Sunday, July 26, 2009 Wave of the Future: Cellphones as Instructional Tools While scanning over the July 15, 2009 Education Week,an education newspaper,notice for an upcoming webinar sponsored by Sprint caught my eye. The topic: Cellphones as Instructional Tools intrigued me. For those not familiar with webinar,the definition of webinar provided on the notice states: “Webinars are just like seminars, except you participate at your desk, using your computer to view and listen to the presentation (or,you can listen through your phone).&# Technology use is unstoppable. MORE >>

This makes it possible to deliver just-in-time information, training materials, data collection tools and performance support mechanisms to mobile workers using the tool virtually everyone already has in their pocket or purse – a voice-enabled mobile phone. This allows organizations to extend the reach of training content typically only accessible via a network-connected computer or data-enabled smartphone to anyone with a phone capable of making and/or receiving a voice call. Administrator training time to a level of proficiency is typically 1 to 2 days (depending on experience). MORE >>

Mobile Learning An Online Reflective Journal on Mobile Learning Practice Home Winksite Store Resources About Mobile Contact Find Out About Anything… Anywhere. 21 08 2006 Early in our August Community Networks Forum (where the current theme is m-learning), respected educator Stephen Downes made this comment: I think the killer educational resource for PDAs (and esp. Link this to a database of images and you have yourself a pretty nifty search platform for anyone sporting a camera phone. pre-packaged content for PDAs) will be photo-recognition. Ubiquette. MORE >>

This week, United Nation’s mobile learning specialist Steve Vosloo argues phones could be the future of education on the continent. Africa is today the  fastest growing and second largest mobile phone market in the world. For millions of Africans, much of their daily reading and writing happens on mobile phones in the form of SMS and instant message (IM) chats. For example, projects such as  Yoza Cellphone Stories , which offers downloads of stories and novels, has shown impressive uptake amongst young African readers who enjoy mobile novels or ‘m-novels’. MORE >>

He breaks down cultural barriers, he finds learning solutions with the most basic of communication devices (low cost cell-phones)… he is the type of researcher I would love to be (I try to be, but it is a far way to go). Let me describe his latest big project: Kontax, with which he helps massive amounts of youth learners to improve their literacy skills via low-cost phones. Kontax is a project that uses mobile phones for literacy, which is supported by the Shuttleworth foundation. Tags: mobile low resource setting research critical research mobile learning MORE >>