Smartphones, Tablets, and Cloud(s)

It used to be that teaching was about lecturing through peer reviewed texts and journals and students utilized the local or university library to complete research; nowadays we are consumed with technology.

Technology permeates our lives, buy viagra from the time we awaken in the morning to the time we rest our heads at night. I challenge educators to find one student in their classroom that doesn’t have a smartphone, capsule a tablet, medical a computer, or some form of technology that they use on a daily basis. Teaching…education has succumbed to the age of information overload and technological advancements that can make teaching more challenging and difficult; or does it?

It used to be that students sought out the convenience of education without having to drive to campus every day and listen to lectures from their professors. These students found the concept of eLearning quite enticing, the ability to attend class virtually on their own time in the comfort of their own home as long as they had connection via computer to the World Wide Web. With the advancements in technology, is education moving to mLearning?

eLearning to mLearning

The eLearning concepts were prominent with the GenX’s, especially for those that delayed higher education opportunities and in their efforts to return to the “college scene” found themselves tied to family obligations preventing them from attending campus-based programs. The use of digital media in education appeals to younger students, the Millennial’s (GenY’s) and more prominently with the GenZ’s.

The use of this digital media has been seen as a source of motivation for these students, but can mobile learning (mLearning) increase students’ ability to develop creative and interrogative thinking? According to Ilhan Tanner (2009), mobile technology offers a greater and more appropriate choice of features that help students generate and exchange information with other students, teachers/professors, or trainers. The mLearning concepts allow these students to think in new ways and use information in a learning context.

Distance learning technologies have taken on new forms, where electronic learning or eLearning was the preferred distance learning method, now mobile learning or mLearning is beginning to take over. Mobile learning provides students greater freedom by allowing students to take their class anywhere-anytime.

Emerging Technologies

Let’s take a brief look at what some of these emerging technologies that enable mLearning in more detail and how these might be used to enhance teaching and learning and what some of the pitfalls might be:

Smartphones: are mobile phones with built in operating systems that allows users to run third-party applications. The advancements of the smartphone operating systems allows students to download applications that can track time management of assignments, students can connect instantly to their mobile classroom through cellular towers without requiring internet/WIFI connections (if that institution as adopted that method and technology), and smartphones, as a tool for e-learning, allow students the freedom to attend and participate in classroom assignments without having to be physically present; therefore providing for greater communication between student-student and teacher-student.

The pitfalls of smartphone technology for distant learning include the difficulty in delivering huge amounts of content, improper coding of videos resulting in students inability to stream, watch, or download certain video content depending on the operating system for that particular smartphone, and it makes it more difficult to analyze data, complete research projects, and may have limited connectivity depending on provider and location.

Tablets: are mobile computers that are primarily operated by touch and are as small as 7 inches (length) but allow for both cellular and WIFI connectivity and are becoming more specialized in nature (just like desktop computers) depending on the user’s need (ex: Android Tablets, iPad, and E-readers). Tablet technology continues to grow but for the most part, tablets afford students the same capabilities as smartphones but on a somewhat larger scale (yet smaller than a laptop), the primary pitfall to tablets is the operating systems.

Some tablets, such as iPad can hinder teaching and learning due to its inability to run or display any content that is flash-based and E-Readers are typically limited on data use capabilities which could hinder the submission ore retrieval of large amounts of content.

Cloud Storage: is a growing trend for data storage. Cloud storage allows a user to store large amounts of date in one convenient place that can be retrieved from any location with an internet connection. The benefit to this is that educators no longer need to store files of data (including student data, research papers, assessments, etc…) on floppy discs, thumb or flash drives, or CD’s. Additionally, these items can become warped, damaged, or risk acceptability to computer viruses. The ‘Cloud’ means that educators and students alike can access their files from anywhere as long as they have an internet connection, download this information into their smartphone, tablet, or laptop and continue to work on that product or forward the final product to others.

As with any technology, there are a few pitfalls to Cloud Storage, these include encrypted data that requires an encryption key, authentication processes which require username’s and passwords to access, or authorization processes (if an educator has failed to add a student name to the authorization list for retrieval) (Reddy, Yeshamoni, Prasad, Palanati, N.D.).

Technology-rich Future

“Educators need to prepare themselves for a technology-rich future and keep up with the change(s) by adopting effective strategies that infuse lessons with appropriate technologies” (Valdez, 2005) because technology plays a vital role in today’s educational system. Technology is not intended to take the place of lectures and hands-on applied teachings, but rather is a tool that augments lessons, encourages research, and enhances learning.

For Further Reading:

A Survey of Mobile Cloud Computing: Architecture, Applications, and Approaches: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~cshen/367/papers/survey_MCC.pdf

6 Top Smartphone Apps to Improve Teaching, Research, and Your Life: http://chronicle.com/article/6-Top-Smartphone-Apps-to/125764/

5 Critical Mistakes Schools Make with iPads (and how to correct them): http://edudemic.com/2012/09/5-critical-mistakes-schools-ipads-and-correct-them/

Why cloud computing provides flexibility for online learning in higher education: http://www.helium.com/items/1928759-why-cloud-computing-provides-flexibility-for-online-learning-in-higher-education

Can tablets help revolutionise education?: http://exchange.telstra.com.au/?p=12997

References:

Tanner, I. (2009). Distance Learning for Apprentices. Retrieved 15, March 2013 from http://www.learning-at-distance.eu/docs/pedagogical/PS1_Student-centred_learning.pdf

Valdez, G. (2005). Technology: A catalyst for teaching and learning in the classroom. Retrieved 8, April 2013 from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te600.htm

Reddy, G., Yeshamoni, D., Prasad, C., Palanati, D. (N.D.). The technology journey from floppy disk to cloud storage. Retrieved 9, April 2013 from http://www.ijcta.com/documents/volumes/vol2issue3/ijcta2011020311.pdf

Add to favorites