Genre 1, Petition
Petition for introduction of customized mobile phones
While walking around the campus the other day, I couldn’t help but notice that every student holds a mobile phone in their hands. Technology has really changed the way that the world functions, today every individual owns a mobile phone because this is the mode of communication and more importantly the mode of socializing (McGovern et al., p. 89). Students can now easily acquire learning materials and also interact with their tutors with the help of their phones. Having a customized mobile phone for every member of the Kansas University community will greatly help improve the learning experience in the school.
I recently did a survey within the campus to understand what the students and some of the staff members thought of the idea of having customized phones. Out of the twenty participants that I selected, eighteen of them embraced the idea and illustrated that it would be a very great implementation and it would greatly help improve the learning experience for the students. Smartphones are already trending in schools; almost every student has a smartphone that they use to help with the studies (“Living and Learning with Mobile Devices.” P. 51). Introduction of customized mobile phones will not be a new element; it will just be an advancement of a technology that is already in use.
Imagine the advantages that would come with having the mobile phones customized and every student receiving a school mobile phone when they are joining the campus. As is widely known one of the greatest problems that new students have when they join the campus is trying to find their way around, this will be solved by having these customized mobile phones. The mobile phone will have a map of the school which will help students to get to any part of the school without much hustle which will ensure that students get to classes in good time. The professors in various departments will have their own customized mobile phones which mean that communication between the instructors and the students will have been eased. Having the customized mobile phones means that the professors will have the records of the every student that enrolled in the class in the beginning of the semester and he or she can monitor class attendance of these students through their devices.
This will greatly help improve class attendance which is currently a great issue within higher educational institution; improved class attendance is one direction to better academic performance by the students (Groce et al., 2012). The course instructors through the use of these customized mobile phones have the chance to send the students’ course material directly to their mobile phone devices with the concepts clearly explained and the students can get to go through the materials before they go to class the next day.
Having customized mobile phones for students in campus is not something that has been implemented before but that does not mean that it cannot work. Every invention has its roots, we can be the first university to try out this and set the pace for other institutions. You can help push this debate forward. Signing this petition will help push the debate for introduction of customized mobile phones in Kansas University. This signature will greatly help to sway the policy makers within Kansas University to consider the option of customized mobile phones. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Make use of the space below to input your signature.
Genre 2, an open letter to Kansas University from members of its community
1450 Jayhawk Blvd,
Lawrence KS,
66045.
To the Administration of Kansas University,
The University of Kansas is a great institution that has constantly been growing larger with the increased demand for education. The concept of technology has greatly been embraced within the university and this can be attested by the fact that almost every student within the campus owns a mobile phone.
As members of the academic community of Kansas University, we believe that it is our moral responsibility to come up with ideas that can help improve learning experience within the school. It is for this reason that we have come up with the concept of customized mobile phones for every member of this community which will help improve the learning experience.
Customized mobile phones will reduce the issue of class attendance because it will be easier for students to locate their classes through the use of the customized school map. The professors will also have the opportunity to follow up on the class attendance of their students through the use of the coded mobile phones that will help to know the students that are in class and those that are not. This new technology will greatly help for students to easily interact with one another even when they are outside the school premises and this will help reduce cases of prejudice within the institution.
Despite the fact that customized mobile phone use is a concept that has not been tried elsewhere, this is something that can be greatly successful if given a chance. It is time that the University of Kansas diversifies its technology knowledge by initializing the new customized mobile concept that will give the students and the teaching staff better chances of interactions hence better learning outcomes.
We request that Kansas University considers this new concept of customized mobile phones for all members of KU community. We ask that the university directs its investments in this new technology to help change the concept of mobile phone use within higher educational institutions.
Yours faithfully,
Delvan Tyron,
A Student of Kansas University
Reflection
Having a mobile phone is no longer enough; get a customized mobile phone when you are at the University of Kansas. Technology has become the basis of everything the society does today. Technology has complexly taken over our lives as human beings which are for the better, though there are those who will argue otherwise. One of the greatest devices that have ever been created with the invention of technology is the mobile phone. A small gadget that has completely changed the life of the society and now people cannot survive without a mobile phone. An individual without a mobile phone is viewed to be a person who is out-dated without any knowledge of the happenings in the world. It is this fact that made me select a topic that relates to mobile phones because they are part of people’s every day endeavours.
As a student I understand how difficult it gets especially when you join a new school having no friends. The first thing that happens is that one is confused because they do not know their way around the institution and it is not always easy to ask around for directions every single time that one gets stuck in the hallways. This often leads one to miss important classes and it in the overall affects one’s academic performance. Interacting is not always for everyone either, there are people who are quick to make friends while there are others who take some time before they are able to make connections with the rest of the society. The mobile phone has changed all this making it easy for people to connect easily through the use of their phones without even having to personally meet or be at the same place with someone in order to interact and become friends.
I chose customized mobile phone topic because I understand the effects that it would bring to the school community. Having a phone that bears the name of your university with everything customized right from your name, admission number, class timetable, school map and even academic progress would greatly motivate better learning practices within an institution. This topic is perfect because it affects not only the students but also other members of staff who can get to control their work schedules right from their mobile phones. The customized mobile phone is something that can help other members of staff to understand their job roles as well as their performance rating which can motivate them to work harder to enhance education within the institution.
The intended audience for this project was the university of Kansas administration and the other members of Kansas community including the students and the staff members. Two genres were selected to suit both the audiences and they included a petition and a public letter to the administration which would help pass across the intended message to both the audiences. Students love to be part of events that affect their lives positively and this is why I chose to use a petition to inform students about this innovation and seek their help in pressing for its considerations through their signatures. A petition in this case is effective because it will help the students to feel that they are part of the project and they will pass on the information from one student to another which will help to get many signatures that will push the administration to try out this technology in the school.
A public letter was effective in this case because it would help explain to the administration the problems that the community of Kansas University faces in their day to day lives at the school. the letter will also help to explain how the implementation of the customized mobile phones would help deal with some of these issue in order to help improve the quality of learning experience within the institution. The open letter is effective because it does not limit the message on customized mobile phones to the administration; every person that is a member of Kansas University community can read the letter and understand why the implementation is important.
Introduction of customized mobile phones in Kansas University is a great idea that is both original and innovative with the fact that this is something that has not been tried out in any other institution. Its advantages are well explained and just like any invention, there are always some weaknesses to the idea which in this case is the fact that it is an invention that has not been tried elsewhere meaning that it may take some time before it becomes completely absorbed into the system. In the overall the idea of introducing customized mobile phones in Kansas University is very innovative and the genres selected to introduce the idea are very well thought out and effective.
Works cited
“Living and Learning with Mobile Devices.” Education Digest, vol. 79, no. 6, Feb. 2014, pp.
51–54. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=94360003&site=ehost-live.
Groce, C., Willis, T., Sonner, B. S., & James, W. L. (2012). Mandatory Class Attendance
Policies: Examining the Student Perspective. Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association, 129–133. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=121051503&site=ehost-live
McGovern, Enda F., et al. “Utilizing Mobile Devices to Enrich the Learning Style of
Students.” Journal of Education for Business, vol. 92, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 89–95. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=121404824&site=ehost-live.
