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Learning from a Cell Phone

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic (by 2 people)   Your rating: 1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic

Ranked #1488 in Family, #49211 overall

Rated G. (Control what you see)

 

A powerful tool to improve their education is already in kids' hands. Cell phone delivery of knowledge to learn could richly supplement traditional book/print methods obsolete very soon. The two key factors are:
1. The students already have the cell phones in developed countries and are getting them very fast even in the least developed parts of the world.
2. Multimedia technology is maturing quickly on the cell phone screens.
A very immediate and practical way to improve education for kids right now is to push getting learning material to the cell phone screens!

UPDATE: Cellphone / mobile use for learning 2008 

We are almost there

The rest of the modules on this lens were written 1082 days ago, according to the Squidoo calculator (as of November 22, 2008). Everything I wrote those 3 years ago has made slow but exciting progress! With the Sidekick craze, Blackberry crack addiction, and iPhone phenomenon -- and the new cellphone name "mobile" -- we are at the edge of mobile learning.

The tipping point will be in 2009. Keep up-to-date here. My ongoing current commentary on mobile use of open online learning content is at my blog GoldenSwamp.com that this lens feeds.

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Can the little phones really work for learning? 

Yes. The first link here is an overview of the potential, and the second an example of it already happening.
One expert's opinion
What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? Almost Anything! From Innovate June/July 2005
Reading books on cell phones
In Japan, reading books on cell phones is done by thousands of people.

What does it take to develop cell phone tutorials? 

The software for developing cell phone screen displays is still in its infancy, but is growing up very fast.
Envisioning the Mobile Future
Macromedia's Gary Kovacs describes his vision in EDGE
Macromedia Flash Lite
Macromedia's software for building Flash mulitmedia movies for cell phone screens
Smashing Ideas
An example of animated cell phone screen content

What is already happening for learning on cell phones? 

The tip of the iceberg is in view.

Cell phones are already being use to learn in a variety of formats.
Kaplan Mobile SAT, ACT and PSAT 2005
Students drill to prepare for the SAT and other tests.
Japanese novel-reading
More about the thousands of Japanese who are reading novels on their cell phones
Very little kids are doing it,
Leapfrog is selling spelling and other cell phone tutorials
WAPedia
Wikipedia is available on your cell phone screen.

Growth of cell phone use 

Not only are cell phones popular in developed countries

The day is likely to come that a laptop computer will be the standard learning tool for students - replacing textbooks, notebooks, typewriters, calculators, and backpacks. For now, though, the cell phone is already in the hands of huge and growing numbers of kids across the planet.
In Africa
Cell phones are reaching the young people of Africa as no other technology has.
China
Cell phones are blanketing the largest nation in the world.

Pornography proves cell phone screens deliver! 

If porn can do it, why not education?!

Sad to say, the education establishment dragged their feet when the Internet became capable of delivering multimedia for learning. Pornography jumped in as soon as the new medium was effective. Perhaps the surest test of cell phone delivery of visuals and compelling materials sequences is the pornography has now tested the new cell phone medium and found it worthy. Hopefully, educationists will move on to the phones without delay.
Porn and the Internet
Some even say that the pornography boosted the World Wide Web expansion, many surfers choosing broadband connections just to download porn or have real-time video chats.
More on cell phone porn
Protecting kids from pornography one cell phones
The so-called "adult" services are expected to be subscription-based only, but ads for them may pop up on anyone's tiny screen. And that spells danger, particularly for young men, according to Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association.
Parents can nix porn
Of course what comes into the phones - especially for small children - can be controlled by parents.

Related topics: ,  cell phone,  iphone,  Parenting & Kids,  more

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Judy_Breck

About Judy_Breck

For years now experts have been putting nodes of learning material online -- nodes surpassing print and other media in every respect, and forming subject networks that are the best place in human history to learn. My Squidoo learn nodes give you entry points for exploring that network.
I discovered these networks as contentmaster (1997-2001) of the then dominant open source for learning resources, HomeworkCentral.com .

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