From Horizon.au

2009 Short List 2009 Horizon.au Short List Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less Mobiles Cloud Computing Collaborative Environments Geolocation Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years Semantic Web and Applications Virtual Worlds Open Educational Resources Layered Information Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years Smart Objects Device-Independent Media Location-Based Media Augmented Reality Critical Challenges Key Trends

Mobiles/Mobile Internet Devices

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less

From phones to smartbooks, mobile devices with access to the Internet now make it possible to do all kinds of activities for work, study, and socializing — wherever one happens to be. In recent years, mobile phones have evolved to include innovative interfaces, GPS and wifi capability, and support for third-party applications. Small mobile Internet devices including netbooks and smartbooks offer another way to stay connected and work on the go: smaller than laptops but larger than mobile phones, these devices are compact and powerful.

Placed on the far horizon for Australia and New Zealand last year because of slow adoption rate and low availability of bandwidth, mobiles are moving toward adoption more quickly thanks to reduced costs for bandwidth and new plans that offer alternatives to hefty overage charges. Bandwidth and coverage is still a concern for consumers, however, and outside of urban centers, finding a signal is often difficult. In many cases, while students may own mobile Internet devices, the cost and availability of bandwidth prevents them from taking advantage of the full range of applications available to them.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression

• Culinary students can capture and replay difficult demonstrations using mobile devices, allowing them to review the lesson when and where they wish.

• A number of universities now provide event schedules, news, maps, course listings, campus directories, and multimedia content for mobile users.

• Often more accessible than computers, mobile phones can deliver continuing education to remote health care workers in developing countries.

Examples

• Professors at the Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan use college-issued iPhones to take attendance and diminish truancy: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/05/22/japanese-college-giving-away-free-iphones-using-them-to-track-s/

• MobilAP is a web-based platform with a mobile component that includes polls and quizzes, discussions, scheduling, and link sharing features: http://daap.uc.edu/mobilap/

• Musicology students at Duke University use mobile Internet devices to capture field notes and reflections: http://cit.duke.edu/ideas/projects/2007/11/02/micro-computing-for-musicology/

For Further Reading

Mobile Learning: An Online Reflective Journal on Mobile Learning Practice
http://mlearning.edublogs.org/
(Leonard Low, Mobile Learning, June 2009.) This award-winning blog, written by an e-learning designer from the University of Canberra, contains frequent posts on mobile learning technology, as well as relevant publications for further reading.

New Technologies, New Pedagogies: Mobile Learning in Higher Education>br /> http://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/91
(Herrington et. al, University of Wollongong, April 2009.)
This faculty-authored ebook explores the use of mobile devices in education, including a number of examples.

Qualcomm, Freescale say 'smartbooks' to rival Netbooks
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10251841-64.html
(Brooke Crothers, cnet, 29 May 2009.) This article describes a new breed of laptops, called smartbooks. Lighter, cheaper, and more connected than notebooks, smartbooks are the computer versions of smartphones.