{"id":231,"date":"2009-06-05T10:08:48","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T14:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=231"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:37:05","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:37:05","slug":"phones-are-a-real-alternative-to-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/mobile-phones-and-computers\/phones-are-a-real-alternative-to-computers\/","title":{"rendered":"Phones Are a Real Alternative to Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Could it be that mobile phones offer developing country governments a better learning tool and more educational benefits that computers?<\/i>”<\/p>\n

Wayan’s question<\/a> here is provocatively phrased. Of course this is not a binary issue: The question is not either\/or, as both technologies will be increasingly integral to the delivery of educational services going forward. That said, the almost single-minded focus of most educational policymakers on the ‘computer’ as the preeminent ICT device to be used in schools going forward is short-sighted, so I’ll take the bait for the sake of debate. <\/p>\n

The momentum behind the proliferation of mobile devices appears inexorable for the near future. Throughout much of the developing world, when we speak of an low-cost ICT device used by the masses, we are speaking about phones, not computers. In India, there were 15.4 million new phone subscribers in the month of January alone! There is perhaps no more mass-scale undertaking in the world than organized education (with the possible exception of organized religion), and it is difficult to see how the mass adoption of mobile technologies will not intersect with educational practices in key ways. <\/p>\n

That said, there are currently five great limitations to the use of mobile phones in education when compared with computers. Quickly, they are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. small screen;<\/li>\n
  2. limited battery life;<\/li>\n
  3. difficulties with input;<\/li>\n
  4. the ‘distraction issue’; and<\/li>\n
  5. a failure of imagination (or phrased differently: we haven’t use them in the past, so we don’t yet have workable models to guide us).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Computers do certain things quite well. If we evaluate the potential use of the mobile phone in education only in the comparison to what a computer can do, we are greatly limiting our vision. How about we switch this around, and ask what the phone can do that the computer can’t? <\/p>\n

    The Phone is Personal<\/b><\/p>\n

    There is nothing ‘personal’ about a personal computer in schools in most developing countries. These are shared use devices. The phone is, for most people, an intensely personal device — in some places, it is the first thing a person reaches for when she wakes up, the last thing she touches before she nods off to sleep, and it is with her throughout her waking hours. <\/p>\n

    The Phone is Always On<\/b><\/p>\n

    As a tool for just-in-time, connected learning, the phone would appear to have important advantages over the computer, merely given the fact that it is always there, and always on. The success of the iTunes app store is demonstrating that there are great opportunities to exploit the fact that people are walking around with an increasingly sophisticated computer in their pocket that we are choosing to call a ‘phone’ for historical reasons to offer other types of software and learning applications that are not feasible to offer on a PC. <\/p>\n

    It is perhaps interesting to note that, while there are mass programs by governments around the world to promote computer use among citizens, there are no similar programs to promote mobile phone use, with the exception of Venezuela — these simply do not appear to be necessary.<\/p>\n

    The Phone is Proliferating<\/b><\/p>\n

    While mobile devices will no doubt play an integral role in education practices in some places in the near future, we remain a few steps removed from mass adoption, even in affluent, education-obsessed, technology-saturated societies like Korea and Japan. That said, while experimentation has been going on exploring the potential<\/i> utility of the use of phones in the education sector for quite awhile, it is only a matter of time before we reach a tipping point that could lead to quick, wide-scale utilization in many places. <\/p>\n

    The Phone is Not the Only Solution<\/b><\/p>\n

    Let’s be clear: Whatever our educational objective, what we are interested in is the right tool for the right purpose. Whether it’s a laptop, a mobile device of some sort, radio, or even (gasp) a printed book, whatever technology we chose to use should be commensurate to the goal at hand. The increasing availability of mobile ICT devices like phones in the hands of teachers and learners will not make the PC go away, but it does present educators with a great opportunity. <\/p>\n

    By focusing almost exclusively on only the personal computer or laptop when evaluating technology options to aid a wide variety of educational activities, ignoring the potential utility of the mobile phone (“the PC in our pocket”), policymakers in many places are in a sense driving forward while looking in the rear view mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Wayan’s question<\/a> here is provocatively phrased. Of course this is not a binary issue: The question is not either\/or, as both technologies will be increasingly integral to the delivery of educational services going forward. That said, the almost single-minded focus of most educational policymakers on the ‘computer’ as the preeminent ICT device to be used in schools going forward is short-sighted. The momentum behind the proliferation of mobile devices appears inexorable for the near future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49],"tags":[64,593,633,65,51,67,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2529,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/2529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}