Back to Blogging… What mobile device features are students using?
After a bit of a hiatus from blogging (I have been on a special project working with strategic planning and accreditation this semester), I am back into mobile learning and picking up where I left off. After looking at a few of my favorite mobile tech places on the Internet, it is like I never left. As the iPhone continues to add apps and as BlackBerry and Android chase, my students are still not any closer to using data plans and using primarily SMS as the dominant fear
Which leads to the questions I think is critical to mobile learning… what will the platform be and what features can we count on most (if not all students will have)? My peers will point to the iPhone. Go to any meeting with a lot of techie types and it is all iPhone (to the point where I am considering the purchase of one) but the students have not made that transition. They are still photo’s, sms and mp3. Data plans for the average community college student is probably cost prohibitive.
My challenge for the Spring semester to start surveying as many Community College students who will let me know … what is their mobile device? What features do they use with this device? Do they access the Internet? Do they run applications from their mobile device? These are questions that need to be answered. (If you are interested in helping me with the questions or the students to take the survey, let me know via a comment. I am sure it will be a Google form with 12-20 multiple choice responses.)
If these questions on mobile device usage and features are not answered, the pioneers who are developing this technology for their classrooms will not be able to introduce it to other instructors (and see a spread in this technology). Stay tuned in 2010 for surveys and working examples of mobile learning in a community college setting. We have to move beyond the expectation that the iPhone is the only answer to one with is pregmatic and realistic (at least in the short term) and understand to get this off the ground the short term mobile learning opportunities will probably be with sms gateways, Internet ready mobile devices and utilization of video and sound on the device.
Lets think strategically here and not science fiction.
What mobile device features are students using… The question remains.
Comments.
In: Issues on Mobile Learning, Using Mobile Tech
on December 28, 2009 at 4:24 pm
· Permalink
We are doing a project where we need to reach college students. We’ve been asking these same questions. I can tell you that you are on target – the data plans for smart phones such as the iPhone are cost-prohibitive for many students. We still see Twitter and Facebook as the way to reach these students….from their computers or from a mobile device.