Mobile Phones: Platform for Education?

David Tait and Niti Bhan of the Emerging Futures Lab argue that mobile phones present new opportunities for education that will not be served by certain low-cost laptops. It is an interesting prospect, given that mobile phones already have such a high penetration and the OLPC is hitting more and more governmental and internal roadblocks. But something about reading textbooks on a sluggish 2 inch screen doesn't sit right with me. And accessing the internet for Wikipedia would hardly be effective on such a device or economical in terms of minutes.

Well, designers to the rescue! Check out these nifty new Pico projectors that could be making their way into mobile phones as soon as next year. No material I have read focuses on the BoP market, so expect this to stay in the hands of wealthy on-the-go movie watchers and former laser-point-wielding pranksters for the time being. But this could be the breakthrough that makes the mobile phone a platform for eduction. Textbooks, presentations, lessons... you name it.



Another innovation has come out of Carnegie Mellon that uses a simple Wiimote hack to create a low-cost multi-touch whiteboard. Nintendo, are you listening?