Thomas Edison State College makes use of USB flash drives and HotLava

TRENTON, N.J., USA Thomas Edison State College is one of the pioneers in online education. Mycentraljersey.com delivers a good article on Matthew Cooper (27) who started developing FlashTrack courses on USB flash drives which enable users to access 15 courses on their laptops (or PCs) without any type of internet access. Since July 2009 courses for mobile phones which have been created with HotLava are also available. Forbes has called Thomas Edison State College one of the leading schools in matters of technology and online learning.

Link: Thomas Edison State College http://www.tesc.edu/

Link: http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090922/GETPUBLISHED/909220338/New+Brunswick+Man+Develops+Mobile+Learning+Initiative+for+Area+College

Short paper on Mobile Learning in Japan

Found an interesting paper on Twitter today, called “Characteristics of Mobile Phone E-Learning in Japan”. The study is from several people of Ochanomizu University in Japan and -as far as I can see- although the paper is dated with 2009, it is referring to some research from 2005, which is an eternity from a technology viewpoint. Nevertheless, the results are interesting, because the main point is that not the actual technology is the problem when creating good mobile learning, but rather the actual design. The findings are nothing surprising, but the study gives some good examples.

Direct download: http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jaems/icomej/vol3/IJEMT3.69-81.pdf

Swiss 5th graders receive iPhone in pilot project

Schwyz, Switzerland. As a part of a 2year mobile learning pilot project, a class of fifth graders receive a free iPhone 3Gs. The kids can also use the mobile in their time away from school. The idea of the project is to help them integrate the phone into their “learning lives” and become accustomed to several mobile learning possibilities which the school will continously start to offer. The program is sponsored by Swiss telco giant Swisscom and will be evaluated by a group of teachers. Mobile learning is still new in Switzerlands schools, but this is one of the most interesting projects I have seen so far.

Before the project started...

Links:

Translated Blog of the responsible teachers
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=de&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.projektschule-goldau.ch%2F&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0=

Swiss television feature (German)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tp6-Yxbr0E

mLearning Twitter & YouTube Noise of Week 32

Some interesting links I picked up on Twitter and Youtube this week:

1. iApp “myCost”: This is an iApp which should teach students to handle their finances better. You can type in your salary and the price of something you’d like to buy. Then it will automatically figure out exactly how long you have to work. Unfortunately, the app is not free, which is kind of disappointing.  Sources: http://twitter.com/kathleenpage/statuses/3119401928 // http://mobileieducator.com/?p=1
2. South Tyneside links to the movie page of the Mobile Learning Institute: http://www.mobilelearninginstitute.org/21stcenturyeducation/index.html . Really good stuff for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.  Source: http://twitter.com/STLA/statuses/3101736849
3. The E-Learning Queen has released a free PDF on E-Learning and some mobile learning: Direct download http://zenzebra.net/elearner-survival-guide.pdf Source: http://twitter.com/maryadams711/statuses/2900321094
4. Mobile chalkboard? Hmm… interesting concept and commercial, but nothing new here I think. Nevertheless worth a quick look:
5. iPod and iPhone plugin for Wordpress makes WP sites a lot nicer to view. Interesting for educators as well: Source: http://twitter.com/darrenhoyt/statuses/3133127505 Direct link:  http://www.bravenewcode.com/wptouch/
6. Interesting short demo video on another iPhone mobile learning.

New Mobile Augmented Reality browser

I stumbled upon an interesting article about the Dutch company SPRXmobile. Together with layar.eu, they have created the “Worlds first” AR-Browser for smartphones. I don’t know whether their claim about being first is really appropriate (see my earlier post http://mlearningblog.com/?p=289), but nevertheless it looks really interesting. The way it works is simple enough: open the browser and look at your surroundings with the camera lens and the smart phone display. In addition to the “real” environment, the user also sees additional information such as apartments available for sale, the location of friends or events via a social network and other locations of interest. Needless to say that this is extremely interesting for mobile learning. Check out the short video on it. Interesting stuff, but unfortunately only a demo for its use with real estate ads.

As of now, the Layar browser needs a camera, GPS and a compass. iPhone 3G s anyone? Yes, according to a recent press release the browser will become available for the new iPhone. As of now it is available for the very few Google Android phones.

Links:

http://www.sprxmobile.com/

http://layar.eu/

Disclaimer: mLearningblog.com does not endorse any products or services on request. The views in this blog are the authors personal opinion.

Palm Pre and mobile learning (Part II)

Wow. Only a few days left until the Palm Pre is finally released in the US. Finally!  It’s time again for an executive summary of some information, which will be relevant for mobile learning enthusiasts.

According to several sources, the Palm Pre will be fully synchronizable with iTunes. This would mean that -at least for a short time span- Palm Pre users can at least download podcasts and vodcasts to their Palms. I wrote “for a short time span”, because Apple is likely to update the iTunes software to disable synching for its possibly strongest competitor to date.

Other sources write that the Palm Pre will already be fully supported by existing IT infrastructures and can therefore be used for corporate mobile learning within a short time period. In case any of the mobile learning material is very sensitive and a Palm Pre is stolen, it can also be wiped clean via remote access. This is not a new function on the market, but it certainly will help to ease the mind of paranoid chief learning officers.

The Palm Pre will also support Google, meaning that Google Docs, Gmail and the Google Reader can be used. Furthermore Google contacts can of course be synched with the device.

Other contact synching is also possible with Facebook and Exchange. According to PalmPreCentral, the Palm Pre will even be able to handle multiple Google and Exchange accounts at once. Quite impressive.

These are of course only a few of the facts which could become relevant for mobile learning on the Palm Pre. For further information, check some of the following links:

http://www.precentral.net/pre-browser-does-google-docs-reader

http://www.precentral.net/gmail-and-facebook-users-time-resign-yourself-extra-contacts

http://now.sprint.com/nownetwork/productPage.html

Sky Map Mobile Planetarium for Android

Back from my blogging hiatus/vacation I found this interesting article on the Sky Map app for Android. Sky Map is a free app, which lets users virtually browse the sky by pointing their Google phone towards the sky. The app uses the GPS functionality, the accelerometer and the compass of the GPhone to “know” in which direction you are pointing. If some of you, like me, have forgotten what exactly the “big dipper” is or simply want to show your students a more interesting way to learn about astronomy, this is certainly an interesting app.

Google Mobile Blog: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/05/sky-map-for-android-mobile-planetarium.html

Young kids connect school with home via Futurelab’s Dream Catcher project

I just watched a short video by Futurelab about the Dream Catcher program. Dream Catcher is a mobile learning project which lets young kids capture what they have learned with mobile devices and then encourages them to share their experiences with their teachers, their parents and their friends. The idea is not only to connect what they are learning at school with what they are learning at home. Furthermore, only very few young children can explain what they have learned in school all the time. If they actually show their parents on their mobile device, it will also improve the parent-child communication.

Source: http://www.futurelab.org.uk

What I really like about the idea is its simplicity. Any school could set this up with a few second-hand digital cameras on a very low budget. Dream Catcher shows that many great ideas can be very basic. I believe that there is a lot of potential there, especially considering how easy many cameras, netbooks and mobiles are to use these days. Those 4-year old kids handle these digital devices, like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

I really hope to read more about similar projects in the future.

Check out the video here:

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/multimedia/video/Video1245

Mobimanage vs. Mobisitegalore: 2 web-based mobile site cms compared

A few days ago I stumbled over “mobimanage.com”, which reminded me a lot of mobisitegalore.com. So let’s do a quick comparison between the two. The whole purpose of both of these sites is to turn regular websites into mobile websites and manage them on a web-based CMS.  Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, there is a catch. With both systems you have to build your mobile website from scratch. I could find no possibility for an XML export (or any other export) on your regular website to the mobile site, which would be by far the most convenient way to build your mobile site.
As far as I could see from the information on the site, mobimanage offers 3 payment plans from 10$ to 25$ to 50$ monthly, which I personally find a little steep, considering mobisitegalore.com offers almost the identical service for free. Mobimanage offers 3 basic services: Tourism, real estate and political websites. However, during my test it seemed that you could create any type of site you wanted, so I guess this is just mobimanage’s way to attract customers from those types of businesses. Mobisitegalore makes no such “limitations”. All in all, both sites offer a decent service for anyone who wants to create a mobile website. Both sites can be used for educators to deliver content to their students, trainees etc.  Still, the fact that mobisitegalore is free will certainly motivate some people to choose it over mobimanage. Personally, I’d recommend mobisitegalore. Still, at a maximum of 50$ a month mobimanage is very affordable for larger projects, so you might give both a try and decide for yourself.

Mobimanage

Mobisitegalore

Mobimanage LLC is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mobisitegalore is a project by Akmin Technologies, which is based in Chennai, India.

Links:

http://www.mobimanage.com

http://www.mobisitegalore.com

Correction May 5, 2009: In response to Seth Spillman’s comment I would like to point out that mobimanage indeed does have an XML-export feature, which in my opinion greatly enhances their service.

A quick look at Easy Meet

Not really brandnew, but interesting for people who haven’t seen it yet. I watched an interesting short presentation (or should I call it an ad?) on Nokia Easy Meet. The service enables participants from Laptops, PCs and of course mobile phones to exchange multmedia files and meeting minutes. Slide sharing, conference chats and remote content access is also possible. The system works with S60 browsers, Opera, Firefox and Safari but not with IE6.

Disclaimer: mLearningblog.com does not endorse any products or services on request. The views in this blog are the authors personal opinion.