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Industry News

 

TXT Learning Offers Quick Education on Cell Phones

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Columbia, S.C.
Watch out Facebook and MySpace, there’s a new online community in town. It’s called TXT Learning, and it doesn’t require users to post photos, write on a wall or find a guy (or gal). Instead, students sign up for brain candy. And they’re getting it — on their cell phones.
 
Users also connect with like-minded kids who have a similar bent toward the trivia concept on which TXT Learning is built. TXTlearning.com offers interactive quizzes, games, poll questions and trivia that cover math, history English, science, Spanish and college prep. When a student signs up for the free service, questions (provided by the National Education Association) are sent to a cell phone, and answers are retrieved through e-mail.
 
“We’ve created mini cell phone lessons for kids,” said founder Britt White. “We believe students learn wherever they are — whether it’s on the bus, in their room or when they’re with friends. Most teens have a cell phone these days, and if we can generate enough interest in this country, hopefully students all over the world can eventually dial up lessons on their cell phone through text messaging, whether it’s in an Oklahoma classroom or on a bullet train in Japan.”
 
In fact, 10 million kids have access to mobile devises. And various indicators not specific to the texting trend show an entirely different future as it involves the dissemination of information. Consider cell phones verses landlines. In 2007, a Centers for Disease Control survey found 18 percent of U.S. households don't have a landline. If you carve out a younger sample of those homeowners who don’t have a landline, the numbers are greater: 34.5 percent of adults ages 25 to 29 live in wireless-only households.

In an article written for The Wall Street Journal, Jason Fry considered what life would be like when everyone dropped landlines and there was no phone book or white pages to find someone. His conclusion? No one wants a directory and no one needs one.
 
“[People] are reachable in other ways: through their homepages, blogs, MySpace and Facebook outposts and, of course, through their e-mail,” Fry wrote. “Twenty years ago, the telephone was the only practical way of reaching someone.”
 
If you work from the premise that our culture is experiencing a complete communication overhaul, how does that apply when considering the tools needed to grab a kid’s attention?
 
“We believe we can impact the way kids learn by piping the intellectual goods to a place where kids might be,” said White. “For instance, hanging out in a virtual community or somewhere between here and there, plugged in with mobile phones.
 
Granted, White says TXT Learning doesn’t replace traditional education.
 
“We consider it a tool to assist the learning process. Our goal is to use technology students are plugged into and combine it with educational resources to meet kids where they are — on their laptop, the Internet or on the phone.”

Suzy Ellison, CEO, explains another dynamic of TXT Learning’s appeal: trivia’s contagious nature. “TXT Learning users will likely bounce text questions to a friend or parent, creating a mobile conversation. For instance, say the question is ‘Where is Mount Rushmore?’ People who correctly guessed ‘South Dakota’ will want others to know they know. Those who don’t know the answer, pose the question to someone else, and forward the trivia again. Before long, an engaging side note is created that stimulates an otherwise routine day.”

For more info: http://txtlearning.com

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