This was said by Chief Executive of the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (ALTO Pg Hj Mohd Zain Pg Hj Abd Razak in his presentation titled "Mobile Connectivity - the appropriate pathway for e-Service delivery" during the Annual Asia-Pacific e-Government Conference at the Empire Hotel and Country Club yesterday.
Pg Hj Mohd Zain covered understanding the long and short costs involved in establishing mobile service delivery, applying the best technological solutions for local communities and innovative steps for introducing Mobile Learning (m-Learning) for higher education.
He mentioned that some of the current mobile e-Service in Brunei includes examination results posted via short messaging system (SMS). "Due to the overwhelming response, the service was extended fix '0', 'AS' and 'A' level examination results," he said.
The e-Service has also extends to the Higher Education Centralised Admission System (HECAS) for scholarship applications, where the service uses mobile SMS for payment deduction and user authentication. He added that while mobility may be an appropriate pathway for e-Service delivery, mobile e-Service will never replace conventional e-Service, but rather both are complementing each other.
He highlighted sonic of the challenges in implementing e-Services on mobile, which includes its susceptibility to theft, the physical features of mobile technology in terms of small screen size and limited text input, which may restrict the amount of information sent or received.
Other challenges include the high cost of new technology, compatibility and interoperability issues in terms of difficulty in adapting the mobile system with the existing e-Government, the lack of e-Services and a network infrastructure that has not fully matured to support expanding requirement.
AITI is also seeking to apply innovative steps of introducing m-Learning as a suitable method for e-Service delivery in the areas of mobile connectivity. The system is not to be confused with e-Learning, but is referred to as the method in which students are able to access information through their mobile phones. "This is when a learner can be anywhere, at anytime interfacing with their mobile devices," he said.
However, in order for the system to be a success, the learner who has access to a mobile device must also be mobile as well. "We're not talking about someone who spends most of his time at home; it is somebody who is mobile having with him or her mobile device."
He added that while the mobile device itself is an important component for learning in a mobile society or "mobile culture", relevant ministries and agencies must also work together to provide the content.
The benefits of m-Learning include accessibility from virtually anywhere, support collaboration such as content sharing, replacing books and notes with small electronic memory boards and making learning engaging and fun.
He added that using mobile devices in a classroom would enhance group collaboration, gathering information with handheld technologies at museum and galleries, learning outdoors through field trips and class management through SMS notices.
The scope of m-Learning is not limited to just mobile phones but through handheld computers as well, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), tablet PCs, camera phones and Smart phones as well as modern gaming consoles.
He elaborated that in the future, m-Learning technologies will allow location-aware learning, point-and-shoot learning with camera phones and 2D codes, near field communications (NFC) secure transactions, sensors and accelerometers in mobile devices in behavioral based learning and context-aware ubiquitous learning.
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Quelle/Source: Brunei Direct, 19.08.2009
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