The Use of iPhones In Further Education

With the boom in technology and new gadgets being released practically every week, it was inevitable that educational institutions would take a slice of the action and entice their students with technology to adopt that mix of traditional and digital interactive teaching and learning methods.

Several educational institutions have put across the digital test to their students allowing a sample of fresher’s to use the new iPhone and its applications as part of their learning at the institution. There are several things that students can engage in whilst using an iPhone as part of their busy life. Since most students will engage in part-time employment to support themselves financially through their student life, the idea seemed quite genius to allow lecturers to keep in contact with students who have such a busy life.

There are a couple of universities that have actually trialled the use of such technology and have found them to be a learning and motivational tool both for students and lectures. For example, the University of Central Lancashire in Preston developed and offered their students a free iPhone application that allowed students to be fully capable of exploring the university campus and local amenities. The application had various services stored on it such as university and campus maps as well as information on local entertainment centres, restaurants and transport links.

Also, when you get students coming from different parts of the world you find that you get stopped quite a lot for directions. This new application meant that students no longer had to stop lecturers or senior students for directions in and around the university campus.

Abilene Christian University based in Texas completed its first year of running a pilot program where they gave 1000 freshman students the opportunity to select an iPhone or iPod Touch phone and use it for free for the duration of the study. This was seemingly one innovative way of stopping students from being distracted by their mobile phones during lecturers and classroom learning sessions as it allowed the integration of the institutions curriculum into the application so that students could leverage the use of their gadgets as part of their education.

With the immense developments in technology and social media connectivity it was quite enjoyable and invigorating to see how such technology could revolutionise the learning experience using digital interactivity.


About the author:

Phil Adams-Wright, digital learning is just one of many topics that Phil writes about. For more information, please visit the protocol Education website now.