Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Maybe we need to try showing QCA there are alternatives somehow.  Maybe we can start making e-portfolios of students work and putting it on the web.  There is a selection of kids work from Cornwallis (I miss it tons!) at http://www.ayeeg.com/

Where can the voucher be used?

My department are currently evaluating our provision and have asked for studetns opinions on how we teach Science.  We don't use interactive whiteboards but the Maths department do.  Some of the pupils have given feedback asking for Science to have interactive whiteboards 'like Maths' because 'they help us learn by making us get up' and 'you have to think if you are presenting to the class'.  I'll let you know further comments when if get them, but it appears the kids love them!

It's also been suggested that putting too many functions into one device means it is a jack of all trades, master of none, and that battery life suffers as a result.  But I would love to have a phone, camera, pda, email and internet gadget in one.  I love the O2 XDA but you are right, it is not easy to choose it as a phone.  My hubby's phone has a much better camera too, but my phone is small and light, with good batery life.  And as for my teaching, I couldn't teach without my Tablet PC, but it has to be small enough for me to pick up and wander around with... but I wish it had a built in camera...

I know, the B's thing is good!  I am in morning briefing and just asked my colleague and she said someone came up with it as part of a collaborative working party last year - they had got it from somewhere else though!  We could pass this on to any school, sharing is good!

I like the idea of Browser (although remember the Nintendo character Bowser... the kids probably won't though!)

Anyway, off to teach The Carbon Cycle to year 10...

Wow jonny, that paper is impressive.  I have conducted research into using Tablet PCs in school and it was brilliant to read this paper as it is so well researched and comprehensive.  Schools have got to embrace the technology the pupils use day to day instead of us being separate from their lives.  Well done on this research! 

Cool!  I like it, but you are right thornuk, I want to check 3 boxes!  But the top one has to be the internet for me. My students use the web so often in a lesson when they have their handhelds, it's second nature to ask jeeves rather than me.  Like the poster we have on our wall : Brain, Buddy, Book, Boss - showing the kids how they should try other things before pestering the teacher - it should read Brain, Buddy, Book or the internet, Boss.  Anyone think of an alliteration for internet beginning with B? 

Great pictures!  When are they bringing out education software for the gameboy and the ds?  Not that I'm addicted to Brain Training but I am thinking about my students, of course...

Mark - you are a show off!   
How boring that they stick to lines of desks and laptops.  Not very future.  Not very present either actually.  My classroom isn't like that.  But one the worst things about teaching Science in the UK has to be the design of old labs.  I have a new lab since Easter but my first few years of teaching with no way to move any desks, that was a real pain.

It depends on the school and the teacher... I think teachers have to adapt their teaching style to accomodate the way children use technology.  In schools we still have days when pupils will not use a computer at all during the school day yet they go home and log on to messenger, get the mp3 playeron, have a game on the xbox, vote on interactive tv and chat on the nintendo ds.  School should not be the polar opposite of real life!

I checked 'other' because I find my Tablet PC is most useful to support my teaching when I put it in the hands of the students and thy use it to record their thoughts, video their experiment or animate a concept.  I like the poll idea, maybe we could have a poll on how often teachers which feature of their handheld device in the classroom? 

Following a lesson I had this morning with year 10, I would love voice reconition to control the webcam we use with a Tablet PC.  We normally record into Onenote as it is just one click to set it going and stop it!  The class were superteaching each other about Ecology and the plenary was run and videoed by them.   'Zoom in' Now here is the key point... 'Pan the room' ... Is there any software that would control the camera like this?

That's amazing that 85% of teachers thought the whiteboard would improve children's scores.  Surely the whiteboard promotes whole class teaching, one size fits all, whereas using hand held devices promotes individual or group learning, more personalised.  I use the whole class teaching, stood at the front, using interactive whiteboard type resources occasionally; but it isn't the main part of the lesson, no matter how whizzy it is.  What do others think?

I think whatever technology you use there are drawbacks.  You have a PDA and it doesn't have a camera; you have a Tablet PC and it's too bulky and hot; you use a smartphone but can't author in many programs... the list could go on.  I agree with the end of Mark's statement above:
'let's think about strategies for teaching and learning with mobile technology that will work. These strategies shouldn't focus on a particular device, such as a handheld with a camera, or a cell phone, especially since the technology changes so fast. I think we need to think more along the lines of learning with a wide spectrum of tools, both hardware and software, and think about ways in which we can give learners CHOICES in the tools that they would use.'
I just taught a lesson with just my Tablet PC and a projector.  There are many problems with the Tablet but my students and myself find ways to get around them.  We used a webcam, PC mic, digital camera, mobile phone and headphones - anything we could get our hands on.  It would be brilliant for each of my year 10's to have a PDA with a camera built in for £50.  But until then we will adapt and use the technology we have got.

No, I just spoke to loads of people from Becta/Microsoft/the Dfes - I am doing an MA at the moment and still loving Tablets so it may all get written properly one day.  I prefer speaking to people!  Anyway, it's good to read everything on here, gives me more inspiration