PGCE NEWSVolume 1, Issue 1 February 2010

Mobile Computing in Practice

Cellular Colleges: The Next Small Thinghttp://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1233

CMU Students, Professors Find Benefits withiPod Technology in Classroomhttp://www.news .cmich.edu/2009/10/cmustudents-professors-find-b

iPhone the Body Electric http://www.unews.utah.edu/p/?r=092409-2

Mobile Librarieshttp://www.lib.ncsu.edu/m/about.html

Mobile ComputingThe Annual Horizon ReportEmerging technologies which impact on teaching,

learning, and creative expression within higher

education.

Edited by Kerry-Lee Schwikkard2010 PGCE student

Mobile computing, the use of the network-capable devices students are already carrying, is already established on many campuses, although before we see widespread use, concerns about privacy, classroom management, and access will need to be addressed. At the same time, the opportunity is great; virtually all higher education students carry some form of mobile device, and the cellular network that supports their connectivity continues to grow. An increasing number of faculty and instructional technology staff are experimenting with the possibilities for collaboration and communication offered by mobile computing.

Mobiles as a category have proven more interesting and more capable with each passing year, and continue to be a technology with new surprises. These mobile computing tools have become accepted aids in daily life, giving us on-the go access to tools for business, video/audio capture and basic editing, sensing and measurement, geolocation, social networking, personal productivity, references, just-in-time learning — indeed, virtually anything that can be done on a desktop.

Mobiles are increasingly the access point not only for common tools and communications, but also for information of all kinds, training materials, and more.

An ever more common pattern is for people to look to mobile computing platforms as their device of choice

as they are often far cheaper than desktops or laptops.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative InquiryThe portability of mobile devices and their ability to connect to the Internet almost anywhere makes them ideal as a store of reference materials and learning experiences, as well as general-use tools for fieldwork, where they can be used to record observations via voice, text, or multimedia, andaccess reference sources in real time. As faculty use of mobile computing has grown, studies have begun to emerge documenting the efficacy of both the tools and the techniques used to employ them. A sampling of other applications of mobile computing across a variety of disciplines includes the following:

Chemistry. At Bluegrass Community & TechnicalCollege, outdoor fieldwork has replaced many “cookbook” chemistry labs. Students use tablet PCs to record and analyze field research, present their findings, and compare results in real time.

History. The Edinburgh College of Art, the University of Edinburgh, and the EDINA Data Centre collaboratively developed a mobile app called Walking Through Time. The app overlays historical maps onto current maps of the viewer’s location, showing street views and areas of interest from prior times.

Information Technology. Students at the Universityof Michigan developed an application for Google’s Android platform that measures power consumption on mobiles. The app, called PowerTutor, is designed to help software developers create more efficient applications.

Medicine. Harvard Medical School has released an iPhone app about the H1N1 virus, including maps of outbreaks, a symptom checker, and tips for avoiding infection or dealing with illness. The app is the first in a planned series of mobile applications developed at HMS in collaboration with medical school scientists and doctors.