Read the educational listservs these days and you realize that iPhones are leading the convergence charge. The Blackberry revolutionized the way business stays connected. The iPhone is doing the same thing in education. Actually cellphones in general keep students connected in ways we never would have thought possible even 5 years ago.
Cellphones' big advantage when it comes to learning is that you don't have to build any local infrastructure. In other words you don't have to wire buildings and set up servers to support a cellphone. The cellphone service provider does that. There's still a ways to go but it won't be much longer before teachers will routinely deliver information and content via students' iPhones or similar devices.
The text novel craze which started in Japan a year or so ago has spread to the U.S. Do we care that kids are writing in this specific genre? Not at all! The point is that they are writing! Writing with passion and with a vengeance. Writing the way they want to. How extraordinary.
Back to cellphones. These handheld devices are revolutionizing the way we live and the way we teach. Whether it is an iPod, an eeePC or an iPhone, it is getting smaller by the year. It is incorporating more functionality and power and features.
Convergence. Now that's a good thing.
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