McGraw-Hill is building a mobile-phone platform to teach English and college test preparation to people in India, which the publisher hopes will help it tap into rapidly expanding cellphone use in emerging markets.

The platform, mConnect, comes as textbook publishers are jockeying to supply learning materials on digital devices. If the software is successful in India, McGraw-Hill plans to offer it in other developing countries in Asia and Africa.

The service will initially teach subscribers through text messaging and automated voice response, said Bruce D. Marcus, McGraw-Hill’s executive vice president. For instance, automated software will give Indians feedback on their English-speaking abilities, and a text-message service will offer test-preparation questions and grade the responses.

A bit late to posting this or, well, anything lately.

What’s smart about this is the simplicity. Since SMS is the lowest common denominator, all students will be able to use the system regardless of device or carrier, and it can be ported to many other educational settings, schools, networks and so forth.

Of course, since it is not an “app,” is not called iConnect and doesn’t appear to have a little green robot mascot, it hasn’t garnered much attention here in the States.

The freeform writing style of social networks like Twitter and Facebook is changing the way people communicate, and causing students to fail English. That’s the claim of a piece out this afternoon from the Canadian Press. According to the article “(at) Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, one in 10 new students are not qualified to take the mandatory writing courses required for graduation.”

Which makes me think of…

Research such as this always leads me back to questions about Information Literacy and student preparedness. As technology continues to become more powerful, available and easy to use, the importance of guidance for navigating the digital world becomes elevated.

Since it is unlikely that students will simply decide not to participate in online communities moving forward, are any steps being taken to change the way writing courses are taught?

Click through this fascinating presentation on technology and education by Rodd Lucier. (@thecleversheep) Thanks to @courosa for bringing it to my attention.

With the current structure of education, there are significant hurdles preventing educators and students from capitalizing on the convergence technology is capable of providing. How students learn is evolving to include new media, while teaching methodologies are slow to adjust.

This presentation calls for change, but not for change’s sake, rather, because the possibilities of impacting millions of learners around the world are limitless.

Well done, sir!

See http://thecleversheep.com/ for more from Rodd Lucier!