Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Hi All

I am presenting a workshop on handheld devices and learning objects at the Institutional Web Management conference in July this year http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/sessions/smith/. I am going to be looking at the different types of devices a student might be using and the sort of things that can and cannot be done with them.

I am looking or good examples of work with different devices that colleagues here might be happy for me to include as examples (it's free publicity!!  ). The objects do not have to work on every device going; that is part of the point to consider the barriers as well as the advantages.

So please send your links!

Cheers

Stuart

Hi All

For those who don't know me I work in the HE sector for a national data center. The consumers of our services are generally HE and FE students and researchers etc. The reality for us is though is we have no idea what our end user will be using (or hoping to use) to access our services and when I consider handheld development that is a strong factor for us.

It's still relatively early days for handhelds in education and we see a myriad of devices avaiable to consumers of our services. For example: Ipods, mobile phones, smartphones, pda's, UMPCs, etc. They all have different Operating Systems and different ways of accessing content. For the area I work in, if we want to deliver content to our users we need to be aware of all that and more.

A lot of the work done seems to center around particular devices and relatively small groups of users and reading the write ups of this is very interesting. My own efforts take me down a device agnostic route and I am wondering if anyone else in this happy place is trying the same approach?

So far my work, as those who attended my presentation at Handheld Learning last year know, give mixed findings on different media - I have looked at 3gp (mobile movies), J2ME books (through Maxdox) and MP-XHTML (mobile web). I am about to start looking at Flash Lite.

Hopefully, this hasn't been too much of a ramble but if anyone else is also looking at the device agnostic route it would be great to hear from you.

Cheers

Stu 

Hi John

Just along the road from you at UoM. I am looking at putting learning objects on handheld devices like mobile phones, I present ed on this at Handheld Learning 2006 as well as my 'day job'.

Always good to know of fellow enthusiasts locally, so if you fancy meeting up for a coffee let me know (same for anyone else in the Manchester area.)

Cheers

Stu

Hi All

(Wasn't sure best place to post this). A bit of shameless self promotion but I wrote a piece on my Handheld Learning Presentation for Atl-N and it was published last week. If anyone is looking for a summary of my piece on creating mobile phone learning objects, then this should suffice.

It can be found here

http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article000729140.cfm?x=b11,0,w

I think one important but geeky feature is that OS X that will be on there. It means lots of opportunities for 3rd party apps, which is good for elearning. Also, if they claim to be trying for seamless desktop intergration, which offers the chance to have something far more easier to use, for example most high end phones offer imap email connection but it's just a pain to set-up.

Wifi and bluetooth will help avoid those nasty download costs from mobile operators.

Lets hope its as good as they say it is on the tin!

Hi

Wondering if supplied handsets are the way to go? I realise that cost is an issue but many students already have powerful mobile devices of their own. So perhaps we need to be looking at using these and supplying handsets to those who cannot afford it?

If we work with a particular handset and service provider then we end up with specific solutions, which will not be transferable to other devices. We've seen this before with the "desktop web" where developers assume everyone is using Windows and IE as their browser. Given the explosion of devices at the moment and the rapid rate of change don't we need to shift to a "device agnostic" approach and exploit what is already available?

I certainly think bringing in the service providers into the equation is very important and it would be good to see at least one or two sponsoring next years Handheld Learning. However, the pressure to change costs need to be brought across the mobile network providers.

In terms of connectivity things seems to be changing, there are better pricing models coming out, which allow higher data usage but they still have some way to go. Encouragingly though, we are seeing more devices with Wifi and bluetooth built in, these offer cheaper (sometimes negligible) costs to access data.

Stu

Mmmmm the dominance of the mighty Microsoft!

I've no axe to grind with the company but their attempts at dominace in handheld learning are interesting and sometimes disturbing to follow. They certainly are often to late to the table in this game and were in handhelds in general. It's a shame the the OLPC is going down this route not because Microsoft shouldn't be involved but it would be worrying to see a world increasingly reliant on one OS. Dversity is good for us all (including Microsoft!)

Stu 

Petra I agree it's always been a complex issue but I feel blaming the technology which some sectors seem keen to do is definately not part of the answer!!

From what I read (including on this forum) I don't think any of the negative associations of Mobile's shows anything new. I wrote in a different section yesterday that the bullying associated with mobiles (and I would put the terrible attack on teachers described by Jocelyn in that category) is just the same problem using new medium. Perhaps the difference is now the level of exposure. So maybe 5 - 10 years ago a clever but vindictive kid might have used some program (or even manually cut and pasted and then photocopied) to make nasty pictures and then distribute them locally but now the distribution happens globally.

So my rambling (apologies for that) point is that nothing is new, apart from the medium.

If education exploits mobile devices then perhaps that is the best way to engender responsibility. If a child or older student is shown how they can use it in a positive fashion, things might change. Also, I think educators need to learn how to use these devices. It is of course another burden but if more people understand how these devices work then some of the fear of what they can do in a negative context can be removed and even successfully challenged?

Hi All

Saw this article on the BBC today

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6136902.stm

About the rise of bullying children from a Muslim background. Interestingly, the article really focuses on technology based bullying and the right (or should that be requirement) of schools to ban mobiles.

For me it's a good example of trying to put the over-used cliche of the genie back in the bottle. When I was lad (increasingly it seems many years ago) bullying was rife - there were no mobile phones but bullying was still mobile. Notes passed around the class, eggs thrown as you walked home, messages on toilets wall. The means of transmission may have changed but the ugly vicious circle of victimisation remains.

Probably preaching to the converted but to me the Government message of "banning the technology" seems ill thought out and knee jerk. Here is a technology that the system still can't quite cope with - of course it can be used for terrible things but that is the same with technology. Also this forum shows the wonderful side of the technology. It seems that by promoting a ban on the technology those with the powere and influence think bullying will go away but I think they will be very sadly mistaken and it will remain until the underlying issues are addressed.


Stu

Well, I think the whole "smartphones' thing will probably disappear over the next few years as the cost of the computing power comes down significantly (again!). That said it does exist here and now. I suppose for a school a pda without phone capability might be more attractive??? since it doesn't have the percieved potential for disruption and subversion associated with mobile phones.

It's intersting you've seen an increase in the interest for 3G and HSDPA, since UK service providers use data transfer costs as a significant revenue booster. Are the schools doing special deals with specific service providers?

Well, (I guess I fit someway into the techie field), testing on mobiles is an issue and you pick up on some of the key problems. That said with the rise of browsers like Opera then I think standards will make some headway. Also, mobile phone providers need to expand their market appeal. At the moment lots of people don't use various features on their phones because of cost, so there might come a point where they stop buying them or at least paying the extra cost for unused features. So I think wider and cheaper availability of content will be important. That should hopefully drive a greater (if reluctant) acceptance of standards and make testing easier. Also, I think Ajax might help with the interactivity side of things. However, the input issue will remain of course.

I don't think you need to apologize for being commercial... it is very interesting to see what is out there. I missed the presentation unfortunately. But from the website you point too the product seems orientated to PDA's - I may be wrong but I don't see much reference to mobile phones. I am guessing you would need some sort off Smartphone to use this on a mobile phone? Not sure how many students will have access to smartphones by choice, although I would accept an argument that "smartphones" are becoming something of a meaningless term.

Perhaps I am hitting on a difference between HE and schools here but one of my aims is to try to be device agnostic and try to make learning objects as open as possible. The problem from a HE perspective is we are fairly unlikely to know what a student will have and being to prescriptive will be off putting.

Do you tend you use Wifi for the delivery of learning to the handheld?  because avoiding mobile costs is one barrier I have been trying to over come. If you do I guess that limits the devices that can be used.

I think your points are interesting. Working in HE and following Handheld Learning this year I would say that there are blinkers in place in HE.

Not sure why the hesitation is there but I think part of it is fear. For most of my colleagues, they work in two places home and the office. They don't need to be mobile, since those two locations offer them all they need. Their mobile phones are therefore primarily for quick short calls and the occasional text. Most don't use portable devices other than a laptop for the meetings which sometimes take them out of the office.

Then come all these student's with devices, which are used sometimes subversively e.g. text messaging in lecturers etc. and the  staff member is shut out because the technology and it's potential is simply not on the radar.

It's something I am trying to challenge because I see a generation coming through that is mobile and portable and we need  to meet the challenge and enjoy the excitement.

That corresponds with my gut feeling as well. I've always been reluctant to ask for a "work" mobile because I see it as a very personal device & I don't really want the organisation to have control or say over how I use it. That said I do use it for work.

So I suspect that there will never be a class where all the students are happy to work this way but I guess it does broaden the engagement opportunities for the lecturer/teacher as it offers students another avenue.

I think it is an interesting take you have on interactivity but one of the biggest criticisms I have heard about "desktop web" services I have been involved in is that some of the materials have been too passive, despite offering feedback mechanisms equivlent to those you describe. I think some lecturers are looking at activity of the kind offered by something like some of the NLN learning materials for FE. There the student has a direct involvement in the object.

I suppose one way around this is to get students to produce their own mobile materials based on their learning using tools like Maxdox or XHTML-MP templates. That would probaby cover a lot of areas.

The Mac certainly has a lot potential for content development. One of my conclusions is that Imovie was one of the fastest ways of repurposing existing content.  Movies offer a lot, although I think certainly on a lot of mobile phones the interface leaves a lot to be desired in terms of giving the user contorl.

Feliz, have you tried your content out with any students? This is something I can't get easy access to as I am not a lecturer, do you (or anyone else) think that students want to use mobile phones as part of the learing experience?