Mobile Learning

According to Yahoo and Engadget, the French are leaping ahead, issuing 175,000 USB drives to Parisian high-schoolers next term.  Each one will be loaded with open-source software aimed at “further reducing the digital divide”.

With the Portable Apps movement maturing and providing some seriously cool tools, these USB sticks loaded with software will certainly help these lucky pupils in their studies.

“The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser,
Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as
OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant
messaging. [However,] the exact mix of software will be defined by the company that wins
the contract to supply the sticks, but will be open source, [a spokesman] said.”

While only a portion of students across Paris are receiving the USB sticks, if the program is successful, there is a possibility of expanding the implementation next year.  Hmmm – if it is indeed successful, maybe we should look at “expanding” this idea to Australia…

technorati tags:usb, storage, france, french, portable apps, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning

Tony Vincent at Learning in Hand has reported a new freeware math game for Palm and Windows Mobile users called ArithmeTick.  The game helps students become faster at mathematical basic skills – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with points awarded depending on how quickly the problem was answered, and extra time for each correct answer.

This would be a good game for drilling basic skills at primary level or with literacy and numeracy support groups among older learners.  Educators involved with teaching math to secondary or adult learners may also be interested in Math4Mobile, which facilitates learning about more advanced mathematical concepts – equations, graphing, fitting graphcs, and quadrilateral geometry.

technorati tags:math4mobile, arithmetick, math, mathematics, education, pda, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning

Judy Breck at the Golden Swamp blog has reported an alien invasion!

According to eSchool News,

“Researchers from Harvard, MIT, and the University of Wisconsin have developed a project that uses “augmented reality” to teach math and literacy skills. The project involves teams of students gathering data on handheld computers to explain why aliens have landed, and in the process students “interview” virtual characters they encounter at certain GPS hot spots. The researchers say the project holds great potential for engaging students and teaching high-level skills.“.

Learning was never so fun when I was young.   This project makes use of one of m-learning’s most relevant strengths, by facilitating situated learning: students use their PDAs to access learning materials that are directly contextualised by their physical location.

technorati tags:m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, situated, harvard, gps, aliens, education, educational, technology

The MobilED project is one of the most inspiring and interesting of all of the mobile learning projects currently in use around the world.  It’s a partnership between South African and Finnish research and educational organisations, aiming to design “learning environments that are meaningfully enhanced with mobile technologies and services“.

The MobileED team’s latest papers and publications are now available here, addressing issues such as the use of “audio wikis” as well as information on the technical infrastructure being researched and developed by the team to support mobile learning (the MobilED platform).

There’s a wealth of documented and demonstrated experience to help other educators and developers who are involved with implementing mobile learning approaches.  The video case studies on the website are also worth viewing, explaining some of their projects such as the audio encyclopaedia (allowing text-to-speech information from Wikipedia to be accessed using a normal mobile phone), and providing some insight into the actual use of the MobilED kits.

technorati tags:mobiled, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning

Stephanie Rieger – who’s spent many years involved with Canadian education, and has a well-established interest in mobile technologies – has just posted a fantastic round-up of her experiences at BETT, the Educational Technology Show in London (which claims to be the world’s largest education information & communications technology event in the world).

She’s got hands-on reviews of some of the mobile learning products exhibited there, such as the CTAD M-Learning Author for Pocket PC and the Educational Digital Assistant (a PDA developed in consultation with educators at the Handheld Learning), her encounters with representatives from some of the great m-learning projects happening around the world such as Learning2Go and FutureLab, and recommendations on a number of publications:

“I picked up some useful publications at the Learning and Skills Network booth including “Learning with mobile devices : research and development – a book of papers“, “Mobile technologies and learning: A technology update and m-learning project summary” and several series of papers from the MLearn series of conferences. On a related topic, they also had copies of “The use of computer and video games for learning – a review of the literature” which includes some mobile specific research as well as “Computer Games and Simulations for Adult Learning” (Burkbeck University of London) which I can’t seem to find an online version of but includes a great case study of the BBC’s very successful Skillswise series.”

It’s well worth reading through her experiences in their entirety, here. Thanks for sharing with us, Stephanie!

technorati tags:mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, eda, bett, educational, technology