All posts by James Clay

nokia

Charging… Charging…

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I was recently asked why I carry so many mobile devices, usually I am carrying a phone (or two), a couple of iPods, a PDA (with Sat Nav) and almost always have a laptop or UMPC with me too.

Why you may ask?

Why indeed, especially as my usual phone, the Nokia N95, is a phone, does SMS, can play music, play video, has GPS and can access the web over 3G or wifi.

The reason is battery life.

Charging... Charging...

If I use my Nokia N95 like that the battery will only last about three hours!

One of the banes of my life is battery life, especially of mobile devices.

If I use my Nokia N95 for anything more than just showing people, it kills the battery. Use the web, it kills the battery. Take images and upload them via Shozu, it kills the battery. Broadcast live video using Qik, it kills the battery. Use JoikuSpot so that I can access the internet from my MacBook Pro and iPod touch, it kills the battery.

The same can be said for other devices I carry, but if I spread the load then I can get through the day without worrying about something running out of charge or not been able to communicate or get information.

Even though battery technology has improved over the years, part of the problem is that the way in which we use technologies has changed as well. Ten years ago my phone was a phone and that was all that it did. Now my phone is much more and can do a lot more, as a result the demand on the battery is much higher than it was back then.

Some people will wallow in nostalgia about their Psion or Palm device which used AA batteries and would last a month. Well that is all very well, but most of those devices had black and white screens, did not do web or e-mail (let alone IM or Twitter), nor did they do audio or video.

So what do I do then?

Well with my laptop I carry a spare battery (this is the reason why I don’t have a MacBook Air (as well as the price)); with my UMPC, the Samsung Q1 I have a powerpack which gives me another nine hours of battery life; I have car chargers in the car for multiple devices and I almost always carry a six way gang to conferences and events!

I was also interested to read this article on MacWorld about a new technology which means I would only need to charge my device once a month!

Mobile computing devices that need charging once a day would need it just once a month, with a new type of chip that uses a thirtieth of the power of conventional chips and is seven times faster by virtue of underlying logic that embraces error in its calculations.

Only issue is that it may take four years to come to market…

So I will need to continue to carry chargers (why do that all have to be different), carry spare batteries and my trusty six way gang.

kindle

New Amazon Kindle

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Amazon have released a new Kindle. It has many new features and is smaller and thinner.

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

Large Selection: Over 230,000 books plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs available

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases $9.99, unless marked otherwise

One day we might get one in the UK, one day….

Interesting article in the Guardian yesterday on the lack of piracy in ebooks, thanks to AJCann for the heads-up on that one.

jisc

QR Codes on your Computer

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I have been looking at QR Codes for a while now, though apart from the odd presentation or handout, I haven’t made great use of them across my college.

Recently though I have been thinking about using them more, partly down to their use as part of MoLeNET and in the main as Gloucestershire College is part of a JISC Innovation project with the University of Bath looking at QR Codes.

In case you don’t recall, QR Codes allow information to be sent to a mobile phone via the camera. Simply put the information or link is encoded into a barcode type graphic.

This is a QR Code.

QR Codes on your Computer

You then take a photograph of the barcode, and with special reader software you are able to convert the barcode into information, which could be a link to a website or just plain information.

Back in 2007 when I was looking at them, very few of our students had cameraphones (that has changed) and most phones did not have the right software (that has also changed).

Today it is very easy to find software for a range of phones that allow the phone to read QR Codes.

However one of the BIG constraints on the use of QR Codes is the need to access the web on your phone when reading QR Codes. Though the cost of 3G has fallen considerably generally it is not something you will find on many pay as you go phones and is often an extra on monthly contract phones. Very few modern phones have wifi, so though we have a student wireless network, few of our students would be able to access that network over their phone.

Yesterday at a QR Codes Workshop ran at Gloucestershire College by Andy Ramsden from Bath, we were discussing QR Codes and he mentioned that Quickmark had a QR Code reader for a webcam.

I went to the site, downloaded and installed the software on my Samsung Q1 which has a built in camera.

The software works very well and I was impressed with how easy it was to use.

QR Codes on your Computer

To me this makes it very easy to start rolling out the use of QR Codes has if you have a computer then it is very likely that either it has a webcam, or you can get a webcam quite cheaply for it. As a result you will be able to scan in QR Codes using your computer as well as your phone.

This means that lecturers can add QR Codes to handouts that link directly into the appropriate part of the VLE or to another website.  There are other uses as well.

Now just need to find a QR Code reader that runs on Linux so I can use it on an EeePC and one that runs on OS X for my MacBook Pro.

stuff

HP UK pulls Linux from all new netbooks

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The Register reports on HP’s pulling of Linux from all new netbooks.

HP has decided UK consumers don’t want Linux-based netbooks. Actually, it appears to believe business buyers don’t want the open-source OS either.

It emerged today that the company will not now be bringing its Mini 1000 netbook to the UK – at least not with Linux on board.

I liked the HP 2133 model and have ordered one to show MoLeNET projects (and my college) the potential of such netbooks in enhancing and enriching learning.

Our experience with the Asus EeePC showed that the fast boot time and reliability of Linux on underpowered netbooks was a real advantage over Windows.

Are the new HP netbooks really fast then?

alt, podcast

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #012: It’s Snow Joke

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Recorded during the height of the snow at the beginning of February 2009 the panel discuss the role that learning technologies and communication tools can have in supporting colleges and schools that get closed because of the snow.

This is the twelfth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, It’s Snow Joke.

Download the podcast in mp3 format: It’s Snow Joke

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

It's Snow Joke

James is joined by Di Dawson, Lisa Valentine, David Sugden, Dave Foord and is joined later by John Whalley.

Shownotes

  • The view from Di’s office.
  • Ping.fm which can be used to send the same message to various micro-blogging and picture services.
  • Spinvox a service which converts audio into text. Allows you to phone into your blog, convert voicemail to SMS, and much more.
  • Gabcast is a simple way to make podcasts, by just phoning in…
  • Dim Dim is a free to use online conference and presentation tool.
  • Elluminate another online presentation tool which was used at the recent LSIS eCPD Launch Conference.
  • Instant Presenter as used for the MoLeNET online conferences.
  • Oovoo which is an alternative to Skype and can be used for four way video conferencing.
  • Ustream is a online video broadcasting service.

John Whalley’s final comment, as I didn’t give him much notice on the podcast recording.

Thought on one thing to do if it snows – have a series of general podcasts prepared on a ‘non-mainstream’ area for your subject, distributed early in the course.  Ask learners to review if can’t get in to college.

Apologies for the poor sound quality at time on the recording, which we are putting down to the poor weather!

twitter

Twittersheep

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There are quite a few Twitter tools and services out there, one I have found recently and is quite interesting is Twittersheep.

Twittersheep

What Twittersheep does is create a Wordle style word map based on the biographical description of your followers.

It’s a kind of one off Twitter service, but what it does is indicate the sort of people you follow, as you can see from mine, learning and e-learning are included in a lot of my followers’ biographical descriptions.

alt, blog, flickr, m-learning, twitter

It’s mobile and it’s glossy

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The 5th February sees the launch of the LSIS eCPD event in London. Not sure how many people will turn up due to the snow. I am thought about not going, though it was aright when I left, it has got heavier back home and even now it looks quite thick out of the train window as I write this.

I am running a workshop at the event which is looking at mobile learning. Unlike the MoD event, this time I have forty-five minutes which is longer, but is still not really enough time!

In the session I hope to get the delegates to discuss and talk about how mobile technologies can be used to support, enhance and enrich the learning experience of learners. I am also hoping (as I have done at previous workshops) the delegates use the same mobile technologies to post their reflections and views online.

The workshop blog can be found here.

The podcast channel (we’re using Gabcast) can be found here.

Some people will be posting to Jaiku and Twitter and I am also hoping to send images to Flickr, as well as video to Seesmic. There may even be some Qik video as well.

Even if you are not at the event, I hope you can still join in with the workshop by contributing to the stuff posted online adding comments, or joining in with the Twitter and Jaiku discussions.

The first session (as is the rest of the day) is being broadcast online using Elluminate and you can find out how to access the online stuff on the ALT website.

If people turn up it should be fun.

keynote, m-learning

Technology in education and training: a leadership issue

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A joint event between Becta and the MoD looking at the transformative impact that using learning technologies can have on education and training.

I delivered a ten minute presentation on how mobile learning is having an transformative impact at Gloucestershire College.

It is always a challenge to deliver a 61 slide presentation in just ten minutes!

No it wasn’t death by Powerpoint (partly as I was using Keynote on a Mac) but think of it as more as a video with a narration by me.

Always disappointed that I have only ten minutes which never allows time for the audience to think about what I am presenting on, no time for discussion, debate, reflection; no opportunity to engage with the technology, use the technology.

Ten minutes is never enough.

However it went down really well with the audience.

Though to be honest there was thirty minutes at the end of the day which did give an opportunity, but it was just thirty minutes.

Okay what about the rest of the day?

Well as is typical at these events, lots of presentations, lots of content, lots of Powerpoint slides, but I wonder if much learning happened? Certainly according to the feedback it stimulated debate and thought, so maybe I am being a little negative.

I know that at these events that part of the issue is that the organisers and stakeholders feel that they need to cram the event full of short presentations in order to “transfer information” and meet the needs of the differing stakeholders, as in everyone has to have their say and present their view or vision.

I would argue that sometimes you need to take a step back and ask yourself, what is the aim of the event, what are you trying to get out of the event?

As a delegate you should also be asking yourself what are you expecting from the event and what preparation did you do prior to the event?

The whole day was not entirely presentations and there was a panel session, some discussion sessions and a hands-on session. My view though was that the weighting was wrong with the presentations taking up too much of the day.

Or is it that I just don’t like listening to lots of presentations.

iphone

Flash for the iPhone (well possibly)

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One of the disadvantages of the iPhone is the lack of Flash support. Yes you have h.264 support for YouTube and BBC iPlayer, but many websites use Flash for navigation, and I have found it frustrating at times.

I have blogged before about the possibity of Flash for the iPhone, but another more interesting rumour has surfaced from Appleinsider.

Once thought to be building Flash for the iPhone mostly on its own, Adobe has mentioned at the World Economic Forum that it’s not only continuing work on the animation plug-in but has teamed up with Apple to make it a reality.

I hope that this rumour gets confirmed and we do get Flash for the iPhone.

Flash for the iPhone (well possibly)