Here are a couple of questions for education that the iPhone poses: How might the use of converged devices in and outside the classroom bolster interdisciplinary collaboration? How does digital collaboration through converged devices influence collegiality, educational opportunity, and student engagement?

According to Gartner, devices like the iPhone that bundle real-time and asynchronous features are especially effective in facilitating collaboration because they more accurately reflect a real work environment. Gartner suggests that in the business world, people typically meet “face to face or via messaging and conference tools to set goals, inform each other, establish a schedule and assign tasks; then, they work by themselves within a set of portals, forms and documents established for the collaboration.” This is obviously also a familiar pattern in higher education…

Devices that bundle synchronous and asynchronous features could become invaluable components for effective collaboration in the academy because they offer both immediate and persistent communication. For example, an IM communication might be translated into a persistent discussion thread so that class members could use it for reference or comment later on, or perhaps an audioconference could be transformed into a podcast so that others could share it and build on its ideas over time.

Though it’ll take a while to figure it all out, we’re wondering how having all of this stuff in one little package—media, voice, email, SMS, the web— will contribute to interdisciplinary collaboration between and among students and faculty. How will it transform the way teachers teach and how students learn? We’re eager to see…