Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56540
Dial M for Mobile L By Sharon Shinn ast fall, the University of California, Irvine, announced a $1.7 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to found a research institute that investi- gates how the world's poorest people conduct banking over their cell phones. In 2007, five of Japan's top ten best-selling novels were original- ly "cell phone novels," composed in SMS-style sentences on phone keypads and read by fans on their own mobile phones. Meanwhile, last September, the University of Maryland in College Park began piloting a study to see whether hand- held devices such as iPhones can improve the educational experience. This came four years after Maryland's Smith School of Business started handing out BlackBerry phones to its incoming MBA students so they would become familiar with the "always on" technology of today's mobile devices. What's going on here? Has the ordinary cell phone transformed itself into the single most useful piece of personal technology in the world? What one device can students use for communication, entertainment, research, and education? The mobile phone. It promises to revolutionize the world—and higher education. 32 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2009