Twitter was on the BBC Breakfast News this morning, Mr Stephen Fry aside it wasn’t (in my opinion) a very good item. See for yourself.
Tag Archives: news
Five Hundredth
500!
Well this is my five hundredth post on this blog. Since June 2007 when I restarted my educational blogging I have made five hundred blogs covering a range of e-learning subjects from Facebook to YouTube. I have covered MoLeNET and JISC.
There have been 51,782 views of the blog (at the time of writing) and the busiest day was Friday, March 7, 2008 when the BBC linked to my blog post on the launch of the BBC iPlayer for the iPod touch and iPhone. The most popular post was on the Sidekick Slide.
Since the blog was started I have added video and now a regular podcast.
Here’s to the next 500 posts.
Photo source.
Mobile internet usage on the rise
BBC reports on the fast growth of mobile internet usage.
Mobile internet use is growing while the number of people going online via a PC is slowing, analyst firm Nielsen Online has found.
Some 7.3m people accessed the net via their mobile phones, during the second and third quarters of 2008.
This is an increase of 25% compared to a growth of just 3% for the PC-based net audience – now more than 35m.
One thing which the survey also found was:
It also found that the mobile net audience was younger and searched for different things.
What this demonstrates is that our learners will be (or already are) using mobile devices to search for things on the internet.
Our learners will also as a result be more likely to utilise their mobile devices to access college web services, so we should ensure that ours are accessible from a mobile device.
The dog 8 it
So what excuses do your learners come up with for not handing in their assignments or homework.
The Register reports on a survey of a thousand teachers
‘My dog ate it’, ‘I left it on the bus’, and ‘someone stole it’ – they were the classic excuses in our day for not handing in homework. But modern youth are increasingly blaming absent homework on technology, a survey’s revealed.
‘I lost my laptop’ and ‘I finished my homework, but then deleted it by accident’ were also used by kids. Printer problems is another justification.
So what modern technology excuses are your learners using?
Photo source.
Online time ‘is good for teens’
BBC report on teenager internet usage.
Surfing the internet, playing games and hanging out on social networks are important for teen development, a large study of online use has revealed.
The article is not just about social networking, it also looks at learning.
The MacArthur Foundation’s education director, Connie Yowell, concluded that the work creates a new way to look at how young people are being taught.
“Learning today is becoming increasingly peer-based and networked, and this is important to consider as we begin to re-imagine education in the 21st century,” she said.
Some of us already know this, but it is nice to have such a report to back up our experiences.
50,000 Visits
Well the number of visits to the blog has gone past 50,000.
Yay!
I have to admit I was expecting to pass the 50,000 mark back in September, but after a quiet summer the number of visits dropped off quite fast and it’s only now that I am getting the traffic levels back up.
Since the blog started (again, well I did have a WCC blog) I have started to add a lot more video and audio.
Over the next few months, the podcasting should become a regular feature and after my experiences doing the JISC e-Learning Online Conference I hope to do a lot more video.
So that’s 50,000 visits, here’s to the next 50,0000.
UN communications chief predicts four billion mobile phone subs by year’s end
Engadget reports on the growing increase in mobile phone ownership across the world.
…the United Nations communications chief has boldly predicted that half of planet Earth’s population will be hooked on some sort of mobile phone before 2009 dawns.
Though how many of those subscriptions will include unlimited data I suspect will be very small and I suspect an even smaller number of those phone users will be using them for learning.
Google phone to be on sale in UK in time for Christmas…
I did say in my previous post.
I wonder how long it will be before it comes to the UK.
Well according to the BBC it will be in the UK in time for Christmas on T-Mobile.
The T-Mobile G1 handset will be available in the UK in time for Christmas.
The first device to run the search giant’s operating system will feature a touch screen as well as a Qwerty keyboard.
It will be available for free on T-Mobile tariffs of over £40 a month and includes unlimited net browsing.
Other features include a three megapixel camera, a ‘one click’ contextual search and a browser that users can zoom in on by tapping the screen.
I think it has potential, but is it going to match the iPhone?
I don’t think it will have the buzz that the iPhone had. However the applications that the Google Phone could have and the way that they are installed on the phone means that it may have more potential as a learning device than the iPhone.
Google unveils phone
Well it’s out there now.
Google unveiled their phone, it will be from (in the USA) T-Mobile and is made by HTC.
Not much to look at is it?
The key with this phone, is don’t look at the phone, look at the operating system.
Images from Engadget who attended the event and who say:
We finally, finally got our mitts all over the very first Android device, the T-Mobile G1 — hanging out in the crowd, waiting for the official announce, naturally — and so far we like what we see. The phone is surprisingly thinner than we thought it would be, and it feels pretty solid in your hand (though they’ve opted for an almost all plastic device, no metal here). The keyboard seems usable and reasonably well thought-out, and the slider action is like butter, with a nice little swoop for good effect.
I wonder how long it will be before it comes to the UK.
Think of the potential of learners being able to use Google Docs whilst on the move.
Google Phone to be launched today
In the US today sees the unveiling of the widely anticipated Google Phone.
The BBC reports that
The first mobile telephone using Google’s Android software is due to be unveiled on 23 September.
It will be available on the US network of T-Mobile and is expected to be on sale in October.
The first device to run the search giant’s operating system will be a handset from Taiwanese firm HTC called the “Dream”.
No price for the phone has been given yet but it is expected to be below the important $200 (£107) price point.
So why the interest in the phone?
Well as the BBC article goes on…
Google announced its plans for the Android phone software in November 2007 with a declared aim of making it easier to get at the web while on the move.
More and more people are using their phones less for making phone calls and more for using the web whilst on the move. Apple’s iPhone showed that you could use the web on the move, will Google’s Android do more than just the web?