The convergence of ubiquitous broadband, portable devices, and tiny computers has changed our concept of what a phone is meant to be. A pocket-sized connection to the digital world, the mobile phone keeps us in touch with our families, friends, and colleagues by more than just voice. Our phones are address books, file storage devices, cameras, video recorders, wayfinders, and hand-held portals to the Internet—and they don’t stop there. The ubiquity of mobile phones, combined with their many capabilities, makes them an ideal platform for educational content and activities. We are only just beginning to take advantage of the possibilities they will offer.
Widespread adoption of mobile phones for education and learning was first highlighted in the 2006 Horizon Report, and signs continue to point to the mid-term horizon as the likeliest timeframe. Already there are many examples of campus-wide programs, individual courses, and creative opportunities that exploit the potential of mobile phones; more are emerging all the time. In the next two years, we predict that mobile phones will be accepted tools on campus, as desirable and common as personal computers.
Mobile phones are becoming the storehouses of our digital lives, containing a growing share of our personal and professional resources and data. Over the last year, mobile phones have become increasingly more powerful and adapted to multiple uses; virtually every phone now sold includes some form of multimedia, if not several, as well as instant messaging, web browsing, and email. QUERTY keypads are common, and geolocation and the capability to record video and audio is quickly becoming a standard feature as well. With over 225 million mobile phones manufactured each year worldwide, innovation in these devices is occurring at an unprecedented pace.
At the same time, more and more kinds of content is available for phones. Many websites and blogs can automatically detect if the browser is housed on a phone and format content accordingly. Video is a click away on almost all new phones, whether you want it streamed to you via the network or played off your SD card, or want to capture it via your phone’s internal video camera—and it is hard to find a phone anymore that does not include a still camera. New genres of filmmaking and photography are developing as artists and students experiment with equipment that fits in their pockets. The mass amateurization of video production is resulting in a new kind of video where the message is much more important than the form.
Photos, email, music, and other personal files already accompany many of us wherever we take our laptops. The newest form of this trend no longer requires the laptop—your phone is your personal digital repository. High speed broadband, combined with the multifunctionality of new phones and increased storage capacity via removable memory, is making rich media and live content the next big application for phones. Not only will you pull out your phone to show the latest wallet photo of your children—you will be able to show a clip of them speaking at their graduation ceremony as well. Hundreds of your favorite songs and podcasts, on- demand video, navigational assistance, restaurant recommendations, your photos—even language lessons—are all just a thumb click away.
In the not-too-distant future, phones will include projection systems, removing the barrier of the small screen; such devices are now in prototype. It’s already possible to attach a small device to your phone that projects a full-size keyboard made of light—it even makes clicking sounds when you tap the keys. Taken together, mobile computing, portable devices, and ubiquitous broadband mean that we have access to people, information, and data wherever we may be. It’s easy to check email, send an instant message, or record and send a short video or series of photos any time, from anywhere. The increasing capability of phones, plus the fact that virtually everyone has one, is already making these devices an attractive delivery platform. Applications for communication, scheduling, training, entertainment, study, and creativity suggest themselves; our task as educators is to select and develop those that are meaningful for education.
For example, the ability of phones to record data has tremendous applications in fieldwork for many disciplines. In the UK, students in a grade-school geography class use cell phones to record data (text and pictures) in the field and submit it to the teacher, who remains in the classroom. Students can create mini-documentaries easily and cheaply with their phones; online tutorials for phone-based moviemaking offer tips and techniques. In Australia, a grant-funded project invited filmmakers to write and shoot five-minute movies specifically for the mobile phone platform (see www.abc.net.au/miniseries), a technique that has been used in visual literacy and cinema courses.
The ability of almost all phones to access email, instant messaging, the web, and calendaring increases the ways in which students and instructors can communicate—and is eroding the digital divide. Some campuses are turning to mobile phones as a replacement for landlines, which are seeing less use. It seems that even students who cannot afford to own a computer are still very likely to own a mobile phone; it simply makes sense to provide services and information they can access with those devices.
A sampling of mobile phone applications across disciplines includes the following:
The following links provide examples of mobile phone applications.
The following articles and resources are recommended for those who wish to learn more about mobile phones.