Aula do professor Daniel Eastmond
MOBILES
Why did you choose this technology?
Because in 3 or 5 years from now, mobile technology
will have a major impact especially in developing countries. In developed
countries this is already happening.
By 2018 Brazil, Russia, India and China will be
important centers of technological innovation (says Chartered Management Institute),
and I believe that investing in mobile devices will have a strong impact on
those countries.
In my country, Brazil, due to a communicative culture
of the people, it is one of the countries that most stands out in the
smartphone segment. According to IDC, we are now the 5th best market
for these products, and by 2016, we will be 4th.
According to that, Brazil was responsible for 1.8% of the total volume of
smartphones sales in the world, and it will increase to 4.4% by 2016. Smartphones
have become so important to Brazilians consumers that 27% of Brazilians would
rather stay without TV than without their smartphones – and in a culture where ‘telenovelas’
(soap operas) are predominant (Google reports on the use of smartphone in
Brazil, May/2012)
The mobile world is changing quickly: mobiles
assume nowadays the function of the notebook. Smartphones have become the
handset for e-mails, digital chats, streaming video and use the web with high
speed. They also have cameras that rival
domestic cameras and they also make connections with people. It is certain that
in 5 years the smartphones will be much more sophisticated and have more
functions than what we see nowadays.
Obviously, we cannot
predict exactly how the evolution of mobile phones will be, but observing the current
trends and their use for educational institutions, give us a good idea of what
is coming in the near future.
What are the possibilities, opportunities, and
advantages of this technology (for teaching, learning, and creative inquiry)?
The use of mobile devices in
education has created a new concept, the called Mobile Learning or m-Learning.
In Brazil, we use the term 'aprendizagem com mobilidade'. As
we say in Portuguese, ‘mobilidade' (mobility) is characterized by the use of mobile devices,
using the technological convergence that offers communication and instant
information via text, image, video, and management of resources, such as
calendar and news, through internet and web. In addition, another concept we
used to see a lot nowadays is ‘ubiquity’ which means to be everywhere at once:
ubiquitous, the apparent ubiquity of information systems integration and
process. Thus, mobile devices generate mobility and that, in return, enable the
ubiquity.
For what I have seen in Brazil,
smartphones and tablets are still in a process of experimentation within
schools. Implementing them in schools will be a complex challenge. Although
they are already becoming easier to use, enabling collaboration among people
near and far, extending the notion of school space, and integrating the
students and teachers of different countries, languages and cultures.
Therefore, the mobility of a smartphone is essential for students who live in
poorer areas and dont have a TV, PC or even electricity at home. Mobile phone,
for instance, allows the students to constantly keep in contact with the educational
institution and they can also access the services of secretaries, receive or send
materials and interact with peers and teachers.
For my use of smartphones, I can make a list of mobile
tools that are useful and which I use in my classes, but there are many other
mobile tools to make our classes more dynamic and creative:
•
My Class Schedule - Application for the students
organize their study schedules, notes and all the details of their course.
•
Wikipedia - Largest online collaborative encyclopedia.
•
Google Earth - Effective for geography lessons.
•
Google Sky Map - Helps to identify celestial objects
such as stars, planets and constellations.
•
Youtube – Has a huge variety of videos, channels and
it is easy for posting new videos made by students.
What are the challenges or barriers that must be
overcome for this technology to be widely adopted?
I chose this technology because it is exactly more
widespread worldwide. That characteristic can make mobile devices potential
tools for educational purposes.
There
are so many smartphones in use worldwide as people registered on Facebook, for
example. A survey released by Strategy Analytics
revealed that, in the third quarter of 2012, the amount of active devices has reached
more than 1 billion users. It took 16
years for the industry of mobiles reach 1.038 billion working units. The
smartphones emerged in 1996, when Nokia introduced the Nokia Communicator.
When I started my university course,
it was impossible for me to have a mobile. It was really expensive in my
country. But their prices have dropped in the past 12 months and several smartphone
models became available, increasing their sales in Brazil and in many other
regions such as Asia and the Pacific. If they are more accessible, using them
in large scale in schools will be easier too, I guess.
Obviously, there are also limiting
factors in the use of mobile technologies for education, and I faced some of
them while trying to use them in schools:
·
Technological limitations: small
screen, low resolution, slow processing, low storage capacity; incompatibility
between platforms.
·
Pedagogical limitations: limited
viewing space, distraction of attention, problems with visual memory, low resolution
makes them difficult to understand, fragmentation of content, etc.
But despite all those limitations, we
can see more positive factors than negative ones.
What are the most promising and innovative examples?
Given the mobility scenario, we can identify some
factors regarding the innovative use of mobile devices in the educational area:
·
Improve
resources for learning (Students can count on a device for performing tasks, take
note of their ideas, search information on the internet, digital photos and many
other features);
·
Provide
access to content anywhere and at anytime;
·
Increase
the opportunities for accessing contents, enhancing and encouraging the use of
services provided by the institution;
·
Expand
the learning strategies available through new technologies that support both
formal and informal learning;
·
Provide
ways for developing innovative methods of teaching, using computing resources
and mobility.
The link bellow is an example of innovative use of smartphones
by a Brazilian teacher, José Carlos Antonio,
who chose to encourage the educational use of mobiles in his classroom (I wish
I could describe it, but it would be really extensive, so I’m just posting it):
Does the Horizon report accurately and fully address
this technology according to your experience or knowledge of it?
Yes, that's what we are already living as individuals and as educators.
Smartphones and tablets are dominating the market nowadays. The reasons are
obvious: we can access the internet, listen to music, watch videos, take
pictures, edit pictures, play games, run applications and play with those
advanced devices, and the good thing is that they fit in the palm of our hands.
There is also the touchscreen function that offers a sense of comfort and a greater
command over the device. Some years ago we were not able to do it.
Those devices are becoming the dreams of the new generation. I confess
that when the companies started selling smartphones and tablets I hadn’t given
the value they should have, but over the years, the potential of those small
devices rose enormously.
Those technologies are already
changing our lives and our way of thinking and seeing the world. As an example,
the GPS (Global Positioning System,) far much more than a digital map, tells us
where we are, the distance to where we want to go, the way we should go and how
long it will take etc.
Thus, as predicted the Horizon
Report, with all those features, it is impossible not to think about the potential
of mobiles for education. They are now part of our lives. It is incredible to
see people on their way home, in the subway, on the bus, walking and connected
with ‘world’ through their mobiles.
How does this technology apply to your career
aspirations?
Mobile computing has emerged as an innovative
technology for education and it would be interesting to invest in knowing this
technology. It will be extremely important for me to learn how to build
educational applications for mobile devices. Thus, a major step for me would be
to create applications for adults who are learning through their mobile
devices. Adults are usually engaged in travelling to different locations, and
it would be interesting to provide them learning scenarios that they can use for
learning and searching for information easily. This type of work would certainly
add some value to my career.
By the experience I have as a teacher and especially
in areas with low human development, I can honestly say that mobile devices
have the potential to change drastically our view of how people learn and
teach. Mobile devices - and I include the smartphones and tablets - are what we
call ‘portable lives’: such devices give easy, fast and free access to a much
greater volume of information that humanity has never seen. If we understand
that those devices increase our cognitive ability, for sure they completely change
the way we teach and learn.
Therefore, mobile technology should support education.
Mobile devices allow us to imagine innovative and transformative educational
activities for teaching and learning processes. Mobile technologies will make
the studies a part of day-by-day activities and we are not going to realize
that we are studying.
REFERENCES
ANTONIO, José Carlos. Uso pedagógico do GoogleDocs, Professor
Digital, SBO, 08 fev. 2010. Available:
http://professordigital.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/uso-pedagogico-do-googledocs.
Access: 04/11/2012.
DUARTE, Rosália. Aprendizagem
e interatividade em ambientes digitais. Porto Alegre: Anais ENDIPE, 2008.
PANORAMA AUDIOVISUAL. Um bilhão de smartphones estão em uso no
mundo. Available:
http://www.panoramaaudiovisual.com.br/2012/10/17/um-bilhao-de-smartphones-
estao-em-uso-no-mundo/ Access:
04/11/2012.
OLHAR DIGITAL. Brasil é o 5º melhor mercado de smartphones
do mundo. 30 de Agosto de 2012. Available:
http://olhardigital.uol.com.br/produtos/mobilidade/noticias/brasil-e-o-5-melhor-mercado-de-smartphones-do-mundo.
Access: 04/11/2012.
