Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Krystian Kaczmarski


According to some telecommunications companies, cell phones will soon become an essential educational tool. Already, many cell phones offer educational software, scheduling programs, and the ability to download podcast lectures.

TechNewsWorld reports:

"So-called smartphones - such as the iPhone, which in the U.S. is authorized to run on the AT&T network offer myriad new capabilities, including Web access, e-mail, and access to educational software. "The time is approaching when these little devices will be as much a part of education as a bookbag," write the authors of a report last year by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, which studies emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching.

A well-equipped cell phone with a foldout keyboard could even supplant a laptop in classrooms, says Bill Davidson, senior vice-president for global marketing at Qualcomm, which makes cell-phone software and chips."

New generation cell phones may offer a lot of useful features. But, in my opinion, their size and storage space make it difficult to use in place of a larger, more versatile computer.