Mobile Learning

TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia Studio (one of the best screen recording and video editing tools around) are offering the full version of Version 3.1.3 for free download. This is a terrific tool for all educators to create resources as well as for learners to create their own digital stories and videos – so get it while it’s hot.

Click here to download Camtasia Studio 3.1.3.

Click here to request a software key to register Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 as a fully licensed version.

You also get the option to upgrade to Version 5 of Camtasia Studio, which incorporates export capability for various mobile devices. However, if you create your video in Camtasia 3, you can use a separate converter to create videos for mobile devices… but that’s another blog post.

(via The Freebies Blog)

Tags: camtasia, video, studio, techsmith, editor, editing, free, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, media, mobile-learning, mobile learning, education, digitalstories, digital story telling

This video demonstrates what can be achieved by the convergence of mobile and virtual technologies. Created as a promotion for Wellington Zoo (New Zealand), it allows printed codes to “come to life” using a mobile phone. As you move your mobile phone camera around the code, a virtual 3D model rotates, pans and zooms as if it were an invisible spectre standing on the surface, viewable only through the camera lens:

Download (FLV)

While this demonstration uses a proprietary format for the printed tags, it’s quite possible for other optical symbologies (such as QR Code tags) to be used for exactly the same purpose, since they incorporate orientation information in the tags themselves (the three large squares in the corners of each code), as well as data-link information.

This use of mobile devices also points to the use of mobile devices as future platforms for virtual worlds and educational simulations using tools such as SecondLife and the (open-source) Croquet (and its educational variant, EduSim). In my opinion, we should see touchscreen-interactive virtual worlds appearing on mainstream mobile devices within the next two years – with the corresponding ability for all of us to merge a mobile, virtual existence with our mobile, real one.

The potential applications of such a technology in education could be enormous!

(via Mobhappy)

Tags: qrcode, qr code, edusim, secondlife, croquet, virtual worlds, vr, virtual reality, mobile, phone, cellphone, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, interactive