Mobile Technologies in Open Schools

Abstract

Preface (extract)- This book is encouraging evidence that the open schooling community is planning proactively for its future. Mobile technology — particularly mobile phones — will one day be part of the furniture of open schooling, even though this book found no example of an accredited course being delivered entirely through mobiles today. Surely, however, this criterion for usage sets the bar too high. I am sceptical about the wisdom of using any technology as the sole mechanism for delivering a complete course. Similarly the studies found no evidence that mobile technology improved student performance in tests, although they did find that it reduced dropout and increased completion, which are important accomplishments in distance learning.