How Will Mobile Learning Revolutionize Education

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Sometimes simple things bring bigger results. The easier and simpler it is to access information; the higher chance we have getting that information. In this sense, we can say that smart phones and tablet computers have revolutionized education. We can find or share any information, at any time, anywhere through mobile devices. We use them so often every day and so do the younger generation. In fact nowadays babies’ first toys are some kind of portable screen. So how does and will mobile learning effect the new generation?

Smart phones and tablet computers are transforming how we access our shared knowledge by keeping us constantly connected to raw data and information. We enjoy unprecedented instant access to expertise, from informal cooking lessons on YouTube to online university courses. Every day people around the globe are absorbed in exciting new forms of learning. These devices affect the way we learn especially the generations of today’s youngsters who are often literally born within reach of a connected personal device.

The low priced personal computers, tablets and cell phones also address the children in resource-challenged communities; many kids who are engaging in technological leapfrogging will have the opportunity to skip past outdated formal school systems, too. Models are evolving and being improved everyday via the influence of mobile technologies. From a generation of toddlers just as comfortable with touch screens as they are with books, to college-aged men and women questioning the value of physical campuses, to middle-aged and elderly professionals hoping to earn new skills in their spare time to secure a new job in turbulent economic times.

Up until now, most people relegated “education” to a finite time in their lives: entering school at around five years old and attending school institutions all the way to university. Education had an expiration date, and then working life began. This model, which has its roots in the industrial era, is quickly becoming less relevant or applicable to the way we live our lives in the connected age.

Education is getting increasingly interspersed with our daily activities. On our phones, tablets, and PCs, we download and digest life or work-related articles with instructions on how to fix our appliances or how to use a new professional software program ect.

Many people across age groups decide to take formal online courses in their spare time, earn about computer science, game theory, or just social media sites to learn and share information all of these taken by everyday people, including 11-year-old kids and retirees. The availability of tablets and other touch-enabled devices has radically reduced the perceived complexity of computers, helping older users to more easily communicate with their middle-aged children and grandkids via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. All aside these technological devices also bring many questions in our head. What happens when the children are attached to them at an early age?

Ms. Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the book “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.” has interviewed parents, teenagers and children about the use of gadgets during early development, and says she fears that children who do not learn real interactions, which often have flaws and imperfections, will come to know a world where perfect, shiny screens give them a false sense of intimacy without risk. And they need to be able to think independently of a device. “They need to be able to explore their imagination. To be able to gather themselves and know who they are. So someday they can form a relationship with another person without a panic of being alone,” she said. “If you don’t teach your children to be alone, they’ll only know how to be lonely.” The scenarios of different outcomes can go on and on. But we all know that it is inevitable to overpass the importance and the use of mobile technology.