Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Hi there,

I was blogging like mad until I got too tired towards the end of the second day. Then I moved on to Twittering - the lazy man's blogging

http://conclave.open.ac.uk/ResearchEssentials/
cheers
Gill

I just signed up. Looks really exciting. I'm spreading the word 

I got enthusiastic about location-based learning after seeing a presentation by Futurelabs on the Deptford Mudlarking study. I used  Caerus http://portal.cetadl.bham.ac.uk/caerus/default.aspx to create a GPS guided Nature Trail around the Open University campus at Walton Hall. This ran on HP IPAQ 6915 devices which have GPS, wifi, GPRS, camera, video and many other features which I loaned out to 12 participants who obligingly wandered around the trail taking pictures, recording audio etc which they then uploaded onto a collaborative blog and/or wiki. This was an interesting study, and I’m looking to explore this mobile collaboration further by giving participants more control over the content and scope.

One idea I’m thinking about is to use createascape to allow learners define not only the nature of the experiences they want to share but also the geographic area in which they record them. I’d like to work with home educators and their children however this is quite a complex group so we shall have to see how it pans out.

Of course the first step must be to locate some home educators 

I wonder if we've trained the kids too well to accept external assessment of output as the only means to demonstrate their achievements. Most teenagers I know won't even bother to do work unless they know it will count towards their final grades in some way. What is the use of a fabulous e-portfolio if the unversities are looking for A grades or UCAS points?

Handbags - a subject close to my heart. Mine contains an ipod mini, digital camera, Nokia N80 smartphone, O2 XDA mini, Acer N30 and a data pen. On certain days, it also contains a GPS HP IPAQ 6510 (soon to be a an IPAQ 6915). Good thing I go for large handbags 

My reason for carrying around such an abundance of gadgetry is that I'm trying out things to use in my PhD research into informal learning with mobile devices. Something that has struck me since using the O2 XDA mini http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/o2uk/jsp/handsets/viewHandsetDetails.jsp?prodID=consumer:O2:XDAMini:GROUP with its neat little slide-out keypad and really easy GPRS access, compared to the Nokia N80 which runs the symbian operating system, is the fact that although of similar size, these two devices are actually quite differnt. The Nokia is basically a PHONE with a neat little internet browser and some gizmos such as lifeblog that purport to enable you to blog your photos, entries etc from your phone. The O2 XDA mini is basically a PDA with a sim card in it that gives you access to the internet.

If I need to do things like check emails, browse websites, upload photographs or contribute to weblogs - then the O2 XDA is the way to go. The Nokia N80 seems quite counter-intuitive to someone experienced with both windows and mac-os.

If I want to make a simple phone call then its the Nokia N80 any time because it has the slide-out phone keypad.

It has been suggested that mobile phones and PDAs will eventually merge into a single do everything device. I'm not so sure. What do you think?

I've been experimenting with making mobile entries to a wiki using a mobile device (O2 xda mini with GPRS). It tends to be a bit time-consuming to navigate to the page to make your text entry, but making text entries is straightforward compared to uploading images which is just unworkable.

With Flickr, on the other hand, you have a mobile Flickr which works amazingly well. I timed it and it took me 58 seconds to upload a 65K picture I'd taken. The nice thing about mobile FlickR is that it takes you straight to the page where you need to be so there is no timeconsuming navigating around.

There is also a "blog your photo" option on the main FlickR site which works well. Unfortunately this is not available on the mobile page (or at least I couldn't find it).

Do Wikipedia have a page for mobile entries?

PDAs promote mobile learning, i.e. people being able to access resources etc when they are out and about. You're far more likely to meet other people outside than sat in front of a computer screen. We've all seen school kids texting away whilst chatting in small groups. Does effective multi-tasking counts as learning? 

I played with one at a conference recently. Exciting to start with, but as a touch typist, I found I needed to watch the projected keys as I typed. Apart from the need for a flat surface (no good for Graham's knees on the train), it also requires a plain surface. The table I was using was wood with quite a strong grain, and I very soon found that I was having difficulty focusing on the letters. 

Innovative idea though.

I don't think that age group the phone is targetted at really spend a lot of time unsupervised. By the time children are old enough to want to play outside with their friends, or walk to school on their own, they are also old enough to curl up with embarassment  at the idea of being seen with an under-featured phone shaped like a plastic teddy. 

A gimmick designed to prey upon the fears of parents?

edited by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and John Traxler  ISBN 0-415-35740-3

Twenty chapters jam packed full of things you want to know about mobile learning.  Describes a variety of mobile learning scenarios from the uses of handhelds by medical students, the design of a student learning organiser, the use of handhelds for composing music, delivering course materials via e-books to the evaluation of wirelss PDAs for delivering VLE functionality, to mention but a very few.  The variety of themes and issues that arise from these descriptions are skilfully drawn together by Agnes and John in their editorials.

I think its a fascinating read.

Just in case anybody else has this prob.  I got a resolution by going to the HP Forums and posting a question in their IPAQ thread.  The answer was:

Uninstall the keyboard, install BT keyboard driver update from
http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/22441.html
and then install keyboard again.

Keyboard works fine, however my old problem of multiplying ampersands has recurred.  When using the keyboard, you can use shortcuts to access menu options.  When you show the menu option, these shortcuts appear as ampersands i.e.

&Beam Document...
S&end via E-mail...

Each time I open the menu item, an extra ampersand gets added, even if I'm not using the keyboard.

It ends up looking really wierd,    &&&&&Beam Document.... and S&&&&&end via E-mail...

Not a really critical problem.  At least the keyboard is working now, but I would have expected that to have gone away after installing the new driver.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just me?

Used to work fine with my IPAQ.  Tried it today and I couldn't seem to enable it from the IPAQ end.  There is a little check-box which says "enable keyboard" and each time I click it the check mark would appear and then immediately disappear.  I wondered if it was because I'd restored from a backup the other week so I uninstalled and reinstalled the program.  I've got PPC 2003 if that makes any difference, and the driver for the HP G950 keyboard is version 1.0.0.  I've searched the HP website to see if they have any software updates, but I couldn't find any.  Doesn't mean there aren't any - but I find that there website can be a bit hard to navigate around.

Anybody had this problem?

If I don't fix it, the damn thing is going to EBAY!

Does anyone have any idea of what the differences are between Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 2003.  I have an IPAQ 5450 and the features described for Windows Mobile 2003 look nice - automatic wi-fi connections and the like.  Then I come across Windows Mobile 5.  I've browsed around, and so far it does not appear to be available for the IPAQ 5450. 

I currently have Pocket PC 2003 and its OK, but as with all MS operating systems, there is room for improvement. Does anybody know of something that is available now that might help (I'm particularly interested in the OS with a little button that switches the display to landscape mode.

In typical "sods law" fashion, no sooner had I posted this invite than I noticed problems accessing my survey admin.  I've checked with the administrators and they have been having problems with the server and are working to resolve them.

My thanks to all those who have successfully filled in the survey, and apologies to anyone who tried and got a "Server not available" message.  Please try again as things seem to have improved somewhat.

Thanks

Survey live until August 2nd at:

http://elsa.open.ac.uk/mobiledevices.survey

I am working towards a PhD with the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University.  The focus of my research is the ways in which PDAs and Smartphones can be used to support informal learning projects. I feel that the best way to find out how we can use mobile devices to support learning is to ask people who are already using them.  How do you use your mobile device, which features help or hinder you? Does the small screen cause you problems? Can you enter data quickly using the stylus?

I am interested in what you like about your device and what you don't like as well as info about learning related uses.

The survey consists of 3 pages and takes about 10 minutes to complete (page 2 is the longest so don't get discouraged when you get to it).  If you have any questions, please post them in this thread or email me and I’ll try to answer them.


Thanks
Gil