Tag Archives: mobile phone

Mobile Learning Thoughts

Often when people mention mobile learning they automatically think about mobile technology, notably mobile computers, specifically Windows Mobile PDAs and iPhones.

For me it is a different philosophy, much more about learning when mobile.

It was walking around different colleges which made me realise that when it came to mobile learning, it wasn’t about getting PDAs running learning content (though I am sure there are scenarios which they would enhance and support learning), but was much more about using the devices our students already have.

These could include

One end result of this was a presentation I gave at the 2006 JISC Online Conference, available here, which looked at how to use a range of consumer mobile devices for learning. I also made a video of the presentation which was made available to delegates at the conference for their mobile devices.

Since then, three years later, the market has moved forward quite dramatically, it is now even easier for learners to access audio, video and web content on their mobile devices. Devices such as the PSP, the iPhone, the Nintendo DSi are more widespread and are also much more connected and can play a lot more content.

One of the key factors has to be how easy is it for the learner to access that content?

Another barrier to overcome is to realise that the mobile device is only one tool that a learner may use for learning. So though a learner may listen to audio, or view video on a mobile device, assessing their learning may take place using a traditional computer or a pen and paper. For me mobile learning is not about learning on a mobile, but learning when mobile.

A (paper) notepad can be used when mobile, though mobile devices do allow for a more interactive, collaborative, engaging learning experience.

Certainly this model is how my institution is moving forward in terms of mobile learning.

33 things I do on my mobile phone

1.    Broadcast live video using Qik.
2.    Upload video to YouTube, TwitVid.
3.    Upload photographs to TwitPic, Twitter and Flickr.
4.    Use Twitterfon to engage with my community of practice on Twitter.
5.    Use my phone as a wireless hotspot using Joikuspot.
6.    Listen to music, podcasts and radio.
7.    Watch videos, films, YouTube and TV shows.
8.    Use it to access my calendar.
9.    Show off photographs that I have taken.
10.    Take photographs.
11.    Shoot video.
12.    Access Maps, find out where I am and where I am suppose to be.
13.    Check the weather.
14.    Play games now and again.
15.    Do maths with a calculator.
16.    Buy songs and Apps from iTunes.
17.    Manipulate photographs and create graphics.
18.    Access the web.
19.    Access Facebook (well not doing much of that to be honest).
20.    Read books and comics.
21.    Create notes and post to web.
22.    Stream video from my iMac to my TV.
23.    Learn other languages.
24.    Scan QR Codes.
25.    Make music.
26.    Control Presentations.
27.    Make lists of things to do…
28.    Record audio and upload to web.
29.    Satnav
30.    Access main computers remotely.
31.    Send SMS and MMS.
32.    Send e-mail
33.    Make phone calls….

G2 mobile phone now available in the UK

After the Google G1, many people have been waiting for the second incarnation.

Well you need to wait no longer, T-Mobile now have the Google G2 mobile phone on their website.

t-mobileg2

Capture and share the fun with the T-Mobile G2 Touch. The 5 megapixel camera captures the moment, then its just one touch to load your pictures and videos to Facebook, Flicker and Twitter. You can get comments on your photos instantly with alerts straight to your phone, and even check out your friends’ online albums in the live gallery. Get online and make it your own: there are thousands of great applications available to download from Android Market™. And communicate your way using the large interactive touchscreen.

The specifications aren’t exactly detailed, but looks like it can do everything that the G1 can do. There is now a 5Mp camera, and like the G1 can do video, mp3, web, etc…

So am I going to get one?

No, just got an iPhone 3GS so unlikely to get the G2 now.

I am not a fan of the design or styling, a little too plastic like and what’s with the weird bend for the microphone. I can understand it for ensuring that the microphone is closer to the mouth, but the design just confuses me, it doesn’t work from a design perspective.

Phone Applications

Nice little BBC news item on the growing market for applications for smartphones.

Sales in the world’s mobile phone industry are expected to fall this year but downloads of phone applications is one area which is thriving.

Applications create new things to do on a phone and almost a billion of them have been downloaded to Apple’s iPhone.

Rory Cellan-Jones examines the emerging new trend.

Nokia N73 mobile phone

Mobile users at risk of ID theft

BBC reports on a survey about the possible identity theft issues from mobile phones.

A survey of London commuters suggests that 4.2m Britons store data on their mobiles that could be used in identity theft in the event they are stolen.

Only six in 10 use a password to limit entry into the phones, according to the survey by security firm Credant.

The survey found that 99% of people use their phones for business in some way, despite 26% of them being told not to.

Of course from an educational perspective, if an institution is giving mobile devices to students, they do need to be informed about what data the students put on that device and what to do if the device is stolen?

Transforming the World

A quarter of the world use the internet and half the world now has a mobile phone.

The Guardian has an interesting article on an UN report.

The speed and scale of the world’s love affair with mobile phones was revealed yesterday in a UN report that showed more than half the global population now pay to use one.

The survey, by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the UN, also found that nearly a quarter of the world’s 6.7 billion people use the internet.

I assume that if you are reading this that you more than likely have access to the internet (unless some kind soul prints out my blog articles for you to read) and if you do have access to the internet then more than equally likely you have a mobile phone.

The world is changing and the world is changing fast.

Transforming the World

We can’t as a sector afford to stand still, nor is it merely a matter of moving from one state to another. Society and our learners are changing and we need to ensure that not only we keep up with the technological changes, but that we also support our learners to keep up too.

The problem with ILT and e-Learning is that it will never be a place we can get to, it is much more a moving target and we need to keep moving to keep up.

For example new services come and go.

I use to demonstrate Gabcast which was a fantastic free podcasting tool, now it is no longer free. Should you stop using it, well no, it might cost money, but it might be money well spent. College systems may need to change in order to make it simpler for them to pay for services such as Gabcast, but the issue is less money (colleges spend money on lots of things) and more about processes and procedures.

This doesn’t mean that you should never use Web 2.0 and other free services.At the end of the day, things change, things close down.

My view is that institutions and individuals need to be more flexible, responsive and robust in how they use services and resources so that when things do change, break, close, or whatever, it has a minimal impact on the end user, the learner.

G2 Google Phone

Vodafone and Google at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona have announced the G2 HTC Magic, the second Google phone.

G2 Google Phone

The BBC reports

A new phone based on Google’s operating system Android has been unveiled by Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The touchscreen HTC Magic will feature a 3.2 Megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS, but no slide-out keyboard.

The G2 phone does not have a keyboard like the G1, but does feature improvements to the Android operating system which have come from user comments who use the G1.

Actually it’s not called the G2, but the HTC Magic!

A new kind of barcode….

So what’s this then?

A new kind of barcode....

Any ideas?

If you’re thinking it’s just a abstract graph of some kind, well you’re not quite correct.

Nor is it my new logo!

Neither is it an abstract representation of the readers of this blog.

Well if you’re thinking it must be some kind of mobile phone barcode then you’re going down the right path.

I mentioned QR codes on this blog ages ago… back in September 2007 as it happens and this is not a QR code, but it works in a similar fashion.

It’s a Microsoft Tag.

Yes Microsoft have developed their own version of mobile phone barcodes, which require their reader and require you to register in order to create them.

It’s all very typical Microsoft.

mstagsplash1

You can download a reader for your phone from gettag.mobi and when I did from my Nokia N73 it recogised my phone and I downloaded a .sis file which installed the application onto my phone.

In order to create a barcode (or should I say tag) you need to register and have a Microsoft Live ID.

You can then create a barcode for an URL or text. Though I did see that if you include an URL in your text, when you read the barcode, the reader takes you straight to the URL and you never see the text. So no chance of including your blog address in some biographical text for example. You can have a thousand characters in your text barcode, but I found I needed less for it to work (about 980).

There are only three options for the barcodes in terms of format, pdf, wmf and xps. You can specify the size of the code in terms of inches (no metric measurements here).

There are no web versions available, and on a superficial level you can understand that, why would you need an online version of a mobile phone barcode, just use the computer to access the site.

It did appear to work faster than my Kaywa reader and goes direct to the website rather than through the advertising supported Kaywa site that happens to me when I use a QR Code.

Overall I am not sure about this, not sure if it will catch on or whether we should stick with QR Codes.

Nah, stick with QR Codes.