Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

As we approach BETT it is fascinating to note the rapid convergence of interest between Learning Platforms and handhelds.  The reason is that thousands of schools are just now implementing their first VLEs, and they looking for content. This must then support the wide range of devices that students have, including web capable games machines, webbooks, phones etc. 

SUMS has had to develop quickly "disaggregated SCORM 2004" versions of all of our 90+ games. That is, the content is still designed for the small screen but delivered via the VLE. There are eight free samples at www.sums.co.uk/scorm.htm for those with a VLE to play on. For those unfamiliar with SCORM and Learning Platforms, disaggregated means that each activity is in its own pack. That allows it to be easily integrated by the teacher into whatever lesson content they have already available to them. We have schools using StudyWiz, Fronter, Moodle, Kaleidos and many others.

Please do come and see us on stand SW88 at BETT (software village). We will have the usual demos of Sony PSPs, ASUS eeePCs, and Windows Mobile Devices, as well as lots of free evaluation software.

Best wishes,

David

SUMS Online Ltd
david@sums.co.uk
www.sums.co.uk

Well done to you and the team, Dave. Personally I didn't read anything about the HHL Awards into your post when I first read it, and I am sure that you meant nothing amiss, so I am not sure why you got the reactions above.

Best wishes,

David
SUMS Online
http://www.sums.co.uk

Hi all,

SUMS has created a free online resource for teachers wishing to encourage practice of times tables. It also provides assessments for single tables or for all tables mixed.

The website is:
http://www.learnyourtables.co.uk

Both the assessments and the practice tasks are designed to be suitable for desktops but also most web enabled small screen devices. We will be adding it to our standard set of 90+ maths games but thought it was so useful it should be freely available on the web. Enjoy.

Best wishes

David
01454 853539
david@sums.co.uk
http://www.sums.co.uk

Hi,

Last night SUMS Online got the award (and £500) at the NASEN Awards ceremony. The judges said SUMS Maths had immediate pupil appeal and wider inclusive implications. Another great recognition of the role of games consoles (and in particular the PSP) in education.

Best wishes

David
http://www.sums.co.uk

Hi Graham,

I think that the high quality of the finalists you list proves that your initiative to start the HHL awards has worked. I hope that we can somehow encourage them to start to post here about what they do. I know that they are busy people, as all teachers and educationalists are, but their growing experience needs to be captured so that the awards have a legacy.

Best wishes,

David
david@sums.co.uk

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the link to the report. It was great to meet up and chat with you at SETT, and to see the enthusiasm of the teachers who have been involved in your project. It has really shown them the power of handheld devices, making them far more responsive to the whole idea of giving each pupil a device, whatever that ends up being. In the medium and long term, as a direct result of your work, there will be far more pupils in Scotland doing meaningful things with handhelds, be that the DS, the SONY PSP (SUMS Maths was showing on the Sony stand at SETT), or laptops/mini-laptops. I did notice that there was very little interest in or knowledge of Windows Mobile devices among stand visitors, though Wildkey tell me that they saw more on their stand.

Best wishes and well done,

David
http://www.sums.co.uk

Hi Graham,

Thanks for a very detailed answer. For what it is worth, it seems to me that, at the moment, all devices used in schools are either imperfect, or too expensive, or both. That means that we can either have small but perfect projects or larger imperfect implementations.

For example, all children may have mobile phones - but try fitting the curriculum meaningfully onto some of those smaller screens. Some Win Mob PDA type projects are very successful, but the annual refinancing for each subsequent round is a major issue.  The jury is out on the ASUS eeePC as yet as many projects are in their early days. I don't see why they shouldn't make as much as a contribution to the learning curve as anything else though, imperfect though they may be.

Cheers

David

Graham,

Excellent link, but are you really so down on the eeePC as your choice of phrase makes you appear? There still seem to more schools making use of them to provide a 'device per child' than anything else around at the moment.  Are they excluded as 'handheld learners'?

David
http://www.sums.co.uk

Time to start pushing for inclusion on the PM's resignation honour list as well . A knighthood at the very least.

Well done Dave.

Derek,

Absolutely. I am in total agreement with you. Dr K should not be compared to SUMS Maths because they do totally different things - very much the point of my original post in response to Graham.

You said that if SUMS can create similar motivation, then great.  I'd like to think so, so if I may quote from the most recent Wolverhampton report by Dave Perry, available from the www.learning2go.org website.



Anyway, I agree with Graham that it is time to let the thread revert to its original track.  The general debate about games consoles and software v. other handhelds will I'm sure continue elsewhere, not least at HHL08.

Best wishes,

David

Hi Graham,

Poppycock? Snobbery? Did I hit a nerve somewhere?   

My original statement was:



Now Derek himself has joined the thread, but even he says that:



which is precisely what I credited it with in my original post.

You challenged me whether I had actually used the titles Graham. The answer is yes, I have access to and have played all three - and refreshed that knowledge last night. In terms of maths you'll find little beyond mental arithmetic and tables -
though it is put together very cleverly.

For example, Prof Kageyama's Maths Training is centred on a traditional pencil and paper exercise for getting practice at times tables. You put the numbers 1 to 10 across the top and down the side of a 100 square box, and then work out, as quickly as possible, all of the multiplication sums, putting the answers into the squares.

Derek, Yes, of course, what you are doing creates tremendous motivation. You'll also find tremendous motivation in the many many schools using PDAs, Windows Mobile Phones, the RM Minibook/ASUS eeePC, Sony PSPs, and other, non gaming software. It is a great thing, and it is good that different areas champion different approaches.

Answer me this though Derek. Does Brain Training etc provide extensive maths curriculum coverage?  How does it compare with SUMS Maths in that regard? Sorry to drag you back to the nitty-gritty, but I commented on Brain Training as a maths teaching tool - not on your complete project in Scotland for which I have a lot of admiration.

Best wishes,

David

http://www.sums.co.uk
david@sums.co.uk

Hi Graham,

Just an aside from the main post, but as Al has been kind enough to mention SUMS Online's success in the handheld sphere I have to comment on your point below:



You really shouldn't be confusing serious educational content, like SUMS, with consumer electronic games like Brain Training.  Excellent though I assume that is, from the work going on in Scotland, it remains exactly what it says on the box - good training for mental arithmetic. SUMS Maths on the other hand tackles complex and challenging maths topics like probability, graphs and charts, using a Protractor, plotting in four quadrants, special quadrilaterals etc etc and will soon move on to Quadratic Equations and other advanced content.   

Sorry to be prickly, but to those of us involved it is important to point out the difference - fast food v a proper meal  . Both have their place. 

Best wishes,

David

http://www.sums.co.uk
david@sums.co.uk

Hi Graham,

I just came across the original article on the trainingzone.co.uk website and your response. Though I agreed with most of it I was, at the least, surprised by your statement;

"Who needs the One Laptop Per Child when you can get more power in a Nintendo DS?"

I know that you are a Nintendo fan, and working with them on software development, so you know more than I do about it. Nevertheless, are you really suggesting that the end game of what we are all working towards in schools is a DS per child, and Nintendogs and Brain Training etc - great though I'm sure that is.

Personally I would have thought that the hundreds of schools with pupil device projects and tens of thousands of Windows Mobile devices, ASUS eeePCs and Sony PSPs being implemented this year are more significant in the future of mLearning.

Anyway, I just received my HHL08 supplied DS today, so I'm hoping to find out more about its powers.

Regards

David
david@sums.co.uk
http://www.sums.co.uk

Hi All,

I'm delighted to report that SUMS Maths has been shortlisted for the NASEN (Special Needs) ICT Accessibility Award. 

The shortlisting recognises the power of serious curriculum maths in a games format on handheld and other pupil devices. The judges themselves took particular interest in, and played with, SUMS Maths on the Sony PSP. The availability of SUMS Maths on Windows Mobile devices, the ASUS eeePC, and the Nintendo Wii also formed part of the entry however.

Lets hope that more judges emerge in mainstream awards who are prepared to look at handheld based products.

Regards

David
david@sums.co.uk
http://www.sums.co.uk
+44 1454 853539

Jon,

You are right.  We soon realised that power was going to be critical. If you visit www.goeducation.co.uk you'll see that we now offer Power Monkeys, Power Spiders, Power Gorillas, Power Trolleys etc etc - in short, a lot of power devices, many with a single power source in and multiple out.

In answer to your other points, most schools are keeping the ASUS eeePC default Linux. See the EduGeek link at the end of the main page of our ASUS website for useful configuration information http://www.eeeeducation.com.

Applications they are using on the eeePC are:
* OpenOffice
* Web based applications
* Learning platform based applications
* Webcam and multimedia
* eBooks
* Skype
* SUMS Maths and/or Phonics

Sorry to push our content, but the fact is we are the main early availability software that works cross-platform and can be locally installed, not just web based - critical for use in all of those places without web access.

David

David McAll
MD
SUMS Online Ltd
david@sums.co.uk
www.sums.co.uk
01454 853539
mob 0777 645 1967