uLearning Blog

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

Tag Archives: iPod Touch

July 16, 2009
by jnxyz
4 Comments

Gathering of Educators using ubiquitous devices

Last night from 12:30am until 6:30am I attended my first full day web conference. What could have tempted me to stay up all night you ask? It was the ACU Connected event, and you can go HERE to see what sessions were held. As one of 130 educators from around the world (and two from my institution Education Queensland), we logged on to hear real life stories of Universities and Schools that are integrating connected, mobile, wireless devices into their learning activities. To get an overview, its well worth visiting this twitter summary at twazzup.com – it’ll provide you with the most popular links and tags that were shared.

So was it worth staying up for? Well I’d be a dill if I hadn’t made sure beforehand that it would be worth it! But yes, it was. Its one thing to read about and even take small steps oneself towards see effective teaching and connected, mobile learning come together; its quite another to hear directly from the actual practitioners involved in large scale rollouts. ACU has over a thousand students with iPhones or iPod touch’s. FHU has many more. Even some of the K-12 schools had up to 800. It was also a big help with my thinking about the small temp trial of OLPC XOs I’m managing at present. In some ways, the XO is like a big, kid friendly iPod touch… more on this in a future post.

Here’s some of my favourite quotes/ideas:

  • Effectiveness of connected mobile platforms for student use is a big debate as alot of the apps classified as ‘education’ are rote based only.
  • “treat mobile devices as full participants – media players AND content creators”
  • “don’t extend outdated pedagogies into new media”
  • Campus bookstores sweat as faculty move away from expensive textbooks to mobile readers and cheap/free learning resources (via @ruben_r)
  • MCG medical school has a youtube video showing their mobile learning www.mcg.edu/mobile
  • interesting FYI: iPhone vs iPod Touch in education – ACU finds iPhone users more satisfied/ use the device a fair bit more.
  • William_Rank (ACU) “We’re having so much virtual contact with students now that we’ve changed university policy about office hours.”
  • FHU 7 mobile learning objectives (link)
  • At FHU 87% of faculty felt comfortable requiring use of mobile device for class activity (via @allisonoster)
  • “I’m not sure that personal productivity & learning can function separately with these sorts of devices. It’s an artificial distinction.” “many see learning as seperate to personal productivity. Is there a distinction?” (via @agrie8)

    June 3, 2009
    by jnxyz
    1 Comment

    The iPod Touch for mobile learning: a presentation

    I was recently fortunate enough to be able to present at the Innovative Technology in Schools Conference in Brisbane on the topic of mobile learning. Imagine my excitement at having a set of 30 iPod Touch’s available for the participants to learn on! This was a chance to show what the combination of current developments like ubiquitous mobile devices, wireless connectivity and cloud computing (via services like Evernote) will mean for learning in the near-future.

    Despite various technical hurdles (ie. batteries being flat, proxies keeping us from using the wifi fully, twitter search being down!) the attendees seemed to have a great time discovering what possibilities mobile devices hold for education. So here are several ways that you too can experience what I was able to share:

    Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=on1GNs3193w

    Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/jnxyz/ipod-touch-for-mobile-learning

    Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16041976/iPod-touch-for-mobile-learning

    May 30, 2009
    by jnxyz
    9 Comments

    The first Web2.0, comprehensive iPhone education app?

    By Jonathan Nalder, and Shane Roberts

    One common problem for educators seeking to use the iPhone or iPod touch in their learning environment is the fact that the most common uses of the devices for things such as taking attendance, voice recording or interfacing with learning management systems (such as Moodle) require constant exiting and switching between several different apps. All this switching has the potential to keep teacher eyes off students for the precious seconds it takes for them to go off-task.  Excessive app-switching will also increase the number of applications accessing the device memory, resulting in a slower operational and response time.

    Helping to solve this problem is a new app from iKonstrukt thats simply titled ‘Educate’. Unlike many other education apps released so far for the platform, ‘Educate’ groups several common functions into one program, meaning that running a lesson requires less app-switching. These multiple functions include an inbuilt calendar with welcome widescreen mode, an attendance and grade marking database, a stopwatch, voice recorder, photo tool (take images and add text to them), reference area (with numerous teaching strategy tips) and link to online learning system Moodle (apparently integration with the other main LMS Blackboard is being looked at for a future release).

    So can this app live up to its ambitious name of providing everything needed to educate a student? Bearing in mind that this is a 1.0 release, and still has a few quirks (that running the ‘free memory’ app first often helps with), it has in our 3 days of testing proved to be a great start at accomplishing just this lofty goal. It does need the ability to import student names as well as calendar data before time-poor teachers may really start to use all of its planner and tracker features to the full.

    What may really convince some Teachers to purchase Educate is its Moodle integration, but I haven’t been able to test this, with my school being Blackboard-based. The app does however seem at this point to only allow the posting of content to Moodle; I’m not sure if …

    Another unique Educate feature that should be noted is its in-built link to the app’s Facebook support page where help forums and the growing number of other educators using the app can be directly accessed, again all without closing the app itself.

    So is it worth its price of US$6.99 ($8.99 in Australian store)? The answer to this question may depend on how much your school could benefit from mobile access to Moodle, but for those doing the math (one function which you do still have to switch out of Educate for – think I’ll make a calculator a feature request), Educate’s price is cheaper by quite a bit than buying separate apps to get the same functionality.

    On the other hand: Why I won’t purchase Educate (personal opinion of shanetechteach);
    1. Lesson planning is “trapped” within the device.  I can’t access it from my other devices, or share it with others.  How can my students see my planning?
    2. Doesn’t integrate with BlackBoard.
    3. Grade and attendance data seems to be trapped within the application.

    I will stick to the use of multiple and free applications until it has a process to copy data from the iPhone or iPod Touch to your laptop or desktop.  Where recording of grades and attendance is completed in one program, export is required for school specific processes so that teacher work is not increased by double input. For example, my school uses IDAttend for attendance and OneSchool for reporting. Cohort grades are centrally recorded on a network spreadsheet. As a Head of Department it would not be in my interests to have each of my teacher’s grades stored separately, and only on their device.

    So I personally will stick with Google calandar (synced to the iPod Touch calendar) for my lesson planning; iTalk and Evernote for images, notes and voice recording.  BlackBoard will still require me to use my computer so no advantage there.

    In summary, its great to see a specific education application developed for teachers, however it does not offer the services that would convince me to purchase it - yet?

    By the way readers, there’s an active feature request page HERE:

    Full details:
     Educate: iPhone & iTouch App for Teachers

    Educate is an iPhone/iTouch application designed to support teaching professionals in schools, universities and colleges. Featuring inbuilt lesson planning, student tracking, teaching strategies and eLearning tools, Educate provides teachers with a holistic approach to engaging students in 21st century learning environments.

    Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWzPFgZKY9w

    Key Features:

    Plan lessons: Educate’s inbuilt weekly planner allows teachers to personalise their timetable and plan lessons all from a single interface.

    Monitor student attendance and progress: Quickly and easily track student attendance or performance in classes via ready made scales.

    Engage students at a deeper level: Access easy to follow strategies for engaging students during individual or collaborative activities.

    Implement eLearning: Post real time content to Moodle learning spaces, anywhere, anytime. Also, access critical tools such as a voice recorder for anecdotal notes, a camera that allows you to label images and a stopwatch for time-critical tasks.

    Collaborate with other Educate users: Connect online through Facebook with other Educate users to discuss pedagogical practice, suggest application features and seek support.

    Price: $6.99 US

    Itunes Link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=313379802&mt=8

    May 19, 2009
    by jnxyz
    2 Comments

    6 Queensland Educators talk about the iPod Touch

    This new paper describes how Australian teachers are using the iPhone and iPod Touch to A. assist them as Educators, and B. to enhance learning. As such, it presents a vital survey of apps and ideas to be shared with other teachers also beginning to use this platform. Thanks to the included Teachers for their keen responses.

    6 Educators Talk About iPhone Use High Qual

    May 16, 2009
    by jnxyz
    1 Comment

    Preparing to present pt3- collaboration & interaction

    I’m now heavily down the track of preparing my workshop. The overall plan and sequence of content is set. But I don’t want to just be preaching for two hours do I? 21st century education demands collaboration and interactivity after all…

    So this stage is about connecting with peers for feedback and ideas. Rather than just going in cold, I talk to other ADE’s and educators using iPod Touch’s. I post questions on twitter, and scour blogs of other practitioners for ideas. In particular, in this stage I’ve been able to network with Megan Iemma who is doing a similarly themed workshop at the Melbourne ITSC09.

    Out of this I am able to begin incorporating not just content into my presentation, but interactive learning experiences (such as an app scavenger hunt, thanks Megan!) that will see all of us at the workshop learning together.

    February 6, 2009
    by jnxyz
    0 comments

    Mobile, ubiquitous access to 1.5 million books

    Any educators still doubting the power of mobile devices and web technologies really needs to see the following article. Not only is the around 1.5 million books that Google has scanned now available for searching and reading, but a new iPhone / iPod Touch / small-screen-optimized interface means it can now be done simply and easily from anywhere in the civilized (read cell-connected) world. Surely that must be useful for some students somewhere?
    I was only discussing yesterday with my schools librarian about what he was planning to do about physical resources vs web-based (ie cheaper, less time and resource hungry) ones… TUAW.com link with more info:

    Via TUAW.com

    Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous

    January 21, 2009
    by jnxyz
    0 comments

    PocketPhonics an example of the opportunities a natural digital interface provides

    Education apps for literacy in the lower primary school age bracket have been thin on the ground since the app store opened. However, a new program called PocketPhonics has just been released that looks set to appeal to just this market. I know of several teachers in my state of Queensland and across Australia who are experimenting with iPod Touch’s in the primary school arena – and this app takes a great drill and practice method to learning phonics and letter-sounds. 

     

    More than this though, it harnesses the devices visual, audio and even motion-sensing abilities to engage students. It doesn’t hurt that research has proven that such a multiple learning-styles approach (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) is one of the key ways to increase early success with phonics. This app is definately showcasing just what advantages a natural digital interface (in this case multi-touch and shaking to erase) can bring to education, while at the same time making learning phonics mobile. There is even a lite version you so you can try it out. 

     

    Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous