ELT needs to get a grip on smartphones: really?

ELT needs to get a grip on smartphones

Caroline Moore, Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 8 March 2011 14.00 GMT

The article by Caroline Moore in Guardian Weekly highlighted the ELT needs to get a grip on smartphones. She says:

"There has been an explosion in the use of smartphones. Around 270m handsets were sold in 2010, while CNN Fortune has forecast that sales could exceed 500m in 2011. With the price of entry-level handsets expected to fall to $100 or below, growth is likely to accelerate and smartphones will become more accessible to consumers in developing countries."

Therefore, she thinks the ELT sector needs to explore these technologies more closely.

iPhone type smartphones are powerful, usability is great and good apps can be written, that's obvious. "smartphones will become more accessible to consumers in developing countries" When? no idea yet.

I'm studying ELT situation in the context of Nepal, exploring the potential of open-source software/hardware platform to provide the much needed access to resources in the public schools' classroom.

Mobile penetration is increasing rapidly and that's true. But developing countries face huge challenges of infrastructure which require sizeable investment and also faces social, cultural and political issues.

Even the wider implementation of simple 'sms' based learning solution is almost impossible, common use of mobile internet for education is beyond imagination.

Before we start dreaming and think about the future, we should wake up and see the present. Do the reality check, and develop affordable solutions that don't heavily rely on smart technologies and constant availability of internet.