The Briefcase is Dead...long live the Blackberry

If it makes financial sense, it'll be adopted in the business world...which is why more and more employers are mobilising their workforce. Mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, Blackberrys and other devices are changing the way in which we work, communicate and learn. And businesses everywhere are interested the knock-on effects of a mobilised workforce: more effective working hours and greater team efficiency.

A study by Ipsos Reid found that:

- Blackberry users produce an extra 56 minutes of effective work a day (that's an extra 196 working hours a year)
- work teams with mobile communications found themselves to be 29% more effective

So what about use of mobile phones in education? Well, not all educationalists view mobile phones as a great learning opportunity, with mobile phones being lambasted as Offensive Weapons that should be banned from the classroom.

But there are some interesting things happening. In the ALPS project, 900 students in the north of England are using T-Mobile MDA Varios for mobile learning and assessments during work placements. Using T-Mobile’s Web’n’walk service, students can access learning resources from a central virtual learning repository and blog their work experience as part of their assessment. And this project will roll out to 9,000 students in the next three years.