Thursday, May 17, 2007

New Horizons for Mobile Phones

Are you interested in the future impact of mobile phones on education or other aspects of life? Do you wonder what it will be like to go to school now and in the future with full access to mobile and ubiquitous technology that can be freely used for organisation, communication and collaboration?
I know for a fact that Darren Draper is very interested, as is Mark van 't Hooft, Quentin D'Souza, Andy Carvin, and people at the Mobile Learning Blog in Australia. In fact I attended a staff meeting this afternoon where the issue of whether students could freely bring their mobile phones to school was discussed because we are broadening our mobile computing program at ISD to include phones, iPods and other devices that can store and transfer files, be used for organisation and also used for the collection and use of digital artefacts. We want students to have the freedom and mobility and we want them to also accept the responsibility that goes with this. We as teachers are prepared to come to terms with the responsibility it puts on us as well to model best practice and sensible use of the technology. I believe this is the way forward for education.

On the Horizon Project a group of international students have researched the Mobile Phone trend from the Horizon Report. Now, at the end of the project they have finished uploading their information to the wiki pages and are also getting their final multimedia artefacts online for the world to view.

Here are three of the student-created videos looking at the future of mobile phones that you should not miss.

A Thing in My Pocket in 2020
by Atif, International School Dhaka, Bangladesh

After the dramatic start using the iPhone advertisement footage Atif takes us on the journey of a typical secondary school student in the year 2020 and how the mobility of a 'phone' helps to get him through. What I love about this piece is the juxtaposition of a futuristic technology-enhanced scenario with street scenes and school scenes of Bangladesh as it is now in 2007. I wonder as the technology continues to improve whether life in Dhaka will change as well. I wonder whether mobile phone technology has the power to bring Bangladesh into the 21st century....a topic we have discussed often in class and eluded to in this video.



A Peep into the Future of Mobile Phones
by Ginger, Shanghai American School, China

This video looks at the potential of mobile phones to transform life and focuses on leisure and entertainment. The description on YouTube states, "The advancement of the mobile phone industry is having a great impact on our lives. More and more convenient features and functions are starting to become common among mobile phones. What will the future look like in your opinion? The potential of mobile phones from different opinions are discussed."





Mobile Phones
by Katie, Westwood Schools, Georgia, USA

The student Project Manager for the Mobile Phone trend of the Horizon project created this overview video including clips from different students and guests from around the world. She looks at what mobile phones allow us to do now and what the future may hold.




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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Julie..How are you doing? I hope that everything is ok..Interesting artical you have here..I have been developing applications for the mobile for almost 2 years, love to share idease with you..Thanks