Aussie unis embrace mobile learning
Aussie unis embrace mobile learning
Intel announced today that 25 universities have agreed to link up an initiative that will allow learning practices to be developed through the use of mobile, wireless computers.
The Intel Mobile Initiative for Learning in Education has been created to remove the boundaries of traditional classrooms by allowing students to learn anytime, anywhere through the deployment of mobile technologies such as wireless LAN Local Area Networks (WLAN) and Intel Centrino mobile technology.
The idea behind the initiative is to use the technology for the development of skills required in the knowledge economy. Intel and the universities would like to transform traditional wired network university campuses into roaming, all-access research libraries, allowing students and teachers a more flexible learning and teaching environment.
Philip Cronin, general manager of Intel, ANZ said: "The combination of different media established over the last 20 years converging together onto the laptop will continue to accelerate over the next 10 years. As students evolve from their university environment over the next 10 years they will move into a business environment that will be using these materials.
"They will be most exposed to the same kind of technology that they will use in their university life. We are looking at innovation in education. This is not technology for technology's sake. We seek to move to an environment where there is a lot more collaboration, there is a lot of information shared between the teachers and the students at many different levels which enables the students to use technology to a) access a career and b) use technology to drive it."
Con Graves, the director of information services, library and learning environment services, at Griffith University Queensland talked about how he studied the studying habits of students and discovered how wireless computers could best suit their needs.
"Students have expectations about what they are going to get because they pay for their own fees. Information has moved online. Libraries have changed incredibly. We now mixed information, library and learning services under one vision called information services. The students want the information when they want it and when they need it.
"There is an increasing to study and work, there is a co-existence. One of the busiest times in our studying labs is between 11pm and 3am. That's when they study the most. Students hunt in packs and will go to a lab and live in the lab as if they own that space. Students move from place to place. They will study at work, in the university, in small bite size chunks, at sporting events if they are bored.
"Collaboration is a big hallmark and our technology has to adapt to collaboration and working together. Most students are under budget pressure because they work as well as study. We are encouraging to use wireless connections and broadband at home, so they can study while the want.
"We spent 8 months researching how to implement the wireless network to suit the studying habits of these students."
Connections and availability for students to use wireless connections inside the university have been fully based on the studying needs of the students, so that they can now use a notebook computer for work at the most convenient spots at universities.
"We questioned them a lot about their preferences, and we nearly drove them bananas. But we found a lot of information about what they were doing, what they wanted online, where they were using it and what they didn't want. We looked at locations. Students say they want to run broadband anywhere at anytime. The toilet was very popular."
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