Interesting presentation on the development of mobile technologies.
Thanks to Andy Black for pointing this out.
Category Archives: mobile
Keeping the mobile out of the classroom, why?
Here’s a question.
Does your institution ban mobile phones in the classroom? Does it just ban the use of mobile phones in the classroom? Or does it just ban the inappropriate use of mobile phones in the classroom?
Virtually everyone in the UK has a mobile phone these days, according to statistics there are more mobile phones then people – that I understand I usually carry two and have been known to carry three!
The reason for asking was this blog post and the comments below, about a school in the US which bans mobile phones and even uses metal scanners to detect them.
Students Pay a Price (Literally) for Cell Phone Ban
These students have phones, use them for communication, entertainment and social networking, but don’t use them for learning (as they are banned).
Now I realise like any teacher that a student using a phone inappropriately can disrupt a class and that’s a fair comment, but not a student can use a book to disrupt a class (throwing or dropping it (especially if it’s a big book)) but do we ban books?
A student can disrupt a class with a pencil and paper, do we ban those?
A student can disrupt a class with their voice, do we silence all students?
The key with any great learning process is the relationship between teacher and student, get that right and you are onto a winner.
Disruption happens with that relationship breaks down, not when a phone rings.
Meme: Passion Quilt
Well Steve Wheeler over at Learning with ‘E’s has set me up with a chain letter a challenge.
Right. It’s an interesting challenge and looks a little like a chain letter, but here goes. Mike Hasley, of TechWarrior Blog, has laid down a challenge for me and 4 others to add to a collection of photos that represent our passion in teaching/learning. I have to tag it ‘Meme: Passion Quilt’ and post it on a blog, Flickr, FaceBook or some other social networking tool with a brief commentary of why it is a passion for me.
My first thought was to ignore it, as I do not like chain letters and chain blog posts are not much better… however I did go and look at some of the photographs and the commentary.
So I have decided to take part, initially I didn’t know what image to use and then I remembered one I had taken on my mobile phone on my way to a meeting about mobile learning.
As I was on my way to the meeting with my pockets filled with a range of mobile devices sitting on the floor in the corridor was a student with an iPod touch watching a video. I asked him nicely and took his photograph.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a real passion for mobile learning and that though when other people mention mobile learning they automatically think about mobile technology, notably mobile computers, specifically Windows Mobile PDAs. 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.
So in my own college to see a learner happily using a mobile device in college gave me a real buzz.
As it happens this student was watching something not course related, but the fact that he had this device, was willing to carry it with him and was using it in college, made me realise how important it was to get mobile learning embedded into the college, as it should and will enhance and enrich the learning experience for a wide variety of learners.
I have a real passion for mobile learning and with designing learning scenarios and activities which allow learners to use their mobile devices and this photograph demonstrates to me why this is the direction we should be going along when we start to think about mobile learning.
The next part of this quilt is to challenge five others, well Steve has poached quite a few of the bloggers I know, but not all…
So I lay down the challenge to Lisa Valentine, Andy Black, Lilian, David Sugden and Dave Foord.
Maybe they will also take this challenge, or maybe you will.
Apple iPhone’s Ease of Use Encouraging Mobile Internet Usage
Macrumors reports on how the fact that it is so much easier to use the internet on the iPhone that this is encouraging more people to access the internet on their iPhone.
Indeed, it appears that iPhone owners are using the internet many times more than their non-iPhone counterparts. Google revealed that there are 50 times more searches originating from the iPhone than any other mobile handset. The discrepancy was so great that Google initially thought it was a mistake. This finding has also been reported by O2 who found that 60% of U.K. iPhone users are sending or receiving more than 25 MB of data a month.
Read more.
Mobile Internet
BBC’s Click has a nice article on the mobile internet.
It is estimated that just one in five people with phones that are able to connect to the net actually do. But the iPhone, however, is having a profound effect on the willingness of its users to go online.
Better late than never…
Well Bill Thompson has finally joined the 3G mobile internet generation as he talks about in his column on the BBC News site.
Regular columnist Bill Thompson is enjoying the new freedom offered by his laptop and 3G connection working together.
For example in the article he says
And it can’t be long before someone realises that the external dongle isn’t really needed, and offers a laptop with a built-in 3G modem and a slot for a SIM card.
Oh those have been available for a year or two now! They might even make PC Card, oh they already do. Oh I know how about use a bluetooth connection to a 3G mobile phone instead and use that as a modem, oh that’s old news as that can be done already.
For someone who is so tech savvy I am surprised that he hadn’t joined the party when 3G when it was first released about four years ago. I double checked the date on the article and it is January 21st 2008 as I thought it might just be an old article.
What’s next?
Bill Thompson finds a quaint way to buy and sell stuff through a site called eBay.
Bill Thompson discovers that you no longer need to visit a bookstore to buy books, a web based retailer called Amazon is able to send you books that you order online.
Bill Thompson finds that he is no longer tied to his house to make phone calls, with what is called a mobile phone he can not only make but also receive calls while outside and on the move.
Bill enjoy your new freedom with 3G, for having had a 3G connection for a long time, it is vital to the way I use the net and work, oh and apologies for my sarcastic rant.
Is the UMPC the future?
The BBC reporting from CES in Las Vegas after talking to the likes of Intel says
The desktop PC’s days of dominance could be numbered as laptops and ultra-mobile PCs begin to reap the benefit of ever greater, and more efficient, computing power.
Are we going to see the end of the desktop PC?
Given a choice I much prefer a desktop over an ultra mobile PC (umpc) for what I would call working (you know writing blog entries, abstracts, reports, long e-mails, etc…)
However when it comes to browsing, video, audio, I am quite happy with a mobile device.
I do like the Sony VAIO UX1XN as it comes (as standard) with a docking station which allows you to use it both as an umpc on the move, then when back in the office, slide it into the docking station and connected to a keyboard, mouse and (large) monitor I have my desktop.
So is the UMPC (and laptops) the future of computing, from the consumers’ perspective (and thus our learners) I think it certainly is.
“Mobile devices will deliver a more personal internet” says Intel
The BBC reports from CES that Intel see mobile devices as core to the future use of the internet.
Mobile devices will deliver a more personal internet within five years, using chips with the power of today’s desktop PCs, Intel’s head has said.
Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, Paul Otellini predicted mobile devices could soon “augment reality” by pulling data from the net in real time.
He said the industry was on the verge of creating a “new level of capability and usefulness to the internet”
20 Mobile Internet Applications
Mashable has posted an interesting list of twenty mobile internet applications which could be used for mobile learning.
2008 is the year of the mobile internet, right? We hear that every year. Let’s forget about predictions and focus on what’s available right now. We bring you over 20 mobile internet applications that you’ll actually use.
Gatsb.com for example allows you to publish cameraphone photos direct to the web.
Useful list.
iPod touch, impressions
Gloucestershire College is undertaking the Glossy project as part of MoLeNET and as part of that I am evaluating and reviewing mobile devices that we may use as part of our project as well as seeing how they work so when we create (and convert) content for use on a mobile device we can ensure that it works on the majority of devices that our learners actually use.
Well I now have an iPod touch, and though I have touched one before, to actually use one for quite a bit of time, is a different kettle of fish. I am very impressed still with the device. Apple have done an excellent job.
The touch interface is very impressive and compared to the typical Table PC or Archos touch interface, the iPod touch interface is more fluid and responsive, and though I don’t like the fingerprints all over the device, the use of the finger is very intuitive.
It is these fingerprints which will probably mean that the device is not suitable for use in a classroom environment with the institution providing the devices. Learners will more thank likely look after their own iPod touch, but a class set would soon get very grimy and would need to be cleaned on a regular basis. That’s not to say this would not happen to other mobile devices, I only need to look at my phone and my iPod to see fingerprints all over them, but there is a difference when you are using your finger to poke and swipe to actually use the device.
Having said all that I can certainly see learners been able to use this interface quickly and easily, more so if webpages (ie web content) is designed for the interface.
The screen quality is excellent and images and video look excellent.
Syncing took a bit of time, it’s just an 8GB device, but I did put over five hundred photographs on the device as well as 4Gb of music and podcasts. This is something to consider when first using the device, it will take time to initially charge and synchronize.
The browser is probably the best I have seen on any mobile device, the way you can intelligently zoom in and out makes browsing webpages really nice and you don’t feel you are losing out with the small screen (well it’s a lot smaller than my 20″ iMac).
Overall I do like the iPod touch. it is one of the best mobile devices I have ever used and I have used a lot.