Thursday, December 23, 2010

Those TeachMeet giants are stepping up to the plate again


Got a project or activity/approach in your teaching you want to talk about it. Can you do it in 7 minutes or 2 minutes well go on sign up at the teachmeet at BETT . Going  to teachmeet never mind presenting can seriously change the way you think . What you think isnt that much might be a spark for someone else so go on sign up at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/33799374/Teachmeet-@BETT-2011


Go on come along or even better be brave and sign up on the wiki to speak.

Friday, December 17, 2010

‘Mobile learning: Crossing boundaries in convergent environments ’ Conference University of Bremen

This look like an interesting event complete with a Mirandamod and those great people from sounds of the bazaar . Plus organisers who I was lucky enough to meet when presenting at Online Educa in Berlin .

What really impresses me is the aim to seek out the practice here and now and the emerging practice and attempting to look at new and emerging technologies seems great.

Conference fee of €50 and reasonably price flights to Bremen seems a winner . read more at  http://www.londonmobilelearning.net/#bremen.php

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Learning Without Frontiers Awards

Well Ok I was on the selection team but what a great range of people nominated by other people . From the teachers battling to bring technology into classrooms and importantly sharing it widely to people doing massive global things but in a grass roots way Sugata Mitra ,Iris lapinski . To unsung Heroes like Leon Cynch Tom Cooper who are plugging away sharing others good practice or there own massive experience .

You've just got to vote and off course its by the stealth technology of SMS . So go on vote NOW and remember a bit like elections if you dont vote you cant moan . International and hyperlocal its got the lot. review list and voting procedure at http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/lwf-awards-finalists-2011/

Sunday, December 05, 2010

I was the plan B for the Online Educa Berlin debate

Just returned from the stimulating and stunning Online Educa Berlin conference http://www.online-educa.com. Cant put my finger on why it was so good. the location ( cold but beautiful) , The programme (amazing varied and trans sectoral and trans national) or the participants ( the back channel and networking outside session was huge) but it was great . I planned to present a lovely session on Ethics around use of new emerging digital technologies with good friends John Traxler,Karl Bell ,Geoff Stead, Frances Bell,Mark Childs and Steve Wheeler . But of course things turned out differently.
A big thing at Educa is the debate and this years was to be no exception This year’s motion being

This House believes that the public sector has failed to use ICTs effectively in education and training.
more detail at
 http://www.online-educa.com/online-educa-debate

Donald Clark board member of UFI was planning to be one of the protagonists supporting the motion along side    
  • Suzanne Aurilio, San Diego State University, USA (for)
  •  Richard Straub, European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), France (for)
  • Alan Bruce, ULS – Universal Learning Systems, Ireland (against) 
Donald famous for amongst many things his robust debating style and his blog ironically called "there is no plan B"
Got  badly stuck with the snow in the UK and Gatwick being closed and via a twist of fate me being asked to fill his slot.

Hard act to follow/replace but at 4 hours notice !Now if I believe in the motion or not its irrelevant the thing was to have a good debate . My co debaters were brilliant fun.

Amazingly we managed to carry the motion taking a robust stance looking across all sectors of education and training.
 The photo shows  sight of seeing one a appearing normal size on the stage and 30 foot high image in projected HD behind you is somewhat Orwellian.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Feeling the chill school closure plotted globally by Ushahidi

Those lovely Ushahidi type have used there technology to plot school closure http://myschoolclosures.com/ushahidi/#   


If you havent heard me rant of about Ushahidi watch the video and more importantly visit the website http://www.ushahidi.com/

Watch the Video.

visualisation filtering are the next big thing linked with contextualisation and geolocation but what what would I know.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Dom Joly "Me and my mobile" Programme radio 4

Great programme talk anbout the relationship with people and the development of the mobile phone. Nice  piece http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w6ljy
I hope non uk readers can listen to it via the link.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

21st century conference with 20th century Wifi

I am thinking of starting a directory or maybe twitter campaign of venues for conference that say they have wifi but its not up to scratch . Its so disappointing and distracting when a venue say it has wifi and then you turn up and
  • its not free
  • it wont let you all sign in ( wifi for 1 or 2 delegates not all) 
  • its f lackey either slow or throws you off with no explanation
Anyone fancy joining campaign for decent WiFI at conferences !  

facebook for free

Facebook going for world domination if they havent already . While attending a great event "Mobile technology and Social Change, A view from the Global South": Arranged and hosted by Cambridge NetSquared Meetup Group ,Net2Camb co-hosted by the  Humanitarian Centre
I discovered 0.facebook.com never heard of it that because if your in europe you cant access it . But in Africa nad elsewhere its free on mobile devices ie you don't pay for data/connection costs . Interesting and not sure how I feel about it. I cant fathom if its paid for by networks ( I think so) or facebook .

Bet youve heard of it but it was news to me question is it differrent to mobile facebook site http://m.facebook.com

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mobile for development or ICT4D

I attended Mobile technology and Social Change: in Cambridge last night A view from the Global South http://www.meetup.com/Net2Camb/calendar/15018978/   Ken Banks  of Frontline SMS http://www.frontlinesms.com/   was the main speaker Ken has his own blog at http://www.kiwanja.net  in my opinion one of those global good guys but a real pragmatist. He shared many thoughts but the one that struck a chord is if you going to build something for use in developing countries ( tech or non tech I think these principles apply  . Ken Absolutely brilliant insight ! I think a modified version also could be applied for education technology applications but thats my own personal opinion.

  • must be obvious to plug together
  • if you have to buy stuff it has to be available locally
  • Pegging the price or free
  • go forth and multiply
  • the connection community choose technology that works maybe not the internet
  • connect your communities with no filters
  • multidisciplinary approach
  • thinking appropriately choose what works
  • collaboration not comtetion between NGO's
  • engage entertain connect
  • dont lose sight of the bigger picture 
Met loads of very interesting people all trying to make a difference of which I will blog more later. 

    Wednesday, November 17, 2010

    Txt messaging will never catch on !

    I had great pleasure presenting at #letstalkabouttxt7 in Leeds on Tuesday thought I would share presentation . Now its not just about education its the whole SMS phenomena . 160 characters can carry a lot especially with emerging use of short urls to smart phones

    Tuesday, November 16, 2010

    bity.ly get serious with QR codes and bundles

    Now this is seriously brilliant . Url shortening service bit.ly have recently launched a QR service
    http://mashable.com/2010/10/13/bit-ly-qr-codes/

    Its now gone a launched bundles a way to store a load of urls in one place and provide on short url to access them
     http://blog.bit.ly/post/1584931022/introducing-bit-ly-bundles

    The education uses are obvious sharing links to sessions course etc and for presenters sharing links related to a presentation just got a whole lots easier yippee!!

    Thursday, November 04, 2010

    Normal Service will not be resumed long live the Sunday service

    Well the Graham Brown Martin a character described by tech commentator Bob Harrison as "a bit of a Marmite character tasty but only if thinly spread" has done it again.
    Digital agitator ,digital irritant creative spark what ever you call him has shook things up again with Ap(p)tly named Sunday service (let us play).



    With Jason Bradbury's Dot.Robot Show for a start it is hardly likely to be lame . Chuck in a dash Experiences, Futures & Apps
    A chance to get hands-on with some of the latest tech and meet with creators and manufacturers such as Nintendo, Apple, Sony Computer Entertainment, Microsoft Xbox, Made In Me, Texas Instruments and Promethean plus the   Learners Y Factor Final with Jason Bradbury
    With young people showing how there using tech above and below the education radar .

    Bloody H*ll the list goes one There's an App for That!, Edu punk and a teachmeet .

    The phrase never on A Sunday has well and trully been smashed .
    Plus its free registration and details 
    http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/sunday-service-ldn/#reg
    Having worked with Graham at the first festival day really pleased to see it brought to another level.

    Tuesday, November 02, 2010

    Sophos anti virus for MAC home edition free

    Now I know MACS dont suffer with viruses ( NOT true) but if your sensible this might be owrth dont loading. Apple fans dont leave yourselves wide open to attack . Nice hhome version is free to well done Sophos !

    http://www.sophos.com/products/free-tools/free-mac-anti-virus/download/

    Wednesday, October 27, 2010

    Mr Trinder take a bow QR code links

    qr code leading to this post
    Thanks to my Glasgow correspondent ( alongside me we run the cynics column) John Trinder for providing some great links for those finding interest in QR codes (where have you been for the last four years). Yes they are going to be big yes even the Americans get them ( only joking) and the Japanese have been using them actively for years .

    If Coca Cola use them in a promotion campaign they must be pretty mainstream

    more qr generators

    http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/



    For business card stuff

    http://mobilecodes.nokia.com/create.jsp?terms=accepted



    and big list of em

    http://2d-code.co.uk/qr-code-generators/

    Yep there useful no there not the be all and end all . if you want to get some ideas do qr codes Japan or similar as a web search you will find a novel range of uses a lot around marketing of course .

    Wednesday, October 20, 2010

    Stand and Delivr another useful QR code genrating service

    The home page is a bit minimalist but with dropdown in entry box to deliver QR codes for

    • Urls
    • Youtube video's
    • Flickr images
    • Google Maps
    • Text
    cant be bad and you can drag delivr to your browser bookmarks folders to deliver QR codes on the fly.

    Monday, October 18, 2010

    Mobile User Experience scholarships

    eminder for students & early-stage startups on the list that applications for MEX Scholarships close on Thursday, 21st October at 23:00 London time:

    http://pmn.co.uk/mex/scholarships09m.shtml
    Well how about this chance to pitch for free place Mobile User Experience (MEX) 2010 worth a cool £1499.


    Each MEX Scholar receives a full participant pass (usually £1499) to attend MEX on 30 Nov - 01 Dec in London. The MEX Scholarships are there to help people rich in ideas, but low on budget, to take part at MEX and share their thoughts on making better mobile experiences. details on the scholarship can be found at
    http://pmn.co.uk/mex/scholarships09m.shtml important closing date is Thursday 21October at 23.00 London time.


    The 8th international MEX is entitled '6 pathways to the mobile UX horizon' and brings together 100 people from across mobile, media & design to actively create new ideas for enhancing the mobile user experience. The full agenda is here:

    http://pmn.co.uk/mex/agenda10m.shtml

    Sunday, October 17, 2010

    Global Mobile Awards 2011 Categories | GSMA

    Best mobile learing innovation some of my readers better put themselves forward and suprise M health gets a mention

    Global Mobile Awards 2011 Categories | GSMA:

    This is a big deal and not some tinpot awards go on have a look.

    The whole category list is worth a look at.

    Friday, October 15, 2010

    8ta Telekom South Africa become fourth mobile network in SA

    Telekom South Africa has 4.3 million fixed line users but saw voice traffic fall by 9.3%.
    Its now launched a mobile offering  8ta’s call charges will be about 60 percent lower than the
    average rates South African mobile-phone users now pay, . Customers will earn free air time by receiving calls, and
    50 free text messages for the rest of the day after sending at
    least five messages.

     “We are targeting as many users as possible,” he said,
    adding Telkom wants users to talk more on the phone. South
    Africa has an average of 90 minutes of monthly use per client,
    compared with 160 minutes in Chile and 190 minutes in Turkey,
    countries with similar levels of gross domestic product per
    capita, he said. What's good is now there are four mobile providers in South Africa as oppossed to three . The Mobile market is still a bit of a wild west but as alongside the likes of Kenya shows real signs of maturing.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-15/telkom-s-8ta-service-aims-for-15-of-south-africa-s-mobile-phone-market.html


    US teens quadrupler mobile use of data and texting well suffice it to say its popular

    US teen are sending and receiving 3,339 texts a month . Six an hour when there awake and remembers mobiles are banned in lot of US schools .

    The growth in data use in specific groups is very notable. Much of this
    boost is led by males, who are more gadget-savvy and consume 75 MB of data,
    versus 17 MB in Q2 last year. Teen females use about 53 MB of data, compared to
    11 MB a year ago.

    link to report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/45912.php?s=h

    Water think about it Blog action day

    Well today is blog action day http://blogactionday.change.org/ this years theme is water heres my thoughts.

     Weve all the seen the amazing scenes of Chilean miners being rescued this week . But the most thought provoking was little 500ml water bottle being fed down the supply tube to the miners to keep them alive .

    Clean safe water in one of the driest places on earth the Atacama desert contrast with recent flooding in Pakistan with millions of people surround by billions of litres of flood water and it all being unsafe to drink . So when you clean your teeth have a drink just think .
    Providing safe water isnt a luxury lets make it a right.

    http://www.wateraid.org/uk/

    watch some the videos to why you should get involved
    http://www.wateraid.org/uk/about_us/video/default.asp

    Plus if you do one thing just read this blog post from Neil Winton and pupils at Perth Academy where he teaches . Great example of young people helping other congratulations to the pupils and especially the pupils that pitched the idea read the great story.

    http://nwinton.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/blog-action-day-water/

    Thursday, October 14, 2010

    well cybertechure mirror

    Well Neil commented on my display technologies pieces last week why a mirror . Agreed but someone's looking at it see the cybertechure mirror .



    Cybertecture Mirror

    That damm texting Mlarcky just keeps growing story from US

    [PHONEjmp]


    Look at the graphic note the demographic and contrast with your experience if your non US based. Read original piece from Wall Street Journal .

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703673604575550201949192336.html?mod=ITP_personaljournal_0

    History of the world 100th object revealed


    OK its a solar cell charging array and a lamp but a mobiles in there to. Not everyone choice but interesting one none the less.
    A solar-powered lamp and charger
    I quote from the site

    It has allowed millions of people to meet and study outside daylight hours in developing countries - and was less dangerous than kerosene lamps.


    It could also point the way towards a more sustainable source of power for the future.


    Including the mobile phone was "a bit of cheat", he said, but the charger "also gave the mobile phone to the world".


    "These mobile phones are changing the world - giving the poor in the world access to money.


    "It is the credit card in large parts of Africa and South Asia, it can be bought in any market in Africa," he said.


    The mobile and mobile power supply from solar or other means does change the world.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11531338

    The irony of mobile telecoms companies usurping the banks in parts of the world as way of moving money around in the aftermath of the global banking crisis is not lost on me .


    Oh and by the way Apple ,Android fans its a Nokia!

     http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ahistoryoftheworld/2010/10/100th-object-contenders-2.shtml

    Interesting choice of objects

    Friday, October 08, 2010

    DK of Mediasnackers talking about social media

    Well I have seen DK for a while but the media snackers brand is one of truest to its brands of those working with social media. Working with Stakeholders and more importantly young stakeholders in the world of social

    Great video for you to watch but also to show others who aren't convinced great delivery DK and strong message get on with it social media isn't a fad !!


    View Larger Map

    Now learning on the beach or specifically learning on the move really took me back to my roots when I used to teach prospective Nature conservation staff who now have gone onto work for RSPB, Scottish Natural heritage etc  at an FE college. My wife is also a talented environmental education specialist who I have observed doing smelly cocktails, smell maps Nature Palettes and map sticks . Plus to be honest I am a bit of a outdoor nutter cycling, walking, and recently swimming . My first introduction to tech was stealing a BBC micro from a computing department to write my poly dissertation plus doing loads of computer cartography in my degree (days before GPS yes I am that old !)

    Now I realise the value of this approach and like Dughall huge fan of forest school movement But I hadnt really thought about its value when linked to edtech .
    Now this first learning on the beach wasnt that tech heavy apart from a google map reference time to get to opening session and wifi up a beach with the help of some tech and car battery a standard router and an ariel 


    But this was against an activity using a outdoor friendly low tech version of Johns now famous Learning event generator
    which now my favourite Ipod App  called the Random Activity generator the The Rag plus of course a beach barbeque







    This involved us forming into three groups and being given the following tasks.
    1) History of of Ireland as sand drawings on the beach.












    2) Salt Marsh formation as a theatrical whisper

    3)  Tidal processes as a mini opera

    The evening made me think non more so than the arrival of Chris and Sandra Kerndter and there two children who live on Achill Island come originally from Germany and just discovered the lob wiki on the web and just trucked up  .
    The Lob in my view is about space to think and taking yourself out of your usual environment "comfort zone" into the "inter tidal zone"

    I made a statement about a LOB manifesto what discovered on the beach is gets off the beach to a wider audience whatever the means this post on day one of the Lob is start of that process . Can I also recommend you look at Dugghalls blog on Lob at http://shareit.yhgfl.net/kirklees/kcyps/ .

    Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    Packrati.us pack up your twitter feeds into delicious

    Automated service follows your twitter feed and feeds them into delicious strikes me as  very useful for those links you lose in cascade of twitter. Andys memory is augmented again !

    http://packrati.us/

    Tooble or not Tooble

    Thanks to Dave Miller for this lead. A simple no fuss youtube and other formats to quicktime converter works quickly with a minimum of stages impressive and useful tool. http://tooble.tv/?

    Fact tank what a great phrase

    Those great people at Pew research in the US have done it again. There description of themselves as a fact tank carries less baggage than the phrase over worked in some areas of education of being a Think Tank"

    this video about the Millennial Generation around Pews work in this area http://pewresearch.org/millennials


    Lee Rainie is the Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project appears in this video worth a look


    Shape of clouds to come in HE

    Just been reading the "Shaping the Higher Education Cloud" published by EDUCAUSE/NACUBO obviously US orientated but UK HE people need to read . It answers and poses many questions. which servers to keep in house which to place somewhere elese . cost data security and service levels are all addressed . It is the findings from a two conference http://www.educause.edu/Resources/ShapingtheHigherEducationCloud/205427 well worth a look over to help your formulate ideas for the shape of the cloud over your institution.

    Tuesday, May 25, 2010

    New Trends and Old Habits:

    Interesting reports looking at Relationship of 12 to 17 Year Olds and the Media in Hungary. table below shows just one snapshot form the report

    TV

    video

    Internet

    computer

    PC game

    TOTAL

    2005

    174

    65

    50

    97

    25

    411

    2009

    146

    69

    159

    140

    61

    575

    change

    -28

    +4

    +109

    +43

    +36

    +164

     Access report at http://www.saferinternet.org/web/guest/blog;jsessionid=1C6EFCEEF2FB9ED7A8DB9967537ECE89?p_p_id=homeBlog_WAR_insafeportlet&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&_homeBlog_WAR_insafeportlet_action=detail&_homeBlog_WAR_insafeportlet_articleId=94130&#p_homeBlog_WAR_insafeportlet

    Learning on the Beach

    loblogo2.jpg


    After recent events if one thing is guaranteed to raise my spirits and to paraphrase Gene Hunt of Ashes to Ashes "fire up the Quattro!" is attending Learning on the Beach 2010 http://lob10.wikispaces.com The idea of creative thinker and educator John Davitt www.newtools.org a man that has inspired a lot of my activity over the last 3 or 4 years . The space and creativity that programme contains will be personally a real fillip to aid my future thinking . I am taking a few days leave to attend at my own cost .

    If you cant be there follow the #lob10 and the wiki at  http://lob10.wikispaces.com/

    Monday, May 24, 2010

    cloud course another block in the google Learning Platform

    Cloud course simply integrates with Google Calendar to allow uses to build courses etc. Using Google apps engine this is a serious development for google in education . It also allows user profile . Interesting eh !!http://code.google.com/p/cloudcourse/

    Mobile phone telco's as bankers

    Mobile payment will never work "11% of Kenya's GDP was shifted through M-Pesa last year, and this year we expect to shift 20%,"

    and transaction size is above $20 dollars nearing $30  http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=455751&G=4&C=1&page=2

    Thursday, May 20, 2010

    M learning at the whitehouse

    Huge headsup for Geoff Stead and colleagues getting there work in Africa http://moblearn.blogspot.com/2010/05/m-learning-at-white-house.html

    great stuff and worth a look.

    Thursday, May 13, 2010

    The Google job experiment

    The Google job experiment thanks for @fireglo for pointing this out . Alec Brownstein has published a video called 'The Google Job Experiment', showing how he personally harnessed the power of Google's micro-targeting to land himself an interview with a variety of well known creative directors:. Basically he micro tailored so a specific search would yield this result yes he did get offered interviews


    worth a look

    Tuesday, May 04, 2010

    Open Mobile Learning: Helping Integrate Mobile Phones with Curriculum | Digital Media Learning Competition

    Now if you do one thing yes one thing today do this view the video as part of a submission to the digital media and learning competition supported by the MacArthur as part of the Hastac Initiative its about open mobile learning and is put it simply an attempt and a good one to suggest to educators how learners own devices can help with there learning . Worth a view and to be honest people express a view .I know my readers friends in Japan Australia Ireland and Scotland to name but a few will have something to say so leave a comment and support a simple but well thought out proposal. No tactical voting required just your view


    Open Mobile Learning: Helping Integrate Mobile Phones with Curriculum | Digital Media Learning Competition

    Monday, April 26, 2010

    Tales of things brings QR to wider audience

    Story telling tagging and a dash of good old QR codes from the BBC click on programme definitely one for myfriend John davitt to hook up with and of course it has an iphone app can we have android one please. But to be honest this is brilliant .
    The sites description says it all

    Connect Anything with Any Media, Anywhere!

    Wouldn't it be great to link any object directly to a 'video memory' or an article of text describing its history or background? Tales of Things allows just that with a quick and easy way to link any media to any object via small printable tags known as QR codes. How about tagging your old antique clock, a building, or perhaps that object you're about to put on eBay.


    http://talesofthings.com/



    Tuesday, April 20, 2010

    interested in the biggger picture take a look at Are the New Millennium Learners Making the Grade? Technology Use and Educational Performance in PISA 2006

    Interrested in the bigger picture and what the digital divide looks like and what makes it happen is it acccess to kit or lack of skills or both.

    Its from a huige data set and the whole report can be browsed at http://browse.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9609101E.PDF

    Using data from PISA 2006, this book analyzes to what extent investments in technology enhance educational outcomes. One of the most striking findings of this study is that the digital divide in education goes beyond the issue of access to technology. A new second form of digital divide has been identified: the one existing between those who have the right competencies to benefit from computer use, and those who do not. These competencies and skills are closely linked to the economic, cultural and social capital of the student.

    This finding has important implications for policy and practice. Governments should make an effort to clearly convey the message that computer use matters for the education of young people and do their best to engage teachers and schools in raising the frequency of computer use to a level that becomes relevant. If schools and teachers are really committed to the development of 21st century competencies, such an increase will happen naturally. And only in these circumstances will clear correlations between technology use and educational performance emerge.

    Text anyone Pew report on American teens and mobiles

    American teens have got that SMS bug big time. whole report is about much more than this and is well worth a read .

    "Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18  months, from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008 to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. And it's not just  frequency – teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a  day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than  3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging  100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day."
    Link to report here

    Thursday, April 08, 2010

    QR google muscle in and Clic2c

    vThanks to James for point this out now I am a huge fan of splashurl.net that not only shortens urls on the fly but displays them in a huge point size useful if your  presenting but it also generates a large qr code . James Clay with his excellent blog has pointed me in the direction in Dave Hopkins blog http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/

    Dave points out Google are now in on the url shortening act in http://goo.gl/ and suggests if you add .qr to shortened urls it generates qr codes not its on of those annoying under control of big G things at the moment but will I am sure creep out to wider use.

    On a seperate note I have been looking a propriety (well I think it is is) embedded codes or watermarks these are codes hidden in images as a way of watermarking ownership of images or imparting hidden information behind a graphic picture. I am led to believe getty use it to mark there images . but its worth a look |Clic2c has an app for iphone and android phones   http://www.clic2c.co.uk/ its currently used in marketing but certainly could be used in education


    internet user in india and Mobile phone users "a pocketful of worldwide possibilities"

    India according to this report has 52 million active internet users and up to 71 million occasional internet users may not be many  in the context of a 1 billion population. but the figure I found much more striking is the growth in mobile 15 million mobile users a month (a figure equivalent to about 1/4 of UK population ).
    The move to rural areas over urban areas in terms of growth of internet use is interesting. As Gandhi said "the soul of india lies in its villages".

    worth a look it may challenge the way you view the world the fourth fifth generation smart phones may excite us in the developed world but potential using simple 2nd or 3rd generation phones (SMS,voice and maybe simple browser email functionality  ) in countries like India  is quite simple a pocketful of worldwide possibilities .

    view article at  http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/04/07/internet-usage-india-report-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+trakin+%28India+Business+Blog+%21%29

    Saturday, April 03, 2010

    Digital Natives , Digital Residents Digital Visitors or are we approaching something like post digital.Digital Native

    Digital Natives a phrase that was launched by Marc Prensky in 2001 . Suggesting to some that young people have a universal propensity to use Tech and be comfortable with it. That is the central core of Marc debate but even in conservation has suggested its not universally true or at least becoming less relevant since he wrote.

    I have and mentioned many time that the phrase isnt universal digital competency/digital comfort is not totally age or even gender dependent . I have seen a really valiant effort that in my opinion succeeds to move the debate on by Dave White of Oxford University  with vehicle of digital Residents and Digital Visitors with a presentation at ALTC2009 http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2009/10/14/visitors-residents-the-video/ This work has made me think over the last few months and I have thought of adding a phrase how to get your Digital Visa around training and CPD . It fits how I personally view the area than digital Natives V Immigrants even the the "V" suggest confrontation not difference . Whats your view.

    This post was sparked by a post on the edtechdev blog at
    http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/the-d...
    worth looking at this blog and some of the comments

    Thursday, February 25, 2010

    Easy Youtube

    Is it just me or is this potentially a great way of viewing YouTube video in a controlled and beautifully usable/accessible way

    http://icant.co.uk/easy-youtube/

    Thanks Adrian for link.

    Monday, February 08, 2010

    TeachMeetGameOn March 29th The Brewery London

    Well those Teachmeet giants are having another outing described by some as the best evening CPD you will ever have this adult show and tell of teacher practices in relatin to Tech is not to be missed.

    The organisers of Games Based Learning 2010 http://www.gamebasedlearning2010.com/ have lent a room and free WiFi to hold a TeachMeet that is primarily focussed on use of games in education but in true teachMeet tradition is open to anybody who want to share their practices in using any kind of tech in education. You can do a 7 minute talk a 4 minute nano presentation or just lurk !! Find out more at http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/Teachmeet_Game_on_edition please note its free but you need to register here to gain access to the bulding at http://teachmeetgameon.eventbrite.com/
    these are great events see my post from earlier Teachmeet in Scotland for a little flavour of what a Teachmeets about. http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com/2008/09/in-company-of-giants-but-ever-so-modest.html



    ss

    Wednesday, February 03, 2010

    ARM Powered LEGO/Nokia 4x4x4 Rubik's Cube Solver

    Well this involves one of the finest mobile ever built (N95) IMHO , Lego NXT and loads of technics and of course a Rubiks cube.

    Very clever and a bit of fun

     


    ARM Powered LEGO/Nokia 4x4x4 Rubik's Cube Solver

    Tuesday, February 02, 2010

    If you do nothing else today follow this guy on twitter

    Ok its not totally tech related but he is using twitter face book and google maps. Adam Wooly a resident of that gem of Suffolk Countryside Saxsted is doing a small bike trip of 10'000 miles . On  2nd of January 2010  he  left from London to cycle the 10,000 miles to Cape Town through 17 countries in around 7 months, all in aid of Malaria Consortium.

    He is doing it as sponsored ride for the malaria consortium now first off all visit his website and donate some cash http://www.wheresadam.net secondlyfollow him on twitter as off this lunch time today he had only 242 followers I reckon between us we can give a boost and reach a thousand follow him on twitter @london_capetown so come on everybody follow his progress . 140 characters is a lot of encouragement !!

    Saturday, January 30, 2010

    Web 2.0 in Schools Policy and Leadership by COSN

    Great report from our friends at COSN http://www.cosn.org on web 2.0 in Schools in relation to policy and leadership released back in may but Ive just come across it report can be downloaded at
    http://www.cosn.org/Portals/7/docs/Web%202.0/ExecSummaryCoSN%20Report042809Final.pdf

    Watch telly go on !

    Yes TV does exist I suggest you catch the BBC programme on BBC2 "The virtual revolution ! The programme talks

     "web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee,  journeys across four continents and six countries and speaks to more than 50 people who have made the web what it is today – including some rather famous names, such as Bill Gates, Al Gore, Stephen Fry, Jimmy Wales, Arianna Huffington, Mark Zuckerberg, Chad Hurley, Stewart Brand, Jeff Bezos … and the President of Estonia."'
    My wife a gorgeous non tech time said she's going to watch it so I suggest you 20.30hrs on BBC2 and UK players can watch it later on Iplayer. The programme home page is found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/index.shtml

    Helpfully Dr Aleks Krotoski programme producer and part of team at the Guardian Tech Weekly team discuss the series in the later part of their weekly Guardian Tech podcast you can listen to it at

    Latest: Sir Tim Berners Lee on free data and the BBC's Virtual Revolution



    Friday, January 29, 2010

    ICT & Education: Eleven Countries to Watch -- and Learn From

    From the world banks blog on ICT use in Education well worth a read great list of countries looking at 1:1 access and other work around ICT Uruguay, South Korea Singapore Malaysia and Namibia link http://ow.ly/11Tng

    also highlight up and coming conference on 1:1 computing

    International Conference on 1-to-1 Computing in Education

    Together with our co-organizers, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), we are proud to announce an International Conference on 1-to-1 Computing in Education hosted by the government of Austria from 22-24 February 2010 in Vienna.

    Results from this event will be covered on the World Bank EduTech blog beginning in March.

    For more information and event registration, please see www.bildung.at/nml-conference2010.

    One to watch