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November 21, 2004
JISC study on PDAs and other mobile devices
A JISC report on Mobile and PDA technologies and their future use in education
They conclude:
"Students and staff are increasingly likely to be in possession of at least one mobile device and in the near future all these types of increasingly powerful computing devices will be capable of seamlessly connecting to the Internet through a variety of local and metropolitan wireless networks and a range of third generation cellular networks. These devices will effectively be ‘always on’ the network. This development presents education with a number of opportunities to enhance learning, administration and research, but also presents new challenges for the management and support of university infrastructure.
In addition, the markets and technologies associated with these devices are changing rapidly. If the different device types currently on the market converge on a single type then the difficulties associated with a lack of homogeneity will be minimised. If this does not happen then institutions will be presented with difficult decisions concerning the integration of their existing systems with a wide range of smartphones, PDAs and mediaplaying devices. At the same time there will be pedagogy issues and concerns over security and privacy of information. All these opportunities and challenges will need further work. To date, most work on the use of such devices in UK education has been undertaken in the schools sector, but increasingly, higher and further education will need to take up the baton. "
Posted by Suzanne at November 21, 2004 12:00 AM
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