Yesterday I finally got my hands on a paper copy of the LSN/JISC TechDis ‘Go Mobile’ publication, which I initially heard about back in October at the Handheld Learning 2008 conference, and I must say that so far I am impressed with the amount of useful information it gives and resources it suggests that could potentially lead to much improved learning experiences for a wide range of learners.

The book (which can be ordered online from LSN or is also available to download as a pdf) focuses on how mobile learning can benefit all users in different ways but can be particularly beneficial for learners with disabilities. The case studies described are easy to read and give lots of ideas for how these pieces of handheld technology (mp3 players, mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, handheld games consoles, ultra mobile PCs, digital video and voice recorders) can be used to benefit specific needs.

The companion DVD (in the back of the book … or available online from the JISC TechDis website) contains a huge amount of information with loads of really easy to follow guidance on how to create text, image, audio and video resources (from both the tutor and learner’s point of view) for the mobile devices, using a lot of things that are free or you are likely to have access too already. My favourites so far are:

• using Powerpoint and a free GIF animator (UnFreez) to make animated images for a mobile device … click here for a ‘walkthough’ of how to do this
• making use of a BT phone with the 1571 answerphone service enabled and access to the account online to create an audio mp3 recording … click here for more details

… but I am sure I will find quite a few more useful tips yet.

Well worth a read!

Having just returned from the 2008 Handheld Learning Conference in London I wanted to share some of the inspiring stuff I saw and heard … and some of the things it has made me think about …

A summary of my main thoughts (in no particular order) following the event:

• Great stuff going on out there with mobile devices for all ages of learners
• Learners are inspired by using the technology, according to everyone who is using the mobile devices with them
• There are lots of problems but it isn’t stopping people
• There’s nothing earth shatteringly technical about what a lot of people are doing with the devices – photo, video, audio, internet, uploading/transferring …
• The devices mentioned the most were PSPs, Smartphones and eeePCs …
• … but lots of those who have piloted mobile devices seem to be moving more towards enabling learners to use their own devices
• Wireless access for learners is one of the keys …
• … as is getting the IT team on board from the very beginning as they are the ones whose job it is to provide the service being asked for by teachers and learners
• When starting a project you need to think about scaleability and sustainability from the beginning, especially if you are funding it all yourself
• Risks are involved in trying anything new … but surely the greatest risk is in doing nothing (Laurie O’Donnell)

The highlights for me:

Learners Y factor (with Jonny Ball), with the 3 winners listed below:
(As with all things that rely on technology, eventually something goes wrong … as it did with the voting technology … we had to rely on a ‘hands up’ system for choosing the winners of this competition!)

Year 6 learners and the N800′s (Nokia smartphones)

• Learners had one each for a year, which they could also take home
• Used for wide range of things … recording field trips, mind maps, writing summaries in literacy
• Used in conjunction with computers and a VLE
• Presented at the BETT show; filmed by BECTA

Schome –  Time Explorers Y factor using Second Life

• OU Project
• Used a Second Life Island to collaborate and share with 50-200 young people from across the country/other countries
• Lots of the sessions within SL were student led … history projects
• Session format tended to be one learner researched then used SL to present and further develop/explore ideas … Roman roads, aqueducts, Pompeii
• The students who were presenting to us met for the first time face to face at HHL08

 Year 4 learners and the PSPs

• Asked for own ideas about how PSP could be used
• Portuguese dictionary was one idea – created in Powerpoint by the learners who then had help to put it onto the PSPs
• Now children have developed a French dictionary and British Sign Language resource

Two of the inspiring presenters
Steven Johnson … made me think more clearly about the positive uses of games in education; made me feel good about watching ‘Lost’ because of the complex skills I must be using as I try to work out what on earth is going on … made me want to read his book ‘Everything bad is good for you’, around which his presentation was based.

Dana Boyd ... made me appreciate that there is a lot more going on with social network sites than just socialising online and that just because something is popular with young people (Facebook, My Space) it shouldn’t be assumed that ‘adults’ should jump right in and use it too for their purposes (education).

And my final thought …

Becta are reinvigorating the use of technology to support teaching and learning with their Next Generation Learning initiative …. England have their FE focused mobile learning Molenet project for another year …. Scotland have a very clear direction with regard to technology and learning … BUT there was no-one from Wales at the event … do we want to be involved in the mobile/handheld learning move … we don’t want to be left behind, do we?

I arrived at Emirates Stadium (home of Arsenal for those of you like me that don’t follow football) for the MoLeNET conference. I looked at the message on my mobile phone “SIM registration error” – this doesn’t bode well for a mobile learning conference. A quick reboot of my phone and my SIM seems to be working just fine; the glitch must have been caused by the crush in the tube. Rush hour in London would make anyone’s SIM boil over.

Emirates Stadium is new, shiny and has plenty of natural light, natural light can obviously be a problem where projection screens were concerned and some of the presentations were difficult to see. It was nice to be told to keep your mobiles turned on (in silent mode of course!). The conference accepted questions using an SMS system and other workshops used SMS for demonstration purposes.

The day had a packed agenda and could easily have been a two day event. There were workshops and presentations by institutions that had gained MoLeNET funding for mobile learning projects. Finding the presentation you were looking for was difficult at times due to a few labelling anomalies but luckily there didn’t seem to be a duff presentation on the schedule so it didn’t really matter too much which ones I attended.

My first set of presentations were listed as assessment, e-portfolios and vocational applications but really everyone was just excited to talk about their projects so there wasn’t much assessment of e-portfolio work talked about. It was really interesting to hear about the use of UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) in vocational training – particularly the hairdressing and automotive areas. The main points I took away from it were:

• Choose your devices carefully

• You don’t know what you don’t know
• Students love using UMPCs and mobile devices, they like the access to the internet, the way they can make notes and document their work. They like been trusted with the kit and in the case of the automotive students they likes the fact that the paper didn’t get dirty because they weren’t using paper any more!
• The hair and beauty students loved being able to simulate hair styles on their clients and the fact that they could look up information about hair care products online.
• Some colleges bought devices for their students to use – others found ways of allowing the students to use their own devices.

After lunch there was a “Question time” debate; it was interesting to see the difference in opinion between students using their own devices and the organisation supplying them. It seems the biggest issue was creating compatible content; if everyone has the same device then you don’t need to create several file types etc. However one opinion was that technology is slowly converging and “one day” we won’t have these content issues.Some other interesting facts:

• Only a very small percentage of devices provided to learners were lost, stolen or damaged.
• Where devices were taken home other family members became interested in learning some family members learning together and in some cases started courses themselves.
• Retention of students increased in courses that introduced Mobile Learning – overall (as far as I remember) there was a 10% increase over previous years.

I attended a Learner Voice session; something that the RSC and a lot of providers are interested in. It was great to see that South Thames college actually brought a learner along with them! They presented a session called Mobile Inclusion: using mobile technology to fight gang and gun culture. The project equipped learners with Smart Phones to capture digital images, video as well as browse the web and communicate using Skype and SMS. The amount of collaboration was amazing spanning not only different disciplines (Art, Multimedia, Business Studies, Music) but also several schools and colleges. The results fed back into their courses as well as kick starting the LIFEWISE anti-gun and knife crime project. http://www.wandsworthclc.org/gunandknife/

The last interactive session that I attended was hosted by Lillian Soon from XLearn. Lillian was a very entertaining speaker, she introduced her take on using SMS messages for teaching and learning. It was interesting to note that use of SMS messaging in certain courses increased retention by 13% and significant increases in attainment were demonstrated. Lillian reckons that just retaining one extra student pays for the SMS provision she uses.

There are lots of interesting ways to engage learners with SMS from communicating college and course information such as room changes and other admin to course information such as “assignments to be handed in by…”,”please read chapter 14 before the next lesson”. SMS can be used during the lesson and to keep the subject matter in mind in between lessons; Using the Mobile as a voting system via SMS, asking questions using text messaging (requires a little bit of skill to ensure that the question is useful and the replies are meaningful), crafting questions to demonstrate understanding.

There are a few pros and cons to using SMS for education but as far as I can see the Pros outweigh the Cons. Lillian’s Blog can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/244yfy

The final session was about year 2 of the MoLeNET project and inviting organisations to tender. As MoLeNET is LSC funded unfortunately Welsh colleges can’t apply however that doesn’t stop us from being able to reap the benefit of experience gained from organisations lucky enough to be part of the project.

More information about MoLeNET services can be found here:

MoLeShare

Provides learning materials produced by MoLeNET community, that can be downloaded and re-purposed free of charge: www.learningtechnologies.ac.uk/moleshare

MoLeTech

A site dedicated to sharing ideas and practice – to see how m-learning can enhance the learner’s experience whoever and wherever they may be: www.molenetprojects.org.uk/moletech

MoLeNET projects

Moodle for knowledge sharing, discussion and peer-to-peer support. Much of this site is for MoLeNET members but there is an area for the Wider MoLeNET community that allows those not directly involved with MoLeNET to keep up to date and access resources:

www.molenetprojects.org.uk