Reading through these very interesting comments I learn that at most a PSP can be used as a reading and training device for educational content, whether it is stored or accessed form the web. But from the educational point of view I miss the individual activity of a learner - using imagination and creativity. Can you write/visualise your own ideas directly?
The web browser with interactive web content would allow a learner to visualise their own ideas.
Learning content (aka games) would also allow this, but they would be a lot more difficult to write.
But the student could always use pen and paper to help them visualise their ideas based on the content on the PSP.
A simple scenario, watch a video clip on your PSP, then write a poem or a short story on how the video clip made you feel.
A PSP can be used to support a learning experience, not provide the total experience.
Even if there are sound educational benefits, would students accept that their personal gaming device is used for "real" learning? Probably it is nessessary to think about the integration of so called gaming technology because authorities are not prepared to provide students with personal devices - whether they are notebooks, PDAs or future developments.
I don't think the PSP is an educational device, however you hit the nail on the head, these are devices which students have and are not ones which we provide. We certaionly should be seeing how we can take advantage of this kind of device.
I quite like the aspect of the blurring of leisure and learning through the same device as the learner will see learning as something integral to their life and not as something separate.
But gaming technologies vary so much that it is unrealistic to assume that all classmates will have the same. How can a teacher manage a bunch of different devices with varying operating systems?
Most portable devices will *play* the same content.
If you had a PowerPoint presentation and delivered it to your students.
Some would be able to use it as they had a computer with Microsoft Office installed.
Some would be abel to use it as they had a PDA which could convert PowerPoint into a portable format.
However if you saved the presentation as a series of JPGs then users who had
no access would then be able to view the slides on a variety of devices, including their mobile phones, iPods, PSPs, PVRs, even digital cameras as well as PDAs and PCs. Even some TV devices have memory slots allowing you to play digital images on the television.
Most devices have a common set of file formats which they can play, and I would recommend using these where possible.
I use Keynote on the Mac and this allows me to save the presentation as a Quicktime Movie which can then be saved or conveted quickly and easily into various formats for use on multiple devices. PowerPoint for the Mac can do the same thing.
Content on portable devices is not perfect, but compared to having no content, having some content must be better than that.
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