Escape from the computer lab: education in mobile wireless networks

As mobile wireless network technology becomes widespread, the importance of education about this new form of communication is becoming critical. One of the benefits of mobile computing education is that courses focusing on this topic can leverage advances in wireless technology to support novel education and learning paradigms. In particular, the development of wireless communication, together with portable devices, allows the freedom of both mobility and creativity in curriculum and assignments. We describe two recently designed mobile computing courses at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on the methodologies for incorporating handheld computing devices into the course assignments. Course evaluations have shown that the use of mobile computing devices has been well-received by the students in both of these courses, and we encourage their incorporation into similar courses.