Learning on the Go

Technology is a key factor behind the huge strides being made by the developing world--and indeed everywhere--in science. Thanks to increasingly cheaper and easier access to the internet, for instance, scientific collaboration has never been easier.  With billions of mobile phone subscribers around the world accessing the internet on the go (out-pacing ?xed-line Internet users), the technology trend now is focussed on innovative uses of cell phones and other mobile devices to perform tasks traditionally assigned to desktop computers.

This week at ICTP, a workshop on scientific mobile learning (or "m-Learning") is looking at how mobile technology can be used in powerful new ways to deliver scientific education.

According to the International Telecommunications Union, about 70% of mobile phone users live in developing countries, making the devices the ?rst telecommunications technology in history to have more users there than in the developed world. Cell phone usage in Africa is growing almost twice as fast as any other region, jumping from 63 million users to 152 million in just two years.  

As an educational institute devoted to science in the developing world, ICTP has a strong interest in closely following these trends and has already taken steps to ensure that its own educational offerings are accessible via mobile tools. For instance, seminars from ICTP's Postgraduate Diploma Course are recorded and available online at "www.ictp.tv", and will soon be accessible via mobile devices, including tablets, allowing scholars to learn and revise physics and math lessons any time, anywhere beyond the classroom and at their own pace.

Attendees at the m-Learning workshop will hear about these and other topics. For more details, visit the website.

ICTP's Sience Dissemination Unit, which organized the workshop, has published a book on m-Learning that can be downloaded for free here.