Yes cell phones are still overwhelmingly used to avoid learning, but this new mobile phone software  is exciting for anyone with children who have learning disabilities- or if you yourself have one. Assistive technologies have been used in PCs and laptops with success for years, new software developments have now brought them to cell phones. Iansyst, a UK company that has been a leader in assistive technology develpment since the early 80s, created the software program CapturaTalk and are releasing a new version of it soon. The mobile phone software converts text to speech from a digital photo taken on the phone. Great for dyslexics, or for other learners with difficulties.  And it frees up students who can now use the technology anywhere, not having to be confined to a classroom or lab.  Having fully indexed the the Concise Oxford English Dictionary the software enables students to read something on the phone while having it highlight the words as they  are  reading them, reinforcing word recognition.

Cell phones are also being increasingly used outside of North America and Europe for education and much more. They’ve become an economic engine of growth for small businesses in Africa. Africa has in fact been the fastest growing market for cell phone use in the world for several years running. They’ve also been adopted as an educational tool in India as well as in Africa and combined with rising broad band internet connectivity in the regions, constitute the ingredients for massive transformations of rural areas that will see exponential gains in productivity and quality of life from better education and access to funds.

This is at least the hope of economist Jeffrey Sachs who believes that development assistance to Africa should be drastically increased and who believes that narrowing the digital divide will help to facilitate this aid and development in general; particularly in Africa. Having connectivity and mobile access to digital collections of learning tools and libraries will revolutionize the African educational system it is believed. With increasing connectivity and increasing cell use Africa is now beginning to prove itself a major market for application software that meets its needs. And with app developers potentially running out of good ideas for the north American market there may in fact be an untapped goldmine in educational apps and other apps of benefit to African consumers and mobile users as they continue to grow and transform their social norms and behavior around this technology. Hmmmmmm…I know some guys who develop software in Vancouver.