November 28, 2007
Online University Will Deliver Course by Cellphone
Colleges are already broadcasting campus news and emergency bulletins to students’ cellphones. So why not try and teach some courses over the devices too?
Truth be told, there are plenty of reasons not to do that. Cellphones are hardly ideal vehicles for most course material, and there’s no reason to believe that students actually want course work to impinge upon text messaging (or vice versa). But that hasn’t stopped Cyber University, a Japanese distance-ed institution, from offering what may be the world’s first cellphone-based college course.
The course — which surveys the mysteries of the pyramids, according to the Associated Press — will be delivered through a series of recorded lectures, which are accompanied by PowerPoint images that fill up tiny phone screens.
If this all sounds like an attention-getting gimmick, well, that’s basically what it is. Enrollment is open to the public, but course lectures can only be viewed on phones manufactured by Softbank, a Japanese carrier that owns a majority share of the online university, it just so happens. —Brock Read
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Education Delivery System of the future. I think Bill Gates has indicated this in a recent article.
— Howard Moore Nov 29, 06:09 AM #
Well, it’s not the first post-secondary course delivered by text messaging, anyway — back in February we heard about one from Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University —
Athabasca Brings Distance Education to Text Messaging: Just as the internet radically transformed distance education, the mobile web promises even greater freedom of place and time for students. A pilot project by Athabasca University has ESL learners in Edmonton downloading grammar lessons and taking multiple choice quizzes — on their cell phones. “M-learning” or “mobile learning” allows students at the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers to “learn where they are,” whether they are watching their children’s soccer practices or waiting at a bus stop. AU hopes that if the pilot is successful, the lessons can be marketed worldwide.
See the item on CBC — http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2007/02/09/text-classes.html
— Ken Steele Nov 29, 06:15 AM #
I’m sorry my assignment was late. My dog ate my cell phone.
— SM Nov 29, 09:21 AM #
Although I’m as intimidated as anyone by the prospect of reading and following course materials on a tiny cell phone screen, this is just a “heads-up” for us. What’s important is NOT the medium used, it’s how we use the medium!
— Al Nov 29, 11:46 AM #
Education by any means necessary.
— Michael Robinson Nov 30, 11:08 AM #