US study on student use of mobile phones.
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Category Archives: mobile
A Mobile Learning Journey
I recently gave a presentation at an event about my mobile learning journey, here are the slides.
Of course one of the challenges with a Slideshare presentation is the lack of context and what I actually said. I think it demonstrates how a presentation in isolation is less useful than the presentation in its entirety. Something that practitioners needs to consider if they are uploading presentations to the VLE or using a service such as Slideshare. Of course you could upload an mp3 recording of the presentation, but that implies you did make a recording… alas I didn’t.
Turn off that phone! Mobile technologies in the library
At UKSG’s 34th Annual Conference in Harrogate I ran a couple of breakout workshop sessions on the use of mobile devices in the library.
Is there a role for mobile devices in the modern library? What are the issues, challenges and opportunities of using mobile devices to support learning and resource discovery in the library? Is it time to stop telling people to turn off their mobile phones? From communication, collaboration, storage, notes, books, journals and more, mobile technologies are changing the way in which users can and are using libraries.
The presentation first looked at the importance of changing cultures and resistance to change, before we discussed in small groups the potential of mobile devices in the library.
Here are my slides from my presentation.
This is a recording of the workshop.
Download the recording (in mp3 format).
Nicole Harris wrote a very nice review of the session.
Mobile Web Applications Workshop
If you are going to the Plymouth e-Learning Conference then you might want to come to Mark Power and my workshop on mobile web applications.
Recent times have seen the field of mobile technology grow almost exponentially, leading to institutions increasingly recognising the importance of delivery of content and services to users through their mobile devices. In many cases this can simply be delivered using the web, optimising your websites for use on the smaller screens of today’s mobile devices. However, in some cases you may wish to deliver a service that takes advantage of the native capabilities of today’s powerful smartphones, such as GPS for location-based services for example. Or you may simply want to deliver the whole “app experience”, with touch screen interactions and interface animations.
However, with today’s students carrying a vast array of mobile devices that operate across a massively fragmented and shifting market, institutions can find themselves wondering how to deliver content and services specifically designed for mobile use most effectively. Apple’s App Store? Android? Blackberry or Microsoft Phone? Each has created their own app ecosystems.
This workshop will give delegates an overview of the how the web gives us an attractive and viable solution that can overcome the fragmentation in the mobile app ecosystem and deliver cross-platform services and content. The workshop will allow delegates to examine the potential of Mobile Web Applications to support teaching and learning and improve institutional administration. Delegates will work on potential scenarios for using Web Applications in their own institutions. Delegates will gain an understanding of the workflows and tools that are needed to build Mobile Web Apps.
The Plymouth e-Learning Conference runs from the 6th to the 8th April 2011 and our workshop is on the 7th April.
Windows Phone 7 Launch
Today saw Microsoft launch a new attack on the mobile market with Windows Phone 7.
In a market that was at one time dominated by Nokia and RIM, Microsoft are now entering a more crowded market with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android both having a hefty marketshare.
It’s not that Microsoft haven’t been here before, Windows Mobile devices have been available for years. However where Microsoft failed on these devices (same reason they failed on the tablet) was trying to recreate the desktop experience on the mobile device. They thought consumers would prefer an environment they were comfortable with, certainly that on the surface makes sense, so devices had a Start button and looked and felt like Windows XP. However the reality was that the touch interface, the stylus interface did not integrate well with a desktop like experience and as a result you got frustrated and annoyed.
Windows Phone 7 is different and has a touch interface that looks nothing like a Windows desktop.
So what did Rory Cellan-Jones ask Microsoft about the new Windows Phone 7 and what is it capable of?
Note from the video that Windows Phone 7 doesn’t do Flash.
There is also no copy and paste.
Now both of those sound familiar….
One thing that I do agree with Rory about in his blog article is
The other reason this is so important is that Microsoft has realised that all the action, all the innovation, in the world of communications technology has now moved to the mobile. It’s where the next billion consumers are most likely to get their first taste of the internet; it’s where new ideas like app stores or location-based services or augmented reality are being tried out.
I’ve said before that mobile is now and mobile is here now. It’s not that the next big thing is going to be mobile, it already is. Innovation now is in the mobile sector of the market, these are the devices that our learners are buying and using. The age of mobile is now.
It amuses me to see people still saying that mobile is going to be the next big thing in education. Our learners are already mobile and already using mobile devices, we’re playing catch up now, not setting the agenda.
So am I going to buy a Windows Phone 7 device?
Possibly.
Libretto is back!
I recently talked about how the age of mobile is now. In that post I talked about how I once had a Toshiba Libretto (long since sold on eBay).
Netbook News have posted that Toshiba have announced the release date of a new Libretto.
Toshiba have finally given a solid release date for the Toshiba Libretto W100 dual screen notebook “thing” over in Japan. Last we heard it would be arriving late August but the official word now is that the W100 will go on sale and ship on August 11 next week, so it’s certainly ahead of schedule
So currently Japan only, and no news if it will ever get to Europe. Lots of nice Sony devices have never arrived despite sucess in Japan, so I am holding out no hopes for the Libretto. The price is quite expensive too, about $1100.
What’s interesting about this device is that it has dual screens. One main screen like any other laptop and a touch screen that is used instead of a keyboard. Not sure how that would work in practice though.
I quite like the look of this, don’t think I will get one even so.
The age of mobile is now
I have been talking about using mobile devices for a long time now, well before I started working at Gloucestershire College (and all that MoLeNET stuff), well before my time at the Western Colleges Consortium (and that Mobile on a VLE presentation).
Despite protestations about screen sizes, lack of power, inferior operating systems, we are now seeing the rise of the mobile device as the next big step in computing.
The first computers were BIG and clunky and you didn’t just use them, you booked time slots to use them.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers!”
Attributed to Thomas Watson of IBM, but in fact no evidence to say he ever said it.
Computers then became the mainstay of business, something to do business on.
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
Ken Olson, president/founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
With the rise of the personal computer and importantly the explosion of the internet in the late 1990s, not only did we see computers in the home, we also saw a lot more personal computers in education.
Laptops at this time were expensive, but small portable ones were available, I really liked the Toshiba Libretto that I bought at that time.
In 2000 I was working at @Bristol in the centre of the Bristol Harbourside, one project we worked on was using the HP Jornada and using JetSend technology to “squirt” URLs to the device that would then access the webpage over (what was then) a spiffy wireless network.
It was at this point that I could really see some real benefits of using mobile devices for learning, and using devices that weren’t laptops.
Over that decade we did see the emergence of the laptop over the desktop, more and more people would buy a laptop rather than a desktop for their main computer.
During that time I did a lot more work on using mobile devices for learning, focusing on multimedia content on devices such as PDAs, Media Players and mobile phones.
I remember in about 2001 driving up the M5 and getting stuck in one of those traffic jams in the early evening. My wife was watching the Matrix on my iPAQ PDA. I had converted a ripped DVD (uh oh I know) that I had converted into a MPEG1 video file, placed on an IBM Compact Flash Microdrive and played it back on the iPAQ using PocketTV. As she watched the film people in the cars looked into ours in awe and curiosity about what was that glowing light in our car. Of course today everyone can do this, but at the time it was both clever and geeky!
“I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen.”
Steve Jobs of Apple in 2003.
The seminal presentation of mine, Mobile Learning on a VLE, at the JISC 2006 Online Conference really got a lot of people thinking about using mobile devices and put my name out there as a leader in mobile learning.
There were many others at that time who were also following the same journey as myself, people like Mick Mullane, Lilian Soon, David Sugden and others. We were all very passionate about using mobile devices for learning.
Despite our passion, we still heard the resistance from practitioners (and sometimes from learners, but usually practitioners) that the screens were too small, they weren’t powerful enough, battery life was too short.
We, with others, were very much involved in the MoLeNET programme and that has had a huge impact in FE in kick starting the use of mobile devices for learning.
Mobile devices in the last few years have also dramatically changed too. Mobile phones have moved on from phones that just made calls and SMS, to mobile computers. Apple have also changed the landscape, first with the iPhone, then the iPod touch and now the iPad.
“There are no plans to make a tablet, it turns out people want keyboards…. We look at the tablet, and we think it is going to fail.”
Steve Jobs of Apple in 2003.
Innovation now is in the mobile sector of the market, these are the devices that our learners are buying and using.
The age of mobile is now.
Firefox Mobile Browser
Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox, should be with us in a few days.
The BBC reports:
The first mobile phone version of the popular web browser Firefox is “days away” from launch, the head of the project has told the BBC.
The browser, codenamed Fennec, will initially be available for Nokia’s N900 phone, followed by other handsets.
It will later be available for Windows Mobile and Android, however it will be some time before we see it on the iPhone (if at all).
One thing which makes it interesting
The open-source browser will be able to synchronise with the desktop version.
This means you can move from mobile to desktop and back without having to worry about where you were.
As I don’t have the Nokia N900 it will be some time before I get to have a proper look.
Usability of websites on mobile devices
Jakob Nielsen has been undertaking some usability testing of websites using mobile devices.
His conclusion:
In user testing, website use on mobile devices got very low scores, especially when users accessed “full” sites that weren’t designed for mobile.
Doesn’t surprise me. Websites are usually designed by designers and often they focus on how it looks then how it works. This is bad enough when using a browser on a computer, but when it comes a mobile device as Jakob’s study shows, it doesn’t work well or doesn’t work at all.
The number of mobile devices is increasing and the amount of mobile web usage is going up as well. Designers of websites and e-learning content need to consider mobile devices now rather than wait until it is too late.
Increase in mobile internet
The Guardian reports on the surge in mobile internet use:
Google UK today revealed that mobile internet use was surging thanks to the Apple iPhone.
The head of Google UK, Matt Brittin, said iPhone owners search online 30 times more than those who use rival smartphones.
With the imminent release of the Palm Pre and the Nokia N97 I think we can expect a further increase in mobile internet use.
Just under a year ago I blogged about the increase in the use of 3G because of the increase in the number of 3G dongles. More and more of these dongles were been bought and used, partly I would suspect to availability but also falling costs of 3G.
If you take that increase and combine it with the increase in mobile internet use (over 3G), add in 3G prices falling, you do wonder if the 3G network can cope with all this traffic?
Spread over a city and a town, probably will be okay, however what happens if you concentrate the use of 3G in one space (such as a college or a conference).
Well the SXSW Conference in American suffered 3G failure due to the sheer number of iPhone users at the conference. As Wired reports
AT&T’s 3G coverage map for Austin may look rock solid, but turns out there wasn’t enough connectivity goodness to sate the hordes of iPhone-wielding geeks who descended on this artsy Texas town for the South by Southwest conference this weekend. Was the Verizon and Sprint crowd, usually consigned to the kid’s table at these hip mob scenes, having the last laugh?
Attendees with their beloved iPhone 3G handsets hoping to hook up with friends, find the next party or access Twitter to announce their location are encountering dropped calls, unavailable service or molasses-slow web access from the mobile service provider.
If every student in your college is using a 3G device, an iPhone, another smartphone or a 3G dongle, will the 3G network be able to cope? If the 3G is spread across the different networks, then this may not be a problem. However what happens if all those 3G phone are provided by the college (or only one network works on the college site) suddenly you could find that the 3G network can not cope with the traffic.
We already know wifi can be problematic it’s now looking like that 3G network coverage may also be less than perfect. Something to think about when planning the use of mobile devices and mobile internet in a college or university environment.