Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Challenge Continues
March 30-April 1, 2003
Opportunities and Implications Associated with Mobile Technologies
|
By: Jeff Cain |
Abstract
Wireless networks, laptops, and handheld computers are beginning to usher in a new age of instructional technology. The opportunities for innovation and change are tremendous, but accompanying these opportunities are challenges for faculty, instructional technologists, and students. This presentation examines some of these new opportunities and challenges and addresses how the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy is preparing/bracing for the changes.
Description
The world is becoming increasingly more mobile and this mobility is starting to be absorbed into the education world. Ten years ago it was common to see students walking to class with headphones on, now those have been replaced with cell phones, laptops, and PDAs. The mobile environment in education appears to be emanating less from faculty and administrators and more from the students who are accustomed to using them in their everyday lives. So, what are the mobile technologies that higher education can exploit to provide better educational experiences for their students? Also, what are the implications for the faculty who use them, the students who experience them, and the instructional technologists who are charged to make them work?
The University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy is currently trying to deal with the technical, pedagogical and social issues related to wireless networks and PDA usage by students. Many new questions have developed since the onset of these technologies.
Questions regarding the wireless LAN include:
- How do we (or should we) promote student use of the wireless LAN?
- How do we support the use?
- Are there pedagogical uses of the wireless environment?
- Can/will students misuse it?
- Should we develop policies for use?
Handheld computers (PDAs) are very popular items among medical practitioners, due mostly to the ability to store and access large amounts of information anyplace and anytime. Students have driven the use of PDAs and have forced the college to investigate the opportunities and problems associated with their widespread popularity.
Some of these issues include:
- Which models and operating systems are best?
- How do students gain access to university-licensed PDA software?
- How to govern their use in class and in practice?
- Do they have pedagogical benefits other than information storage?
- Can or do the students use PDAs to cheat?
This presentation will discuss the myriad of opportunities and threats to the educational process offered by the availability of mobile computing. I will give a brief overview of these technologies, the questions that are raised, and some of the ways that the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy are addressing these issues.