Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Hi Jonathon.

I've discussed a similar idea with a couple of people on here. The one I'm planning is for a historical site but the basics aare pretty much the same as what you're planning.

The add on that was suggested to me that appears to be feasible and really useful would be to then add in links to a mobile blog or poll so that the students could then go away and add varied comments / reflections on different aspects of (in your case) the campus. That way theres a good audio visual site that students have (hiopefully) enjoyed creating but also something that is useful in the longer term for gathering student opinions etc.

I'm still playing around with ideas about how best to put it all together - I've got some classes that have PDA's and others that will be using mobile phones for it. Some of the downloads in the resources section look pretty andy for that side of things, and some of the mobile applications run by people who visit here would do the job very well.

Would be good to see the finished product. I'll pass on details of mine when I get it finished and online.

Thank you so much for kindly responding to my query. I started the activity with the group this afternoon. I showed the students an example of a promotional video produced by my college, along with www.reaseheath.ac.uk/video/options.html and www.thomas-hardye.dorset.sch.uk for comparison. If you type college experience video into Google (http://tinyurl.com/2syy6y), there are several examples, which can be downloaded or are embedded for playback online. I recommend VLC media player (www.videolan.org/vlc), if your downloaded video will not work.
The group consists of fourteen students, so were split into two groups of five and a group of four. Each group was given a different ‘zone’ of the college to record, to avoid replication and allow each group to edit their section.
Equipment-wise two of the groups had one camera phone per group, but the memory card on the camera phone of the third group was full, so they borrowed one of the backup digital cameras I’d brought along.
The groups were encouraged to take digital stills. I’d discovered that camera phones use 3GP format for video so although not discouraged, I’m hoping that the digital camera will be used for video as the models we have record in AVI format, which can be imported directly into Microsoft Movie Maker 2 without conversion.
I gave them twenty minutes to start to record their zone. The footage has been transferred, via Bluetooth and memory card reader, to a folder on the laptop. The results were variable in terms of both resolution and quality. Next week I will check their camera phone settings for picture size (e.g. VGA, 1 megapixels, 2 megapixels, 3 megapixels) and picture quality (e.g. Normal, Fine) before they leave the room. A few tips on taking better pictures would also be advantageous! Unfortunately, none of the camera phones possessed a screwfitting, so a tripod cannot be used.
When the footage is gathered and edited there will be a discussion about whether to have narration, titles etc and/or a (copyright free) soundtrack.
I may use a graphics tablet with freeware screen capture software (AviScreen Classic, www.bobyte.com) to ‘record’ their signatures or add alternative titles.
The students involved have already said they would like the resultant video to be converted into mobile phone format (e.g. 3GP), so they can distribute it to friends, family etc via Bluetooth. I am considering getting them to produce a questionnaire to record the feedback.
I hope to use the two GPS-enabled PDAs to follow-up the ideas suggested, along with other ideas such as mediascapes (www.createascape.org.uk) and geotagging. I also hope to glean information from Futurelab (www.futurelab.org.uk) as well.
Any further advice would be gratefully received
Many thanks
Jonathan

This week’s session started with a recap of the activity thus far, which covered the five stages of development:
1. Planning – using paper-based mind maps (I would experiment with a freeware mind mapping program, such as FreeMind - http://sourceforge.net/projects/freemind - next time).
2. Recording - camera phones/digital cameras.
3. Editing - Microsoft Movie Maker 2.
4. Conversion - www.mediaconverter.org .
5. Distribution – Bluetooth/Web.
The students used the blog feature within PebblePad again to view their blog from last week, and then send (share) their blog with other members of their group.
A map of the college campus (www.s-cheshire.ac.uk/new_scc/aboutus/find_us/campus.htm) was projected onto a dry wipe board and a member of each group was asked to write the groups initials next to their ‘zone’ of the college, to reaffirm which area they were photographing during the session.
The students were reminded to use their own initiative and take camera phone images during the week, as the fundamental idea of the project is to develop their perspective of the college.
Jonathan

The extension activity of producing a student college experience video using mobile phones has now finished.

All the photos and video clips on the central laptop were sorted via ‘zone’ by putting them into separate folders and then renaming them. When added to Microsoft Movie Maker 2, they could easily be put into sequence. Tags (Title Overlays) were then added to each sequence of photos. It was decided that a soundtrack (mp3) would be used instead of narration.

The Media Converter (www.mediaconverter.org) website was used to convert the saved Microsoft Movie Maker file into MP4 and 3GP formats, plus others as required. Distribution was via memory card reader and/or by Bluetooth.

A Project Evaluation was given to each student, which included the questions below:
•   I enjoyed...
•   I used...
•   I am pleased with...
•   I am now able to...
•   I feel more confident about...
•   I paid a lot of attention to...
•   When I started I...
•   I have improved...
•   I should have...
•   Next time I will...

Jonathan