Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Simone,

There where a few, one of which was discussed on the Handlheld Learning stand - for my sins I've forgotten their name (shame on me) but Graham et al., will fill the gaps.

Interms of a PRS - there is also Turning Point http://www.turningtechnologies.com/ - this has PDA software (pocket pc, and palm on the way).  I thought this looked really good as you can include free text answers, it works very well with powerpoint, and for those who need to pull results to central databases, and import questions there are some opportunities.

I hope that helps ....

Cheers

Andy

Hi,

A comment by Peter on another thread was that he could now subscribe to podcasts, however, he now needs to find some. This is a very good point, there is lots out of there but it's an issue of quality assurance and relevance to your discipline. So, this got me a thinkin', hay just a minute we need a list ;-)

So, I've put up a survey point which will allow us (the community) to submit podcast feeds, some keywords, and a description of how they relate to particular use in education.

I'll publish the list and try to update it regularly, so go, tell us which podcasts you listen to and why ....

http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/ltss/podcast_hot_list

Andy

FYI - the first set of research findings are available from my Mobile Learning Blog (<http://www.mobile-learning.blog.city.com>)on the podcast pilots I'm working on at the University of Bristol.

Summary:

... One of the aims of the pilot study was to assess the potential for a podcast only delivery method for audio based learning materials. The findings from the study suggest that there are still significant hurdles for students in accessing podcasts. However, the student support needs are perceived as relatively low given the majority of students have direct experience at finding, downloading and transferring audio files between the Internet and their computer / mp3 player.

Link to full report

<http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/podcasting_only_delivery_method_for_learning_material_is_not.htm>

I'd love any thoughts, comments etc.,

Cheers

Andy

Hi,

Good to hear that you are making progress, welcome to the very odd world of receiving podcasts. I'm very quickly coming to the conclusion its all about quality control and filtering.

I'm assuming you've worked it out - or simply given up ;-)

However, shame you are having problems with iPodder. Perhaps, you could try going back? It will create a new folder in your my docs for podcasts. If you are on a network machine with logins, then it's tucked away under the appropriate username. I can't help with dopplerradio.

Andy

Hi, I've been reading about smartRSS - http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/podcasts_delivered_to_your_windows_mobile_smartphone.htm
 which is suppose to enable window mobile smartphone users to receive and manage their rss / podcasts. This has great potential, however, due to me being housed in a resource scarce institution I have a very un-smart phone 

So, has anyone ever used it? If so, what are they thoughts in terms of ease of installation / setting up, using, time it takes to download a rss / podcast etc., Any comments would be really appreciated as it dovetails rather nicely with some pilots I'm running in Bristol.

Thanks - Andy

Thanks Petra,

Yes, with further exploration the use of images does seem overly complicated and requires lots of preparation beforehand. I've also found distributing the same quiz to a palm and a desktop created problems when trying to view quizzes on the desktop, i.e., it didn't work.

If people want any more, I've uploaded some thoughts to my blog (http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com) - I'm slowly going off quizzler 

The next step is to find an alternative piece of software - has anyone got any recommendations?

Hi,

In terms of a Palm (t3), currently, then the process will be that you need to install an aggregator (piece of software that you use to enter the url of the podcast) on your computer. Then after the aggregator has checked for any new podcasts, you'll need to hot sync transfer to your palm. The pocket pc people can have this occurring on their internet connected pocket pc's without the need of the computer.

It is incredibly easy - for a guide in what is podcasting, using the aggregator software, with pictures etc., see http://blackboard.blog-city.com/ - I wrote it. There is a link in the header.

for some uses of podcasting in learning and teaching, then I've written quite abit on the subject on my mobile learning blog - http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com - there is a complete category dedicated to the educational issues of podcasting.

Podcasting (both creating and receiving) is really straightforward and the software is free, very good and very reliable.

A good one to listen to is the Nature Magazines podcast - http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/rss/nature.xml

Hope that helps - any questions, just yell

With the continual interest in mobile learning, people with staff training responsibilities have a great opportunity to spread the word. So I was wondering if people might be interested in sharing the activities / case studies they use within their staff training sessions. This might be good for two reasons, firstly it will give us all the chance to fine tune our own training events, while also highlighting to those on this list who are new(ish) to mobile learning how it might be used. The more I think about it the more useful it will be, for instance, I seem to be more regularly required to tailor staff training to specific disciplines, so if there some a training activity that someone had developed for Engineers and published here to a minimum description, i.e., learning aims, activity, resources, etc., then I could quickly adapt this for my institutional culture.

So before I unleash on some of the activities - lesson plans that I use, I'm wondering if others might be willing to contribute? So any takers, all I/we need at this time is for those who run staff training sessions on anything to do with mobile devices / learning to say they are interested in inputing. Then we can start to discuss the nitty gritty stuff of what it needs to include, templates etc., So any takers 

I've recently started a new search for the holy grail. This particular one is to review a couple of formative assessment packages which are cross platform, plus a few other things (see http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/the_new_holy_grail_formative_assessment_of_a_pda.htm). The background to this is quite simple, it was the outcome of a conversation with Andy Black and Jon Trinder (both on this list) at a recent CETIS presentation. So I thought, seeing this community helped spawn this search, then perhaps this community go help give it some direction ;-)

So, if there are any Quizzler http://www.pocketmobility.com/quizzler/quizzler.html users out there, it would be great if you could contribute with what you liked / disliked about the software and how you are / were using it. If we joined the cumulative knowledge together then we might get a really good handle on its use at the coal face.

Also if anyone wants to recommend a software package that is cross platform (palm OS - Pocket PC), allows images, feedback, scoring and the possibility of tracking performance, then please do.

Dear Andyb,

Yes, this might have some implications for mobile users. Currently, out of the box, Blackboard offers poor access to web enabled mobile devices, while the 3rd party software that would "convert" to a mobile device didn't offer the full functionality. I'm aware of a new building block developed to increase the mobile experience, however, this is tied to BBd Version 6.3 or above, as costs money, so it's not something we'll not be embracing in Bristol for a while.

I'm not sure of the user experience of WebCT on a handheld? Any WebCTers out there?

However, the likely merge / take over ;-) will create a good opportunity for the Blackboard of the future to be redesigned, from the bottom up to give a much more satisfactory experience out of the box for mobile users. They might do this to take some WebCT functionality. The question is, will they take this opportunity? A good start would be, if we the Blackboard users community start to lobby their Account Managers.

This topic has been discussed before (I've lost the original thread). However, things have moved on with open source software and there was an excellent article in this months PDA Essentials (Issue 42) "DVD on a PDA". I've cut and paste the contribution on my Blog about it (see below).

Now I've not the time to explore this further at the moment, but if anyone did, especially documenting the settings I'd love to read it 

Extract from www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com - DVDs on a PDA

I've revisited the idea of creating and displaying DVD's on a PDA. I originally discussed this a long time ago on a contribution - http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/dvds_on_a_palm__it_will_never_happen_or_will_it_.htm

The outcome was that I went for PocketDVD, an out of the box solution. However, an excellent article in this months PDA Essentials (Issue 42), revisits the topic through the use of open source software. They also have a very good step by step guide for using SmartRipper (http:www.doom9.org/sr.htm) to burn the DVD, and FlasKMPEG (http://flashmpeg.sourceforge.net) to convert for playing on a PDA. The open source player they recommended is Core Pocket Media Player (http://www/tcpmp.corecodec.org/about).

I've not checked the process out, but it looks very promising. My old grumble about the poor usability of this type of package for the novice might simply be an old grumble. If anyone does play with these then please leave a comment.

FYI - for those interested in the "collect the data on a handheld and move to a centrally supported Access database", but do all this on a very small budget discussion i.e., using Handbase 3 (US$39) and Access (or Excel) then I'm starting to develop support material for people at the UoB. If you want a look, and wish to comment then it's available from http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/advice_on_uploading_data_collected_on_handbase_to_a_central_.htm

In summary, at this stage, the procedure is very straightforward and if you have a need then I'd recommend it ;-)

Oh, that sounds interesting - I've a soft spot for snappermail .... it's never let me down.

Hi,

I was just about to spend a few hours/days searching, installing and testing email clients for pocket pc. When I suddenly thought .. stop ! Is there anyone who could recommend an email client for a pocket pc, the most important condition is that it has to be able to access IMAP accounts (plus it needs to be cheap). So if anyone is using a package they would recommend and wish to ease the burden of an over worked, lowly paid learning technology adviser in the south west of England, then please reply 

I thought I should end this search with an update. The key for me is to be able to access the BBC (I've a soft spot for Radio 2 and Radio 4). The solution is to download and install realone player for the pocket pc, and then on an internet connected pocket pc (suggest wi-fi enabled), visit the web site - www.radiofeeds.co.uk/pda - and select B for the BBC. All very straightforward and enjoyable ;-)