Mobile Learning

Research firm Gartner have reported a worldwide slow-down in the sale of PDAs, with global sales increasing only 5% in the last year, and Palm not bothering to release a new model in 2006 at all, according to a post on MobHappy.

Smartphones – devices which integrate the functionality of PDAs with mobile telephones – continue to boom in sales, with an increase of 75% in the last year, and a market now eclipsing PDAs 4-to-1.

This emulates my ideas on m-learning platforms – that connectivity is likely to become the “killer app” of m-learning, and connectivity options should be considered vital when choosing a PDA for teaching and learning. The Mobhappy post continues:

Next target for the mobile is the stand alone MP3 player, about to be consigned to a historical curiosity, as one of the fastest product life cycles – from launch to extinction -ever to be launched.

As the storage capacity in mobile phones continues to increase (20GB models are already slated for commercial launch early next year), and with just about every new mobile phone sold now incorporating a range of media capabilities, it may very well decrease the need to own an independant media player.

technorati tags:pda, smartphone, cellphone, mlearning, m-learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, clcommunity

Blogged with Flock

The Sydney Morning Herald (a reputable Australian newspaper) reports: “A 24-hour school with no traditional classrooms and where students use mobile phones and laptops to learn is being built in Sydney.”

The school will support 1700 pupils from kindergarten to Year 12 who will be able to attend flexibly between 6am and 10pm, access their work and lesson materials at any time via the internet, and access online tutorials between 8pm and 10pm.

“Students will come online and enter into a dialogue with their tutors,” said Greg Whitby, executive director of schools in the Parramatta diocese.

…The traditional classroom concept will disappear, replaced by “learning spaces”. The school will be referred to as a “learning community” and teachers will be known as “learning advisers”, Mr Whitby said. “The walls of a classroom become redundant because students are able to access real-time, any-time learning.”

Technology would be a major focus of the school that will boast a “meshed wireless environment”, he said. “It will be an e-learning environment using m-learning [mobile technology] tools.”

This could mean a student might be sitting in the playground carrying out school work via a mobile phone. Laptop computers will be another learning tool.

Is this the world’s first designer m-learning school? Is this a new way of learning that leads the way for teaching and learning? Are computer- and mobile- learning systems, pedagogies, and policies mature enough to support a fully-dependant school of some two thousand staff and students? Are kindergarten students ready to depend on and be supported by those systems?

My personal reaction is that this is a visionary and very brave venture. I believe that m-learning poses new opportunities for teaching and learning that can engage, immerse and empower learners, but I don’t think I ever would have dreamed of something like this coming happening so soon.

It seems an audacious move, but a brief web search shows that Greg Whitby has a track records as an outstanding and visionary educator; he has previously championed the cause of new learning principles and methodologies such as blogs and wikis, and his education office won a prestigious award last month for Business Excellence in Staff Training and Development. He certainly sounds like a good leader, and I hope to be able to report the success of his project in this blog in future.

Thanks my colleague Bec, who brought this news article to my attention!

technorati tags:m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, school, flexible, learning, education, smh, technology, clcommunity, networkedlearning

Blogged with Flock