Handheld Learning Forum

In relation to the article here:

http://www.handheldlearning.co.uk/content/view/43/2/

Please join in and post your forecasts for learning, policy and technology for the coming year.

It's just a bit of fun and who knows what it might look like this time next year?

 :)

ok, while we're waiting for members to grasp the nettle and add their thoughts to what we might see in 2008 here's a column from Tim Bajarin in PC Mag. Tim is historically a bit of Mac head and I've paid attention to his columns for a few years now:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2241562,00.asp

The UK's telegraph newspaper is predicting the death of the desktop user interface (something that members of this forum have been suggesting for a while now):

http://tinyurl.com/2j7oct

The Inquirer predicts the death of the iPod:

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/12/28/top-predictions-2008

If you find any similar columns of interest with forecasts for the year ahead please post here!

 :)

Here are a couple of interesting ones I've run across lately:

Rudi de Waele's Mobile and wireless trends for 2008: http://www.m-trends.org/2008/01/mobile-and-wireless-trends-for-2008.html

Chetan Sharma's Mobile industry predictions for 2008: http://www.chetansharma.com/blog/2008/01/01/mobile-industry-predictions-2008/ (note question #11 in their survey: "Will Palm survive 2008?"

Jim Durbin asks: Will there be a mobile web? http://www.situationalmarketing.com/my_weblog/2007/12/will-there-be-a.html

Andrew Grill wonders if the 3G mobile broadband dongle will kill the wifi hotspot market: http://blog.andrewgrill.com/blog/_archives/2008/1/9/3442195.html

I'll post them as I see them.

As far as my own predictions go, haven't thought about it much yet, but I figure that we'll see

• **attempts to compete with the iPhone, especially if Google's Android and the Open Handset Alliance take off
• **some serious developments in the mobile web beyond cramming the Internet onto a mobile device (a la Jim Durbin's post), e.g. mobile social networking
• **increasing prominence of the UMPC form factor
• **content that is increasingly device agnostic

Mark

This is going to sound negative, its not meant to....

There will be a more conscious realization that new technologies throw up ideas and applications for older technologies that would not have been thought of were it not for the new technologies.... Following on from that

It will be found that a number of applications/activities for mobile devices that have been found in education will work even better using old technologies (here I mean  things likes paper,pens, pencils ).

However no-one would have considered doing these with the old 'technologies' the first place.

;-)

Jon

Have you been filling in European grant applications again?

 ;D

Errrrr no, have I just found a bandwaggon?

Bill Thompson wonders the same kind of thing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7200451.stm