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November 13, 2007, 02:15 PM ET
Education on the Go
Instructors are usually trying to get students to leave their cellphones alone during class. But now some professors have the bright idea of bringing those devices into the educational process.
Lucianne Sweder, an education lecturer at Governors State University, in Illinois, gave a presentation on that topic at the League for Innovation in the Community College’s technology conference this week. She didn’t recommend that anyone teach an entire online course via a hand-held device. But cellphones and other mobile devices work great for some educational purposes, she said.
Instead of using flashcards, students can use their cellphones to access computer programs that quiz them on various subjects. The wireless programs can even adjust to how well a student is doing by asking fewer questions on what he or she seems to have down cold and more on topics that aren’t going so well.
Other options include providing images with audio commentary, or even video snippets covering different subjects. Cellphones and other devices nowadays are able to play video at high resolution, she said, even on such a small screen. “Never worry about the size of the screen,” Ms. Sweder said. “You get one that you like, that’s good for your eyes.”
She recommended that instructors decide ahead of time whether they need to set any guidelines for their students’ cellphone text messaging. Young people are known to abbreviate their text messages to the point of incomprehensibility. And that could be counterproductive if an instructor is working on a class on, say, improving student literacy. —Dan Carnevale
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