Mobile Learning

According to the latest figures from Forrester research, reported in one of Australia’s foremost periodicals, The Age, Australians are adopting mobile gadgets such as digital cameras, smart phones, and MP3 players far more enthusiastically than Americans:

The study found that 92% of Australian housholds owned some form of mobile electronic device, compared with just 76% in the USA.

“The disparity is even greater when it comes to digital still cameras – 69 per cent versus 51 per cent, respectively – and portable MP3 ownership – 33 per cent versus 20 per cent, respectively,” the study found.

This data correlates with my own ongoing comparisons between Australian and overseas mobile consumer markets, including the US market. I regularly buy a number of Australian and International periodicals, including the US Smartphone & PDA magazine, the UK edition of T3, and the Australian editions of T3, Roam (recently merged with T3) and Geare.

From my reading, I’ve noticed that while there’s a public perception that the US is a world leader in consumer technology, that lead is somewhat diminished in the mobile technology arena. For example, my perusal of the worldwide gadget mags makes me feel that many models of mobile phones are available in the UK and Australia well before they’re on the US market; and when they do come on to the market in the USA, many of the best mobile phone models are tied exclusively to a particular service provider. I haven’t noticed any such encumberances in the Australian mobile phone market, and I think it’s made for increased handset consumption and consumer interest here. Whatever the reason, Australia’s mobile phone stats are pretty amazing, as I recently documented:

According to the latest available market statistics, there are almost 20 million mobile phone subscriptions in Australia – or one for every man, woman and child in the country, representing near-saturation of the consumer market.

• Since 2000, Australia has had more mobile phone services than standard fixed telephones
• 2006 figures indicate that about 60% of Australian 12-13 year olds own a mobile phone.
• Approximately 10 million mobile phones were sold in Australia last year.

What does this near-saturation of the Australiam mobile phone market mean for m-learning in Australia? Well, for one thing, it is possible that there’s a greater imperative – and opportunity – for us to explore and implement m-learning strategies in Australia than for our American counterparts. It’s also possible that Australian organisations who are currently implementing m-learning strategies have an opportunity to lead the world in new and innovative learning strategies through m-learning.

Mind you, Australia is still a long way – perhaps three years – behind countries like Korea and Japan in terms of mobile consumer technology. I also keep tabs on these mobile technology powerhouses, with many of the technologies they already take for granted yet to emerge elsewhere – technologies with considerable potential to impact on social practices and educational strategies around the world, including in Australia.

technorati tags:gadgets, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, education, cellphone, smartphone, pda, digital, devices, portable, ipod, media player, technology

Jan Chipchase, anthropologist and researcher at the Nokia Research Centre, has blogged a superb article about his research into how mobile technology is changing the very fabric of human society, following his conference presentation at TED (an invitation-only gathering of some of the greatest minds on the planet, including Bill Clinton, Edward deBono, Richard Branson, and other luminaries). Jan himself summarises what he does best [emphasis Jan's]:

Research to understand the consequences of living in a planet that is truly connected – where for the first time most people on the planet have in their hands a tool to allow them to transcend space and time; the immediacy of ideas and information and that the metric for what we consider to be a big idea will in part be judged on our ability to engage the next 3 billion; the immediacy of portable objects and the functionality/services they represent will travel faster and further than anything we’ve seen – largely we’ve underestimated the speed of technology adoption (which broadly correlates to the singularity); that if you’re smart you’ll be observing street innovation and applying this to inform and infuse what and how you design;and lastly that with billions more people connected the conversation got that much larger and that if you wish to remain (or be) relevant you need to learn to listen.

Jan’s post, authored just two days after my own post about Why Handheld Learning Rocks, reflects almost identical thoughts about the adoption, immediacy, ubiquity, convergence, and functionality of handheld devices; and the need to observe how these devices are being used in the street, to inform how we apply them in designing our (learning) strategies. Jan backs up these ideas with his considerable research into the area of human interaction with (and via) mobile technology.

Dr. Paul Trafford, who specialises in e-learning systems and ubiquitous computing at Oxford University, has also posted an informative personal analysis of his own experiences with handheld learning on the Educause site, where he talks about the definition of “mobile” and where it lies between simple “portability” to full ubiquity:

Having handheld devices offers more than just enabling the same activities and thought processes to happen all over the place. In the RAMBLE project we were surprised how the use of mobile devices affected the quality of the blogs. The blogs were unusual in that they went far beyond providing rather dry staccato statements that you might reap in standard feedback questionnaires. They provided in many cases a free-flowing and highly articulate narrative that not only gave the basic feedback that was sought, but went on to draw out deeper connections, to step back and consider the wider picture, to offer critique that was based on a substantial body of evidence, accumulated over weeks of lectures, practicals and tutorials.

I showed a few extracts to a visitor from another University who had some experience running blogs with students and she remarked that the content of her students blogs were nothing like the ones that emerged in our project – she wondered what we had done to yield such richness. I don’t think we would have achieved such quality by merely asking the students to blog on their laptops or desktops. In fact, a few students made it explicit that the mobile setup enabled them to reflect in more interesting ways.

Paul’s insights certainly reflect my own experiences with handheld devices.  For me, as a “mobile native,” mobile phones and PDAs are a completely new way of interfacing with and accessing information and people, and present new opportunities through this very uniqueness.

technorati tags:jan chipchase, ted, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, education, teaching, learning, training, tafe, vte, cellphone, mobile phone, nokia

Flickr’s camera analysis pages (which uses embedded EXIF information from uploaded images to determine which devices users are taking photos with) have documented the surge in popularity of camera phones.  Camera phones are rapidly improving in quality and functionality, and their ubiquity and capability are making them a popular device for capturing images, even amongst dedicated media afficionados.

In m-learning, camera phones provide a ubiquitous tool for capturing, sharing, and reflecting on learning experiences, using web 2.0 tools such as moblogs.  They can be used to capture images or video for assessment purposes, or, beyond photography, camera phones can be used to access information and resources through 2D barcodes.

That’s why this article on taking better pictures with a camera phone, is useful for educators interested in utilising camera phones as a learning approach.  Passing these ideas on to learners could help them to maximise the quality of the photos they take using the cameras they’re already carrying around in their pockets.  In summary:

• use well-lit subjects;
• get in close;
• keep the phone still;
• take the best image first, and edit with special effects later;
• don’t throw away “mistakes”;
• avoid using digital zoom;
• experiment with White balance;
• take loads of shots and experiments;
• follow rules of composition – and then break them;
• keep your lens clean;
• observe camera phone ettiquette;
• rename your images; and
• use the highest available resolution on your camera phone.

Read more at the main article here.

(via SolSie.com)

technorati tags:mlearning, m-learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, mobile learning, camera phone, cameraphone, photography, moblogging