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If mobile is the future of learning technology then I may be in trouble. I'm bad at mobile.
Here are 5 reasons why I probably don't deserve to own an iPhone:
1. Only Consumption: All I do on my iPhone is read, listen to audiobooks, and watch videos. I don't think that I've ever created anything with an app. My fingers are too fat. The screen is too small. I'm lost without a big keyboard and a mouse.
2. No Creation: My inability to create on an iPhone goes beyond a failure with the apps. Maybe it is okay not to be writing documents or editing presentations (or making music mashups or whatever), but I don't even do normal creation stuff. I'll read my e-mail on my iPad, but almost never respond. The iPhone is like an e-mail warning system. A message that if there is an important e-mail that I need to find my laptop.
3. No Photos: Everyone seems to be taking pictures all the time with their phones. Apple makes the camera system sound more powerful than a full-blow DSLR. How are you so facile with taking pictures with an iPhone? It seems hard to zoom. I can never get the thing out quick enough. I always forget that my phone is a camera, and then when I take a picture I'm as likely to accidentally take a picture of myself as whatever is in front of me.
4. No Texting: Okay, limited texting. I text exactly 3 people. The people that I happen to live with. The reasons that I sometimes text the high school junior and fresh-person that lives in my house is that they don't read my e-mails.
5. No App Buying: I almost never download or purchase apps. What's the point? I'm almost always doing only 8 things on my iPhone: reading e-mail, reading web pages, reading e-books (Kindle app), listening to audiobooks (Audible app), reading the newspaper (NYTimes app), and looking at course materials (iTunes U / LMS apps), looking at maps, and waking myself up with the alarm clock. I don't play games, I don't network socially, I don't do anything particularly productive. The power of the App Store and the iOS ecosystem is basically wasted on me.
One thing I miss about my Pantech Breeze cell phone, ("everything you need, simplified") is actually making phone calls. I'm terrible at making phone calls with the iPhone. Nobody can ever hear me. I can't hear anyone. I never hear the ringer. I'm always dialing by accident. Is it just me, or is the iPhone not a great phone?
I believe in mobile learning. Mobile is where our students want to go. Mobile is the future of global learning. If you are an edtech person you better be a mobile person as well.
Where did I go so iPhone wrong?
Are you good at mobile?
