A topic several of us in class have been discussing is the use of smart phones or tablets, such as iPad, for school or other training purposes. While we would struggle to do this with our current Blackboard software at school, i can see this being used more and more in the future. Teachers already put up discussions, lessons, power points, and even e-office time for student use. I see this moving more and more into the smart phone/tablet realm as these devices are more able and powerful which each new model. My Android powered phone, for example, runs on a 1Ghz processor. This is the equivalent of many of the recent net books. The new iPhone 4 is also reported to run on that same speed processor and a new Droid device is expected to hit with a 2Ghz chip. This translates to the ability to do everything you used to on your PC now on your smart phone.
Another smart phone accessory that is becoming more common is the front facing video camera. While the first thing most people think is that this will be used for video conferencing at companies, i wonder to what extent that can be used for education? Video conferences on the go would allow students to chat "in person" with professors no matter where they were at the current time. And there have to be many more options that I'm aware of too.
Even in high school, our community college offered several classes over a "virtual class" that consisted of a separate room with tvs, cameras, and computers at the high school and the teacher being broadcast from the school. With cameras and microphones on both ends, it allowed for 4 classrooms to be taught simultaneously. The big problem with this was the teacher-student interaction seemed to be a bit confused if more than one person had a question at a time. It will be interesting to see how this is dealt with in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe smart phone indeed needs to be integrated to the classroom. Students are messing around with them all the time in class anyway, so they should eventually be put to use during class. I can see the whole "clicker" (quick response remote hardware for multiple choice questions) becoming a standard app for phones. I mean, while students forget their clicker for class, I can guarantee you that they have not forgotten their phones! Try attending a large, auditorium classroom setting with mainly freshmen & take a survey yourself.
ReplyDeleteI also think that phone video chat is making video chat itself easily portable. The ability to simulcast from anywhere behooves me and will surely beat just a live simulcast from a desk. This will also do incredible things for journalism purposes.
And yes, the processing speeds are getting incredible for smart phones! However, in relation to smart phones replacing computers for school work, I can't see how one would go on to write a paper on their phone though.