Mobile Education: The Stumbling Blocks

The mobile revolution that has ushered in this decade is nothing short of a history being created. The fact that it has touched every facet of life makes it universally acceptable. Education is not left behind and several companies are trying to use mobile platform to provide a variety of education services. However, if anything to go by, the success is far-flung and no path breaking way has been found that would make mobile a true education device. This article tries to focus on the limitations that are hindering the success of mobile education.

Screen Size
The largest mobile phone in terms of screen size is Dell Streak that has 5 inch display. However, still an average mobile phone screen is no more than 2.8 inches. Students are used to reading from pages that are larger in size. Hence, reading on 2.8 inches screen is never comfortable. The screen of mobile phone is mainly optimized for small text.

Processing power limitations
Barring a few mobile phones, most of the cellular phones have slow processors. These processors are incapable of running animations or digital content effectively. Desktop computers and laptops do not face any such difficulty and therefore have become a preferred medium for online learning.

Fragmented nature of Mobile OS platforms
Application developers find it extremely difficult to develop applications that can be run on all mobile operating systems. Imagine a class with 30 students and some having Nokia phones, others with Blackberries, and some using Androids. This is a real world issue that most of the education providers are grappling with.

Expensive
Education is always considered as a service which is there for the masses. Hence, in many cases, education is affordable for a large number of students across the different economic strata. There is no doubt that devices such as iPhone can be used for mobile education. Unfortunately, not many can afford to buy an iPhone.

Lack of government support
Present day governments have not yet understood that education in 21st century is no longer restricted inside the buildings of schools, colleges, and universities. New modes of imparting education have come up and mobile is one of them. Unless the governments around the world realize this and allocate resources, the mobile education will not succeed.

Even though companies are talking about phones as low as $30, these devices will never be optimized for education. The solutions to the barriers, mentioned above, are hard to find. Even the much touted projects such as OLPC (One laptop per child) have not been able to bring a paradigm shift in the filed of education.  

The time has come to change our approach and focus on the innovative products that are coming into the market. Yes! TABLETS! iPad, Galaxy Tab and many other touch screen tablets that can change the game altogether. The level of interactivity on touch devices is extremely high. Moreover, institutions can develop highly engaging and effective educational content. The fact that they can also run web content makes them all the more appealing.

Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

3 Tips on Building a Home Based Business on a Budget

No matter what type of home based business you are involved in, you will need to do some type of marketing. Odds are, if you are just beginning your business, you are on a shoe-string budget. Advertising what you have to offer can eat up your budget. The good news is that there are a number of ways to build a business on a budget.This article will review 3 methods taught by Mike Dillard which have been of great value to me as I built my home based business. They help you generate consistent leads to your home based business opportunity.1. CRAIG WHO?Craigslist.org is one of the largest websites on the internet where people can place free ads in various cities all across the United States and generate interest in your product or opportunity. Alexa.com ranks it 60th most viewed, meaning it is a source of serious traffic. It is a place where people go to advertise everything from sofas to jobs. Placing the right type of advertisement in the correct section of craigslist.org can help you produce an endless amount of prospects who would be interested in your home based business.2. ON-LINE VIDEOSOnline video is the hottest internet trend. Video site like YouTube.com has been growing rapidly. Posting online videos is a perfect way to get your product or opportunity in front of lots of people, if you’re building your home based business on a budget.If you want to use videos in your marketing effort, you will need to invest a little of your budget on a video camera. Good and reliable video cameras are going for about $150. Next, you carefully create compelling, valuable content aimed at your target market, then you go live on the web and reach out to the world using free online video platforms such as YouTube.com.3. BLOG WISELYA blog gives you online presence and it takes next to nothing out of your budget. A blog brings fast and reliable traffic to your business. However blogs are not meant for blatant personal advertising. Your goal with a blog is to deliver value and gain loyal readers who you will attract into your marketing funnel.There are two types of blogging platforms to choose from, Blogger.com and WordPress.com. If you know how to use the power of blogs, you can develop a  home based business that will pay you for years to come.In summary, it is possible to start your home based business on a small budget. Many home based businesses, for example, an MLM business, can be built on a small budget and lead to tremendous rewards.