Nowaday, smartphone has a lot of usefulness. It can be an appointment schedule, a high resolution camera, a mp3 player, even an alarm clock. We just install the aplication in it. Particular in iPhones, lots of application have been developed from people around the world to response their needs.
According to the article, University gives students text books on iPhone, more over 500 medical students who study at the forth and fifth year in the University of Leeds in United Kingdom will be given a smartphone, iPhones. The university must invests about 50,000 Pounds of Sterlings per year to lunch this project, including the avilable application. Those students can access to mobile library via the application on iPhones to find more information of text books wherever or whenever they need. Moreover, Iphones will be a useful assistant for them as a mobile way of recording in ward in hospital and keeping in touch with tutors. iPhones will be wiped by remote access if it loses or be stolen, so all confidential informations don't leak out certainly.
I believe that it is much useful to apply iPhones to education. At least, the students don't have to pay their money for text books, and decrease global warming. And also, they don't bring text books to attend the class and don't be worried about weight and wet. When I studied in the university, it was neccessary and improtant that I had to use text books for every class and subject. Some day, I brought 4 text books put in my bag to go to the university by taking the bus at the bus stop, but it was surprisingly raining, so I had to run through raining to the bus stop. When I got there, my text books and my uniform were completely wet. I spent 2 days to make them dry by putting under sunshine. Moreover, my text books is too heavy as if I can use them as a hammer to flight against the robber while I am under the robbery. By the way, I think that the display of iPhones is too small to read any book, and also I cannot take the note. Therefore, I would rather to get iPad for reading because of its big display.
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References
University gives students text books on iPhones. (2010, September 28) BBC News. Retrieved September 29, 2010 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11427317
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ReplyDeleteThis is interesting news, how cool new technologies these days. I have a friend who studing at Leeds University in UK, I will ask her about this.
I agree with you: it is useful for student and make their life easier. Also, I have the same idea with you: it is hard to read on the small screen and cannot take note or underline the important point. Even iPad is has bigger screen but I still prefer to read/study from the book. In contrast, while I'm travelling I'd prefer to read from iPad (I mean only iPad,not small screen because I think it is not good for my eyes) because it is easier to carry around and I just read for free time, not for serious study.
I've been very happy to replace my dictionaries and other reference works with online access. I had a paper version of the Oxford English Dictionary in Australia, but it's so big and awkward to use that I often didn't (It's 20 very large volumes weigh 60kg). Now, I access it online; it's much better: it's faster, it's updated regularly, it's easier to read, I can copy and paste from it, and I use it every day. I write on my computer, so the dictionary is always there ready to be used when I need it.
ReplyDeleteI've also subscribe to a few magazines and journals for many years, and I used to have piles of them cluttering up my home. I didn't want to throw them away because they contained articles I might want to read again or cite, but they were also a real pain. And finding articles could take a long time. Now, I use the online versions. As A notes, there is no paper used, I can read them anywhere on anything with online access, and there are searchable databases!
I still like paper books for reading for pleasure, such as Of Mice and Men, but I can easily imagine that one day I will switch to e-readers for that too. It would be neat to have thousands of books on one little machine! And I could free up a lot of space in my home!
My nephews in high school in Australia are now given laptops with all of their texts on them. There are still a lot of paper books being published, but I wonder if that might not change very quickly? When digital photography arrived, people thought there would always be film cameras, and they did continue for a bit, but then they pretty much disappeared very quickly when the digital version reached a high enough standard. Who uses a film camera today?
Peter@September 30, 2010 7:19 AM said that "Who uses a film camera today?"
ReplyDeleteAs long as I know the Thai royalty still uses it and video film in the formal ceremony and festival so far because it can be kept more long time than digital media. And also, its life time is more over 50 years, but we should have area enough for storage.
I agree with your idea that it’s more useful of iPhone’s application to education. I use more iPhone’s applications for helping me to approve my English language such as podcast, dictionary and RSS. This must have been my reason to buy iPhone.
ReplyDeleteBut I still like to read from paper books. I spend a lot of money for interesting paper books.