Mobile Learning

I went to check out CeBIT Australia yesterday to spy out the latest innovations in educational mobile technology. There was lots of the usual – IT service providers, the word “solutions,” and booth-babes aplenty – but a few terrific new m-learning gizmos as well.

Having heard lots about their development overseas, I was particularly rapt to check out some pico-projectors in the metal… and what’s even cooler is that these ones are Aussie designed and made, with a release due later this year. The Digismart (from Digislide in South Australia) is a tiny “pocket projector” that displays a fluid, monitor-sized image on a screen a short distance away. The image below does it no justice, as it’s hard to see how small it is – the entire device is smaller than my hand print, and is certainly small enough for the technology to be integrated with mobile devices such as phones or media players in the future:

We had a go with projecting a Pixar short film on a screen, and while the brightly-lit exhibition hall made things challenging, DigiSlide are anticipating that the release model will be over three times brighter than the engineering sample on display.

I anticipate that picoprojectors like the DigiSmart will become very useful tools in the kit of mobile teachers and learners of the future, for sharing information and ideas on the go and for making teaching and learning more mobile and more rich.

Other innovators interested in DigiSlide’s technologies can check out their website at http://www.digislide.com.au

Tags: digislide, digismart, pico, projector, projectors, pico-projectors, picoprojectors, mini, pocket, mobile, led, australian, cebit, 2008