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Author Topic: Where do you get your PDA content from?...  (Read 3255 times)
jont
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« on: April 13, 2006, 10:19:20 AM »
It is a struggle in some organisations to get staff to modify their teaching materials for use on a VLE, so  getting staff to  alter it again for a small screen mobile devices is even more problematic.

So how do you  produce/obtain suitable educational materials for delivery on mobile devices?

Does your organisation have a team converting existing materials?
Do you make your own,
Do you buy it in?

Is it easier for schools, where there is the national curriculum to find suitable materials for mobile use than for HE and FE where course content appears to vary more.

Are there any good resources that list/provide suitable materials for mobile learning, a sort of content repository for mobile learning materials?

(obviously there are some useful files/applications/links  hosted here, but what others have you found that arent listed here yet)
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thornuk
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« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2006, 10:10:44 AM »
Although my school is not yet geared up for wifi networking and the use of handheld computers as learning devices (I'm working on them), I have a range of resources available.

These have been developed using Serif PagePlus desktop publisher, which has "Export to pdf format" facility, and in conjunction with Adobe Acrobat for Palm, this makes them readable on hhc.s (Albeit quite small - but they can, with the right hook up, be projected to screen
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johnpem
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John Pembroke

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« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2006, 09:28:04 AM »
Hi All
At All Hallows' we quickly realised that if the Pocket PC was to be truly successfull then you had to connect it to a content management system. This system must be able to handle a multitude of access devices. We have used a product called Moodle (http://moodle.org) which allows us to design content for the desktop but using a idea of a session theme it can be redisplayed for a pocket pc (pda theme). We have found this extremely valuable as this means one content design model. Our teachers have found it an excellent method of presenting the course material. Students have also been very positive.  Moodle or other content management system are work the effort of looking in to.

Regards

John
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cardav
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« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2006, 10:26:00 AM »
John - could you expand on "session theme" please?
I am exploring Moodle at the moment!
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david
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jont
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« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2006, 10:44:09 AM »
Hi John,

This sounds similar to designing materials as web pages and utilising css to provide different rendering for different devices? Ive found the ability of different mobile browsers varies significantly..So do you adjust the material for the different form factors of PocketPC screens or have you targeted specific devices?

(btw Opera is useful for seeing how pages will look using different device profiles)

For some types of material the screen layout can have a significant effect on the usability of material, and how the users react to it (especially question layout for quizzes etc).

Does anyone out there, change the design of their materials for differing screen sizes/form factors?

and what is the favourite cross platform format?

Jon
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johnpem
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John Pembroke

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« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2006, 01:42:26 PM »
Hi All

Yes the session theme is simply a css that can re-display the html. We exclusively use PIE mainly because we want to use the device as an "out of the box device" as much as possible. This helps with management etc.

The session theme means that two students using two different devices eg one on a desktop and one on a Pocket PC can look at the same content but be displayed in two different ways. The PDA theme using a different font and colour scheme to the desktop model. A student entering a course can either choose a link on the course to access the pda theme or the course can be constructed to determine what sort of device is connecting and then swap to the appropriate theme.

 In the design of the course we have set the navigation to the right rather than the left which means the main content is always visible and limits scrolling. The block on the page re-sizes to fit in to the browser's window.

more discussion can be found at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27303

Regards

John
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