uLearning Blog

News and views on ubiquitous, mobile, connected 21st century learning (mLearning –> uLearning)

May 7, 2009
by jnxyz
1 Comment

Preparing to present pt2.

evernote notebook

My next step after setting up the graphical elements of my presentation is to gather all my resources in one place and make them available as a resource for the day. I do this with evernote.com, which allows me to put every piece of relevant info I find, be it web pages, pdf files, even handwritten notes into a notebook that I can search and access from the web, my desktop or my phone. This is a great example of the power of cloud computing. Imagine having a joint class notebook where students could post almost any kind of content from any kind of device?!

For the purposes of the workshop, once I’ve used these resources to construct my workshop, I can use evernote to publish the notebook to a web address so they are all accessible for workshop attendees also! I can’t rate evernote highly enough in this regard. Attendees can even rss/bookmark the site so that when I add new resources to the notebook, they are notified.

February 10, 2009
by jnxyz
3 Comments

Mobile wireless eReader a sign of the ubiquitous future to come

I’m not a fan of Amazon’s Kindle eBook Reader. Not only is it not available in my country, but I feel the days of paying over US$350 for a device that only does one thing are long gone. Having said that, as en educator and former libary worker, I can see several direct eduational applications, especially with the just announced Kindle 2 having the ability to read out its content. Read a detailed overview (via Appleinsider).

Why I’m writing about it however is more because of what the Kindle 2′s other features don’t do – they don’t sync with a PC or laptop. Just as Google’s Android mobile operating system gets all its contact and calendar data directly from the cloud, so too does the Kindle 2 interface via 3G connection only with a home eBook site, or with other Kindle eReaders. This is the future of mobile, wireless devices and why they are leading towards a true ubiquitous, everware future. Even small mobile devices now have the ability to connect wirelessly to all the information etc they need to be fully functioning.

Are education departments setting up such networks to unleash the power of having this kind of computing available 24/7 from any location?

January 23, 2009
by jnxyz
0 comments

Horizon scanning, or “In 4 years, will my teaching be ready for this?”

 

The year may only be 24 days old, but the folks at Educause have been busy and just released the 2009 Horizon report. Horizon reports have been a key resource for a number of years for Educators wanting to prepare for the impacts of future technology, and the 2009 version provides the same kind of ‘horizon scanning’ (a Stephen Heppell phrase). Covering topics from mobile devices to cloud computing, semantic web services and geotagging, its well worth downloading and asking the question – “In 4 years, will my school/institution be ready for this?”, and “What opportunities will these technologies bring for learning?”
There’s also a great overview of the report available via eCampus News – (you’ll need to sign up to read it all).

Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous

January 21, 2009
by jnxyz
0 comments

Microsoft to move further into cloud computing

Sorry to all the Microsoft fans out there, but if MS is getting into cloud computing (as they have by announcing MS Office and Windows 7 will feature cloud-connectivity), then you know that its probably already a happening thing. This article picked up by the automated tech news blog techmeme indicates that MS will shortly unveil a further cloud computing initiative for Windows Mobile devices that will compete with Apple’s MobileMe and the Google cloud-services built into the Android mobile OS. So How many Educators are tapping into such services? How many students are being taught about them? Read more about MS plans here:
 
> http://www.techmeme.com/090119/p27#a090119p27

Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous