resources may demotivate and disengage students in the process. My conclusion is the following:  I liked in the article “Mobile Wirless Devices are Tools of Mass Disruption”. I believe that they are going to help spark a period of innovation for learning technology for our future.

4

Citation:Patricia Deubel Mobile Devices(2009): Facing Challenges and Opportunities for Learning. The Journal transforming education through technology.

 Summary: This article mentions that  students can learn anything from a cell phone, if educators design it right. It explains that cell phones can support the different ways people learn (like listening, observing, imitating, questioning, reflecting, trying, estimating, predicting, speculating, and practicing). In addition, cell phones complement the short-burst, casual, multitasking style of today’s “Digital Native”

 It explains that mobile devices, such as iPods, cell phones, and portable gaming devices, as key for learning in the 21st century, by mentioning projects like: Geo-Historian Projectthat enables students to use mobile phones with video capturing capabilities, built-in GPS, and wireless Internet access to link classrooms with local historical landmarks, zoos, museums, and so on.

  The article talks about achievement, saying that the effectiveness of technology in general is only as good as its implementation. Example:Sixth grade teacher Richard Whittaker in Boise, uses iPods in his instruction. Class iPods are loaded with “lessons enhanced with video clips, homework assignments, quizzes, videos, music, books on tape and more” for use in subjects he teaches, including English, math, social studies, and reading. (the technology helped his prior year’s class “achieve some of the highest Idaho State Achievement Test scores in the state: 100 in reading, 95 in math and 95 in language arts”).

Whittaker indicated he believes the technology helped level the playing field for those who did not have computers or Internet access at home and allowed his students to work at their own pace, reviewing lessons as needed for better understanding.

Educators are piloting iPod Shuffles at the high school in North Port, FL in hope that the devices will help increase the reading fluency of students involved with intensive reading classes. While reading assigned books in the library, students use the Shuffles to listen to the audiobook version. The Shuffle has no screen and is wearable. So far, the devices have received enthusiastic support. One learner stated that having something in her ears actually helps her to focus on what she is reading. Media Specialist Kristi Alexander said she believes that if she can get students to like to read, their academic achievement will improve, and they will do better in their classes (Gibson, 2008).  

 Some of the challenges mentioned:

• potential distraction,
• unethical behavior,
• physical health concerns, 
• data privacy issues
• cheating via text messaging,
• sharing inappropriate content,
• additional means for cyberbullying.
• many parents and educators have legitimate concerns and believe cell phones have no place in schools
• no widely accepted learning theory for mobile technologies.
• concerns about the development of writing skills
• reading large amounts of text on small screens can cause eye strain
• many children do not have the dexterity to fully control mobile devices.

Review: 
 This was a short article explaining the pros and cons of the use of mobile devices in education. The author explains how important is that teachers design the right applications for cell phones such that students can learn from there. It was very interesting to be aware that cellphones can support the different ways people learn (like listening, observing, imitating, questioning, reflecting, trying, estimating, predicting, speculating, and practicing).
I think that sometimes teachers by trying to incorporate something new into the curriculum miss the student’s needs. Not all students learn in the same way, so by having a variety of learning tools on a cell phone, it becomes a very powerful tool.  It depends on how closely educators listen to the students and provide the appropriate ways to meet their needs. The article explains different projects on schools that incorporated mobile devices and mention their positive achievements. It also lists the challenges on the use of these devices. But the contrast between the pros and cons shows that the opportunities and benefits on the use on mobile devices in schools is greater that the disadvantages.

The article explains different projects on schools that incorporated mobile devices and their positive achievements. It also lists the challenges on the use of these devices. But the contrast between the pros and cons shows that the opportunities and benefits on the use on mobile devices on schools is greater that the disadvantages.

5

Citation:  James H. Roberson and Rita A. Hagevik (2008). Cell Phones for Education.Meridian an electronic journal.Volume 11, Issue 2, Summer 2008.  

Summary:  The article explains that cell phones are fast becoming an integral part of students’ everyday lives. They are regarded as important companions and tools for personal expression. School-age children are integrating the cell phone as such, and thus placing a high value on them.

Educators endeavor to instill in students a high value for education, but often meet with difficulty. Involving technologies such as cell phones that are held with high value to students into teaching and learning cannot help but motivate students. Thus, utilizing the cell phone as a teaching and learning tool should increase the desire of students to become fully involved in their education. 

 The purpose of this discussion is to explore how youths perceive cell phones, to examine how educators and educating institutions could possibly market education from a different perspective, and to raise the idea of how a higher degree of value for education might be fostered in school-age students through the personalization of the educational experience.  

 Claims about Personal Expression

• Cell phones are quickly becoming devices of personal expression
• They are being used to define who we are as individuals.
• Furthermore, the priority given to one’s cell phone in social situations by younger generations is having a profound effect on social norms.
• The current generation possesses a keen ability to quickly understand, use, exploit, and integrate new and emerging technologies.
• The possession and utilization of cell phones by young learners is large and rapidly growing
• This multiplicity of existence can be further seen in what Godwin-Jones (2005) calls “created third spaces” that are neither home, school, nor work. These third spaces are venues where chat and multiplayer games are carried out. Often within these third spaces new identities, called avatars, are created that can reflect the individual’s ego or alter-ego, whichever they choose.

• We claim that teens feel they must have a cell phone and be adept at using it to be a normal, accepted, and functional member in today’s society.
• Digital natives view cell phones as tools and companions for accomplishing their transformation into individuality.
• Cell phone marketers and providers are tapping into this reality by highlighting the vast ways of customizing a cell phone and the cell phone experience.
• The marketing strategy needs to be changed to one with a stronger emphasis on the tangibles that can be related to obtaining an education, along with the process of making the learning experience personal, unique, and authentic. Therefore, the idea would be to develop cell phone-based instructional devices and media that are pertinent to specific content and goals, while catering to the ability for individual expression and creativity.

The analysis of marketing strategies used by educational institutions does not compare. Most media campaigns promoting education seem to fall flat. It should be noted that marketing of education in this discussion does not refer to marketing pushes intended solely to increase enrollment but rather those designed to instill or increase the desire and motivation of young individuals to seek out knowledge through a good education. 

About Educational Uses

Cell phones have a large number of uses that are immediate to teens and pre-teens. In fact, many of these uses are built into the phone’s software. These multimedia features and the ease at which they can be utilized. So why not use these powerful features of cell phones to benefit the learner? Moreover, these powerful devices are owned and are the responsibility of the students and their parents, thus potentially relieving some of the burden local education associations carry regarding technology

The use of cell phones or mobile devices as an educational tool has occurred mostly outside the borders of the United States in regions such as Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Clyde (2004) points out that North American educators have been slow to alter their perception of cell phones from the position of disruptive technology to a technology that can be integrated into the curriculum.  

The different ways for integrating cell phones into the curriculum can be as varied as the phones themselves.

Examples:

• when studying ecosystems students could explore and experience them with their cell phones in hand. While visiting an ecosystem, the students could document it with the built-in camera and produce a voice or written memo about key features they observed. Once the task has been completed, the students can e-mail their teacher pictures and text for evaluation. Exploratory activities such as this are perfect venues for bringing the cell phone into the learning process (Clyde, 2004).
• In places such as China, Japan, the Philippines, and Germany, students are using their cell phones to learn English, as well as study math, health, and spelling. In one area, the cell phone is being used to deliver historical content during guided tours at a state park.
• Bringing cell phones into the assessment arena has been explored in the United Kingdom. College students, using their cell phones, completed exams, and their voice print was used to authenticate the test-taker (Prensky, 2005).
• Other ways of integrating cell phones into teaching and learning are being investigated. Attewell (n.d.) explored how students’ enthusiasm toward cell phones could be focused toward learning and improvement in literacy and mathematics.
• Goh and Hooper (2007) describe a pilot study in which a large university used cell phones as interaction and feedback devices for a lecture class; this study found that students were quite interested in the game and had significant interest in using it again in the future.
• Wei, Chen, Wang, and Li (2007) integrated cell phones into a web-based discussion forum as part of a computer programming class. The majority of the students (74%) was pleased with the system, and felt they benefited from sharing voice knowledge over text-based information.
• Park (2005) sought to foster a more learner-centered environment by developing an “adaptive mobile learning management system” that coordinates with the learner’s learning style while interfacing in the mobile environment.
  

About the conclusion

Cell phones accomplish some very important functions. They fulfill the role of the icon of teen freedom, and they facilitate the flow and construction of knowledge. Moreover, a cell phone can put the ownership of learning into the “hands” of a student. It should be incumbent upon educators that whatever content is taught should be done in such a way that has value and meaning to the learner. Considering how to use cell phones in education is one way to blend real life and school life to make learning more relevant, personal, and meaningful.

Review: This is a very comprehensive article that explores the use of cell phones in education. It starts by describing that cell phones belong to a group of devices that are referred to as information and communications technologies (ICT). This group of devices includes items, such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), and global positioning systems (GPS). Because cell phones are fast becoming an integral part of students’ everyday lives, the articles tries to answer the following question:
  -How can the fervor for cell phones be duplicated to augment education?.
 To answer this question the author explains how cell phones are quickly becoming devices of personal expression. This is very important as to identify what makes these devices so appealing to young students. Then to use these features to engage students to use them for learning.
 I appreciated the different samples presented by the author regarding the applications that other countries and educators have found in the use of cell phones for instruction. By reading what other are doing can motivate us in finding our own applications for our own needs. These samples are really opening our eyes on how education is being transformed by the use of mobile devices.

  My first encounter with a computer was with a brown Commodore 64 box that I connected it to a small portable TV that acts as monitor. I was able to create my first small programs in PASCAL that  displayed a menu with the options to add, substract, multiply or divide given 2 numbers I was able to see the result. I was able to compile the program, debug some errors, and execute it. It was really amaizing to see that a box can understand what I wanted to do and displaying it into a TV. I got the same results as using a regular calculator, but the excitement of using a “computer” that I can input a program that I created, and knowing that the program run without errors and producing the right answers, was really amaizing, made me proud of myself and make my mind keep thinking on what else, what else can we do with a computer, and what other programs can we create, and who can benefit from the result. At that time I had no idea of the advancement that we are experiencing these days. But that was the start for me on computers.

To date I have never used an Apple II computer, but after reading the history about it, it is very interesting to know that it was widely used in schools for several years. I think that the use of games on computers made them more appealling to the masses. Who uses a computer? the users that are programmers, and the users that are not programmers. If a programmers uses a computer is maybe most of the times to create programs, but the “other” users, the “regular” users, use them to get a benefit from it, usually an enjoyable benefit like playing games, we as humans, we love to play, we play in different ways throuhgt our lives. That is why it is very interesting that games where firsts on the list of things that you can do with computers. I can’t believe that at that time when Apple II was introduced to schools it was good for the students to use them to play games. Currently we ask our students not to play games on the school computers, school districts block access to operating system’s games, and of course online games websites. Students are not allowed to use school computers for playing games because they are not part of the curriculum. But at the same time, we know the power of games in engaging students in an activity. We wish we can have the student’s motivation and attention that they have with games. And now the creation of learning games, games where students enjoy playing them and learning at the same time is huge in industry. Similar scenario with mobile devices, students are not allowed to use mobile devices while in class, but a lot of students have them and used them in their lives.

  The use of the Apple II computer in classrooms was not totally understood by teachers. They had an idea of what the computer could do for them. They were curious about what the compter could do for them, what benefits it may hold.  But other teachers with little understanding did not benefit from the appliation of computers in the classroom. By comparison their class instruction missed out on the benefits that others were seeing in with the use of computers in the classroom.

 I was supposed to talk how about Apple II history, and while I was reading the sugested website, I found it boring for me, I don’t like to read too much, I like to do and see. So I started to look for another format where I can learn about the history, and thanks to technology I found a video that kept me interested on the topic, here is the link and if you are like me, you might found it useful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAAuGLB7woY, and one more if you like to learn with music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTZRzftZ6vA.

Apple II was popular with business users, families, and schools. Apple was aggressive about getting the computer into the classrooms. I would say that they saw the potential to introduce computer to young students that will be easier to get them comfortable on using a new device. Kids by nature are curious about new stuff and love games, and at the same time they are at the age where they spend most of the day at school learning; what a combination!: curiosity+ games+ education = Apple II.  Having computers at school where students use them an obtain a benefit, will be something that they must have at home too.

To finish with this blog, I think that some of the reasons why we don’t seem to be as excited about mobile technology for learning as we were about the first microcomputers are:

•   Kids or young students seems to be the first ones to desire, want and buy new mobile devices.  Adults or teachers seems to not understand well why will they need a new device, what will be the benefit. So they delay the use of them until they experience the benefits.
• Mobile devices seems to be advertised for: 
  *   first for entertainment
  *   to  provide  communication solutions to our daily lives (phone capabilities, Internet access, GPS capabilities, etc.)
  *   to improve the efficiency of our daily tasks (like keeping track of appointments, contacts, files, etc)
  *  and of course to give us a status of  “cool”
  but, what about to be advertised for educational purposes like the Apple II?
• It takes time for teachers, schools, and districts to learn, use and figure it out how to incorporate mobile devices into the curriculum. 

..that is what I think. Thanks for reading up to the end of this endless post.