1.27: Discussion- Computers vs. Smartphones

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Many tasks that used to be accomplished by using a desktop or laptop computer are now possible to do on smartphones. The newest smartphone models for example, have the computing power of workstations from a few years ago. Although smartphones are getting faster, smarter and are increasing number of useful applications, many businesses are slow to utilize these new features. Let’s explore some of the pros and cons of using a smartphone as the main productive technology source.

Watch this video about a student’s experiment from 2018 to use his smartphone exclusively for five days as his computer. After watching the video consider a few questions to discuss.

A link to an interactive elements can be found at the bottom of this page.

You can also view the transcript for the video “I Tried Making a Phone My Only Computer” here (opens in new window).

Discussion Questions

Are there good reasons for businesses to still use computers to accomplish tasks instead of smartphones? What are they?
Do you think the future office environment will eliminate computers use in favor of smartphones?
What skills from using smartphones can be transferred to a work environment?

Share your opinions below and respond to two of your classmates’ thoughts.

Contributors and Attributions

Discussion: Computers vs. Smartphones. Authored by: Sherri Pendleton. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution

I Tried Making a Phone My Only Computer -- Experiments Ep. 3. Authored by: Ho Young Won. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE-t30Zo7q4. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube License