Cross-cultural study of the use of mobile phones

E.A. Draffan (Univ. of Southampton, UK), Kenryu Nakamura, Mamoru Iwabuchi (Univ. of Tokyo,

Japan),Takeo Kondo, Sheryl Burgstahler (Univ. of Washington,

USA)

Statistics

Mobile phones were identified in the Horizon Report (2009)as the technologies with the highest likelihood of entry into the mainstream of learning-focused institutions within the next year. The fastest-growing sales segment belongs to smart phones (2010) http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2009/ & http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2010/

More statistics

Research• Check features on top 10 mobile phones are

similar in Europe, USA and East Asia. • Do the strategies from The Magical Pocket of

Aki-chan Project (Japan), LexDis (UK) and DO-IT program (USA) fit the features available?

• Send out questionnaire using Survey Monkey to students with disabilities age range 15-25 including those at university – 220 replies

Questions

• Age and Country • Which phone do you use? (make and number)• What difficulties do you experience?• Have your difficulties made it harder to have

the mobile phone you wanted? If so why?• What made you choose your present phone?• How often do you use these features?• Anything else you want to say about using a

mobile phone.

Top 10 Mobiles – BCN ranking, USA and UK (Sept 2010)

• Apple iPhone 4• SonyEricsson Xperia

Hitachi beskey• Kyocera K004• Panasonic P-07B• Fujitsu Rakuraku-

phone 7• SonyEricsson UB

Fujitsu F-06B• NEC N-06B• Fujitsu Rakuraku-

phone Basic II

Apple iPhone 4 HTC DesireHTC LegendGoogle Nexus OneHTC HeroApple iPhone 3GSSamsung Galaxy Europa GT-i5500Huawei IdeosMotorola Milestone XT720Samsung Galaxy Apollo GT-i5801

Apple iPhone 4 HTC Droid IncredibleHTC Evo 4GRIM BlackBerry Bold 9700Samsung Epic 4GT-Mobile G2Samsung FascinateHTC DesireSony Ericsson Xperia X10Motorola Droid 2

Type of Difficulties

If my phone could change text to reduce glare this

would be brill

Speaking instructions - hard to remember the

commands or which button sets it working. e.g phone

home

The 'large' text option on for font is

not very large!

Due to fear of getting frustrated at not

knowing a feature, I had the blackberry for

6 months in a box before I started using it a year ago. I am still

not familiar with all the features.

Difficulties in relation to the phone used.

Features

Number of times features were commented upon

ExamplesI take a picture as

reminder and open webpages to save

them as bookmarks so I can see the whole

later

Take pictures of whiteboards and other information (e.g. slides) to save

making notes

I use it to time activities...e.g. walking to the shops. Then save

this information as a spread sheet. As I massively misjudge amount of

time activities take.

I also use the camera to take pictures of

people I meet (with their permission) as I have a very very poor memory for names, so often cant find them in my phone book. The

pictures help a lot.

The fact the internet is always on hand is excellent for spelling, maps etc. I now cant imagine

how I would manage without it, as I use it several times a day.

I read PDF documents on iPhone on the way to school.

using the notes to remember things, and using the alarm more than most people.

Strategies

• Communication• Alternative for

handwriting• Alternative for Viewing • Memory Aid &

comprehension• Finding information and

vocabulary • Organisation/Time

Management

• Understanding Time• Alternative for Reading• Location• Electronic money• Visual Aid• Alternative for Writing• Alternative for Typing• Notifying Alert

Thank you The Magical Pocket of Aki-chan Project has been co-researched by the Research Centre of Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo and SoftBank Mobile Corp. (started June 2009) http://at2ed.jp/sbm/mp.pdfContact e-mail: kenryu@bfp.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp

LexDis Project – JISC Funded at University of Southampton http://www.lexdis.org.uk Contact e-mail: ead@ecs.soton.ac.uk