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
Tags: mobile/miniaturisation · uLearning
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?
Tags: cloud computing · mobile/miniaturisation · wireless communications
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
Direct link to book search:
Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous
Tags: Future · mobile/miniaturisation · uLearning
Not to start any disputes as to which Smartphone is better because several modern platforms are now capable of the feat I’m about to report, but can your phone do this?
Can it: ”Look for files on your remote home or office computer and download those files to your device or e-mail them to a friend or colleague. ’
ReachMyFile‘ provides easy, secure, instant access to remote files over cellular (3G, EDGE) and Wi-Fi networks”. In other words, can you browse you home computer and access, download, email etc its files? THIS is what the mobile, wireless, cloud computing, everywhere or ubiquitous computing is all about. Local storage capacity becomes a non-issue with this kind of capability.
For Education, there a few implications. Firstly, in the coming years it may mean closed, safe school networks can be easily bypassed by students ‘beaming’ in their own files. But secondly, and on a positive note, it means that no assignment or homework can be left at home!
Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous
Tags: Connectivism · Future · mobile/miniaturisation · wireless communications
Netbooks, those super-small but just capable-enough laptops, have been around long enough now that their impact can be measured in more than just how many have been released (very many) or how much they have been hyped. While the One-Laptop-Per-Child program that started it all is encountering difficulties at the moment, Education departments the world over have still embraced the mini-laptop concept as the best way of delivering 1:1 laptop rollouts in a cost-effective way.
Tangible proof of the impact of this new class of PCs is showing up in sales figures – the following Appleinsider article reports on recent US sales data showing that Acer has re-taken the 3rd spot at the expense of Apple, which has fallen a place for the first time in some time. Acer’s success is reported as being due to the success of its strong Aspire Netbook line, while Apple has no products at present in this clearly growing category. Apple’s Steve Jobs recently opinioned that the iPod Touch and iPhone were its equivalent, but maybe the current harsher economic times will force Apple’s hand, making the many Mac-using schools of the world rather happy I imagine.
Article is HERE:
> http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/14/apples_share_of_us_pc_market_slips_to_8_at_hands_of_acer.html
Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous
Tags: mobile/miniaturisation
http://twitter.com/digidirections/status/1107349472
“Mobile Devices Seen as Key to 21st-Century Learning http://tinyurl.com/a95lap ”
- digidirections (@digidirections)
Jonathan Nalder
www.jnxyz.net
www.mLearnxyz.net
Sent from an iPhone
Posted via email from Jonathan’s posterous
Tags: mobile/miniaturisation
