Yankee group report on why web 2.0 tools must reach the Handheld

Hi interesting business orientated report on how mobile business is over reliant on email and adding true access to web 2.0 tools on handhelds may increase activity .

The link below works for me but you might have to register to receive the report.
http://edge.networkworld.com/whitepapers/nww/pdf/Web_2_Tools_Must_Reach_the_Handheld-Grey.pdf

not convinced about all the report but worth a look.

voxur big brother diary room in a box

Well sort of. this kit is a system where you open the box its bright yellow and its starts recording complete with lights and mic .

http://www.voxur.com/

described as It’s a ‘film crew in a box’ – everything you need to ask questions,

• record answers and playback the opinions of those who count.
• This portable easy to use videobooth enables you to:
• Set your questions and voxur gets the answers
• Record their response without peer pressure or interference
• Review and Re-Record the answers
• Use voxur for playback in presentations

the spec is interesting its a mac with kit plugged in

• Voxur software version 3.0
• Easy to follow introduction video & training manual
• Black 13.3" MacBook SuperDrive Laptop
• Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core Duo
• Hard Drive: 120GB Serial ATA; 5400rpm
• Display: 13.3" Glossy Widescreen Display (1280x800)
• Mac OSX Leopard 10.5
• Memory: 1GB (2x 512MB) DDR2 667 MHz
• Built in: iSight Camera, Microphone
• Connectivity: Airport Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2
• Lights: USB superbright 4 x LED, low power consumption
• USB Speakers: 220Hz - 20KHz
• Power cables, Projector connection cable
• All stored in an ULTRA durable Peli Case
• Peli Case also available in orange, grey and black

£5000 now is that a completive price you decide but interesting approach

Scribefire 2.00

Now I've blogged about this before but the recent upgrade of this firefox add on that allows you open a rich text blogging tool in the lower half of your browser screen. It was great before but the new version supports

• tabs that allow mutiple blog postings at the same time
• Easy flickr photo embedding
• YouTube video embedding
  

I havent made it exciting but it is a great tool and the tab allowing sharing of blog posting via stumble upon,facebook reddit etc etc go on have a look its a great tool. plus abilty to bookmarket on delcious from within the tool
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730

culture trip at channel 4

Interesting evening out a channel 4 at event put together by Steve Moore of Policy Unplugged on behalf of channel 4 . going to blog throughout got Margaret Hodge from the government and friend of the learner Estelle Morris. Jeremy Hunt shadow secretary of culture media etc was also speaking .

full Speaker list

Anna Cutler - Head of Learning at Tate Modern

The Rt. Hon Estelle Morris - Baroness Morris of Yardley

Helen Reddington – Musician and Lecturer

Jeremy Hunt – Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport & MP, South West Surrey

Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MBE - Minister of State for Culture , Creative Industries and Tourism

Tony Lyng – Headteacher, Brockhill Park Performing Arts College

The event will be chaired by Peter Jenkinson, OBE, Cultural Broker.

Lovely mates in the audience Graham Brown Martin of handheld Learning Jamie Cason of Avril Digital.

Jeremy hunt raised issue of
Culture as a target being negative. He promoted the idea of culture helps learners thrive not just survive..

Tony Lyng passion was great what a inspiring head !! Culture as search for social status and social justice.


Estelle Morris spoke with her usual passion and healthy dose of commonsense. The thought that culture makes sense.

Access to culture in the curriculum is not teaching promoting a creative curriculum

1:1 access to mobile learning devices interim report now available for download

This relates to my work at Becta so here on the blog for information dissemination purposes only
The interim report commissioned by Becta and undertaken by Professor Angela McFarlane and her team from Bristol University is now live on the Becta website http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh&catcode=_re_rp_02&rid=14204
The Researchers from the University of Bristol are investigating the educational impact of personal access to mobile learning devices at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 in five schools.

This development and research project is using mixed methods to evaluate the impact of using personal digital assistants (PDAs) on learners' learning skills, attendance, behaviour and attainment. It will also review the success of the implementation and sustainability of the schools' PDA initiatives and provide examples of emerging good pedagogic practice.

Copies of the interim and executive summary are available for download.

Hellotxt

This is how Hellotxt describe themselves .

HelloTxt is an aggregate of microblogging services
through which the user can insert their messages on all main
microblogging services in a simply and simultaneous way.

http://www.hellotxt.com/

In my own words put it simpy one post updates,twitter jaiku,facebook,myspace and Bebo . Its webbased they have a mobile version and of course a facebook app.

Argosi: Alternate Reality Games for Orientation, Socialisation and Induction

this project was pointed out to me by Dr Nicola Whitton of Manchester Metropolitan University her blog is worth a look at http://www.playthinklearn.net

who is part of the project team well actually project manager http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_users_and_innovation/argosi.aspx

Its in its early stages but could be one to watch !!

Learning in emerging markets - the impact of mobile technologies session at London Knowledge lab

Sadly I cant make but hope you can its in the afternoon Thursday 24

http://www.lkl.ac.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&Itemid=27&agid=155&year=2008&month=04&day=24

The description is very tempting

ICT for education is still an issue in emerging countries due to lack
of connectivity, access and digital divide regarding teacher training
and content production adequate for the means being used. In recent
years, the mobile has grown tremendously. Brazil's population of 192
million people now owns 130 million mobile phones. Consequently, this
media is assuming roles in learning and social networking, offering a
reliable user-base never seen before.
We will discuss somescenarios and see some different usages of mobile technologies that areaffecting formal ICT inside and outside classrooms.

First commercially available pico projector

not available in the Uk yet . I mentioned these were coming ages ago post below from engadget with an intersting further comment on visual pollution risk . But exciting all the same .

http://www.engadget.com/tag/picoprojector/

Huge thanks to Mike for keeping me informed for keeping me informed around these developments.

Respect to the Gadget Boys

Inverkeithing High School Radiowaves project these two stars are running a regular gadget show this is so cool watch follow it subscribe to the podcast and if you like post a comment to the lads.

http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/station.aspx?lngSiteID=681

Should Andy gadget Black give up??

blog off the questions? What do you look at listen to in the area of technology in education

This is a simple survey just to get a flavour of the blogs you read and the podcasts you subscribe to in the area of Technology in education . click on the links or just fill in the form . This is very much an experiment thanks for your help

you can fill it out here:

http://tinyurl.com/4qsfvo

I will post back general results to my blog

Thanks Andy

Wii Johnny Lee hack on Ted talk

From youtube to Ted talk Johnny Lee does a great talk and think his Wii hack software has been downloaded half a million times and he's given it away for free .

watch the talk and also pick up his message of viral marketing of great ideas !!

Google docs on mobile devices

Google docs on mobile devices wow just tried viewing my Google docs on my Ipod touch at url http://docs.google.com/m

now I expected documents and spreadsheets to work but was really impressed that Google presentations also worked well another good addition to Google docs functionality !!

Tipping point an over worked phrase but have we reached one

A bit more philosophical reflection than usual. There has been much activity in three areas relating to mobile devices and maybe even computers in general. This maybe part of the usual cycle of innovation but maybe in fact MAYBE a real change in the cycle. A true break from a range of disruptive technologies

Devices

The changes in the area of devices are quite marked and breathtaking. He are just a few from the last 12 months...

• Ultra Mobile Personal Computers be it the Asus eeePC the Elonex £99 PC
  
• Smart Phones be it the Apples iconic Iphone Nokia N96 etc etc
  
• Other devices often referred to as Mobile Internet Devices. I love my IPod Touch for example
  
• General laptops just getting lighter and lighter with better battery life and chip developments means we are near all day battery life at a reasonable price. The ultra lights of The type of Toshiba R500 and the Apple Air
  

Software

Where does one start

• Google the list is long .Google mail integration via mapi for use of Gmail on range of devices especially important in the mobile field. Its integration with outlook exchange allowing both way editing of calendars. Google docs the launch of Google presenter and this week soft launch of ability to download these presentations in PowerPoint format. Google Gears is a back room product that allows Google and other products? To be available offline. I run it on a Mac and a PC and have used it for Google RSS reader for a while and this week they have launched this for Google Docs. It's been rolled out to users over coming weeks. This means you can word process, spreadsheet and design presentation offline. Have a look at the Google blog
  
• Apps for web based products widgets for mobile devices .Face Book a stealthy success that is described as BEBO (Blog Early Blog Often) for grown up (well maybe grown ups) has spawned a whole developer community of apps around it. For example dopplr (travel plan sharer). The whole vibrancy of mobile apps as typified by success of over the air at the weekend. What's an interesting growth is the effect of iphone/touch apps and importantly distribution route via iTunes. It comes at a cost but with an opportunity for easy widespread distribution.
  
• Service convergence the launch this week of video publishing on the digital image site Flickr for subscription customers. Images on the web via picas
  

Connectivity

The changes here are just starting o hit. 3G coverage is increasing costs are tumbling and all inclusive data packages are making mobile connectivity a real option for most users.

Broadband is evolving with Ultra Wide Band becoming a possibility though challenges presented by growth of bandwidth hungry application such as video services like BBC iplayer

Wi Max will make it to the UK in more than a limited way late in 2008 and with manufacturers in the UK rolling out built in 3g in laptops and wimax in the states

Conclusion

The market is going to get really interesting with the winners being individual consumers on a corporate level the picture is much more complicated. Technology choices take your pick you might be wrong. But you don't have an option you've got to choose.

Two thoughts it's not the technology you predict that's important it's the ones you mss and Daniel Applequist (of mobile Mondays and Vodafone) "In five years time there will be one internet and it will be mobile!

"Over the Air" covered on digital planet on the world service

The great goings on at Over the air was covered at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/digital_planet.shtml

worth listening again or downloading as a podcast

Over the air slide and some feedback now available.

Over the air feedback looks http://overtheair.org/blog

thanks to slide share some really great presentations that are well worth spending an hour or two getting your head round. I plan to later this evening . Go on have a look you know you want to !!

HP Mini-Note 2133 UMPC or not UMPC

Now the fact its qwerty keyboard is only 8% smaller than usual laptop keyboards (whats usual anymore) is this a UMPC or low format laptop you decide two posts from our friends at engadget

this one has spec

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/hp-mini-note-2133-officially-official/

this one has cost range

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/hp-2133-mini-note-pc-on-sale-now/

is it a good box or a good buy as usual you decide . Is it handheld ? So many choices oh what fun !!

Funny coment on if I ruled the internet !!

Its not new but worth a look for the amusement factor . slam poet rives off the renowned and informative TED talks website

described by himself as

How many poets could cram eBay, Friendster and Monster.com into 3-minute poem worthy of a standing ovation? "If I were in charge of the Internet," Rives says, "You could Mapquest your lover's mood swings / Hang left at cranky / Right at preoccupied / U-turn at silent treatment ..." Enjoy a unique talent.

book :Access Denied The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering

Interesting book on the subject of global internet filtering . great read if your interested in the filed of cnsorship and control of the internet. The role f the mobile web is heralded as a further progression of net freedom and how certain governments are looking at filtering controlling mobile internet content. The country by country listing is interesting.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11329&mode=toc

sample chapters also available on the site .

over the air do the Guardian read my blog ??

Sorry Guardian blogged it first and I used hackaday parallel first !!!

Guardian link

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/03/digitalmedia.mobilephones?

My blog post

http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com/2008/03/momo-cracking-night-leads-to-revelation.html

The power of google maps being empolyed for good

Some readers may find this posting a little upsetting but the subject is really important. I don't mention politics very often on my blog. This website using google maps "Sokwanele", meaning “enough is enough” is produced by a group tracking issues infringements relating to the current election in Zimbabwe. I picked this up while listening to digital planet podcast from the world service on the BBC.
A way in which web 2.0 technologies are changing the information landscape for good or ill you decide.


http://www.sokwanele.com/map/all_breachesPublish Post


now currently this is being updated using web based technology but with widespread use of SMS in Africa it wont be long before developer adds this functionality.

Emerging technologies for learning volume 3 (2008)

No apologies for blogging this Becta publication my colleague David Ley has worked with colleagues to bring this together. If you interested in emerging tech you've got to read this go on you know you want to !!!


Emerging technologies for learning volume 3 (2008)
Becta is pleased to announce that ‘Emerging technologies for learning- volume 3’ has just been published. This follow-up edition complements the first two ‘Emerging technologies for learning’ publications from 2006 and 2007.

The 'Emerging technologies for learning' series aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education and learners in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.

Copies can be downloaded from
http://www.becta.org.uk/research/reports/emergingtechnologies

This latest publication includes the following articles:
• Growing up with Google - what it means to education (Diane Oblinger, EDUCAUSE)
• Mobile, wireless, connected - information clouds and learning (Mark van’t Hooft, Kent State University)
• Location-based and context-aware education - prospects and perils (Adam Greenfield, NYU)
• Emerging trends in serious games and virtual words (Sara de Freitas, SGI)
• ‘If it quacks like a duck…’ - developments in search technologies (Emma Tonkin, UKOLN)
• Interactive displays and next generation interfaces (Michael Haller, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences)

MET office site gadget for Vista and firefox

Great gadget to add the Met office info into a sidebar in Firefox or Vista great
tool!
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/gadgets/firefox.html

weather reports, shipping areas and infra red satellite images really really worth a look. No Ipod touch facebook pluggin yet !!