Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Now London has dropped to -11C and the water pipes of chez Brown-Martin have frozen I was hoping that Apple would have announced a version of the iPhone that allowed interaction with the touchscreen using gloves...

Brrrrr...

 

I did find these however:



http://www.thenorthface.com/catalog/tnf-catalog-master/etip-glove.html?parent_category_rn=

It appears that 2008 marked a significant shift in the smartphone sector where Apple has dominated the emerging consumer market and BlackBerry has continued its dominance of the business world squeezing Microsoft whilst leaving Symbian being the OS of choice for most regular mobile phones, i.e. the most popular.

An interesting article on ChangeWave cites research that concludes:



Full article here

Whilst much of the UK educational tech people look towards the BETT show this month  the rest of the world's consumer electronics industry look towards the CES show in Las Vegas.

This year Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's boss, takes over the keynote slot from Bill Gates with inevitable speculation about what Microsoft will be announcing regarding their mobile strategy which has come under heavy assault from Google, Research in Motion, Apple and, of course, Symbian.

An interesting point made in the following article is that a trend emerged during 2008 of the smart phone moving from the office to the home catching MIcrosoft by surprise.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/158347.asp?source=mypi

This could have an impact on the educational world as younger people are now expecting smart phone like capaibilities in everything from their iPhones to their Nintendo DSi's and Sony PSP's.


Stave Ballmer's keynote on Jan 7th, 6:30 PM PST:

https://www.microsoft.com/ces/

This is an interesting development from the boys over at VentureBeat / Mobile-facts who spent their holidays compiling Android to run on an Asus EEE PC (don't you just love geeks?).

In the process of doing so they discovered all sorts of code documentation and what not that showed that whilst Google's Android operating system has been made available for mobile handsets it has also always been intended to operate on a wider range of hardware systems including NetBooks.

The potential here is for an open source operating system with applications, supported by advertising, that could work seamlessly across mobile, NetBook and other systems. Given that it's relatively easy to install alternative operating systems on everything from iPods to PS3 you can expect to see Android popping up all over.

Full story here:
http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/01/android-netbooks-on-their-way-likely-by-2010/

Registered members of the Handheld Learning Community can now use their same log-in details to access and post on the GBL Community site.

We're also working on a single log-in system so you won't need to repeat log-in once inside the community "hub"

Keep checking in from w/c 5th Jan for news about the 1st GBL Conference on March 19th - 20th - surprises guaranteed!

 

I've also been waiting for such a device that fits somewhere between my iPhone and 17" MacBook Pro particularly for when I'm travelling, giving talks, etc.

My MacBook is great and packs a lot of power and screen space which I find useful for digital content creation, web work, running my email over multiple screens etc. but on the downside it weighs a lot and isn't great to get out on a train or plane.

I've been tempted by the MacBook Air but the cost and lack of stuff made it not a big enough leap in my imagination to justify switching from the Pro. So a "MacBook Touch" might be just the thing and with a release date to match the next Handheld Learning Conference might be just the ticket

Congrats go to former London schools tsar and all round "good egg" Tim Brighouse for receiving a well-earned Knighthood in the Queens New Years Honours List.



I've always found Tim to be a charismatic and visionary fellow with an inspirational passion for learning so it's great to see his work recognised in this way.

For an interview with Tim see this clip here on Teachers.TV

http://www.teachers.tv/video/4925

The complete New Years Honours list can be viewed here:
http://www.honours.gov.uk/lists/2009honours.aspx

An article in the Guardian including a list of other education professionals honoured in the 2009 gong-fest may be found here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/dec/30/new-years-honours-education

For those outside the UK trying to figure out what the British honours systems is all about try:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_honours_system

 

Live television streaming is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch courtesy of Livestation:

<a href="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2435754&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=01AAEA" target="_blank">http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2435754&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;fullscreen=1&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=01AAEA</a>

More info at:
http://www.livestation.com/iphone

Microsoft have now released a mobile version of their incredible Seadragon giga-pixel image viewer (the desktop version was demo'd by Microsoft at Handheld Learning 2007) for iPhone which can be downloaded for free from the App Store.


According to reports this is the first of a number of applications that Microsoft plan to make available for the iPhone.

Seadragon comes out of Microsoft's Live Lab where their group product manager says that "the iPhone was the obvious mobile choice for Seadragon" because "The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a (graphics processing unit)," said Mr Daley.
"Most phones out today don't have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do."

Additional reporting at:

http://livelabs.com/blog/seadragon-goes-mobile/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7784084.stm
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10122751-37.html

As oft quoted, I've yet to hear anybody under the age of 16 complain about the screen size of their PSP, DS, iPod or mobile phone!

I do see a lot of poorly designed software from developers and publishers locked in a 20th century mindset where they expect a one size fits all and access from a single device mentality.

Reality check: it's not about 1:1 access anymore. It's not even about mobile.

People will and are accessing their digital materials using a variety of devices from a digital storage cloud. This could be a phone or a 50" HD TV with a PS3 and everything in between.

You'll find this site for examples scales on all W3C compliant browsers so can be used on a iPhone, Nintendo Wii, laptop, HD-TV, etc, i.e. wherever is convenient for the user.

Blame our web guru, Marcin, he's a genius 

LOL!!!

naughty, naughty 

I would argue that this is excellent practice and should be encouraged. Learning happens in both formal and informal environments not simply within a physical building with somebody dictating what should be learnt and when. Mobile technology and learner mobility is intended to enable uncontrolled learning with a structure defined by the learner (s), e.g. social constructivism.


Do you think that a 21st century skill for learners might be an ability to compare, filter and interpret information from sources such as the Internet? After all we teach children at a young age how to cross the road...

I also wonder whether young learners have greater skills in this area than many of their teachers?


Out of interest, why would you believe that talented teachers require a VLE?

Young learners are already creating blogs, podcasts, social pages etc. Perhaps teachers could interface with these rather than learners having to travel back in time to view primitive pages from VLE systems?

Hi Leeg

As long as you save documents in Microsoft's version of open XML then you should be fine sharing docs between your Windows PC's and WinMob 6.1 devices.

See here for more info.

Just make sure that your devices come supplied with Windows Office Mobile!

In regards to your choice of device this very much depends on the objectives of using the technology, i.e. what outcomes you are seeking. You'll naturally need to consider what level of support will be available to teaching staff and how these devices may be embedded within learning and teaching practice.

If you're wanting to engage kids on their terms have you considered asking them what they'd prefer?

Cheers

G

Well caught James and also well interpreted. I've just returned from speaking at the GoMobile Expo in Malaysia where it's clear that mobile broadband / Internet has taken the lead over wired practically before wired even past go.

For me this demonstrates that access whether it be for social, entertainment or learning is by nature a personal (sometimes shared), mobile experience often requiring a personal device/communicator. As you've said this indicates a future where citizens will expect to have skills associated with finding, using and engaging with information on the move. As oft said this seems at odds with the current thinking on UK home access which still geared around 20th century shared laptop running "office" applications in the home.

 

Hi Leeg and welcome to the forum!

In answer to your questions here and in your other posts. You should speak to the public sector accounts teams of the major mobile operators, e.g. O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone, 3, etc that have good 3G data coverage in your area.

If you're concerned about voice calls you should be able to contract with there operators for data only contracts thus avoiding voice call charges. Some of these contracts do allow a "pay as you go" voice option that allow the student to use the phones for talking also. Subject to your requirements you might also want to consider other technologies such as Sony PSP which have excellent web browsing capability over wireless and are significantly cheaper than mobile phone based devices. You may also find that many of your students already own one!

Be aware of some of the restrictions that have been put on mobile internet devices to limit access to various internet sites. To prevent access to adult material the filters are still quite primitive and are causing a lot of upset amongst students who can't access their favourite non-adult sites. Annoying if they or their parents are paying for it.

There are many devices available and you should decide what you want them for and test a few models with the help and input of your students.

Be aware that if you're using all the devices in school at the same time it is likely that the 3G connections will not keep up as cell antenna's have limited capacity so your devices will need to use the school wi-fi which can also be a challenge and may require a substantial upgrade in infrastructure and bandwidth.

Last but certainly not least is determining how these devices will be embedded within teaching practice and what support will be provided to your teachers.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.