Education one of the most important factors for workforce development
and economic prosperity, yet it is undergoing development and serious reform to
make learning interactive and interesting.
The availability
of Mobile Devices and wireless connectivity has revolutionized the education
sector. Learning has become far more
Mobile learning is
one of the way which helps to solve some of our educational problems. Devices
such as smart phones and tablets has enabled innovation and helped students, instructors,
and many more to gain access to digital content very economically and easily.
In 21st century every individual carries a Mobile device and has
internet connectivity enabled. This has helped the students to use the
essential tools to improve learning at schools in many ways. As noted by Irwin
Jacobs, the founding chairman of Qualcomm, Inc., “always on, always connected
mobile devices in the hands of students has the potential to dramatically
improve educational outcomes.”
In
today’s era wireless technology has become a way to provide new content and
facilitate information access regardless of location of an individual. Thus,
students are connected to the library facilities without physically being in
the library of the school. It has enabled, empowered, and helps to engage
learning in ways that has transformed the learning environment for students.
Growth of Wireless Technology
and Mobile Learning
Due to the
increasing competition in market, mobile phones, tablets, and other connected
devices have become prevalent and affordable. At the same time the extensive
growth and advancement of wireless technology has helped to improve learning
and bringing digital content to students. Students use mobile technology
regularly in their personal lives. Therefore, researchers are making effort to
employ mobile devices to make education more engaging and personalize it for
every student’s particular needs.
It is no surprise
that the technology-rich activities sustain high level of student engagement
and peer collaboration when compared to traditional method. Researchers are
trying to figure out how to harness the wireless technology advancement and mobile
platforms for instructional purposes and employ them to boost educational
learning.
Mobile learning
makes it possible to take education beyond the physical confines of the
classroom and make it available to a larger audience. It allows students to
access content from home, communicate with teachers, and work with peers.
The
value of mobile devices is that they allow students to connect, communicate,
collaborate and create using rich digital resources.
Integrating
Mobile Technology and Education
A
big gap exists between a student owning a mobile device and actually using it
for academic purposes. A survey shows that 58 percent of small mobile device
owners, 64 percent of e-book reader owners, and 82 percent of tablet device
owners reportedly use these devices for academic purposes. A big question
arises here that how this gap can be filled and students can make the best use
of technology in learning?
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| Most Popular Mobile apps used by students |
Some of the
ways in which this gap can be minimized includes facilitating and helping the
instructor to learn and integrate the mobile technology into classroom. A lot
of cloud based storage and apps could be used by the instructor which helps to
develop interest in the students to adopt the technology. Institutions should
compile a list of academic apps for instructors and train them to incorporate
these into their courses.
A
successful way to integrate an app in the courses is to consider relevant
technical limitations and poll students to see what devices they own and feel
comfortable with. Since, it is sure that most of the students will own either a
Windows OS or Android OS or iOS mobile device, so it is important to select
those academic applications which can be used on these operating systems.
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