Handheld Learning - learning with mobile and ubiquitous technologies

Andy,

I'm game for the test.

Teach534

Hi Andy, et al,

>>>we all have similar-ish needs<<<
As you may have noticed from my "Introduce yourself" rant, I get very steamed up about we professionals all over the UK (world?) reinventing the wheel, because there is no central co-ordination of effort.  It's like each of us being given an enormous box of LegoTechnic and being told to build a car - any way we like - but the thing must transport everyone to the same place equally effectively / efficiently... wouldn't it be better if someone gave us a blueprint (with the option to do it better if we could).  Perhaps this could be a way of influencing that !

>>>more userfriendly than excel (hence the success of off the shelf products), <<<
I don't find Excel too bad, and I've not come across any off the shelf products that match its price point and ubiquity (but then I've converting a house - as well as teaching - , so don't have too much time to look).

>>>the data needs to be synced to a place and reports easily created <<<
Ideally it would all go into a database, which would then (automatically) create report paragraphs that didn't look like they were assembled by a computer.  This is exactly what I had developed on Paradox (relational database) over the past 20 years or so, based on the numeric grade / level data (referred earlier).  It automatically produced a ten sentence paragraph describing to parents what their offspring had done, could do and needed to do next to make progress, and it didn't look mechanistic, because I wrote the phrase bank (with additional suggestions from colleagues) and linked it appropriately (English my second main subject).  The problem is (a) the time to develop it for handhelds, (b) the time to link the necessary functions to go from data to paragraph, (c) the overwhelming briliance or political clout to make users want to change from the systems in which they are presently entrenched (d) a cost structure that encourages them to do so.

Andy - Am I right in understanding you're in Bristol (UK) ?... I'm in the Gloucester/ Cheltenham area - perhaps face to face could speed this up, for dissemination to the group later ?
PeterB

Andy,

You guys work fast!  What level of teaching do you both do? I am curious as to the needs of assessment at your level versus the needs I have in a 5th grade classroom.  I am anxiously awaiting your prototype.  I certainly am glad that there are great minds out there working to improve assessment collection.  I would love to be able to share something as accessible as Excel with the other teachers in our building.  At present I am the only one using Palms - with students and for recording assessments.  Thank you for your interest!

Teach534

Teach534

If you want to send us (andy.ramsden@bristol.ac.uk) an example of the excel spreadsheet that you use, with a bit of dummy data, we can add it to the pot.

In terms of sharing, yes, that is an issue. We've been completing registers on a PDA then sycn to our own machine and then forwarding to each other. Alternatively, you get into a situation where you need to download and upload the master copy. Then you introduce the issue of version control. Hence, my thoughts that this wouldn't scale, if we introduced a large number of staff then it would  turn into complete chaos ;-) The alternative is to use software like HandBase, which states that you can have multiple devices syncing to the same database. So it, then it's an issue of pilotting the software to see how it actually works in practice.

It would be great is you emaiedl your spreadsheet with a little blurb, then I can think about your design issues..

Cheers

Andy

Quick update for all - there has been a little off list activity, so bringing it all together.

I've been messing around with Handbase 3.0 - see http://www.mobile-learning.blog-city.com/read/1151138.htm - and it seems to be relatively straight forward to author in. In fact, my original plan of importing from access/excel seems redundant as the authoring through the desktop software is very easy, especially given my initial needs. At this stage I'm happy with creating the databases and the input forms.

I'm planning on usability testing these databases in a set of workshops I'm running just after Easter. The key issue is, under pressure, do they work in terms of the time it takes to collect the information, and when will be the best time to collect the information?

After I've collected lots of data, I'll then be able to look at the reporting side.

If anyone has a good handle on the reporting side, or would wish to do a little research over the holiday, then please share your experience on this discussion board (it will reduce my workload  )

>>>slight delay...<<
No worries - been busy redevelping the house during the "holiday" (change of employer - working for my wife !)

PeterB

Latest demon tweak to my class lists on Excel (T3 and sync'd to desk machine) is a section for recording the score of each question and part of their year 10 exam. 
Format = top line title,
next = Q number (1a, 1b, ...8d, etc.)
next = max score
next = first pupil's score for each part
This continues for whole class
Below last pupil each column has the average score per part question (so I can pick out those they're ALL good or bad at - latter for remedial attention)
Below that row = copy of max score (so it's easier to see what they should have achieved)
Column after last score = Total per pupil (using "Sum of preceding" function - I don't add it up wrongly !)
Next column = percentage equivalent of their raw score
Next column = conversion to equivalent GCSE grade, using a cascading "if...then routine
At the foot of those last two columns
I can average the score and grade fro the class - useful to disabuse them of their self-assumed brilliance ! (or confirm it !)

PeterB