Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 05/18/10 by Jonathan Spalter
"High speed Internet empowers people with disabilities to become more independent. [It] can remove barriers that keep people with disabilities from participating in everyday activities such as employment, education, civic responsibilities and social connection."
From a joint statement by: The American Association of People with Disabilities and The Communications Workers of America
For America's 54 million people with disabilities, two important events happen this summer. First, there's Memorial Day, when disabled veterans will proudly lead ceremonies and officials will emphasize the need to help those injured in conflict.
Second, July 26th is the 20th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. The ADA was a long time in coming and is probably the single most empowering law during the past generation. But while the ADA has been instrumental in providing legal help for Americans with disabilities, something else is doing an important job in improving basic living standards.
It's your mobile phone.
That's the conclusion of a new research paper that Mobile Future issued today. For all the talk about texting, streaming video, gaming and other apps, one of the most heartening mobile developments involve affordable, life-changing improvements for those with disabilities. The FCC also recognizes this development and hosted a workshop to explore ways in which new technologies can offer opportunities to meet the communications access needs of people with disabilities.
Take the hearing impaired. In 2006, according to the CDC, 37 million adults in the United States had trouble hearing (ranging from a little trouble to being deaf). That's an increase of more than five million since 2000.
As described in Mobile Future's paper, a new wireless system developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute offers those with hearing difficulties the ability to caption events in real-time. The device translates spoken words into text and displays it on a screen.
Meanwhile, according to Scientific American, researchers at the University of Washington (Seattle) are developing software that lets mobile phone users communicate through sign language and real-time video instead of being limited to text messaging.
But what about those who can't see? Some of the same technology that lets you save money while shopping is also turning the phone into an electronic seeing-eye companion.
As we discovered, mobile apps can use smartphone cameras to scan labels and announce the contents of grocery items, their nutrition labels, and even pill bottles. When merged with GPS technology, these apps can assist the visually impaired by giving them step-by-step directions through their smartphone.
Know someone with a speaking disability? An estimated 6 to 8 million Americans have this challenge. Many, if not most, can now take advantage of low- or no-cost communications apps on their cell phone. There's voice output software that conveys typed messages; downloadable text-to-speech software can be an effective, less-costly alternative to speech devices covered by private insurance and Medicare.
Also, some experts say that children with speech impairments often prefer using "mainstream" technology which is less stigmatizing.
Mobile Future's research paper is meant to be both an assessment and a celebration of the key innovations that are helping those with disabilities. It is also a "look-ahead" at the next phase wireless technologies in the pipeline which promise even more transformational impacts for the one in five Americans who live with disabilities.
This column was originally posted on Huffington Post on May 13, 2010.
Posted: 05/06/10 by Mobile Future Team
This is Teacher Appreciation Week so it seems fitting to reflect not only on the teacher herself but also her indispensable aids: rulers, protractors, chalk, and – you guessed it – mobile service.
Virginia has become a leader in exploring ways to adapt mobile service to education. Two years ago, the state’s Department of Education launched an initiative called Learning without Boundaries [Link] in cooperation with Virginia Tech and Radford University. The program is examining the potential benefits of wireless hand-held technologies in schools.
School across the state have already picked up the challenge. For example, several elementary schools in Richmond are using handheld mobile devices since 2006 to help children learn phonics, spelling, letter recognition and writing. High school students use them to watch videos that complement classroom instruction.
Meanwhile, the school board in Chesterfield County near Richmond recently approved a five-year technology plan that includes $3 million for a mobile technology pilot program. Also moving forward in this area is the school district in Henrico County. As its school superintendent Patrick Russo told The Richmond Times-Dispatch [Link 2] earlier this year:
“As technology evolves, I think you will see [mobile devices] be part of the teaching process as well as a communication process between teachers and students.”
Posted: 03/12/10 by Mobile Future Team
While Savannah, New York City, and Seattle gear up for St. Patrick’s Day this Wednesday, March 17, telecom enthusiasts nationwide will have their eyes turned to the nation’s capital, as the FCC presents its long-awaited National Broadband Plan to Congress. The day before it hits the Hill, the FCC will unveil the plan at an Open Commission Meeting, finally disclosing its contents after a 13-month-long process involving online workshops, town halls, and hearings across the country.
Keeping pace with the transparency surrounding the National Broadband Plan’s creation, Youtube’s Steve Grove will interview FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski immediately following the public meeting. In this session, Mr. Grove, head of news and politics at Youtube, will ask the Chairman questions submitted by the public spanning across a range of topics, including broadband’s potential impact on health care, education, and job creation. Announcing the interview, the FCC stated, “No topic is off-limits… we want to know what Americans have in mind for Internet innovation in the 21st century.”
The blog at broadband.gov encourages the public to join in the discussion using Citizen Tube and submit individual questions for Chairman Genachowski via Google Moderator. The deadline for questions is Sunday evening at midnight on the west coast.
Posted: 02/26/10 by Mobile Future Team
Most schools around the country don't allow their students to use mobile while school is in session.
That's not the case for a Richmond, VA middle school.
Colonial Heights Middle school uses hand-held mobile devices to supplement the teacher and textbooks in a classroom. Instead of banning mobile technology, Colonial Heights is embracing it.
"This is their generation; this is aimed at their generation," sixth-grade teacher Richard Ridpath said. "They are a cell phone, iPod, Xbox generation. This is just meeting [students] where they are."
Ridpath uses mobile devices with video and interactive applications as a supplement to his more traditional lesson.
Chesterfield, VA Superintendant Marcus J. Newsome said:
"It the past, it seems as though [the cell phone] has been a tool that's been disruptive to the teaching and learning process, but if there's a way to turn it around to our advantage, we need to investigate."
Mobile learning used to be solely associated with online post-secondary education. As technology evolves and preconceptions are lessened, mobile education is beginning to apply to younger and younger students.
Join Mobile Future's email list to learn more about new developments and applications for mobile innovation.
Posted: 12/02/09 by Molly Kocour
Here's a
headline that caught our eye this
week:
Teachers begin using cell
phones for class lessons
According to the
AP, high schools across Florida are embracing mobile technology as
part of the learning process. As Ariana Leonard, a Spanish teacher at a public
school near Tampa put it, students' mobile phones are such
an important part of their lives that classroom use is like "giving them another
avenue to learn outside of the
classroom."
The instruction
typically centers around text messaging and use of phone's browsers.
The reason is
pretty straightforward: Among teenagers, 71 percent have cell phones, according
to a 2008 survey by the Pew Internet & American
Life Project. Importantly, that figure remains generally
constant regardless of race, income or other demographic factors.
Not that this should be
particularly surprising. Schools are increasingly embracing mobile technology
for a variety of educational and safety concerns.
Posted: 11/10/09 by Mobile Future Team
In recent years, we've grown accustomed to using our phones to make dinner reservations, buy movie tickets, find our way around town and stay connected to our friends on our favorite social networking sites.
Sending a text, downloading a new app or playing a game are ways that we use our phones everyday to improve our lives, and the U.S. State Department has taken notice. The State Department is now using this technology as a tool to promote its mission of fostering diplomacy around the globe.
A recent article on the Washington Post's Post Tech details the efforts being taken by the State Department:
In Congo, e-mails and text messages are being used to warn women and children of attacking rebels nearby. In sub-Saharan Africa, text messages are instructing people how to take HIV medications. In Iran, an online video from President Obama to Iranians on their new year went viral.
The State Department is taking the technology we use to stay connected to discourage violence, promote mobile banking and build bridges among nations. And though this is an innovative approach, they've also had help.
Ali Reza Manouchehri's company Metro Star Systems was contracted by the State Department to craft mobile phone programs to better inform citizens around the world about America.
Manouchehri said the choice of the mobile phone was only natural thanks to its ubiquity, which includes less-developed countries. Even in a poor household, a family might share a common mobile phone for family use, he said. The hope, Manouchehri says, is to form "spontaneous communities" of people having fun and learning about America, connected around the world via a cellular network.
By using simple technologies like games and text messages, Manouchehri and other creative minds are helping connect cultures and promote better understanding among nations.
Everyday our phones make our lives better - it's exciting to see how they can make our world better.
Posted: 10/27/09 by Mobile Future Team
The days of cutting class and burying bad tests at the bottom of the backpack may be over for many students in the Houston area. An article in the Houston Chronicle reports that schools are using technology to better inform parents about their children's education:
The majority of area school districts - Houston and Klein joined the ranks last month - now allow parents real-time online access to their children's grades, assignments and attendance reports. Parents can set up triggers that send e-mails or texts at the first sign of trouble.
For many parents these updates have become an invaluable tool: allowing them to stay updated on their children's education, while opening new lines of communication between parents, students and teachers. Parents are not only able to stay informed of how their children are doing, but also what they are learning - making those dinnertime "what did you learn in school today" conversations a little more productive.
Schools in Texas aren't the only ones to take advantage of wireless technology. Earlier this month a principal in Algonquin, Ill. gave his cell phone number to all 2,500 students at Jacobs High School during the morning announcements.
In his announcement, the principal asked all students and staff to text-message him anytime day or night with safety-related concerns or to report a school disruption. Some of those things could include knowledge of students with drugs, alcohol or weapons; gang-related activity; or a planned student fight on school property.
In a school where 90 percent of students send text messages, Principal Michael Bregy says the idea has helped foster a safe learning environment and let him connect with students in a way that they feel comfortable with.
Many schools and universities throughout the nation also use text messages as a way of informing students and parents of emergencies and cancellations. Texts have been used to inform parents of cancellations because of inclement weather and to give students real-time instructions in potential emergency situations.
Such messages are not only a convenience and a better way of staying informed, but also an example of how mobile technology has become a vital means of keeping students safe and improving education.
It's great to see so many schools using wireless technology to benefit students. We're excited to see what kind of innovative ideas educators will come up with next.
Posted: 02/02/09 by Mobile Future Team
Last week and continuing through the spring, Mobile Future will be hosting a series of state-based public education events designed to help educate state lawmakers, regulators and consumers about what's happening with wireless in their state. On Tuesday, February 3rd, Mobile Future will highlight how cities like Tallahassee are utilizing wireless technology to streamline services for residents. For more information on the Tallahassee, Florida panel and to see coverage of the event, check out Florida's state page on our Web site and read our chairman's op-ed in the Tallahassee Democrat.
Posted: 02/02/09 by Mobile Future Team
Last week, Mobile Future began a series of state-based public education events designed to help educate state lawmakers, regulators and consumers about what's happening with wireless in their state. The first event took place in Olympia, Washington on Thursday, January 29th. For more information on the panel and to see coverage of the event, check out Washington's state page on our Web site and read our chairman's op-ed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Posted: 12/02/08 by Hiram 'Art' Contreras
Thanks to mobile technology, personal safety on one college campus is taking a large
step forward:
Next semester, college students in Oswego will be the first in the state university system to try out a new security tool that can connect them to university police with the touch of a button on their cell phones.
In November, the State University College at Oswego unveiled the first phase of Rave Guardian. Cynthia Adam, the chief of university police at Oswego State, said the response from students has been overwhelming. "Ninety-eight percent of our students and about the same number of faculty, carry cell phones, so, for us, it made much more sense to use that technology as a personal safety device."
The new system lets students input their photo, mobile phone number and other personal information on a secure website. That information is then immediately accessible to campus police when a student speeddials into the office.
Beginning next year, SUNY hopes to expand this system to include GPS data, which would help find the emergency location.
So, is your college or university doing something similar? Drop us an email (
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) or send us a link. We're interested.
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