Cellphones are a Perfect Vehicle for Making Education Accessible

Mobile learning is emerging as one of the solutions to the challenges faced by education. With the availability of a variety of tools and resources, mobile learning provides increased options for the personalization of learning. Mobile learning in classrooms often has students working interdependently, in groups, or individually to solve problems, to work on projects, to meet individual needs, and to allow for student voice and choice.

With access to so much content anytime and anywhere, there are plenty of opportunities for formal and informal learning, both inside and outside the classroom. They are used for collecting students' responses,reading electronic books and websites, recording reflections, documenting field trips, collecting and analyzing data, and much more.

Acceptance of Mobile Learning than Traditional Learning

• M Learning uses devices which citizens are used to carrying everywhere with them.
• Friendly and personal devices which are cheap and user friendly.
• Comes in a variety of different settings.

The future of mobile learning depends largely on the level of social acceptance it receives. On the other hand, Users in developing countries have the same need for M-Learning to be mobile, accessible and affordable, as those in developed countries. The very significance of M-Learning is its ability to make learning mobile, away from the classroom or workplace. These Wireless and mobile technologies enable learning opportunities to those lacking direct access to learning in these places.

M-Learning over E-Learning

Many learners in developing countries have trouble accessing the internet, or experience difficulty in affording technology that enables learning in an E-Learning environment. Mobile devices are a cheaper alternative compared to traditional E-Learning equipment such as PC‘s and Laptops.

A final tier of the strategy for the incorporation of mobile learning in mainstream education and training is represented by the development and offering to students of full modules by mobile learning.

Drawback of M-Learning

The reason for the failure of mobile learning to emerge from its project status and take its place in mainstream education and training is well known.

It is that mobile learning is not considered by the telecommunications operators to be a valid and attractive revenue stream. Progress is being made in a wide range of mobile applications, but education and training lag behind.

Solutions that follow

The first of solution is the use of M-learning for academic administration. If it could be established that mobile learning was to become the established method for universities and colleges to communicate urgent information to their student body, a very large revenue stream would be opened up. It can be taken as a given that all university and college students possess  mobile phones which they consult constantly. All students enrolled in higher and further education institutions today have frequent needs for information from their institutions about timetable changes, assessment deadlines, feedback from tutors and other urgent administrative details which can be better communicated through mobiles than postal contact or email. Once this has been achieved the use of mobile learning for academic contact in colleges and universities can be added.

A farsighted goal

With the arrival of 3G technologies viable course modules can be developed,which when clubbed with, assignment submission, tutor contact, examination and assessment provision will provide further evidence of the validity of mobile learning as an attractive provider of revenue streams to mobile operators.

So, there is an ongoing debate that cellphones are a perfect vehicle for making educational opportunities accessible to rural children in places and times that are more convenient than formal schooling.