Well back home after a break !! Interestingly online on three different devices running different operating systems. Running
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Its that time of year see Ray Barker of Besa and others on teachers TV previewing what's on offer at BETT.
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23906
Asus eepc Its hardly been out a month or so and good old sums online http://www.eeeeducation.com have started producing their content to run on it. As usual not a recommendation but interesting they've got content out so quick .
This from engadget. All steam ahead for the OLPC Foundation, which recently received an order from Peru for 260,000 of the little XO laptops. Also news is that Mexican billionaire and Negroponte's chum Carlos Slim has purchased 50,000 for his country. That's against a background of $2 million sales a day on the Give One, Get One program. Clearly, the OLPC Foundation is the most successful program out there for getting laptops into the hands of schoolchildren.
now my own thoughts the BOGOF campaign is a rweally interesting model why dont we add a premium for other health orientated projects say $5.00 or more as well as the kit.
The OLPC may not be in everybody's view the right model but at least they are giving it a go.
Now this is interesting and a upgrade to make windows mobile compatible with Office 2007 format using controversial Office Open XML (OOXML) specification. read it here strictly no comment on this but for your info only http://news.zdnet.com/2110-9590_22-6220976.html
Excuse the topic but interesting all the same ?
Lovely one here on finding a toilet using SMS
Westminster City Council has launched an SMS service to inform users of the nearest public toilet.
Users text 'toilet' to 80097 and the service determines their location and automatically finds the nearest public toilet. The 'SatLav' system charges 25p for each text.
Locations include the council's 40 public toilets, plus those of the Greater London Authority, London Underground and some major department stores.
Westminster City Council said that the location service is designed to cut down on the amount of "street urination".
http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2204758/satlav-scheme-finds-toiletsWill have one of these by Wednesday of next week. Now they aren't a rich media PC I know but they run
Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they can take a university course. Now Cyber university are offering course my mobile phone .
No not mixed delivery method stuff but pure by mobile or so it seems http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5itnQWd2FxcYdcTJubgGheoq49MvwD8T6K42G0
My mobile feed the famous Mike Short Bless Him sent me this !!
Even I a few months ago would have scoffed but my own prediction of the year being the year the mobile goes mainstream is becoming fact.
Cyber interesting or cyber rubbish ?? You decide ?
just in case you missed it see result in my slide bar I still prefer slidr for posting within the blog postings themselves but its still a nice extra bit of functionality/integration
http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/11/show-off-your-photos-with-new-slideshow.html
O2 today announced the launch of the UK's first large scale pilot of NFC (Near Field Communications) technology on mobile phones. The trial of the O2 Wallet® paves the way for the mass market use of mobile phones to pay for purchases, access events or even be used as Oyster cards for travel around London, simply by touching the phone to a reader.
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1171383
An interesting event but more interesting the powerhouse and almost ubiquitous spokesman for things Mobile. Mike Short of O2 and chair of the mobile data association was on Steve Wrights show on radio two talking about it !!
Terri Wogan it is widely recognised helped launch the email revolution is Steve Wright going to help push the mbile wave or should we say ride it. Well done Mike good piece !!!
Regular readers know I am a mega keen cyclist well this has come to my attention . Even if you don't vote for this vote to say how £50 million yes £50 million will go in a one payment only to a charity.
In case you didn't know, Sustrans has the opportunity to win £50m of lottery money to support 79 local projects around the UK. It's a public vote, so the more of us that vote the better! See below for more information from Richard Sanders of Sustrans.
I'm writing to ask you to help sustainable transport charity Sustrans win £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund to invest in 79 communities UK-wide.
In this winner-takes-all contest Sustrans' Connect2 project is up against 3 other organisations - the Eden Project: The Edge, Black Country Urban Park, and Sherwood: The Living Legend, with the winner to be decided by public vote over the coming weeks.
We’re supporting Sustrans' Connect2 because it will transform local travel in towns, cities and villages throughout the UK. By building new bridges and crossings over busy roads, railways and rivers, and linking these into networks of paths, Connect2 will make it much easier for people to get where they want to go under their own steam. So whether children are going to school, people to work and the shops, or friends and family to visit each other, they'll be able to walk or cycle for many more journeys.
As many as 6 million people live within a mile of a proposed Connect2 scheme, and 1 million children go to school within a mile of a scheme. It is calculated that over 60 million active, low carbon journeys will be made each year on the Connect2 routes, potentially saving 79,000 tonnes of carbon - the equivalent of emissions from 79,000 people's annual car use.
If you'd like to know more about Connect2 before making up your mind take a look at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk
To make Connect2 happen we now really need your support and just a few moments of your time could make all the difference. We need your vote and the votes of as many people as you know.
There are three opportunities to vote - online, from a landline and by mobile.
Online voting began at 9am on Monday 26th November at www.thepeoples50million.org.uk with phone voting starting at 9am on Friday 7th December. All voting concludes at 12 noon on Monday 10th December.
If you want to be sent a reminder to vote please register at www.sustransconnect2.org.uk or text 'Connect2' to 80010.
If you do vote for Sustrans' Connect2 (and I really hope you do!), many thanks and please do forward to your own contacts and urge them to vote too
Great stiff from the other side of the world .
Thanks to Mick Mullane all power to his podcasting for this link .
Talking VTE is a podcast of educational conversations and audio
recordings made at conferences, seminars and workshops throughout the
Australian Vocational and Technical Education (VET) sector.
http://talkingvte.blogspot.com/
Mick has add his great efforts from Mlearn where regular readers will know he presented you can see the blog posting and related podcast at
http://talkingvte.blogspot.com/2007/11/mlearn07-from-podcast-to-vle-to-phone.html
there are a wealth of resources around Mlean2007 on the site use this link to find them
http://talkingvte.blogspot.com/search/label/mlearn07
good one you Mick!!!
As a late arrival to Facebook party I have just realised I have hit the magic fifty of Facebook friends . As a billy no mates of the face to face world I have using facebook quite a lot .
What have I gained :-
Want to win a share of $10million US dollars Google have launched a competition
Cool apps that surprise and delight mobile users, built by developers like you, will be a huge part of the Android vision. To support you in your efforts, Google has launched the Android Developer Challenge, which will provide $10 million in awards -- no strings attached -- for great mobile apps built on the Android platform.
http://code.google.com/android/adc.html
picked this up at Future mobile event today including a cool live demo of Android and developing mobile apps in 8 minutes .
W3C have launched this today its going to be huge. On the W3C site
http://www.w3.org/News/2007#item244W3C MobileOK To Help Make Web Sites Mobile Friendly
2007-11-13: Today, W3C provides new means for people to create and find mobile friendly content. W3C invites Web authors to run the alpha release of the W3C mobileOK checker and make their content work on a broad range of mobile devices. The checker runs the tests defined in the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Candidate Recommendation. Read the press release and testimonials, and come see W3C at Mobile Internet World in Boston, Massachusetts (USA).
Hi all regular readers
this is blogging live so wont be pretty !!
At Future Mobile event having my mind expanded by a new community . Hard core developers and those looking to enter the mobile space. Interesting the guys from Wildkey are here and Richard Gunson of Learning Everywhere and Josie Fraser but I know hardly any one else of 400 plus delgates.
The morning was around themes of designing and making sites work on mobile device and role of context awareness and how to make payments work etc.
The afteroon really kicked off Daniel Applequist of Vodafone watch this space for more.
In 5 years time the majority of web useage be from mobile devices quote from Daniel Applequist from Vodafone
Two articles looking back at how far mobile learning has progressed since the first MLearn conference in Birmingham in 2002 to Mlearn2007 in Melbourne . The first by Bob Harrison from the United Kingdom well known and well published Mlearning evangelists his article reflecting on Handheld Learning 2007 held in London and linking to Mlearn2007 in Melbourne the article widely published in this case can be read on futurelab blog flux link here The second article by Caryl Oliver from Australia who was chair of Mlearn2007 the article can be found at the is link Knowing both of them interesting to note they have a real passion for Vocational Education and interest in emerging pedagogy around Mobile Learners. Interestingly in my interpretation both pieces talk of the growth of mobile learning and how its focus is changing but both highlight either outright or in the tone the role of pedagogy. The role that technology with the right pedagogy can enhance the learning experience. Also don't forget Mlearn2008 http://www.mlearn2008.org Titled the Bridge from text to Context
Only discovered this by chance earlier in the week attending this tomorrow
Future of Mobile event http://www.future-of-mobile.com/
Not come across the event or this group before looking forward to sussing out and reporting back.
Now is this as good as it sounds a SD card that you fit in your camera that not stores photo's but publishes them to the web via wifi to flickr facebook etc . Is this just me getting excited or is this another slot in the ubiquitous computing emerging story !! Check it out a http://www.eye.fi/
no special camera etc etc.
Google has changed its talk from Gmail for Mobile to cover the recent Google are going further into that mobile arena just as the iconic Iphone launches in the UK . Interesting times ahead !! Watch the video explainig android the open platform for development This is the Gphone or so the say !
Open Handset Alliance announcement (made on November 5th). http://www.openhandsetalliance.com for detail .
This presentation at Future of Mobile is the first European event
at which to give a public presentation on the topic.
For future of mobile programme go to this link
www.future-of-mobile.com
I really like the collaboration that the web allows and it now seems from Googles own blog that teachers are one of the quickest groups to adopt these tools. Well I tell a lie I think personally learners use them even quicker. This article suggests the idea of peer review hints at my favourite the rapid prototyping of ideas any way its worth a read . http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/with-little-help-from-your-friends.html Interesting that again I am using word 2007 to blog with !! So I am still a person with a foot in both camps long may it continue.
As regular readers know I was lucky enough to chat with Peter Norvig at the ALTC 2007 conference dinner back in September. Over a wide ranging conversation Peter dropped in that most of Google mobile development work is taking place in London. I couldn't hep noticing the advert that came up in my Gmail web clips feed. 
So any one know guess what the Google mobile offer is likely to be.
Some of my regular readers will know that I am a bit of a cyclist well I love my bike!!!! So excuse non technology post For the last few years I have done the infamous Dunwich Dynamo see info here a mere 193 kilometres from London to Dunwich through the night in 2006 a similar event was formed the Exmouth Exodus link here it's a little shorter than the Dynamo but its much hillier. Guess what next year I plan to do both !! So the key facts Distance The FAQs of E&E make interesting reading Yes and no. It's inspired by the DD, and there are plenty of obvious similarities, like the riding through the night to the seaside part. But it's different too. For a start, it's smaller - a lot smaller. We had 60 riders for 2007, as opposed to the Dynamo's 700. It's hillier - a lot hillier - too, so it's a bit harder, even though it's a little shorter. The route profile shows the hills So guess what I intend to do both!! With a six week gap between them no worries!! I've heard those voices and learnt to laugh oh so loud at them for the joy of being alive!! By the way Exmouth Exodus is looking for some small scale cash help any sponsdors out there maybe a mobile company some great stuff and publicty to be done with geotagged images from thosde mobile phones etc
Dates
Exmouth Exodus 2008 14th 15th June
Dunwich Dynamo 2008 19th 20th July
E&E 100 miles
D&D 120 miles
The quote best describes the feelings
Words from the 24 hours of Moab dirt bike race in the USA describe whats its like ....
"Somewhere during the night you will hear a voice say, "Why am I doing this? I am never doing this again!" Look forward to this voice. Welcome it. Laugh at it. Embrace it. Look forward to hearing it again next year. Just know that it will come and that you will ride past it and be stronger when it fades into the shadows."
-- Chris Tirpak, 4x Sufferer of Canaan and Moab
Australian Jonathan W. Nalder has got down to writing his own paper on mobile learning on his blog in fact Jonathan your going to make into my side bar of interesting blogs !!!. Now I am not as always expressing opinion but it does add to the debate. He explains his reason for writing the paper " Rather than just reporting on what others have been saying about this new frontier in mLearning - that being kids using their own mobile phones for learning - I've written my own paper dealing with policy responses from schools and Education departments. Mostly these have only touched on safety issues - but I also include in the paper plenty of examples of their positive use in education. I even talk about why they should be used and make recommendations that hopefully future policy makers can use to get the balance right. Enjoy!" The abstract is below Although ICT integration is growing across all sectors of Education, the one device that most symbolises the current stage of the Digital Revolution, the mobile phone, has not been welcomed into classrooms. Many policies have been written to deal with the negative social and disruptive consequences of the use of digital mobile devices in Education; however less effort has been made to balance such policies against the educational needs of students dealing with the ongoing impact of the Digital Revolution. This paper aims to examine the reactions of current policy to the presence of mobile phones in education and then detail emerging examples of their use to enhance learning. The paper concludes with a summary of recommendations drawn from these examples that may form the basis for more learner-centered policy to be developed in the future. Read the blog posting linked to this and look at the paper in draft http://mlearningworld.blogspot.com/2007/11/bright-future-for-mobiles-in-schools.html Thanks to Jonathan for an interesting piece of work.
Abstract
Policy before practice: Reactions, Revisions & Recommendations for the educational use of mobile phones.
Well as I always thought this texting lark isn't that popular . Britons are now sending 1.2 billion text messages every week, the latest figures reveal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7075005.stm
Mobile Mondays heard about this group at Handheld Learning talking of the Finnish chapter. These are groups of people concerned around area of mobile developments in Business education etc and seem to have some pretty heavy weight developer members even I need a translator ;--)))) Global site http://www.mobilemonday.net and the UK group I have discovered Mobile Monday London (are there more ?) http://mobilemonday.org.uk . So if your mobile Monday type go on join up . Thanks to Mike Short for pointing me in there direction !
MySpace joins other sites including Bebo, LinkedIn and Orkut in signing up to OpenSocial. Google platform for developing applications that will work on any website !!
BBC NEWS | Business | MySpace in Google software deal
One to watch me thinks !!
Future Lab presentation reflections on my session A mixed post here . First I am blogging directly from Microsoft Word2007 which allows you to publish straight to your blog !! Over the two days of the thought provoking Future Lab conference "Why don't you !!!" delivered a 90 minutes workshop twice title "Blog Off , these web 2.0 tools will never make it into the learner experience " I thought they went ok and the participants were great and really had a lot to offer me and each other . The second session was filmed by two separate cameras one for future labs use and one streamed live by Leon Cynch I used a variety of approaches including Google presenter with remote viewers adding in comments via chat Google presenter supports. Presentation can be seen at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc7bzghg_51cgn6xn I started using my video clip epic2015 a interesting view of the future of the internet ?? http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/new-master1.html It mentions the wane of the fourth estate and by sheer chance Seb Schmollers fortnightly mailing picked up on this work of Bill Dutton (thanks Seb BTW link to Seb's mailing sign up is in my sidebar) Seb says A political scientist's perspective on the Internet. Bill Dutton argues that just as printing led to the creation of an independent (?) institution that has become known as the 'Fourth Estate', the Internet, and the network of networks it supports, is leading to the 'Fifth Estate', which could be more important to the 21st century than the Fourth Estate has been since the 18th. http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/10/bill-dutton---a.html Reflections interesting session making me think I am a bit web 1.5 rather than web 2.0 and not convinced web2.00 is really a helpful meaningful handle describing for current developments
Now Marc Prensky's phrase describing digital natives is well known. Derek Robertson that well known researcher into gaming in education and passionate about teaching saw Marc and made some reflections on his blog
http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com/2007/10/derek-robertsons-blog.html
Now Leonard Low in the southern hemisphere (does cyberspace have hemispheres!) . HE has an interesting take on Marc's session have a look and of course watch the video
http://mlearning.edublogs.org/2007/10/29/handheld-learning-2007-keeping-up-with-change-marc-prensky/
its worth noting other keynotes including Minister Jim Knight, Stephen Crown CEO of Becta can be found at
One can see from earlier posts I attended debate TV is dead at Channel 4. It used the programme TV is dead as a discussion point you can now see part of the programme on Youtube. The idea of brand or channel idents is one worth thinking about !
Hi Just back after a week off in the lakes and what a lovely post to set me off blogging again.
"2007 was the year mobile wentr mainstream with Handheld learning and Mlearn2008 both in the uK this is the year its goes "MASSIVE"!! Please see note from John Traxler about Mlearn2008 .
Johns message reads
I'm extremely pleased that I can now announce publicly that mLearn, the world's flagship mobile learning conference, will take place in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ironbridge in Shropshire, England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in October 2008. The conference started in Birmingham and has since taken place in London, Rome, Cape Town, Banff and Melbourne.
The aims of the conference are to bring together the world's leading mobile learning researchers, developers and activists in a environment that will stimulate dramatically increased deployment of mobile learning and catalyse dramatically enhanced innovation. The key notes will include Prof Yrjö Engerstrom and Prof Diana Laurillard
The themes are
and for the full paper submissions, we're assembling a world-class panel including Dr Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Dr Marcelo Milrad, Växjö University, Sweden; Dr Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Open University; Professor Roy Pea, Stanford University, USA; Professor Chee-Kit Looi, National Institute of Education, Singapore; Professor Tak-Wai Chan, National Central University of Taiwan; Professor Earl Woodruff, University of Toronto, Canada and Professor Angela McFarlane, University of Bristol, UK for double blind-reviewing. We anticipate linking with a respected journal for a special edition
The dates are: Tues 7th October for pre-conference workshops, then Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th October for the main conference. We're collaborating with Handheld Learning, Barbican Brewery, London - Monday 13th to Wednesday 15th October, giving the intervening weekend to choose London or Shropshire for sight-seeing!
As part of our registration pack, delegates will be given an ‘active’ ID badge and asked to choose one or both of the broadcast technologies available in order to allow automatic detection of the delegates throughout the conference. A benefit of this will be to record the sessions that they have attended and to automatically generate a blog as well as transmit relevant information to delegate devices. The blog can then be accessed post conference to review the individual experiences of the delegate. This technology will be carried over to the evening sessions, with the full cooperation of all venues involved.
We'll be offering the opportunity for everyone chance attend the conferences back-to-back. This has been designed by the conference committees from the outset, and a single ticket for both events will be available. The technology will allow the 'handover' of all delegates' blogs and will use similar technology at both conferences.
The conference will be endorsed and attended by all the major national e-learning bodies. The Call For Papers will go out shortly. Please get in touch if you need any extra information
Web-sites are www.mlearn2008.org and www.mlearn2008.mobi
Think about attending and presenting. Look forward to seeing everyone
Regards
John Traxler
Reader in Mobile Technology for e-Learning
Director, Learning Lab
Conference Chair, mLearn2008
School of Computing and IT
University of Wolverhampton
Mick Mullane session at Mlearn my spies tell me went down well!
you can see why the eggs pun at :
http://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk//blojsom_resources/meta/mlearn/megansegg.mp4
And see all of Micks and Steves Podcasting efforts from mlearn at at
http://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk/weblog/mlearn/
I wouldn't get him to make a omelette but as for a vodcast !! My spies tell me the table for dinner at the aquarium was wild !! If you were there leave a comment !!
More from Mick when he writes up the OE (Overseas Experience) !!!
Ian Stuarts has made a comment to my posting on his Excellent presentation from Handheld called drop the pilot and done a really nice copy of his presentation with sound . Sorry to give you another heads up but dont want it staying hidden in my comments. Watch learn and reflect the photo's made me think of my honeymoon nearly ten years ago on Shetland . But there is nothing romantic about his pragmatic approach of doing the best for learners and the community using ICT . Keep it up Graham and keep me posted .
Its rumoured Ian's view to implementing technology in enhancing learning is "just do it "and if it isn't Ian tell me about it . http://www.stuartislay.plus.com/HHL-Presentation/index.htm
Ian has done a great posting on his blog to. His blog will be soon in my sidebar link very soon.
http://islayian.blogspot.com/2007/10/just-do-it.html
Mick is presenting at Mlearn and bless him he is podcasting about the conference in general.
subscribe to the podcast at feed://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk/weblog/mlearn/?flavor=rss2
alternative
http://podcast.ycoastco.ac.uk/weblog/admin
great interviews although a dodgy one by me to kick it off.
Good on you Mick. Got any photo's Mick !!
10x10™ ('ten by ten') is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.
whats amazing no human intervention its like google news constructed by algorithm
http://www.tenbyten.org/about.html
see this hours results at http://www.tenbyten.org/now.html
16th-19th October Melbourne Australia
http://www.mlearn2007.org/
well this year I am not there but good friends are Mick Mullane of Yorkshire Coast college showing casing his work on Pod and vodcasting supported by SMS in a session called "From Podcast to VLE to Phoneto mLearning Device"
Author: Mr Steve Sidaway, Mick
Mullane ,.
The guru of things mobile Mike Sharples will be doing a keynote presenting a paper and being on a panel .
If you fancy putting up with time difference some of the keynotes are being streamed by illuminate live (a system that worked well at ALTC) I am going to give it a go . session details here
And full conference programme here
Hi all
Ive been following Derek and his colleagues work at the consolarium http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/gamesbasedlearning/index.asp
for a while i also recommend the blog site http://ltsblogs.org.uk/consolarium/
I met up with derek at Handheld Learning and he had some issues as I did with Marc Prensky's presentation a seeming pathological hatred of teachers ( well a dislike) and their role in future learning.
Derek did a posting
http://hotmilkydrink.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/10/do-digital-nati.html
and an excellent debate started on his blog also you might like to look at the work of Marten Owen ex director of futurelab is his article the myth of digital natives http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications_reports_articles/web_articles/Web_Article561
This is a screen captutre showing my laptop picking up the mesh networking signal from a One Laptop Per Child machine bought to handheld learning by a colleague of Rose Luckins from London Knowledge lab. Cool eh !!
Mlearn 2007 16-19th October
Sadly I wont be there but Mick Mullance of Yorkshire Coast College will be and Steve Sidaway of txtools is also going they are prsenting on Micks work usuing sms integration in a Learning Platform (moodle) to inform students onf podcasts,vodcasts and general updates . Have a good one boys . Those of you not going check out Mlearn website http://www.mlearn2007.org and the video introduction on youtube
/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmEjLLJr0n8
Ian Presented at handheld today and with a little search I have found his blog which is really great.
http://islayian.blogspot.com/
Ians beyond pilots presentation was great looking forward to it going up online. go on have a look at Ians blog .
This isnt pretty but its the quickest way a flickr slide show of Jill Attewells announcement slides there not in order but uploading 10mb pictures on flaky wireless network isnt easy .
Lead colleges are listed on slide below. This project was administered by Learning and Skills Network . project website is http://www.molenet.org.uk/
Flickr show of all the slides this will not display on mobile browsers sorry !!!
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Update on the government initiatives for building in primary sector
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2007_0185
A £3.9 million initiative to accelerate learner-focused use of technology in further education was unveiled today (11 October) by Bill Rammell MP, Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education.
The Technology Exemplar Network programme, jointly led by government technology partner Becta and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), is a key element of the two organisations' complementary strategies for encouraging further integration of technology for learning into the FE and skills sector.
The programme will lead to the development of a national support network by encouraging providers with a track record of successfully embedding technology into their learning and teaching to create a forum to share best practice with other providers.
To help establish the network, support and funding will be made available. Participating providers will also be eligible to receive funding to develop their use of technology for learning and to revise and implement strategies resulting from engaging with the network.
Welcoming the announcement, Bill Rammell, said, "Technology has the power to change lives. We rely on our education system to help us master it. Just as it is changing how we live, so it is changing how we learn. Many of our schools, colleges and universities already teach technology effectively and apply it innovatively in other subjects, but we want to see all leaders, teachers and trainers making full use of the potential for students and business. The work of Becta and LSC setting up the Technology Exemplar Network will enable colleges and providers to learn from each other how best to use technology to the benefit of all."
The driving force behind the establishment of the Technology Exemplar Network has been the recognition that, for colleges and training providers to plan the implementation of sustainable technologies, they need evidence of what has worked to date.
By reviewing real examples of good practice taking place elsewhere, and sharing experience, learning providers can further develop their plans for future investment and implementation of technology for learning.
Stephen Crowne, Becta's Chief Executive, said, "This new network will help the sector raise its game still further by getting the best out of technology. Becta believes that improvement comes from the front line and this development will enable us to build a systematic approach to fostering good practice and spreading it throughout the system.
"We know that there has been significant investment in technology for learning and there are tremendous examples of where it has made a huge difference. This network will ensure that these examples are made available across the country."
Mark Haysom, LSC Chief Executive, said: "Raising the sector's performance to world class standards is a headline priority for the LSC. The Technology Exemplar Network programme will empower the sector to make the best of use of technology and accelerate the pace of positive change in delivering their provision. The ability to successfully exploit technology is key to maximising the skills and productivity of the nation."
Notes for Editors:
Learning and Skills Council:
The LSC exists to make England better skilled and more competitive. We are responsible for ensuring the availability of high-quality education and training for everyone. We have a single goal: to improve the skills of England's young people and adults to world class standards. Our vision is that young people and adults in England have knowledge and skills matching the best in the world and are part of a truly competitive workforce. We work nationally, regionally and locally to deliver this ambition on behalf of learners and employers.
Becta:
Becta leads the national drive to improve learning through technology. We do this by working with industry to ensure we have the right technology for education in place. We also support the education sector to make the best use of technology so that every learner in the UK is able to benefit from its advantages and achieves the best they can.
Just received this breaking news via a SMS message from TXTtools who are providing the SMS solution to Handheld Learning 2007 . Great to get this sort of news by text
News from HHL2007: The MoLeNet Award winners will be announced today
in the Great Hall at 14.00.
This is not all the bid winners but those recieving larger sums in excess of £100,ooo.
The molenet is a £6million funding initiative for Mobile Learning in FE .
Mainstream mobile yet again
Moderating the sesion on “Science, Maths & Mobile” this morning looking forward to it !!!
Dovi Bruker, CEO, Fourier Systems
showcased some interesting work with umpc type device with ability to plug various data probes .
The device is interesting as is the software bundled with it . the device also is instant on!!
David CrellinLoads of relevant articles download read it and get on the mailing list
http://www.epic.co.uk/content/news/oct_07/index.htm
some of the articles in it ?? really worth a read !
really great session
Kevin Walker London Knowledge lab
Hilary Smith Sussex University
looking at model of mixed device and mixed methods of contacts online on-phone at distance. Looking at ecologicial model of pedagogy
work on e-science and usability with a range of devices
refection on pedagogy
ecology of resources spread around in time and space and intelligent (distributed) systems
focus on activities and structures
works on a basis on how you structure the activities not the technology .
In the keynote Doug Brown did and excellent opening and Jim Knight Schools minister gave a overview of the exciting times for education and ICT . He made the killer comment about its not about the device. Question does tech savvy Jim read my blog. Great showcase of video of handhelds in the wild in Wolverhampton. Also great ot see Jim responding to questions from the audience by txt. This service was supplied by txttools
Up very early getting ready for the day . The first day of Handheld 2007 proper a morning of key notes and an afternoon in which I am moderating a great session on emerging pedagogy .
Some great presenters in this session
Bob Harrison
Joceyyn Wisehart
John Traxler
Mark Van Hooft
really looking forward to the debate. Bring it on !!!!
Attended the Kaleidoscope special intrest group some great work mentioned by presenters in the update section including a plug for Molenet . The one I want to look up is project bluetooth from colleagues at Wolverhampton university . I've asked for the slides and will update you via a later blog posting
http://mlearning.noe-kaleidoscope.org/news/last-0-read730-display
Interesting discussion on the future of the sig which I suggest you engage with .
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You maybe at the event or maybe not now see the pictures excuse the quality just put up so you get a feel for the event . I will add to this throughout the event unusually I am using my Canon EOS 400 10Megapixel camera so wild be uploading to flickr via WiFi rather than hammering my 3 g card
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No its not the latest single by crowded house.
its my schedule tomorrow.
Location 1 Immrasat Centre reviewing Molenet bids
Location 2 Central Halls Westminster Your Voice Counts: Ministry of Justice Youth Conference with the excellent Tim Ritches of Radio Waves
Location 3 New Hollands publishers Edgeware Road picking up review copy of taking pictures with your camera Phone
Location 4 Channel 4 Horseferry Road for TV is dead event . Hosted by the facebook Maestro of Steve Moore of Policy Unplugged on behalf of channel 4
Looking forward to the day and its the day before that Mobi fest of the year Handheld learning .
Great week Bring It On!!!
Excuse the awful picture video quality . This post shows how I have taken two or three BSL sign off the QIA site http://www.slcresources4ict.net/index.php
I have downloaded them as quicktime clips loaded them into i-tunes converted them in I-tunes for the ipod video format and synched them with the ipod touch
Image one shows three signs on the device
. Image shows two shows of signs mid display
and the movie shows whole operation
excuse the quality but respect the concept. The signs are free to download so how about we get permission to do an i-tunes store it migh look something like this !!
The Guardian has a great "M" story that Mc Donalds is going to offer free WiFi at its outlets. The plan is hotspots that are FREE at most of its 1200 restaurants .
http://wwPublish Postw.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/06/internet?gusrc=rss&feed=11
This is another addition to the current of mobile becoming mainstream. Will you be using the service ??
Why Dont You !!
As some of you know I am gigging at Futurelabs forthcoming conference "Why Dont You!" 30-31 October at immarasat Conference centre in London http://www.futurelab.org.uk/events/listing/why_dont_you
Doing a workshop called BLOG OFF: these Web 2.0 tools will never make it into the learner
But what's really cool as part of the marketing they have sent out a assemble yourself cube with the programme on it
experience
Much has been made of learners being
so deeply embroiled in technology that they see it as commonplace, neutral and
invisible. We call it ‘Web 2.0’, they use it without thinking. Teachers are
failing to keep pace with awareness of this technology, never mind incorporating
it into their practice. This workshop involves a rapid tour of some Web 2.0
tools that are already used by learners, and examines issues such as the
barriers to teaching staff deploying these tools to support learning. The
session also gives participants a chance to create artefacts.
Well my children loved it see the flickr slideshow below or the link to the splashr one below it
Splashr
BTW isnt splashr cool find out more at www.splashr.com
I when in the office saw at least four cube around the office . Whats really cool is Dan Sutch "Crusader of the creative side" of Futurelab is going to run a competition getting people to email in photos of where they put their cubes.
Could this be the rubics cube of 2007 who knows but watch out for the competition.
Seb Schmollers influential fortnightly mailing turned up another gem on my favourite connectivity topic that of mesh connectivity or piggy back wireless how I often describe it to "Normal" people!!!
http://fm.schmoller.net/2007/09/terranet-ab-all.html
signs up to Sebs mailing using the link in the side bar If you havent done so already ( if not why not !!)
A fun look at gadgets that have been and gone. Thanks to Peter Wain for this
Redundant gadgets - tech & gadgets
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/356181?source_id=aw&camp_id=HotUKDeals
Now its not the greatest machine in the world and battery doesn't last forever but it is half the price it was initially sold at !!! Thanks to Rob for pointing this out !!!!!
Sign shot with my camera phone says it all. Connectvity on the move is getting cheaper !! £10 a month !GB download limit but at that price thats a lot of data!!
Please have a listen sadly on listen again and not a podcast come on BBC.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bullyingcom/
a topic we should all take note of we should also remeber bullying has been going on for a long time !! Doesn't make it right stop it report it intervene !!
Thanks to James clay for this I will add James excellent blog www.elearningstuff.wordpress.com to my blog side bar links. He suggested this online media conversion site I use super on a tablet offline . Worth a look .
http://media-convert.com/convert
Back from Molenet launch event at the Oval www.molenet.org great event. Met loadfs of great new people and some really good old friends.
Highspots
Dan Sutch raving about media scape . Dans on life like me !!
Mick Mullane podcasting vodcasting and doing good stuff look out Mlearn in Melbourne he is coming your way !!!
Geoff Stead and Jo Colley of Tribal
The guys from Wildkey handheld stuff back to my green environment roots.
meeting up with mike Short of O2
The texting in of questions wonder where they got that idea from !!!!!
Down sides the apalling wifi get it together at the Oval !!
Not enough coffee !!
see the flickr photo stream excuse the dodgy shots but no time to edit !!
Absaloutely exhausted only one day and handhelds going to be three if you havent booked for handheld why the heck not . Be there or be a complete munchkin !!
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
at the Oval at the Molenet launch meeting loads of fellow crusader in the field of M-learning.
This sounds very very hopeful good old engadget keeing usd bang up to date !!
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/24/wipower-touts-breakthrough-in-wireless-power/
last year I did 116 posts the year before 69. its nowhere near year and I am 3 posts away from doubling last years number of posts
Google docs helped me chart it !!
now this is neat and I am not advocating it !!! A way of using Google mail to email copy of locked PDF to your self and use Gmail's document handling capabilities to convert to html not perfect but still cool
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/12/convert-doc-xls-ppt-rtf-pdf-to-html.html
Thanks to Danno pointing this out after my post on Google blogs next week the presentation is great haven't been easily able to find the group its linked to . Danno can you help find the blog ?? it stemmed from . But view the presentation its great !!
http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?fs=true&docid=ah4zsdj46b66_578cv4x7&pli=1
Its a technology that I think will change the way we work again !!
Made me think about how I use resources online to support presentations !! Off to lie down in a darkened room!!
Just back from Mobile and wirless'ing Glasgow and picked up through my feeds Mark Van Hoot is coming to Handheld. Mark is a really well respected member of the e-learning communitiy and he has view on things. Marks blog is worth a read you may not like what he says all the time but you should read it. Another great hit for Handheld2007 getting more excited !!!! How sad is that !!! 10,11,12th October 2007. BTW Mark mentions two sites were discount codes can be found .
http://ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/preparing-to-attend-handheld-learning-2007-or-the-wild-wacky-wireless-and-wonderful-world-of-mobile-learning/
Not wanting anyone to feel left out, we've made the presentation feature available in 25 languages; Google Apps customers can also access it as part of Google Docs.
The new presentations feature of Google Docs helps you to easily
organize, share, present, and collaborate on presentations, using only
a web browser.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-feature-presentation.html
Whats also interesting that theyve done a video and interesting its on youtube and embedded in youtube player in the google blog. Interesting they didnt use googles own google video !! Look at the blog watch the video !!!
Blogging on a bus on the way back from Stansted !!
Excuse the shouting I published a dodgy powerpoint of bad shots of Apple touch etc and Apple store in Glasgow on Google docs this morning I was surprised that I could. I then mention the to my fellow e enthusiast Rob Englebright and discovered they only launched it today been back a realise you can also create presentations in google docs and export them as zipped html to play locally !!! WOW WOW!!
Dont get me wrong its far from fully functioing powerpoint but with integration with google docs still quite cool!!!! Excuse the dodgy first attempt !!!
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dc7bzghg_49ds2w8h&fs=true
The pictures of Apple Iphone and Apple touch and photos of touch on sale now in Glasgow Apple stir more deliveries today!!
view my dodgy photos of the devices on a powerpoint on google docs at http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dc7bzghg_413xdc74&fs=true
Mobile Learning and Online Communication
The normal caveat my view of what’s happening and its probably wrong. This is many way showcases excellent work that others are going to talk about
Plus if you want to keep up to date watch technology blogs my blog is www.andysblackhole.blogspot.com
Becta Technews
Becta Content developers news subscribe to both at http://industry.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?page=1672
RSS feeds of BCC technology pages
PC pro ran a campaign this year investigating the amountof cash wasted through PC's being left on overnight.
It was quite suprising,
if you leave a pc on overnight it will quickly consume 1kWh of energy, meaning you are needlessly spending more than £35 per year. And do not think that putting it into standby will help: we found one PC that consumed 78W in this mode, only reducing the wastage to about £25.
If your college has 100 pc's that's possibly £3500/year
AS well as saving cash, the scheme is approved by the carbon trust, as helping to reduce CO2 emmisions.
Flexibility in delivery and assessment.
The advent of online testing for keyskills, and various other assessments can make a difference. The city and guilds online testing facility allows the test to be downloaded and put on a laptop and carried out to the workplace taking the test to the user. A portable printer powered by Lion battery pack means provisional results can be given instantly.
you don't believe me ???
Forget the miniature vodka shots you will be carrying alcohol to top up your laptop. Fuel cells are going to be appearring very soon . The much vaunted $100 laptop using wind up technology will have spin offs elsewhere .Intel are also talking of parrallel product educational $100 device
New software that is ink enabled turning up all the time Reg Microsoft one note, Agile Go binder, Blackboard backpack. see Becta tablet PC evaluation http://www.becta.org.uk/research/research.cfm?section=1&id=3357
Power toys from Microsoft for tablet:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/tabletpc.mspx
Trend
1) slate
2) laptop plus keyboard . The days of tablet being less powerful than laptop are long gone
UltraMobile PC 's heres two I made earlier
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1856508,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=20
Q1 by samsung with added USB Keyboard (theyre tablets to)
UMPC 650 by Remtech
As with UMPC couple of places to stay in touch if you know the future let me know
Is it Portable Digital Assistnat PDA or Education Digital assistant EDA
or is it an phoneww.handheldlearning.co.uk
Join PDA in education jiscmail list
PDA-EDU@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
I have seen the future and its Apple !!
wireless usb memory is coming
2 million devices in the UK by Christmas 5 million by Easter !!
with WiFI ability to run flash and browser capability
IPOD released 2001 by September 2007 110 million world wide !!
stuff seen Glasgow yesterday link here
8011b
8011g
8011n
Spanish firm Fon could change the model very Wi Fi 2.0
It isn't cheap but neither is paying for one off wireless hotspots. In major centre works well and most provincial towns have coverage
WiMax will cover most of the UK witih two to three year . Intel trialling with University. Several city wide trials of wimax and mesh wireless technology being talked off
See document: happy-birthday-gsm-network.html
Bluetooth 1 10Metres
Bluetooth 2 100metres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogs
blogger
A shared resource of web page allowing multiple users to edit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
PBwiki
Wiki spaces
RSS = Really Simple Syndication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format) (20th May 2006)
Web feeds
a push technology linked with stuff like
you can read feeds in live book marks in Firefox, www.bloglines.com , RSS reader in Google.
my bloglines are public www.blogslines.com/public/ajb1962
Downloads of MP3 was definitely the emerging technology in education of 2004/2005 Podcasting was the emerging technology of 2005/2006
Downloads of MP3 was definitely the emerging technology in education of 2005 Podcasting is the emerging technology of 2006 . Saint Johns Ambulance have even done simple First Aid advice as podcasts http://www.sja.org.uk/firstaid/info/default.asp . Look out for More and The Ferl website at becta is going to be doing a trial podcast in the new year
Flickr
my photo's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andysblackhole/
Picasa
http://picasaweb.google.com/home
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
the UK now has 5.2m Facebook users
MySpace has cracked the 10 million user mark in the UK, meaning more people have put a profile up than drink bitter, according to the social networking website.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,2122397,00.html
See document: get_video.flv
UK 4.5 billion text messages sent in March !!!
The majority of the now 2.5+ billion mobile subscribers are located in developing countries. This is a stunning new kind of event for our planet: the dominance of leading edge technology is emerging from marginalises places. That has not happened before, particularly on the enormous scale of the mobiles.
Pupils at a school in Buckinghamshire have been getting extra help with GCSE revision by texting their teachers. Far from banning mobile phones, Cottesloe School in Wing has decided to turn modern technology to its advantage in an attempt to improve results. Since Easter, Year 11 pupils have been able to message teachers from home with revision queries and get a text answer. The school said “text mentoring” had also seen teachers messaging pupils with revision prompts and exam tips.
c
