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Mobile Technologies

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 6 months ago

 
 
Mobile Technologies

 by Delia Villarreal

 


 

Historical Background 

 

Mobile technologies have been around for decades and as time goes by technology is changing and so is our life style. Mobile technologies are technologies that are wireless or movable. Everything like computers, radios, telephones, and cameras were bigger in size and slower operating than the ones we see now. There are so many different types of mobile technologies around; everywhere we look we will surely see them. In this chapter we will look at the mobile technologies in the classroom and the disruptive technologies used to enhance learning.

 

According to wikipedia, a disruptive technology is a more innovative technology that eventually takes over the old technology.(Wikipedia,2007) Looking at a regular classroom setting we can notice the different kinds of mobile technologies that are used to improve learning. We may see computers, overhead projectors, audio cassette players, CD players, and VCRs. All of these items are part of the enormous variety of mobile technologies that we may see in a classroom. As the days go on, we start seeing more disruptive technologies that can be used in the classrooms to engage students into learning. In some cases disruptive technologies are already being used.

 

The audio visual projector is replacing the overhead projector. We see more laptops with wireless internet being used in the classrooms. Sheridan School District Superintendent, Scott Spainhour, has placed regular laptops with wireless internet and iPods in the school busses so the students can work on their homework while riding the bus.(Clark,2007) There is the Children’s Machine also known as the $100 laptop that is intended to be sold to governments so the schools can issue them out one laptop per student. This is planned to be distributed to school children all over the world for them to gain knowledge.($100 Laptop, 2007) The Korean Ministry of Education is planning for all Korean schools to move into digital textbooks instead of paper textbooks by 2011.(Digital Textbook, 2007) The use of handheld devices in the educational field is also growing. There are a great variety of handheld devices that administrators and teachers can use.

 

All of these disruptive technologies help capture the student’s attention and motivate them into learning making them more academically successful. As teachers we need to realize that modern technology will help students become more successful learners. Mobile technologies benefit students from all grade levels and the disruptive technologies will make it easier and more resourceful.

 

Relevance to education

 

Society is changing and generations are more inclined to technology. We see and use technology in our everyday life at home, work, in the car, and at school. This is why as teachers we need to realize that the use of mobile technologies will help greatly keep the students focused. The disruptive technologies will make it easier for the teachers to give the lesson and make it interesting for the students. Using audio visual projector, connected to a laptop with wireless internet, allows the teacher to show the entire class information from the internet. This captures the student’s attention in the way that the students see exactly what is on the laptop on big screen. The students are also able to learn from educational video clips found on the internet as a whole class. 

 

The Children’s Machine, when it is available to the students, will be a great learning tool in the classroom. The use of laptops in the classroom will keep the students more organized. This will help the teachers cover more material. Laptops with wireless internet will make it less time consuming for the students to research information using the internet. Digital textbooks will definitely benefit all students even the slow learners in school. Digital textbooks will have a touch screen, display dimensions and store data. The use of digital textbooks will eliminate the need of printing so many paper textbooks through the print media.

 

Some handheld device companies have jumped in to the education scene. For example, Palm has a website devoted to possible uses of its handheld devices in the field of education. The Education Quick Guides lists titles their handheld devices can use in different educational arenas. For example, administrators can access databases of students’ information or assist in evaluating teachers on a quick walk-through of the classroom. Math and science students can use a handheld device instead of a desktop computer to graph, calculate, or measure anywhere they go. Social studies teachers can have their students explore atlases, study the fifty (50) United States, and access databases of world facts. The possibilities are endless for schools to use mobile technologies like these handheld devices. 

 

These disruptive technologies, adapted to each grade level, can benefit students and teachers from every grade level.  

 

Glossary of Terms

 

 

AskMobi-is a device composed of a cell phone and a web-based system used to engage adolescents in social science inquiry.

 
audio visual projector-device used to project video images or computer data; it is the modern equivalent of the overhead projector.
 

Children’s Machine-also know as XO-1 laptop or $100 laptop is an inexpensive laptop that is intended to be distributed to children around the world to provided them with knowledge.

 

disruptive technologies-a more innovative technology that eventually takes over the old technology

 

ethernet-large computer networking to transmit data from local area networks at many speeds.

 

iPod-digital music player designed and marketed by Apple that can also serve as external data storage.

 

Mobile technologies-technologies that is wireless, portable or movable.

 

Scratch-is a program that children can use to create stories, video games, and share their creations through the internet and on mobile devices with others.

 

Start-up Costs

 

The use of digital textbooks may be the future way of learning in our schools. We already have the TAKS test going from paper pencil to an electronic test. This is why it would benefit greatly for us to start using digital textbooks in the classroom to get the students familiar and comfortable with electronic testing. Digital textbooks may be first exposed to the grade levels taking the TAKS test. Slowly digital textbooks can move on to benefit all grade levels. In Korea the Korean Ministry of Education is planning to start the use of digital textbooks in the elementary level by 2008. They will distribute one digital textbook to elementary students and will charge the equivalent of 105 U.S. dollars for middle and high school students.(Digital Textbook, 2007) 

 

The software used will be Windows XP. The hardware of the digital textbook will consist of: 40GB hard disk, memory of 512 MB, Intel Pentium M CPU, Integrated Intel® Graphics (2D/3D graphics), Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 a/b/g chipset, bluetooth v1.2, integrated universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 x 2, 56K V.92 2 modem, 10/100M ethernet, a touchscreen, a 6-cell Li-ion battery, internal speakers, dual microphones, and jacks for external headphones, microphones, headphone-out, and mic-in. The manufacturer for the digital textbook will be Fujitsu.(Digital Textbook, 2007) Certainly the movement into digital textbooks in America will be slow, but very beneficial to everyone. 

 

Key-players, gurus, experts

 

Please follow this link for more information on mobile technologies key-players, gurus, experts.

  

Sample Lesson Plans

 

Please follow this link to view sample lesson plans using mobile technologies. 

 

Tutorial

 

This chapter is dedicated to mobile technologies in the classroom. The integration of mobile technologies in the classroom offers an enormous variety of learning tools for the students to use. There are many different ways that students learn and this new era of technology has a lot to offer us. Take a look at the following video to learn more about this chapter.

 

Fliqz has shut down their service. To access this video, email support with this video id: 23734
   
 
Listed below are some of the very useful mobile technologies.  Integrating these mobile technologies in our lesson plans can make a great difference in the student’s capability of learning.
 
Children’s Machine http://laptop.org/
Mobile Phones http://www.tx2ph.com/
 
The following links were taken from the website that Palm has on handheld devices used in the classrooms. This links can be helpful when looking for funds to cover the cost of these technologies.
  
Funding Guide for handheld computers
 
Federal funds from agencies other than the Department of Education.
 
The Foundation Center
 
palmOne Education Resources

 

Sources

 

Clark, Jerod (April 10, 2007).School Bus Becomes Mobile Classroom Thanks To iPods. Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=44254
 
 Digital Textbooks. (July 12, 2007). Digital Textbooks. In Wikipedia (Web). Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Textbook
 
 Disruptive Technology. (July 12, 2007). Disruptive Technology. In Wikipedia (Web). Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology
 
 Educational Technology. (July 12,2007). Educational Technology. In Wikipedia (Web).Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_technology
 
 Laptop, (2007), Laptop Organization. Retrieved July 29, 2007, from Laptop Web site:
  

Laptop, (2007), Laptop- Learning Activities. Retrieved July 29, 2007, from Laptop Web site: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:Learning_Activities

 

Lifelong Kindergarden (2007), Scratch. Retrieved July 28, 2007, from Lifelong Kindergarden Web site: http://llk.media.mit.edu/mission.php
 
Lifelong Kindergarden (2007), AskMobi. Retrieved July 28, 2007, from Lifelong Kindergarden Web site: http://llk.media.mit.edu/mission.php
 

Mobile Phone (2007), ebook reader. Retrieved July 28, 2007, from tx2ph Web Site:  www.tx2ph.com

 

Palm, (2007). Palm - education quick guides. Retrieved July 27, 2007, from Palm Web site: http://www.palm.com/us/education/resourcelibrary/quickguides.html 

   
XO-1 (laptop). (July 12, 2007). Children Machine. In Wikipedia (Web). Retrieved July 13, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Machine
 
$100 Laptop. (July 22, 2007). $100 Laptop Production Begins. Retrieved July 25, 2007.
  
$100 Laptop. (November 28, 2006).   $ 100 Laptop Set for Launch. Retrieved July 25, 2007.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6189222.stm

 

 

Comments (10)

Anonymous said

at 8:56 pm on Jul 15, 2007

We had a workshop a while back when the audience played a version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” It was funny because they had a lot of really old equipment – like Opaque projectors and record players with the really bouncy turntable. Then a little newer equipment came out like cassette players and overhead projectors. Finally, the modern stuff was out and you were offered a deal. It was funny to see the “veteran” teachers all ohh and ahh when the really old stuff came back and were hesitant to do anything with the newer items. Times change and so must we or we become useless. The presenter made the point that in order to grab our students’ attention we need to use things they can relate to – just like some of us could relate to different things in the Let’s Make a Deal game.

Anonymous said

at 6:47 pm on Jul 16, 2007

Technology is here to stay. With all the new inventions making their debut on a daily basis, how can anyone want to go back to the OLD BIG HUGE technology instruments. I can see where people hesitate to accept change, because we get comfortable in our everyday use, but come on, if it is easy to manuver and easier for the students, why not. I liked your comment "All of these disruptive technologies help capture the student’s attention and motivate them into learning making them more academically successful.", THEN, let those disruptive technologies come on down and make the classroom rock.

Anonymous said

at 7:08 pm on Jul 16, 2007

Our computer use at home has gradually shifted from one stationary desktop computer to two laptops (one each for my husband and I), and a desktop computer that acts as our printer server, but is mostly used by my five year old daughter to play games. Personally, I am amazed that people are still trying to charge money for wireless internet access. When I lived in Texas, even the local Whataburgers had free wireless. And now I'm in a beachside hotel in Hawaii with a "business center" that has one ethernet cable (and they want to charge me 20 cents a minute to connect!). One product that I love related to this topic (as well as open source) is PortableApps. You can literally take your apps, preferences and data with you on a USB pen drive. More information can be found at http://portableapps.com/

Anonymous said

at 6:25 pm on Jul 18, 2007

you probably should do some research on what is happening in Japan with mobile technologies - way, way ahead of us.

Anonymous said

at 10:09 pm on Jul 22, 2007

Electronic textbooks allow for use of electronic bookmarking, hightlighting, keyword searches, emails, and links to web sources. Since the TAKS may take the route of electronic testing, I wonder if e-books will replace textbooks????

Anonymous said

at 12:45 pm on Jul 24, 2007

The educational ideas you give a great. I will say that one thing I would like to see in a classroom, is how we can get them using their cell phones as learning tools. I know that it would be difficult because of the providers and services. I just like the thought of them using something they are very familiar with for educational purposes.

Anonymous said

at 11:16 pm on Jul 28, 2007

Here is a link that I came across and thought it was very interesting. It is about reading books on your cell phone. http://www.tx2ph.com/

Anonymous said

at 9:14 pm on Jul 29, 2007

I agree with Kelly, your examples for uses in eduction are really good. I think it would benfit the reader to expand these examples to include a extended explanation of these uses and the benefits to education. these are my thoughts--but you are the author.

Anonymous said

at 1:19 pm on Aug 5, 2007

Mobile technologies are exploding everywhere. You might want to mention that cellular service companies are integrating Google services on their phones. Here is the link.
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=JRU5GSLH4VZWUQSNDLRSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=201202777&articleID=201202777

Anonymous said

at 7:13 pm on Aug 9, 2007

Awesome information delia. For the tutorial, I would love to see something on incorporating one (like even the cellphone) in the classroom. This could provide some ideas for teachers who may not have thought about it. Good information.

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