Mobile Learning

Thank you to Stephanie Rieger, who continues to inform and inspire me.  She’s posted a comment on an earlier post to let me know the Good News – and I’m not just talking about Christmas. It seems that Adobe have released a new version of the Flash Lite Player, which is free of charge and capable of playing standalone SWF files.  You can download it here.

What does this mean for educators?

Well… for one, it means that developers whose favourite IDE happens to be Flash – (like, say, me, for example!) – are going to have a lot of fun, creating new learning experiences that can be deployed to mobile- and web- based learning environments and learner devices.

It also means that if you’ve got a favourite Flash file which you’ve used in the past to deliver learning experiences to learners on the web… it’s quite possible that that material could now be utilised in mobile environments as well.  Here in Australia, Flash is used heavily in the development of Flexible Learning Toolboxes, and the use of Flash was previously a considerable inhibitor to repurposing Toolboxes for mobile devices; now, it seems, porting these valuable resources for mobile use has come a step closer to reality.

Now… does anyone have a wish list of mobile Flash applications for education that they’d like me to develop and make available here?

technorati tags:m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, flash, flash lite, adobe, macromedia, swf, player, clcommunity

Source: M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2006.

According to international market research firm M:Metrics, a study across 7 countries indicates that Italian teens are leading the charge towards mobile social networking, with 70% of 13-17 year-olds having engaged in mobile social networking in the month October 2006, and 50% having sent a photo message during that month (compared with just 6.3% in the USA in the same month).

“Much as teens were the early adopters of PC-based social networking applications, they have proven to be the innovators in the mobile arena,” said Paul Goode, vice president and senior analyst, M:Metrics. “Although teenagers and young adults make up only six to 10 percent of mobile subscribers, they generate more than their fair share of mobile content.”

Goode also described the relationship between 3G penetration and mobile content and usage:

“There is a direct correlation between 3G penetration and video messaging,” observed Goode. “With the proliferation of better networks comes moderately-priced, highly capable devices that are appropriate for younger users. As better, cheaper devices enter these markets on faster networks, we would expect mobile content consumption to increase significantly, particularly among this highly-connected demographic.”

(via C.Enrique Ortiz Mobility Weblog)

technorati tags:social, social web, web 2.0, mobile 2.0, teen, young, myspace generation, 3g, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning

I first came across these quotes last year, but lost the link until Ewan McIntosh posted them again on his Edublog.  Back in September, Karl Fisch cited David Thornburg’s book Edutrends 2010: Restructuring, Technology, and the Future of Education (1992) in a presentation, and it has since been circulating around the Blogosphere.  The quotes provided below show how there has always been resistance to change and progress in education; yet that progress has subsequently become fundamental in its own right, to the point that further innovations have been challenged.

“Students today can’t prepare bark to calculate their problems. They depend on their slates which are more expensive. What will they do when their slate is dropped and it breaks? They will be unable to write!”
Teachers Conference, 1703

“Students today depend upon paper too much. They don’t know how to write on slate without chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?”
Principal’s Association, 1815

“Students today depend too much upon ink. They don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil.”
National Association of Teachers, 1907

“Students today depend upon store-bought ink. They don’t know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words of ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education.”
The Rural American Teacher, 1929

“Students today depend upon these expensive fountain pens. They can no longer write with a straight pen and nib (not to mention sharpening their own quills). We parents must not allow them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of learning how to cope in the real business world, which is not so extravagant.”
PTA Gazette, 1941

“Ball point pens will be the ruin of education in our country. Students use these devices and then throw them away. The American virtues of thrift and frugality are being discarded. Business and banks will never allow such expensive luxuries.”
Federal Teacher, 1950

In my own experience over the last ten years as a student, developer, administrator, manager, and teacher with computer-based learning systems, I can recall many examples where the use of computers and the Internet have been challenged and resisted as teaching and learning tools; but that resistance has been gradually eroded over time, and uptake has increased.  Even so, there are now nay-sayers who doubt the use of Web 2.0 and social web tools such as blogs and wikis, or the use of mobile technologies as competent and useful aides in teaching and learning.

As history repeats itself, these quotes speak volumes about current innovation in education, and the resistance shown by some to the use of new technologies such as mobile phones, PDAs, and digital media players as tools for teaching and learning.  At each step, there will be resistance; if there’s one thing we can count on always being the same; it is that things will always change.

technorati tags:mlearning, mobile learning, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, innovation, technology, progress, change

Samsung seems to have become a world leader in digital innovation, with new technologies in 2006 eclipsing those of more established manufacturers such as Sony.  In particular, their mobile phone component technologies have been breathtaking.  Samsung now hold the titles to the world’s slimmest mobile, the mobile phone with the largest capacity memory, the mobile with the highest megapixel phone camera, the world’s slimmest mobile LCD technology… and the list keeps growing.

Now Samsung have released a cellphone with an interface device they call the “optical joystick” – which works a bit like a touchpad on a laptop, enabling a cursor on a mobile phone to move anywhere on the screen.  It’s deployed in one of Samsung’s latest Asian models, the V960, which also incorporates a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth and GPS capabilities, as well as a light sensor that adjusts the creen’s brightness automatically depending on ambient light conditions – a good way to extend battery life, as LCD screens are the major consumer of power in mobile devices.

Sounds like a great new idea for making mobile devices more powerful and easier to use; if it’s well-received, expect to see similar interfaces in a ll kinds of devices, from digital music players, to GPS devices, to wristwatches…

technorati tags:hid, hci, human-computer interface, mobile, cellphone, mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, optical joystick, mobile phone, samsung