Mobile Learning – Are Smart Phones Ready to Replace Teachers?

Various qualities like multi-functionality, portability, instant connectivity have helped smart phones to become a device owned by more than half population of the mobile phone users. These features have enforced education sector to adopt a smart phone culture. There is no doubt that smart phones have a brighter prospectus in the educational field as well. They behave like laptops apart from the fact that they are small and accommodated even in a pocket. Their capacity to connect to the Internet easily makes them suitable for students. It was in early 2000 that Apple developed its first smart phone with Sony. This was the birth of smart phone culture, which compelled every mobile manufacturing company to develop its own smart phone with more and better functionality. Now, smart phones have become an indispensable part of our life and influencing every phase of it. In terms of education, there are more than 150,000 education related apps empowering students from across the world to use smart phones for various educational purposes. Smart phones have made teachers realize that there is a lot more to impart as an education and it cannot be limited within four walls. They allow teachers to connect with students regardless of physical boundaries. Students have millions of things to do with a smart phone simply by swiping their fingers on it.

Students can use smart phones to take notes quickly and share them with peer groups. Teachers can create flash presentations and slide shows and forward them to students on their smart phones. They can access numerous websites, which will allow them to augment their knowledge. These websites can give comprehensive answers of the questions arising in their minds. Users can utilize the camera to record what they observe and send it as a video clip to their teachers for clarification. This does not end the list of benefits; education sector receives from smart phones. They help in narrowing the gap between students and teachers. Because of their size, they can be carried anywhere and accessed to retrieve information spontaneously. Here are a few more advantages of the concept of mobile learning.

1. Portability – Smart phones are smaller and light-weighted than laptops and desktops. They are easy to carry anywhere. Laptops also have similar features but fragility is a major concern. Portability of smart phones allows them to stay securely in pouch, pocket or a bag.

2. Cost-effectiveness – Smart phones are available at much lower rates than laptops and this has made it a device of the masses. Not much money is required to obtain a smart phone and thus, even a grocery vendor's kid can own smart phones for educational pursuits.

3. Better connectivity – Apart from being portable and inexpensive, another benefit of smart phones is that they allow better quality connectivity through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AirDrop. Users can connect to the Internet instantly and access the information they want.

4. Privacy – Smart phones give added privacy to the owners. Since everyone has his own smart phone, there are very little chances of anyone lending your phone or you seek any other user's phone.

5. Engaging – Most people love to use smart phones because they are completely different from the phones of yester years. Touch screen is the most exciting feature that entices everyone towards smart phones. Students are more enthusiastic about installing more and more apps and using them.

In conclusion, I would just hope that this rising use of smart phones does not make our next generation rely completely on the technology. Technology comes and goes and if our children develop the habit of smart phone technology, I speculate how will they manage to adapt to the upcoming technology, which only God knows, will be beneficial for them or not.