Yes, the physical size of mobile devices (smart phones) is far too limiting. I do not have enormous fingers or a problem with manual dexterity but I certainly had difficulty with this exercise. First I tried using my son’s Blackberry to access my course and my initial fumbling attempt to type in my Moodle site, never mind my username and password, provoked my son to do so for me. And then we waited. And we waited. After a couple of minutes my son declared the attempt a failure. I, apparently having a different sense of time, would have given it a longer try. His impatience to wait reminded me of someone – oh, yes, my younger students! Would they get frustrated and give up too?
I had a bit more success with the iphone tester http://iphonetester.com/ but I think it was mostly because I used my trusty computer keyboard to run the thing. I was delighted when it loaded and I could see my course on the tiny screen but that same tiny screen soon became annoying. Although I was able to navigate the course and access the images, it drove me crazy not to be able to see the pages as I do on my laptop.
So the limiting factors that I encountered were: time to load and screen size. Another major limiting factor is the reality that not every student owns a smart phone. At this point, for me, mobile learning cannot replace classroom learning and I am not sure it will anytime soon…but I have not tried out the iPad yet. Of course, that would mean I need to actually purchase one first.
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