Mobile Learning Through the Years

MOBILE THROUGH LEARNING THE YEARS Mobile learning as we know it seems like a new phenomenon, but humans have been using devices to learn about the environment around them long before Apple unveiled the iPhone. Here's a look at mobile learning, in both reality and popular fiction, through the years. 2700-2300 BC: The Sumerian abacus is 1699: Sir Isaac Newton introduced, allowing for the visual organization of invents the octant, a precursor to the sextant, a favorite tool of sailors." numbers. Frenchman Amédée Mannheim develops the modern slide rule. 1908: Hans Geiger develops a wooden prototype for the modern Geiger Counter. 1965: The success of the See 'n Say helps propel Mattel to its position as the top toymaker in the United States. Currently, Mattel's Fisher-Price subsidiary lists 10 1966: The crew on "Star Trek" uses tricorder devices for scouting, medical diagnosis, and engineering. varieties for sale on its website. 1971: Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, came up with the idea for the fictional electronic guidebook-and namesake of the series-while hitchhiking through Europe. 1973: In New York City, Dr. Martin Cooper makes the first ever handheld cell phone call in public using the Motorola DynaTAC, which weighed 2.5 lbs. 1976: Texas Instruments LEARNING begins developing the Speak & Spell, the first of a three-part toy series. * 1977: Model TD2.3 electrobinoculars make their first appearance in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope." They use built- in computers to enhance images up to 600 kilometers away. 1985: Casio releases the fx-700OG, the world's first graphing calculator. 1993: Rapper Ice Cube comments that he's "halfway home and my pager still blowing up" in his hit single, "It Was a Good Day." YO CUBE 1994: In an episode of "The Simpsons," school bully Dolph creates a reminder on his Apple Newton PDA to "Beat up Martin." 1997: The Palm Pilot 2003: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code sees the debuts with 128 KB of memory and a retail price of $299. It runs on two AAA batteries. main characters pursuing passwords for two ancient cryptexes, portable carriers of secret information leading to the Holy Grail. 2006: Will Smith's character in "The Pursuit of Happyness," an unemployed father down on his luck, solves a Rubik's cube during a short taxi ride with a finance manager and is subsequently offered an internship. 2011: United Continental begins distributing 11,000 iPads to its pilots, providing them with real- time charts. The company expects the move to save Get much more 326,000 gallons of fuel per year due to reduced weight. float info on mobile learning at floatlearning.com. mobile learning "Source: h2g2, article: "The Octant" *Source: Datamath.org, "Texas Instruments Speak & Spell" 2Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica, "Amédée Mannheim $ Source: MSNBC.com, "Happy Birthday, Palm Pilot" Source: CNN.com, "Inventor of cell phone: We knew someday everybody would have one" Source: The Atlantic Wire, "11,000 iPads Worth Their Weight in Jet Fuel?