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Surfing on a Small Screen

The following article was contributed by a member of ISTE's SIG for handheld computing (SIGHC). We're hoping to make member-shared best practices a regular part of SIG News. If you have an idea for a member tip or resource for a future issues of SIG News, please send an email to ksvoboda@iste.org.

Mike Curtis
MobileTechnovations, Eaton Rapids, MI
mike@mobiletechnovations.com

Surfing the Web on a wireless handheld or Smartphone is a very different experience than surfing using a desktop or laptop computer. It’s slower, has reduced range, some plug-ins may not be available, and obviously the screen is smaller.

Yet go into a classroom using wireless handhelds, and students will likely approach their Web research in the same manner as if they were in a computer lab. eSchool News shared results from a recent ETS poll (http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6725) and they support what you likely have already witnessed. Most kids go to Google, type in a vague search word, and click on the first hit. Helping students develop good searching and evaluation skills is important no matter what method one is using. However, poor searching skills when using a handheld device will greatly compound the consequences.

This piece does not attempt to teach global searching and evaluation skills—instead, we focus on a few simple strategies and techniques that will dramatically improve one’s Web-browsing experiences on a mobile, wireless device. For more detailed information, please listen to Soft Reset podcast #17, Mobile Internet: http://learninginhand.com/softreset/17.html

Realistically, it’s unlikely that a school will buy a browser for students when there’s a free one included on the device. No problem. The following tips will drastically improve one’s surfing experience.

Mike’s Tips for Surfing on a Small Screen:

1. Bookmark http://www.wapipedia.org. This is sort of like the handheld-version of Wikipedia. True, any human being can modify this huge collection of shared information, but Wapipedia provides a good opportunity to teach students about evaluating content, and every hit will be small-screen friendly. For a comparison type “Abe Lincoln” into Google and take the first hit. Next, type “Abe Lincoln” into Wapipedia. Note that in Wapipedia, keywords are linkable. This means that students can cruise through content without going back out and “re-Google-ing.”
   
2. Bookmark http://mobile.answers.com. This version of Answers.com is very similar to Wapipedia and a good place to search because it categorizes content.
   
3. Instead of going to Google.com, go to http://www.google.com/xhtml. This is a really cool beta project you should check out, as it reformats web pages for small screens. This means that you have access to everything on the Web, but the heavy lifting is being done by Google and not by your overworked mobile device. Some pages can look a little strange, but it’s generally much better than searching the “normal” Google.
   
4. Add two words in addition to your search words. “Printer friendly” and “text-only” are good examples. If Google is returning 1.7 million hits, this might reduce it to 450,000. Not perfect, but it will increase the odds that when the student clicks a link they will be taken to a handheld-friendly site.
   
5. Fall in love with http://tinyurl.com. There is only one thing worse than writing a big, messy URL on the board for students to copy onto their laptops, and that is if they have to enter it into a handheld. On your computer, paste the URL you want the students to go to into TinyURL. For no cost, it will permanently convert your messy, long URL into a short combination of 6 letters and numbers. All students should bookmark is “http://tinyurl.com/” and simply get into the habit of entering the 6 characters after the slash.
   
6. Make a Filamentality at www.filamentality.com/wired/fil. Once you create a free account you’ll be able to make a simple Web Portal of sorts. You list sites you want students to go to, and if you wish, you can write directions, etc. You’ll have your own Web site in minutes. The URL will be messy, but if you were paying attention when reading #5 you know you can use TinyURL! Students go to one site with a listing of all the resources you want them to have access to.

To learn more about SIGHC, please visit www.iste.org/sighc/. To join SIGHC, please call ISTE Member Services at 1.800.336.5191. If you are already a member of SIGHC, look for more great member tips in the upcoming SIGHC Newsletter.