Four years is a long time in technology, but how much has happened since 2011?
Back in November 2011 I was asked by the AoC to present at a conference with Donald Taylor on emerging technologies and how FE Colleges should be preparing for them.
My slides and Donald’s are in this slidedeck.
My notes from that presentation are here, but how much has changed since then and had education really embraced and started to embed these emerging technologies.
James and David Sugden talk about pedagogy, e-learning, learning technologies and stuff.
This is the seventeenth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Pedagogically Sound.
Download the podcast in mp3 format: Pedagogically Sound
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James is joined by David Sugden.
Shownotes
Photo source.
Research from the University of Rennes has concluded that using the Nintendo DS Brain Training game “does no such thing”.
As reported in The Telegraph
However how many of our learners play Scrabble?
Graham Brown Martin on the new Game Based Learning forum says:
The use of Brain Training on the Nintendo DS in Scotland had better results.
What do you think? Is the use of games such as Brain Training just a waste of time and money, or are they tools that allow us to engage with disaffected and younger learners (or even adults) for whom traditional assessment methods do not work.
Photo source.
gamesindustrybiz has an interesting and informative interview with Marco Minoli from Slitherine Software.
Slitherine Software are a games based company but with a slant.
Well, it’s very simple – we make history-based games. That’s our core, and I think while there are other companies who make a variety of products, we have a very clear idea of what we want to do. That’s what’s important for us – our licenses and the types of games we create.
It has to be cultural and entertaining – history is culture, and we don’t want people to notice that they’re actually learning something while they’re playing, that’s the goal. Because retail hates edutainment and culture, they just don’t like it. As soon as you say “culture” they tell you they won’t sell it.
The goal for us has always been to get people to learn by stealth, and movies like Gladiator or Saving Private Ryan – they’re entertainment, but they’re also giving some educational learning content too.
Though making a lot of PC software, they also see the PSP as having real potential as an edutainment device (though like most people I can’t stand the term edutainment).
But I think the PSP is more of a suitable platform right now, and I think at the moment it’s the console has the most potential to target new consumers.
From a learning perspective I do believe that the PSP has a lot to offer learners, and certainly my experiences with our MoLeNET Glossy project last year back this up, the PSP was the most used and popular mobile device we used, over other devices such as the iPod touch and the Asus EeePC.
Will be interesting to see if the PSP starts to have more educationally orientated content, the Nintendo DS certainly at the moment seems to have more non-gaming titles in its catalogue, though PSP sales outsell DS according to Minoli.
I’ve seen sales charts for some territories now and a top ten PSP game sells more than a top ten Nintendo DS game.
What do you think, is the PSP the future of mobile learning?
