{"id":252,"date":"2009-06-16T08:05:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-16T12:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=252"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:37:03","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:37:03","slug":"phones-need-to-converge-into-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/mobile-phones-and-computers\/phones-need-to-converge-into-computers\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Phones Need to Converge into Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It seems that the one thing that all of us agree on is that computers and mobile phones are moving toward convergence.  But will such convergence resolve this debate?<\/p>\n<p>For me, there are two issues that need to be addressed if such a convergence will improve education in the developing world.  First, smart phones should have the features that are needed to support education.  Among them are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The ability to communicate with multiple people simultaneously would allow teachers to communicate with multiple students and students to communicate with each other.  This would support group discussions.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to access multimedia content.  More and more educational content is multimedia\u2014audio, video, graphics\u2014this is increasingly important in helping students understand complex concepts and principles.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to run simulations and other applications.  Learning is so much more than just accessing content.  Students must be actively involved in their learning.  Games, simulations, and other applications allow students to engage with complex ideas and apply them in creative ways.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to create and post text and multimedia content.  It is important for students to also be able to generate content, not just access and use it.  Tools will be needed that allow students to generate and post their own online contributions.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to collaborate on these tasks.  Students learn most when they interact with each other, as well as the content.  Tools that allow students to generate content should support their ability to work with each other\u2014to contribute to joint products, to edit, to comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is a pretty powerful set of capabilities.  Sounds a lot like a computer, right?  It\u2019s a lot to ask of a phone.  But this is what is required of technology if it is to contribute to educational improvement.  Are we going to see these on an inexpensive handset in the near future?  Beyond the \u201c$100 laptop\u201d, are we going  to have a &#8220;$20 iPhone&#8221;?<\/p>\n<p>Even if we have a &#8220;$20 iPhone&#8221;, will these powerful features by themselves sufficient to improve education in the developing world?  <\/p>\n<p>No, not when teachers are still focused on teaching and assessing rote learning.  I continue to insist that we need a significant realignment in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher training that emphasizes knowledge creation, collaboration, and sharing.  This will prepare students in the developing world to participate in the global knowledge economy and information society.  It is only then that the immense potential of ICT &#8211; computers or smart phones &#8211; will be realized.  <\/p>\n<p>What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smart phones should have the features that are needed to support education &#8211; a pretty powerful set of capabilities that sound a lot like a computer.  It\u2019s a lot to ask of a phone.  But this is what is required of technology if it is to contribute to educational improvement.  Are we going to see these on an inexpensive handset in the near future?  Beyond the \u201c$100 laptop\u201d, are we going  to have a &#8220;$20 iPhone&#8221;?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49],"tags":[74,73,78,76,593,633,51,75,77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"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=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2527,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/2527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}