Mobile Learning Anytime, Anywhere

Pssst, do you want a free iPod? Sure, but what's the catch? You must use it to learn! Some educational institutions are taking the leap to mobile learning (m-learning) by giving out free iPods. For example, Abilene Christian University gave iPods or iPhones to freshman students and developed 15 Web applications specifically for the mobile devices. Free iPod Touches were handed out to newly hired math and science teachers at a technology training workshop at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Duke University's Digital Initiative program lends iPods to students and staff, or sells them at about a third of the market price. The iPod is not the only ubiquitous m-learning device. Any technology that connects wireless or mobile phone networks to Web-based public or private services can be used. Other examples include smartphones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), handheld gaming devices, netbooks, and specialty technologies such as those used in science labs. At California State University, a satellite dish connects field archaeologists using mobile devices to the classroom. Instead of lab notebooks, geology students use netbooks equipped with global positioning and geographic information systems software on field trips. M-learning should be familiar territory in many ways. Educators have already discovered the value of e-learning, which has extended education beyond the classroom. And institutions that offer distance education courseware have acquired the technological k...
Source: Eye on Education - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news