Mobile Learning

Mogopop is a free Web 2.0 site that allows you to create interactive movies, “sites” and books for iPods. It incorporates an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editing system, and a built-in iPod preview window so you can see how your content will look on your iPod, as you create it.

Here’s a video introduction to Mogopop:

http://resources.mogopop.com/help/what_is.mov

Given that iPods are probably second only to mobile phones in terms of ownership, and provide rich media features and storage capacities not yet available in mobile phones, I’d say using iPods as a publishing platform might be very useful for a number of educators out there.

(via e-Clippings (learning as art)) 

technorati tags:mogopop, ipod, content, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, apple, interactive

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

Oliver at MobileCrunch reports on a very cool move by Google towards supporting mobile learning content. According to the Google Blog, Google Page Creator (a very simple, WYSIWYG web page maker for everyone with a Google account) now automatically creates mobile web pages.

That’s right: create a standard web page in Google Page Creator (whose output looks simple and beautiful on normal PCs, by the way, and is highly customisable), and a mobile web equivalent is automatically generated – without you having to even think about it. In line with W3C’s Best Practices for Mobile Web, the content is optimised for the particular digital device accessing the site.

In the same post, Google announced that Google Pages users can now have up to five different websites attached to their user account. That is a fantastically generous offer from Google, and should open up loads of possibilities for educators to develop mobile web pages. I’m not sure if Google accounts still need an invitation to get one, but if anyone needs a Google account and requires an invitation, email me and I’ll send you one. At this stage, I have 98 invitations I can give out.

technorati tags:google, pages, labs, page, creator, mobile, web, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, mobile learning

Here’s a set of great free Java midlets for learning about several secondary-level mathematical concepts, such as graphing of various equations, equation solving, sketching graphs, fitting graphs to data, and quadrilateral geometry: Math4Mobile.

The functionality of each application has been based on sound pedagogical principles: for example, the development page states the development team’s understanding that “learning is a social-cultural process and teachers and peers are part of the individual cognitive process”. The social-constructivist aspects of teaching and learning theory are reflected in the functionality of these midlets – they integrate with the multimedia messaging capabilities of phones, to enable graphs, diagrams and work to be captured and shared between peers, teachers or mentors. The midlets take full advantage of the mobile phone keypad for interaction and data input, and each one is supported by a set of lesson plans/learning activities that utilise each midlet.

All of the midlets work on mobile phones supporting Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME) with a screen resolution greater than 128×96 pixels (which, by my recent research, includes the vast majority of mobile phones sold in Australia within the last two years). Technically, the implementation aligns favourably with best practices in mobile application design.

Math4Mobile is a project of the Institute for Alternatives in Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Haifa. Thanks to Arik, from the development team of Math4Mobile, for bringing this to my attention, and well done!

Maths can be a challenging subject especially – when some students have out of date math books and calculators. Studying hard sometimes isn’t enough: get the help you need with new applications that are available now.

technorati tags:java, j2me, midlet, mathematics, maths, graphic, algebra, equations, geometry, social, constructivism, connectivism, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, graphing, education, flexible, learning, mobile

Tocmag is a new Web 2.0 tool that allows users to develop short (6 page) multimedia “magazines” for mobile phones. Each magazine can incorporate text, images, audio and video, and can be downloaded to mobile phones and stored as a “Java Game” – allowing a learner to access the mag later without re-downloading or re-connecting. By incorporating a range of media into small content modules like this, teachers could quite easily use this platform to develop digital mobile “Learning Objects” for delivery to mobile phones and PDAs.

Because each mag can be created and downloaded for free to an unlimited number of mobile phones, this makes Tocmag a potentially useful new tool for educators interested in delivering rich media content to learners (or, indeed, for getting learners to assemble their own Tocmags for themselves and each other).

The mags utilise the Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME) platform – found in the vast majority of mobile phones and smartphones – so most learners should have no trouble accessing the content.

(via Pocket Picks)

technorati tags:tocmag, learningobject, web2.0, magazine, java, j2me, video, audio, text, photos, images, mlearning, m-learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, flexible learning, flexible, learning, education

Combining elements of game-based learning and mobile learning is this neat, free resource: Escher Mobile. It’s a program that runs on Java-enabled mobile phones, PDAs, and PCs, and enables the user to create Escher-esque symmetrical images, thus enabling the learner to “effortlessly master the main crystallographic concepts: planar groups, asymmetric unit, Hermann-Mauguin symbols, General and special positions, Symmetry operations”.

Incredibly, it’s true. Not only does this application make the fundamentals of crystallography a cinch, but it’s been designed to actually be a lot of fun (e.g. the page above loads up with a web-enabled version of the application, which allows you to make crystalline versions of a cheerful rubber ducky – check out the very cool P6mm rotationally symmetrical (smirk) “Duck Crystal” – no pun intended – on the right) (click it for a larger version).

The web page makes acquiring the software on your phone as easy as possible too – it offers delivery via email, WAP or SMS direct to your phone, or a downloadable version for the user to transfer to their phone themselves.

Finally, it offers users the ability to save images created with the program, email them to anyone, or even submit designs to the Mobile Escher Gallery, on the Escher Mobile website. What a fantastic, fun, m-learning resource!

Thanks to Alex Hayes and Dr Jeffrey Crass of TAFE NSW for sharing this site with me!

technorati tags:game, crystallography, escher, mobile, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, crystal, symmetry, cellphone, gamebasedlearning, j2me, flexiblelearning, clcommunity, networkedlearning, e-learning, elearning

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As the Mobile Life Blog points out, “it’s obvious this would arrive one day” – media, direct to your mobile phone.

Mobipod is a UK-based service that promises to deliver “some of the top UK podcasts … straight to your mobile phone as soon as they are released”. Registration is free (for the time being at least), but Mobipod admit in fine print that download charges apply. The Mobile Life Blog comments bemusedly:

I only ask myself, if I would want to transmit such large files over GPRS. Without a flat rate, this can mean quite a big sum of money.

Wouldn’t a simple mobile blog with short audio intros (100KB), without downloading 30 to 40 minute podcasts right away, be more useful? And why not use QR Codes, like in QR Clip?

It’s still an interesting concept, however – rich media content, straight to your mobile device, as soon as it’s available… well worth keeping an eye on!

In a related segue between Web 2.0 and mobile learning, a recent article on education in the health industry highlights potential benefits to adopting Web 2.0 and mobile learning approaches for health professionals:

Although podcasts are not interactive in the same way as wikis and blogs, mobile learning through audio is showing some promise, said the researchers. The paper noted that downloadable, scheduled audio was already being used by many medical schools and journals, such as New York University and the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Students are now more mobile than ever, and often find themselves multi-tasking, working in part-time jobs, or located some distance from a parent institution on professional practice placement,” said the study.

“A similar situation is faced by clinicians in remote and rural areas, who often lack training and proper academic support because of their geographic isolation from the large central hospitals and academics centres of excellence in the main cities.”

The study cited in the article is available here for interested educators or industry professionals.

technorati tags:mobile, podcast, podcasting, mobipod, mlearning, m-learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, audio

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W3C have been actively pursuing standards to enable mobile browsing fromt he web a reality, through their Mobile Web Initiative.  Following the release of their Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 earlier this year, they have now provided an alpha version of an automated guidelines checker, to help check mobile websites for conformance with their new recommended standard.

If you’re developing web-based learning content for mobile devices, I’d recommend working with the new W3C standard and using their guidelines checker, as we move towards improved usability and standardisation on the mobile web.

technorati tags:mobileweb, w3c, standards, guidelines, mobilelearning, m-learning, mlearning, mobile-learning

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YouTube and Google Video are all very well, but there’s an awful amount of lip-synching teenagers and viral advertisements to wade through to find videos that are licensed for and suitable for use as mobile learning video content.

While still in Beta, a new site being set up with a focus on instructional video content, called VideoJug. This CNet report highlights some of the potential uses of, and sources for, the site’s content – which is quite sophisticated and has lots of very interesting clips already available.

technorati tags:video, mobilevideo, instructionalvideo, mobilelearning, m-learning, mlearning, youtube, googlevideo, videojug

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M-learning is starting to really take off, with more and more attention from developers, platform and application providers, and the mainstream press.

This article, written for developers, explores the possibilities of creating content with using Adobe Captivate (a program that provides animated screen capture, text/audio captioning, and authoring), and publishing resources as Flash Lite 2 “Learning Objects” for mobile delivery. Flash Lite 2 is a version of Adobe Flash for delivering animated and interactive applications to mobile devices.

A tutorial and some useful advice on development and deployment is provided.

technorati tags:flashlite, flashlite2, mobilelearning, learningobjects, mobilelearningobjects, mlearning, m-learning, adobe, captivate, flash

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