Cell phones have long been anathema in the classroom, banned as a potential distraction, at best, and as a possible vehicle for cheating, at worst. But lately, educators have begun changing their tune on mobile phones.
Abilene Christian University will hand out Apple’s iPhone 3G smart phone to two-thirds of this year’s entering class of 950 freshmen. Students will be expected to use the devices to brainstorm ideas and get virtual handouts and podcasts during class. Instructors will use them for such tasks as monitoring attendance. “This is a new platform for learning, in the same way a laptop or a desktop was a new platform,” says William Rankin, co-director of mobile learning research at the school, which is in Abilene, Texas.
Other schools across the country, from Michigan to Maryland and Texas to North Carolina, are coming to the same conclusion — that advanced wireless devices can be used as much for learning as for entertainment. According to a survey of 700 teens published in April by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 71 percent of respondents already own cell phones, while only 59 percent own computers. Cell-phone ownership among college kids is even higher.
The New Bookbag
So-called smart phones — such as the iPhone, which in the U.S. is authorized to run on the AT&T network — offer myriad new capabilities, including Web access, e-mail, and access to educational software. “The time is approaching when these little devices will be as much a part of education as a bookbag,” write the authors of a report last year by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, which studies emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching.
A well-equipped cell phone with a foldout keyboard could even supplant a laptop in classrooms, says Bill Davidson, senior vice-president for global marketing at Qualcomm, which makes…