Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

If you want to get an idea of how those students prefer to use their devices - check out the poll on the project website http://www.wandsworthclc.org/gunandknife

I attended this incrediblly inspiring event at City Hall last night and was absolutely blown away by the quality and depth of the students performances.
The issues of gun and knife crime were tackled in a way the no Ad agency could have achieved. There were quite a few teary eyes in the audience I can tell you.
What impressed me the most was that although there was extensive use of technology in this project, it was all very much in the background last night allowing the students performances to shine unabated.
This is as it should be. Technology must be an enabler for the learning process and should never take over. From the students perspective they just expect it to be there doing its job as is the way in this generations lives now. If it doesnt enhance and improve the learning then it shouldnt be there.
The project featured students from South Thames FE college in collaboration with 6 local secondary schools. They were equipped with personal handheld learning devices and utilised social networking sites and tools to create, upload, share collaborate and publish their work. The projects were supported by Wandsworth CLC and myself.
I had Mark Bole and Jessica Medling from ShoZu with me last night and they were bowled over by the show and about how important social networking tools like ShoZu are becoming in allowing the students to reach new levels with their learning processes. Lots of exciting future projects and collaborations were discussed on the night.
If you want to see more then check out the website at - http://www.wandsworthclc.org/gunandknife/ where you can see examples of their work including their great tracks
or take a llok at their Facebook group at - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2261405193
or the live blog from the event at - http://lifewise-stc.blogspot.com/ where you can see the rousing speech from the Deputy Mayor of London

I am looking for support for getting insurance for our mobile project in Wandsworth. We have general insurance with the CLC but its not comprehensive enough to cover replacement of individual devices. We purchased the devices and tariffs from t-mobile who initially said they would provide cover for accidental damage and theft, but now say that this cover is only available for consumer contracts and not for OGC which is how we purchased.
We are desperate to get the devices home with the pupils, but obviously cant until this issue is sorted out.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We have just started a blog for our Mobile Wandsworth project:

http://mobilewandsworth.blogspot.com/

we are running a handheld project in wandsworth and have had excellent support from definitely tmobile. they  are definitely aware of the implications of the education market for handheld technology and have been invaluable for our project. they have excellent OGC data tarriffs and have all sorts of useful ways in which they can provide support. we are focussing on utilising the 3G network so that we can provide equal access to connectivity for all students 24/7 and are currently developing platforms to utilise this capacity in the classroom. If you would like a contact with t-mobile or want to know more about our project please  don't hesitate to get in contact with me.

TypePad Mobile is another option for Palm

http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/tmdownload.html

Its pretty media rich but requires a TypePad account

If only it had a GSM (gprs/3G) connection. I am desperate to find a device like this that will allow for internet connection away from a wireless environment. A good pda with a large screen and 3G/gprs connection seems impossible to find. Most of the mobile phone providers seem to be stopping the jasjar (the only larges screen 'connected' pda that I know of). I think its such a missed opportunity to bring these devices into schools and then exclude a whole group of pupils from using them at home due to lack of internet connection.
I am beginning to think that it would be better to pay for the pupils to have a wireless broadband connection at home rather that waste money on devices that are only useful at school.

Just had a quick glance through this paper and its certainly the most comprehansive document I've encountered dealing with mobile learning environments.
I look forward to reading it in full tonight.

I'm about to embark on a mobile learning project with Wandsworth schools and theres lots of good stuff to digest and inform my next steps.
My main goal for the project has been to utilise the devices ability to be always online and thereby provide the seamless 24/7 learning environment that we have been craving.
Consequently my focus has been very much on using smartphones rather than standalone PDA's.

Childrens learning has never been restricted to just the classroom, no matter what we egotistical teachers think - the playground is probably where most of what children perceive as meaningful learning takes place these days.
Traditionally, teachers have been kept out of this learning environment, but now we have the opportunity to show to pupils that all learning experiences are relevant, wherever they take place. (Actually, the pupils probably already know this and its just the teachers/establishment who need shaking up!)

People laughed at me years ago when I described my vision of one electronic device per pupil - I'm just surprised that its taken so long for the idea to have moved such a small distance!
The introduction of the National Curriculum in the 1980's killed off any idea for me that as teachers, we are the 'font of all knowledge' for our pupils - there was no way we were ever going to be able to deliver that amount of content. From there it became obvious to me that we were moving to a position where we would become more important as facilitators in our pupils learning process - providing them with the tools to successfully research, interpret, communicate and present information.

Technoligically, we are at the stage where this has become possible and a Johnny says, if we do not engage our pupils now and harness what is already their preferred method of communication, we are in danger of disenfranchising our pupil population.

Thanks Johnny for your insightful post!