Mobile Learning

So Apple launched the next generation of their iPod range today, including a touch-screen iPod that looks and works pretty much exactly like the iPhone… but, er… without the phone. And without a camera and Bluetooth (but, just like the iPhone, it has a sealed internal battery and no support for additional memory card expansion). Oh… and without email. And all this on Apples’ closed, proprietary platform.

But already I’ve heard the clamour of excited educators, some touting Apple as somehow being at the forefront of mobile learning. Brent Schlenker extolls the new iPod Touch:

“Can I here [sic] anyone say “Ultimate mobile learning device”? I had heard of schools testing iPhones with wi-fi only (they disable the phone service but utilize the wi-fi with the on-campus wireless network). Maybe we don’t give every kid a laptop. Maybe we give them each a Touch…without the impending molestation charges of course. “

Oh dear. It seems to me that in this case, the iPod Touch’s remaining functionality – basically, a wi-fi web browser and a media player, with no expansion capabilities – are being vastly over-valued.

Yes, it is possible to learn on a (small) web browser… but seeing as this one will only work if you have wi-fi access – and not if you wander out of school and down the road – a large chunk of the “mobile” in “mobile learning” seems to go out the window with the Touch. Away from a wi-fi access point, all you have is, um, an iPod: you can play music, videos and view photos.

You can’t even take photos, record audio, or make videos (not that you can record videos on the iPhone, either, mind you); and independant remote resource creation, documentation, and sharing tasks like moblogging become completely impossible. This from the same post, however:

But who the heck even WANTS a smartphone anymore when you can have an iPhone or a Touch? I mean really, people! Aren’t you just a little embarassed when you have too pull out that dinosaur Treo or Blackberry in front of your iphone toting colleagues? Your geek cred is on the line.

When Apple make a phone that will allow me to do the things I’ve always been able to do on my current Smartphone (record a video; send an MMS; add my own applications), I’ll give the people who own one a great deal more “cred”.

Tony Vincent asks:

“With so many iPod choices, which does your school choose?”

and my honest opinion is “none of the above” – in my opinion, neither the Apple iPhone, nor the iPod Touch (which has no additional features over the iPhone, and loses many) is a serious learning device, or even a serious working device… let alone the “ultimate” mobile learning device.

Don’t be dazzled. All that’s shiny (and these are *really* shiny) is not gold.

technorati tags:iphone, ipod, touch, m-learning, apple, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, education, consumer, technology, shiny, teaching, learning, wifi