Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

No

I am presenting at the JISC Innovation e-Learning Conference at the end of this month on the WCC plans for mobile learning.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_conference06_programme

James Clay
WCC Director

The video I have <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/mHgkZ-yIQfM&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/mHgkZ-yIQfM&rel=0</a> certainly makes it an interesting looking product, especially when you consider that the video is over a year old.

There certainly is potential for its use as a learning device.

Some mockups I have seen do include a keyboard.

Oh to be with another company perhaps... 

My experiences with a different company were similar.

What I did discover is that the mobile phone company who provides the network is not in fact the company who supplies you with the mobile phone service, even if they have the same name.

Carphonewarehouse Vodafone for example is not the same as Vodafone.co.uk Vodafone.

Interestingly the next release of the PSP may come with 8GB of onboard storage...



link

This gives it even more potential to be a device for learning in terms of how much content it can hold.

My HP hx4700 came with a screen protector built in.

However I find it more annoying than useful when actually using the PDA (though you can remove it), but I have to say that I rarely put it in its leather wallet because of the screen protector.

...and

and....

Macrumors has published details of an Apple job

Apple Handwriting Recognition team is seeking an engineer who will be responsible for advancing gesture and handwriting recognition on Mac OS X. The ideal candidate will be an expert in the area of pattern recognition, with an excellent understanding of handwriting recognition issues.

This means (according to Macrumors) that Apple are getting serious about a gesture and handwriting interface.

This could be a new MacTablet or a better interface for the possible video iPod, making it more PDA like.

Think Secret has published a rumour that Apple will release a full screen Video iPod

This is certainly more an Apple PDA than previous incarnations of the iPod. A touchscreen certainly makes it more useful.

Of course this is a rumour and not a fact.

Doesn't surprise me in the least.

It takes a lot to beat the established companies in a competitive field as portable gaming.

What specific concerns does he have?

One problem with Windows laptops is the possibility of viruses and trojans being caught at home from an unprotected broadband connection and these then causing problems on the college network.

This is less of an issue with PDAs...

My advice is say quite clearly that this is what you want to do, use the PDA on the home and the college network and he needs to come up with a solution to this issue. Don't try and offer a solution, ask him to come up with one.

Hmmm

I wonder how noisy it is?

Alas it also doesn't work very well with Macs

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=3P1M&CategorySelectedId=11003&PageMode=1&v=3#infoarea

Though I have been lurking (and posting) for a bit, time for my intro piece.

I am James Clay, Director of the Western Colleges Consortium, a group of four FE (post 16) Colleges in the West of England.

WCC Website

I have been interesting in handheld learning ever since I purchased a Toshiba Libretto 50 back in 1997 or 98. Still probably one of my favourite computers of all time. I used it often as a presentation laptop, though the projector back then was huge (carried in alarge metal suitcase).

Working for at-Bristol I worked on a project with HP looking at using HP Jornadas as a interactive device for visitors using JetSend IR technology and a wireless network to squirt URLs to the devices to provide additional information on exhibits on webpages (via the wireless network). Certainly was interesting and then HP cut development on JetSend with the potential growth of Bluetooth over IR.

Using the Jornada I was impressed with the usability and usefulness of the device.

When I moved to my current position I was disappointed to find when I came to order a PDA that the Jornada clamshell was no longer available so I ordered an iPAQ instead.

We created a PDA version of our website very early on, but as very few people had wireless PDAs it did not get many visitors, so was not used much except as an experiment.

My current interest with regards to handheld learning is in learning on the handheld devices that learners have. So how can we create learning activities which work on mobile phones, iPods, PSPs, PDAs, digital cameras, PVRs and others...

I also like small sub-portable laptops and am evaluating tablet PCs for one of our partner colleges.

Regards

James Clay
WCC

My maxim is always, if you only have one copy of a computer file then it doesn't exist.

This is fine usually for me with regards to typical computer files (word processing, presentations etc...).

With a PDA a 1GB storage card is more than sufficient to make a backup of the PDA.

Problems arise with storage especially with video files on my main computer, how many 1TB external drives can one have!

I do think Microsoft are coming a little late to the party on this one...

However the xBox does demonstrate that they can take a large market share if they produce the goods.