Ironically, given our relationship with technology, we are stillquite ignorant of its evolution and its growing impact upon ourlives. How, for example, does technology affect the way we learnthrough various methods of communication? While more research is needed, especially from lesser-developedcountries, I firmly believe that the implementation of new mobiletechnologies will improve both formal and informal educationmethods. Tec de Monterrey University in Mexico City is currently developingeducational content that can be uploaded onto personal devices suchas iPhones, iPads, BlackBerries, other mobile phones and computers.Researchers are testing some of these methods at low-resourceneighborhood schools in order to improve the quality of theirlessons. One of their educational methods is called "ActiveLearning"; an educational strategy through which the studentdevelops a protagonist's role in the learning process. In this way,the student's experiences, under the guidance of the professor,lead to the acquisition of knowledge. Thus, the student assumesresponsibility and ownership for what he or she learned. The Tec de Monterrey University study suggests that using mobiledevices might be an effective way to increase a student's role inlearning process. The overwhelmingly positive feedback fromparticipating students and schools begs the question: what wouldhappen if educators applied this model on a macro level? According to the research firm Gartner, more than 472 millionsmartphones were sold around the world last year. Over a billionpeople in China use cell phones, representing 75 percent of thepopulation. This number does not include any other mobile devicessuch as tablets and represents a great potential for any kind ofmobile initiative, especially mobile education. Lower operating costs in China compared to those in Europe orAmerica make China an attractive market to new app developers aswell as a prominent testing ground for mobile education platforms. Bruno Ben, investor and co-founder of Shanghaivest, said that thenumber of foreign entrepreneurs working on mobile projects in Chinadoubles every year. Chinese mobile users move faster from productto product compared to users in other countries, so the Chinesemarket is an ideal place to test new apps, Ben said. There is an urgent need for research in two main areas beforelarge-scale education technology projects can be initiated: one isto explore how the educational content can be produced, given newand available technologies. The other is to examine how to make thelearning process more efficient, effective, and appealing. In thisequation, we cannot forget to adapt to a constantly movingtechnology curve. With the advent of new technology, new educational methods areconstantly being developed. People have become the producers anddistributors of their own content with the aid of social networksand other online platforms. Despite the current trend of scatteredonline entertainment set forth by the digital age, methods by whichpeople teach and study today are increasingly diverse andinteresting. By understanding, developing and executing models thatembrace new mobile technologies, we will be able to take advantageof these emerging trends in education. Oscar Guerra is a 2nd year PhD student from the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master's degree in Marketingfrom Tec de Monterrey University. Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, notnecessarily those of China.org.cn. I am an expert from ferrosiliconalloys.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Calcium Silicon Barium , Cast Iron Inoculation, Ferro Silicon Alloys,and more.
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