Our School Board has taken on a new initiative in which parameters have been put into place to allow for handheld devices to be used at school. Hence, students are now able to connect to the internet via, Ipods, cell phone, Ipads, etc. This initiative has many positive points to it. However, there are many downfalls also.
MOBILE LEARNING PROS AND CONS
| PROS | CONS |
| -Students can have access to the internet at any time | -Students are busy using social websites when they are at school. |
| -Students are not restricted to the technologies the school offers. | -Students send messaging back and fourth to each other. |
| -Students are connected digitally regardless of where they are. | -They access sites they should be using while at school from their devices |
| -Speed of Internet access is a lot slower due got the amount of devices that are accessing Wifi. |
Using a handheld device to access Vista Webct, etc, works but it is definitely more tedious. It takes a longer time for the pages to load, sometimes they time out, sometimes there are issues with the network and the site does not load. The screen is small and hard to see and this makes it difficult to read larger amounts of text. This makes it harder to read other peoples posts. It also takes a long time to respond back to them thought the browser. I found it very frustrating to post, modify and access these resources from my device. I was impatient and I found that I was restricted due to the capabilities of my phone. In a lot of ways my negative reaction to the activities we were asked to try using on one of these devices is due to the fact that I am spoiled. I am used to using faster devices that are more visible and function to use. When in reality I should be amazed buy the fact that I can achieve these tasks from a portable device. The fact that content like this can be accessed and modified from a phone is amazing but I think I just take it for granted. It is a mobile means of educating individuals. That is a fabulous concept that will definitely flourish in the educational realm as devices become more and more intricate and have more capacities. Already so many applications exist that take programs and make them more functional on handheld devices. When programs such as these exist, individuals are more likely to access them from their hand held device. Our world is all about efficient and convenience. Hence, if working on a task is easier and faster using a mobile device, people will do so.
