Mobiles have made their way into the hands of every second person present on earth. They have become smaller, cheaper and more affordable than any other device. Used earlier mainly in the field of communications, these devices are been brought into the field of education for their use. Use of mobiles brings upon quite a large number of benefits affecting education in a major way. Mobiles can surely prove their use for education possibly be seen largely used in the world. Tablets are the new devices introduced to man. They have a large flexibility of use and presently re being used by a number of people for various types of functions.
Educating students is the one place they are being used. Their flexibility of use with new emerging applications for them allows tablets to be used for educational purposes. INTRODUCTION Mobiles have immensely changed the way people look at the world making communication easier. They have brought people closer making a world a very small place. Mobiles are now being tried in a very new field, the field of education. Communication techniques of the mobile being used to teach the students is an innovative method of education. This term paper aims at showing the use of mobiles for education.
Tablets are the new product in market trying to replace laptops and notebooks. They are like a PDA with the abilities of a laptop. One place where they find their recognition is in education where there potential is fully used from communication to storage and applications available. NON-MOBILE EDUCATION The style of education is well known to everyone. The student comes in the class sits in one place, takes out a notebook and a pen and starts writing. This type of education is called formal education and clearly defined “the structured educational yester provided by the state for children”.
This type of education is done in a proper infrastructural place within fixed time hours and possible only when a particular number of teaching and administrative staff is present. The non-mobile education carries with itself some problems which Ariel- Existence of time constraints This method of education is not flexible Conducted at one specific location Physical space required A lack of collaboration No or minimal personalization Slower self assessment(No real time assessment) Fear present in the student to express his or her views In a developing country this type of education faces some serious problems particularly in India.
India lacks the funding for opening up these institutions of education in every place and also due a very low number of people opting for a career in the field of education the staff is not present. MOBILE EDUCATION Mobile education sometimes also referred to as unlearning refers to learning that happens across locations, or that takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by portable technologies . In other words mobile learning decreases limitation of learning location with the mobility of general portable devices. Technological progress continually creates new opportunities for creating, storing, and disseminating knowledge.
One aspect is the utilization of new technologies for learning and teaching: e-learning. Recent endorsements in this sector were mobile devices, which can increase mobility, flexibility, and personalization compared to traditional, PC-based approaches. The term “learning” was thus extended to “m- learning,” or “mobile education”3. The m-learning or the mobile education is being taken towards another technology the tablets. These are small and have the potential o work like a laptop making them apt for something like mobile education. Mobile learning gets its roots in the history starting from the early 20th century.
The first instance of mobile learning goes back as far as 1901 when Languishing released a series of language lessons on wax cylinders. This was followed up in later years as technology improved, to cover compact cassette tapes, 8 track tape, and CDC. The years of asses saw a new wave in this part started by Dir. Alan Kay. Alan Kay and his colleagues propose the Donnybrook as a book-sized computer to run dynamic simulations for learning. Their interim Donnybrooks are the first networked workstations. In the asses the technology was first introduced in the schools of USA by the Apple corporation.
The work done by the researchers and the products made in the past led to the realization of the potential of mobile learning and in the past decade it started receiving state funding especially in Europe. The European Commission funds the major multi-national Mobile and M-Learning projects. Conferences and trade shows were created to specifically deal with mobile learning and handheld education, including: unlearn, WENT, and ‘ADDIS Mobile Learning international inference series, COMIC in Jordan, Mobile Learning in Malaysia, Handheld Learning in London, SALT Mobile in USAGE.
Many of the communicative aspects of digital mobile learning are readily apparent, for example, the voice, text and media facilities available on most mobile phones. However, in addition to these well established methods, there are a number of new, emerging and innovative ways in which interpersonal communications may be established between mobile students and their distributed and situated learning communities. ADVANCES IN MOBILE LEARNING The use of wireless, mobile, portable, and handheld devices are gradually increasing ND diversifying across every sector of education, and across both the developed and developing worlds.
It is gradually moving from small-scale, short-term trials to larger more sustained and blended deployment. Recent publications, projects, and trials are drawn upon to explore the possible future and nature of mobile education. Mobile learning has growing visibility and significance in higher education, as evidenced by the following phenomena. First, there is the growing size and free of dedicated conferences, seminars, and workshops. The first of the series, MEL first held in 2002 in Birmingham.
The conference aims to stimulate critical debt and research into theories, approaches, and applications of mobile and context learning; to bring together researchers and practitioners from all over the world share their knowledge, experience and research in the field of mobile learning; to create dialogue and networking for knowledge sharing and transfer across t globe.. This year this conference is being held in Beijing, China in the month of October. Another dedicated event, the International Workshop on Mobile and Wireless Technologies in Education (WENT), sponsored by IEEE.
It aims for bringing Togo searchers, academics and industry practitioners who are involved or interest the design and development of Wireless and Mobile Learning Technologies. Understanding of the challenges faced in providing technology tools to support learning process and ease the creation of instruction material using mobile technologies will help building a direction for further research and implemental work in the ubiquitous learning society’s. The International Association for Development of the Information Society (ADDIS) has also put in efforts in the field of mobile learning and organizes conference its development and expansion.
It aims to address the main issues of concern e-Learning, covering both the technical and the non-technical aspects of this flee There are now a large number of case studies documenting trials and pilots in public domain. In looking at these, we can see some categories of mobile learns emerging: ; Technology-driven mobile learning – Some specific technological innovation is deployed in an academic setting to demonstrate technical feasible and pedagogic possibility and tablet use. Miniature but portable e-learning – Mobile, wireless, and handheld technologies are used to re-enact approaches a lotions already used in conventional e-learning, perhaps porting some e-Lear technology such as a Virtual Learning Environment (VALE) to these technologies perhaps merely using mobile technologies as flexible replacements for static d technologies ; Connected classroom learning – The same technologies are used in classroom settings to support collaborative learning, perhaps connected to other classroom technologies such as interactive whiteboards. Informal, personalized, situated mobile learning – The same technologies are enhanced with additional function for example location awareness or video-capture, and deployed to deliver educational experiences that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. ; Mobil training/ performance support – The technologies are used to improve the productivity and efficiency of mobile workers by delivering information and sup just-in-time and in context for their immediate priorities evidenced by the following phenomena.
First, there is the growing size and frequency of dedicated conferences, seminars, and workshops. The first of the series, UNLEARN first held in 2002 in Birmingham. The conference aims to stimulate critical debate on and research into theories, approaches, and applications of mobile and contextual earning; to bring together researchers and practitioners from all over the world to share their knowledge, experience and research in the field of mobile learning; and to create dialogue and networking for knowledge sharing and transfer across the Technologies in Education (WENT), sponsored by IEEE.
It aims for bringing together researchers, academics and industry practitioners who are involved or interested in Understanding of the challenges faced in providing technology tools to support the technologies will help building a direction for further research and implementation as also put in efforts in the field of mobile learning and organizes conferences for its development and expansion. It aims to address the main issues of concern within e-Learning, covering both the technical and the non-technical aspects of this field. There are now a large number of case studies documenting trials and pilots in the public domain.
In looking at these, we can see some categories of mobile learning innovation is deployed in an academic setting to demonstrate technical feasibility Mobile, wireless, and handheld technologies are used to re-enact approaches and lotions already used in conventional e-learning, perhaps porting some e-learning technology such as a Virtual Learning Environment (VALE) to these technologies or perhaps merely using mobile technologies as flexible replacements for static desktop settings to support collaborative learning, perhaps connected to other classroom mobile learning – The same technologies are enhanced with additional functionality, educational experiences that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. ; Mobile productivity and efficiency of mobile workers by delivering information and support quality of mobile communication services. People living n remote areas and areas lacking infrastructure demands for education, mobile learning provides a method of education. In cities and metropolitan, the applicants are more than the number of seats present in educational institutions. Mobile learning provides an alternative in such situations taking the number admitted students to a manageable level.
USE OF MOBILE PHONES IN EDUCATION When the mobile phone was invented, little did we realize how much this piece of technology would be embraced? Even now, wherever you’d go, you’d see somebody clutching a mobile phone. High-level executives conduct a lot of business through the device. Even small stores in remote areas display big posters advertising pre-paid schemes provided by various telecommunication companies.. For the last several decades, wired technologies have been used by educators, school administrators, students, and others in higher education to help them teaching and learning. In this century, however, institutions of higher learning are moving towards the use of mobile wireless technologies.
Similar to other wired technologies, mobile wireless technologies have first been used in industry sectors such as business. The movement of mobile wireless technologies in education is a recent trend, and it is owe becoming the hottest technology in higher education. Use and simplicity of mobile has allowed it to be used in several distance education plans spreading throughout the world. Many of them present in African and Asian countries. MOBILE USAGE The number of mobile subscription in the world stands above the mark of 4 billion with around 827 million users in India only and more than 3 billion different users around the world. The total number of PC’s and notebooks are more than 1. 2 billion.
There are 3 times as mobile phones with camera than any camera, digital or film based ever manufactured. More than one billion handsets have been sold in the last year itself compared to the 270 million new PC’s. The mobile phones have the ability to send and receive text messages, have color screens, almost all of them have some kind of browser installed and 73% from all kinds of have cameras in theme . Recently India added around 13. 35 million mobile phones in usages. The incoming of the G technology and the smart phones which allow the access to the internet much more easily has produced in increase in the number of cell phones in the world. More people want to buy them because of their usability.
The current global number of mobile-only Internet users is currently small although this is forecast to grow to 1200 million by the end of 2011 and 2000 million by the end of the year 201514 15. The global mobile data traffic is set increase by 26 folds in the term 2010-2015. It is also been suggested that by the end of the year 201 5 two third of the world’s data traffic will be videos 5. SUCCESSFUL USE IN EDUCATION 28% of Africans now have a mobile phone subscription, according to data released by the TIT earlier this year, part of a larger trend that sees two out of every three mobile bickerers around the world living in a developing country.
The flagship TIT publication Measuring the Information Society notes that two-thirds of the world’s cell phone subscriptions are in developing nations, with Africa, which has a 2% subscriber rate as recently as 2000, growing the fastest. And it is not only adults who are making use of this new technology. While the evidence base is still quite spotty, some lessons (largely of the anecdotal variety) and usage models are slowly emerging from pilot projects in places as diverse as Thailand and Mongolia. The increasing ubiquity of mobile phones has eloped enabled pilots have begun at mobile gaming to support literacy in India. The use of cell phones in classrooms has shown better results compared to the past. They have made the students more resourceful and ready to work on any topic as it allows them to access any information at any point of time.
Mobile phones are used in many educational institutions by students, faculties and staff to improve the quality of education delivered keeping up with the pace of technology present in the hands of the students WAYS OF USING MOBILES IN EDUCATION Communication centers, computers, laptops, mobile phones and tablets have all en spoken about at one point or another as technologies with promising applications for education. Students around the world are increasingly bringing their own mint-computers (or some connected device) to class. Whether this creates a distraction or a boon to learning is debatable, but these four uses of mobile phones in education -? and countless others -? could one day help prove the latter. 1 . Inquiry-Based Learning- Abilene Christian University (ACE) began equipping its students with pods and phones in 2008 (now students can also choose an pad).
Faculty have used the presence of phones in their classrooms in numerous creative says, the student newspaper launched an pad version and teachers have used phones to facilitate discussions on controversial topics. The phones have also helped create a teaching style that the faculty refer to as “mobile-enhanced inquiry-based learning” -? combining mobile phones and a learning theory that teaches through experimentation and questioning. Professors use the phones to deliver information, flashcards, key words and other basic information that students need in order to come to class ready to discuss and experiments. 2. Flipping the Classroom- One component of mobile implementation is lecture bedposts, which allow students to ensure much of the information typically delivered in the classroom on their own time and in their own dorm rooms.
The idea is to free up teachers during class time for interacting with students and working through problems, a concept known as “flipping the classroom”7. It also allows students to pause and repeat information that they find confusing, and they can work at their own pace. Flipping the classroom is certainly possible without putting a mobile device in the hands of every student, and many universities have long made lectures available online, but doing so with a mobile component is an advantage. 3. Reinventing the Textbook- The result thus far is Book, a device-agnostic, peer- written, node-driven text. In other words, it’s like Wisped on steroids. In his classes, Macrocosm asks his students to write short one-concept nodes, which they then link with other nodes on the same subject.
When a student opens the book, currently hosted on a wick, he can click around the nodes to learn a subject in whatever order makes sense to him. In a pilot project of the book, students preferred the book over their traditional textbooks (no assessments were taken to see if Book resulted in deeper understanding). A final version of the kook, which will be piloted at four universities starting in September, will include analytics, multimedia, short quizzes and other options for teachers to interact with students. That version will be device-agnostic. It is clear and pretty observant that students will not carry heavy books to their room but will not mind to carry their index cards in their mobiles. 4.
Teaching Hard-To- Reach Communities- In the report from the United Nation’s International Telecommunication Union, mobile penetration rates in developing countries were expected to reach 68% by the end of 2010. Even though there is pretty good integration of mobiles the use of mobiles in education is not enough. There are very few organizations in the world using this method. Sending the educational text, videos and quizzes through the mobile phones sometimes even custom designed games are used to teach. 5. Use SMS to find definitions, currency conversion, math equations, translation and more 6. Use as an internet browser to access endless information 7.
Research 8. Read news articles and current events 9. Read books 10. Download and use education programs such as Google Maps and use as GAPS 1 1 . Educate students on appropriate and acceptable social use DRAWBACKS OF USING MOBILES IN CLASSROOMS The cons of cell phones in school are numerous. The source of much public debate, the issue of whether to allow children and teens to bring their mobile phones to school has been discussed clear across the country, but even now, there is no clear- cut answer, solution or conclusion. Below we will discuss the many reasons why it might not be a good idea to allow the use of cell phones in the classroom. 1.
Distractions- The ringing of the cell phone in the class produces enough distraction to disturb the whole class which does not goes well with the progress of the class. When someone gets bored in the class the next thing that happens is the cell phone coming out and all the people around looking at him or doing what he is doing. 2. Cheating- Cell phones having internet access have the capacity to get any information at any time which at exam time is called cheating. Some other mobiles can store notes which can be used for cheating. 3. Theft- In the fight of gaining popularity or newest gadget or Jealousy of someone having a newer one and is showing it off causes thefts and fights. 4. Illicit pictures- The new camera mobile phones allow the pictures to able taken very easily.
These pictures can be appropriate or inappropriate and need to be tackled. 5. Spellbinding- Sending e- mails causing trouble to people made to harm a specific person have come on rise which are made easier by the help of net access in mobile and need to be stopped. 6. Viewing inappropriate content- Net access in phones allows inappropriate content to be viewed at any time. USE OF TABLETS IN EDUCATION A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen. It often uses an onscreen virtual keyboard or a digital pen rather than a physical keyboard.
Throughout 2010 tablet technology was used within educational institutions throughout the world with some institutes becoming early adopters of this technology. And as consumers brace themselves for a flood of tablet devices expected to hit this year, this courting of tablets and education is likely to turn into a marriage. REASONS FOR USING A TABLET Tablets offer a number of advantages for education in comparison to laptops or notebooks. First, their lighter weight and orientation flexibility makes them far period for digital reading or accessing of content. Second, their instant-on capability and fast switching among applications allows learning activities to proceed with less delay.
Third, their touchstones interface allows a high degree of user interactivity. Fourth, they are much more mobile than laptops, as students can carry them inside or outside a room without having to close and reopen the screen and can also use them for mobile data collection or note taking since they weight very less as compared to weight of registers and books they need to carry. Fifth, since it is inexpensive to develop APS for mobile platforms, there is a rapidly growing amount of free or low-cost APS for tablets, many of which are suitable for education. Books can be digitized and stored on these. And finally, tablets’ long battery life makes them more suitable for a school Daly 1 .
In a science class it has been observed, students unanimously tell (asked at places the tablets are used) that they prefer using the pads to the laptops due to the tablets’ light weight, mobility, touchstones, and APS. Students use the pads to read a free open source Earth sciences textbook, investigate the elements and the composition of the Earth and galaxy via interactive APS, access the school’s e-learning platform, log and analyze lab data, and produce lab reports. Observations suggest that the pads are particularly helpful for laboratory work as the students carry the devices around to input data on the move. It has also been noticed that by the use of the tablet, the teaching faculty was able to reach traditional benchmarks weeks in advance.
The benefits of using a tablet can be simply put as: For Educators reason for using the tablets are- Innovative use of technology in the classroom, differentiating learning processes, methods and tools from the competition. Greater efficiency in materials distribution and homework submission. A more creative and stimulating environment, capturing students’ attention and increasing students’ knowledge retention. Tablets help in making the lectures more interactive and allow handwriting to be used to reinforce key points. They develop a flexible classroom teaching improving the results. Distribution of course work, notes and books becomes easy, also distribution of mark
