Into the Wilderness

I am currently working on a project that entails collaborating with cell phone companies and the unique industry that revolves around this service. I think the cell phone is by and large the technology of choice for people between the ages of 14 and 35 and we need to find innovative and pedagogically helpful ways to incorporate them into the classroom.

This journey into the world of the cell phone industry, however, is not for the light of heart. The industry is young and pricing models, fees, and service levels have not quite settled into predictable and user friendly arrangements.

I suspect, though, that any new industry is going to be fraught with these hurdles AND that these same hurdles can be overcome. Any great advancement has been led by pioneers who are willing to endure sleepless nights, deadline delays, budget overages, and software bugs.

I continue to focus on the end of the journey, one where we have students engaged in classroom activities and enthusiastically using their cell pones as learning tools. Where teachers easily incorporate the tool into the curriculm and find its use advantagous to the learning process. And, where an industry and society accept the device as something that belongs in the classroom, not something to keep in one's locker or pocket.

Hopefully that day is right around the corner. But for today, I am making my way through the wilderness of software development in the world of SMS aggregators, developers, cell phone carriers, and system errors with machete in hand!