Smart phones are becoming more and more popular and accessible. IPhones, Androids, Droids… sounds like Star Wars fighters. Cell phones, though, are not warriors, but rather communicators and equalizers, educators and learning tools. Cell phones are tools of empowerment for people all over.
Internet access and mobile apps are taking the phone beyond being solely a communication device. According to the Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project
, cell phones are building a bridge over the digital divide. Approximately 79% of teens own a cell phone. 21% of low-income teens only access the Internet via mobile technology, which they can do anywhere rather than waiting to use a school or library computer. Research documenting a rise in GPN in many developing countries is linking it directly to access to mobile technology. And the mobile trade organization GSMA reports that as a result of owning a cell phone, 41% of women in developing countries have access to increased professional opportunities and higher incomes.
Like everywhere in the U.S., youth on the Cherokee Nation are excited about the possibility of getting an iPhone. The difference here is that their elders and teachers are encouraging them, wanting them to text away on these smart phones. That is because Apple just came out with an iPhone app that allows folks to communicate in Cherokee. According to an Associated Press article, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith said the goal is to spread the use of the language among tech-savvy children in the digital age. Not so different a goal then when the Cherokee alphabet was developed by Sequoyah nearly two hundred years ago. Shortly afterwards, the tribe began printing one of the first bilingual newspapers in the U.S., the Cherokee Phoenix. Today there are only about 8,000 Cherokee speakers among the 290,000 tribal members. Will Cherokee
from Through the Eyes of the Eagle, illustration by Patrick Rolo & Lisa A. Fifield, cropped image
youth use their cool new 21st century tool to tell their stories to each other and the world in Cherokee? Hopefully digital technology will be engaging enough to popularize the language among the youth.
I’m excited that at the Arizona State Museum we are also working on a digital project to reach out to teens about an important message: preventing diabetes. Working with Native artist Ryan Huna Smith and consulting with teens, we are developing a digital comic as a mobile app to address healthy lifeways for diabetes prevention. The story has a Native American focus and is brought to life through Ryan’s cutting edge graphic drawings. The mobile app is being developed to compliment an exhibit we will host next fall, Through the Eyes of the Eagle, which features the original artwork from a book series of the same name that was developed by Indian Health Services and the Center for Disease Control. The app will be available initially in English and Tohono O’odham.
Flyer design and image of Frybread Man by Ryan Huna Smith
Currently we are consulting with youth ages 14-19 to develop the comic’s storyline and are seeking funding to pay for IT development of the app and digital comic. If you are interested in participating in one of our group development meetings or would like to support the project, please contact me by email.
On the opposite end are the children that spend all the time texting while in school disrupting classes and not learning anything.
looking at the pros and cons of this trend
I tend to vote that even if there is d negative angle which is normal for every thing on earth, technology included
but these trend is certainly going to open up the new learning opportunity
Wayne
mobile apps now ruling the world.
we can see the information through mobile apps using internet.
thanks for the post.
Here’s an important warning about cell phones:
The World Health Organization’s cancer-research agency, did several studies and found that people who have used cell phones for 1/2 hour a day for more than 10 years have about twice the risk of glioma, a rare kind of brain tumor.
Mobile apps are here to stay.. Sad but true!
You are right!!!
Cell Phones are a way of life for us now.What would life be without a cell phone tweet.
tuffyj
I know my kids have a secret language that I don’t understand . . .
This is a neat way to offer a new use for a traditional language to Cherokee kids in the modern internet age. I could never appreciate my heritage as a young person, but I will always appreciate what my elders took the time to teach me. Excellent idea for getting teens involved in Tribal Tradition!
Will
smartphones are now replacing the mobile pc
Teach them too make their own apps
My niece would love something like this. She is a whiz with the iphone, ipad and computer already and she is only 6.
Caterina
No cell phone No life.Cell phone have become a part of our life and body………..
Cellphones now a days are our easiest and fastest means of communication. This is the most widely used not only for working people but for students also. And it shows that Mobile phones now is becoming a necessity.
Cellphones can be a really bad thing for students in school, people tend to distribute and record pornographic material on it. Its not a good thing to have in schools. Just my two cents.
Kids are loosing innocence day by day and adopting technologies and now smart phones are encouraging kids to play on cellphone and surf one net and chat on his or her friend via messenger and they are shying to talk face to face. These devices should banned in schools since the primary role of a school is to develop kid’s mental as well physical efficiency.
I have to agree with some of you guys here about the cons of these stuff with our children. These days even adults are always in front of the computer and if they are not chatting, surfing the net or playing games, we’ll find them looking at their phones. I guess we are now forgetting that we are humans and that we need to communicate with each other. We need each others presence and spirit. WE ARE HUMANs and not computers, let us get every chance we can have to minggle with oour fellow HUMAN BEINGs. Thank you very much.
I agree with what some people have said, mobile phones are replacing computers. I can access all of my documents from my phone, and I can even control my desktop using my Android phone. I believe that industries such as marketing are also turning to cellphones and mobile over internet/banner advertising, and companies are changing the way businesses connect with their customers. It’s fascinating to see the kind of movement from computer to mobile platforms we have experienced in just the past 5 years.
Cell Phones are also one way for enjoying your life and you can also spent good time with different Mobile Applications.
Thanks
Someone has rightly said: Everything in this world has its pros and cons. The same is true for the Mobile Communication technology. Even Alexander Grahambell, who invented the first telephone, wouldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams that telephone technology would go this far!
And here we are with a cell-phone in every hand making our lives simpler and easier to be in contact with whoever we desire. In the last report published by TRAI, there were 770 Million cell phone subscribers in India as on 31st Jan 2011! All the major subscribers are going berserk in an attempt to capture this burgeoning market and thereby we are witnessing a rapid increase in cell phone towers in every nook and corner in our cities.
The operators are, in reality, wielding a double-edged sword. In a bid to provide seamless services, they are installing these towers wherever required. However, in doing so, they are completely neglecting the adverse effects of cell phone radiations. The safety of cell phone towers has been a subject of extensive scientific debate for quite some time. There is a growing body of scientific evidence that the electromagnetic radiation they emit, even at low levels, is dangerous to human health.
without the cellphone, people cannot imagine a single day.
Today, schools started to bring technology in the classroom and even smartphones such as iPhones. Using technology can increase interest and desire to learn for students.
Indeed, when students get to use the latest technology to solve problems, they are more likely to be focused because they may feel they are using a new product other classrooms may not have yet, for example the iPad.
IT is helpful thing in our life. with cell phone i can’t live:)
Authors say very much on the role of mobile phones is now almost everyone can not do without a mobile phone
cell phones have become the most sold out technological equipment. It also provides opportunities to commit fraud and also dodge people. Quite ironically it helps to find out the thief in almost all the cases.
Many murderers have been caught with the help of cell phone with the help of GPS.
Mobile phones are getting more advance and more used to the public. The necessity comes in handy when you really need access through webs through wifi connection and search engines are even useful. Even simple business call you can make conference through your mobile phones.
mobile phones are a gr8 boon of the science, but still everything has its own pros & cons, and we do have to accept them, as they are, whether we want to accept or not
From : Mike
If you don’t have the latest smart phone these days people look down on you. Phones and their owners have become micro societies!