The Implications Phones Have on Education and Health

The statement “The iPhone is not a game changer, it’s an industry changer. It changes the way that you can interact with your customers and with your suppliers. ” (Landon 2014), is proven when applied to Education and Health. The innovative advances made in mobile technology has been nothing short of extraordinary. With the increased rate of application development persons are able to easily access technologies and apps that can prove beneficial to all. There are quite a bit of apps that are making promising strides in the Educational and Health fields of technology. Some prime examples of these are Khan Academy and Socrative Student, which are useful educational apps, while Samsung Health is a promising health app.

With the current and upcoming development of educational apps a new light has been shed on the idea of phones being useful in schools for learning. The previous prominent opinion on the usage of cellphones in schools is that they are a distraction and they warrant cheating. With the increasing popularity of apps such as Khan Academy and Socrative Student, they have created an interface where students are given access to lessons on various topics. With the acknowledgement of there being various learning styles these apps are even more useful to students who may be Visual, Aural, Read/Written or Kinesthetic learners. According to a survey carried out by the VARK Website during the June- December 2017 period the most popular learning style was Kinesthetic and the least popular was Visual. (VARK, 2018)

These new applications allow students to learn at a pace more suitable for them and it gives them the chance to expand their horizons when it comes to a subject they are interested in. Socrative Student is an app that gives students the opportunity to join a “room” where their teacher is able to post quizzes and activities to cater to the different types of learners. The phone application makes learning fun with interactive games, and teachers are able to receive feedback right away from students who are learning remotely. Khan Academy is a free online tutoring forum that provides “practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. ” (Khan Academy, 2018) Applications such as these are becoming a more popular option for teachers to use to connect with their students.

While the ability to use cellphones in class makes it more interactive it also presents the concern of students abusing the cellphones. The fear of students cheating or getting distracted in class are the two main reasons most schools don't allow the use of cellphones. According to a short paper written the authors found that “students who are using their phones frequently are paying less attention to the lectures and are therefore getting lower grades” (Mohammad, Fayyoumi, & Alshathry, 2015).

The Smartphone apps developed by academics, pharmaceutical companies and technology giants are making possible large studies that collect real-time data on people’s location, environment and health (Check Hayden, 2015). Apps such as Samsung Health “provides core features to keep up your body fit and healthy, and will record and analyze your daily activities and habits to help maintain successful diet and lead healthy lifestyle. ” (Samsung Health, 2018). No matter how you choose to exercise you can track those physical activities by simply using the built in tracker.

This app is provided on any recent or updated android and in some cases come already downloaded. This app can measure your heart rate, the amount of steps and the path that you have traveled if you went for a run, jog or walk. While all these features are very useful for someone trying to stay in shape, it must be noted that the accuracy of the steps may not be 100%.

The capabilities of a cell phone are amazing and with the wide variety of applications available to the consumer, it's no wonder they are considered to be industry changers.