Japan has always been on the cutting edge of mobile technology. Because of their size and the strength of their infrastructure, they tend to be a few years ahead of the relatively sluggish mobile innovation in the States. So, when you’re looking for a peek into the future of cell technology, why not turn your spyglass to Japan?

Cyber University, which already became the first educational institution to offer all of its coursework online, is now going a step further and allowing students to take a course on the Pyramids strictly from their cell phones.

How does it work? Well lets see.

Cyber University

First, a point about Cyber University. They are a government sanctioned, online only University in Japan where you can actually get a Bachelors degree. For this new class they are offering, the Power Point presentations are piped straight to your mobile phone and you can hear the lecture from your headset.

Attendance is high (hovering at 86%) and the college can monitor how many students are watching the lectures completely.

The question becomes, how will this next level of decentralization effect education in general?

The Future Of Education

While it seems pretty clear that this is a great way to disseminate information to learners on the go, is it a good way to learn? I think it depends on the class. For a traditional lecture where a student listens, takes notes and then studies these notes for a test, allowing easy access to the lecture anywhere can be a life saver. However, for some courses, especially on smaller, less abstract subjects you need to have a way to directly interact with the lecturer.

Does that mean that mobile coursework is a bust?

Not at all. What we need now are better ways for mobile users to have the same level of interaction as people who are physically there. With mobile technology become a platform for increasingly complex applications, this doesn’t seem that far fetched. Why can’t schools that teach courses through mobile devices also put together social networks to allow students in these courses to share information with the professor and with each other on the fly?

The biggest thing stopping this is that it is that it is still relatively difficult to type large blocks of text using a phone, but advances are already being made in this area.

Web 2.0 Roundup

At the end of the day this is a great first step towards making education available for anyone, wherever they may be. At the moment, if you happen to have a Softbank phone you can watch these lectures for free — otherwise, you are going to have to wait. Cyber University has plans to port the program to other carriers in the future. What do you think about the future of mobile education?

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