It’s been a while that the smartphone market is growing at a fast pace and, according to recent analyzes, there is no sign that it will stop. Country with the largest user base of smartphones in Latin America, according to the IDGNOW!, until 2017 Brazil will have 70.5 million active users. The mobile technology is here to stay and the market of Distance Learning say thanks.

With the ease of access to the internet that these devices provide, making navigation possible anytime and anywhere, the smartphone benefits two main characteristics of Distance Learning , its availability and flexibility.

Distance Learning and the use of mobile devices

As well as the use of smartphones, the market of Distance Learning experience continued growth. A reality increasingly connected, fast, with need to knowledge, but little time available, made the Distance Learning consolidate as a seriously and valued learning option. 

In 2013 the Unesco recognized the need to modernize the traditional teaching, encouraging  the use of mobile technology in the classroom. The organization has published a guide with ten recommendations to governments implement public policies that use cell phones as a resource in the classroom. The guide which was presented in Paris during the Mobile Learning Week, brought even 13 good reasons to have this ally in education. Check out the notes:

 Ten recommendations to governments : 

• Create or update policies related to learning mobile
• Raising awareness of its importance
• Expand and improve connection options
• Provide equal access
• Ensure gender equity
• Create and optimize educational content
• Train teachers
• Empower educators using mobile technologies
• Promote the safe, healthy and responsible use of mobile technologies
• Use technology to improve communication and educational management

 Thirteen reasons to make cell phone a pedagogical tool: 

• Extends the reach and equity in education
• Improves the education in areas of conflict or who have suffered natural disasters
• Assist students with disabilities
• Optimizes the time in the classroom
• Allows you to learn at any time and place
• Builds new communities of learning
• Supports the learning on the local
• Bring closer the formal learning from informal
• Provides assessment and immediate feedback
• Make the customize learning easier
• Improves the continuous learning
• Improves communication
• Maximizes the cost-benefit ratio of education

The guide also emphasizes the need to train teachers in the use of mobile technologies, so that they dominate the tool and learn how to take advantage of it for teaching. “In Brazil, teachers have some resistance to incorporate new technologies. The classroom is still the place to turn off your cell phone. This make many educational opportunities are lost, especially in middle school, at which the student is already connected and in the networks.”, says Rebecca Chaves, coordinator of Education of UNESCO in Brazil.

Other recommendations presented in this document relate to the creation of appropriate content and the promotion of safe and healthy use of technologies. With these guidelines, Unesco believes that governments will be closer to enjoy the benefits of mobile learning, among them extend the reach and equity of education and facilitate learning.

Distance Learning for everyone

There is no doubt that one of the main reasons why many teachers still show resistance in relation to online education is the lack of familiarity with technological tools.

Few understand that create Distance Learning content, both to be accessed via computer and via mobile is a process quite simple, and that most of the content prepared on a computer to be exposed or delivered to the student in the classroom is the same material that can be used in e-learning.

Coursify.me allows the teacher to upload your content quickly and easily to other platforms, such as Vimeo, Dropbox or on your own computer, and also offers the material automatically to access via computer, tablet or mobile.

The process is much simpler than you might think and is within reach of your hands. Give a hello to us via e-mail hello@coursify.me and start now your Distance Learning course.