Handheld Learning — Handheld Safety

This week in London, several hundred people are gathered for the Third Annual HandheldLearning conference. After last year’s conference, John Galloway of The Guardian reported:

“the key element in London’s recent Handheld Learning conference was not the tools but the ethos behind them. It covered more than one technology - in fact anything you can easily carry, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPods, tablet PCs, mobile phones, and even games consoles. These are not new technologies, and the speakers weren’t saying anything they hadn’t said several times before. However, it seems the message - that these devices can fundamentally change learning - is beginning to be heard more widely.”

While possibilities and techniques for handheld learning are being explored now and in the months and years that lie ahead, Defywire is pioneering in parallel to develop a powerful potential for what could be called handheld safety.

The concluding observation can easily be paraphrased from The Guardian: Handheld safety is based on the fact that these devices can fundamentally change safety — which is something that is beginning to be heard more widely.

A fundamental reason the devices can make changes toward greater safety is that teachers and administrators can use the mobile phones that they routinely have with them to receive and send safety information more quickly and effectively than through any previous system.