And you know I am experimenting to see if I can complete my degree using mobile devices.
As you also know, technology doesn’t always play nicely.
My first task in one of my units was to complete some questions in a Word document.
Now there’s a challenge… Can I do this without printing anything and only using my mobile device?
Here is what I thought would happen in my mind. I would open the Word attachment directly from my email into Google Docs. I would then answer all the questions and send it back to my lecturer directly from Google Docs as a PDF. Store the document in my University folder for this unit and I’m all done.
So here goes.
Opening email in Gmail from my iPhone – Check.
Open Word attachment from Mail as a Google Document – Check.
Edit the document on my phone using Google Docs mobile app. – Check.
Write in my answers about why I want to become a teacher on my mobile phone while sitting on the lounge watching My Kitchen Rules – Check. (see extract below)
1.1 What beliefs and or assumptions about children, childhood, teaching and learning have influenced your decision to become a teacher?
The beliefs that I have are that traditional learning has missed the mark in a lot of areas and I think we can do a lot better. I believe that the education system has not evolved with the changes in the world and I want to be a part of the change that teaches young people how to love the concept of learning and how to take those opportunities and thrive through them.
My assumptions are that young people are disengaged for many reasons. Why do I believe this, because I was disengaged at school and also because some of my children, who have also been through the education system, have had very different experiences except with the one commonality that they found school disengaging and failed to encourage them to want to learn.
My decision to become a teacher is to make a global difference and change the way we educate. Although there are many great teachers, most have been through the education training system which has failed to evolve with the changes in society, with cultural changes and with technological changes. By inspiring young people we can give them a passion to want to learn. Wanting to learn is the key to a successful education. This is how we can truly revolutionise the education process.
Chris Richter
Press the save button – Check.
Send document to lecturer as a PDF – Check.
Move the document to my university folder – Check.
Did I miss something? Repeat process to check I didn’t miss anything.
AWESOME – technology does work.
I didn’t have to print it out and I didn’t have to use a desktop computer or laptop.
This actually might just work.
What did I learn? That technology really does work sometimes. If all my assignments are like this, I’m sure I can complete the rest of my degree using a mobile device. I’m not pushing any particular product but this seems to be the way it should work and in this case, Google came up with the goods and the work-flow did actually work. Hopefully we can keep up this success and I’ll have my degree in no time…
I should note that my next session was not so lucky – but that’s another story.
Is this realistic to want to complete a degree by mobile device? Is it even possible and what issues have you had that made it impossible to continue on your mobile device?
