[Short title: Educational Cell Phone Uses in the Philippines and Mongolia] Uses of the Cell phone for Education in the Philippines and Mongolia Felix Librero a , Angelo Ramos b , Adelina I. Ranga c , Jerome Triñona b , and David Lambert e a University of the Philippines Open University, Los Baños; b Molave Development Foundation Inc., Manila; c Division of City Schools, Manila; d English for Special Purposes Foundation, Mongolia The cell phone, now the most widely used medium in Asia, has major educational implications. Most users, however, do not realize the cell phone’s potential for education, nor even for the communication functions for which it was originally designed. Most educators still see the computer and the cell phone as unrelated devices, and the tiny cell phone more as a personal accessory, especially for young people. With falling prices and increasing functionality, however, it is virtually certain that not too far in the future all of the world’s students will have a cell phone. This is sufficient reason and motivation for educators to explore the possibility of making the cell phone an important tool in the educational systems of developed and developing countries. This article describes the experience of two major projects that are studying the potential of cell phone and short message service (SMS) techniques for formal and nonformal education in the Philippines and Mongolia. The studies have yielded positive reactions from students and trainees about the potential of these techniques, and are suggesting design and logistical principles for use in educational cell phone implementation. Introduction One and a half billion people are walking around with powerful computers in their pockets and purses: cell phones providing the primary means of social communication (Table 1). Today's high-end cell phones have the computing power of a mid-1990s personal computer, while consuming only one one-hundredth of the energy. The cell phone feature known as “texting”— sending and receiving messages via the short message services (SMS) feature on cell phones and Smartphones (PDA and cell phone hybrid)—has become a worldwide phenomenon. -------------------------------- TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE -------------------------------- During the five years since the educational use of cell phones first became a talking point, discussion of mobile learning (m-learning) via telephony has shifted from theoretical issues to  Corresponding author. Molave Development Foundation Inc., Manila, the Philippines. Email: ajoramos@molave.org