MobiMOOC

Really please to be invited by my fellow mobile learning protagonist Inge De Ward . To be one of the course team on Mobi Mooc Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about mobile learning   . Its a pretty impressive line up if you ignore my inclusion. The details are

Topics and facilitators?
Week 1: Saturday 2 April – 8 April 2011: Introduction to mLearning;
Facilitator: Inge ‘Ignatia’ de Waard

Week 2: Saturday 9 April – 15 April 2011: Planning an mLearning project;
Facilitator: Judy Brown

Week 3: Saturday 16 April – 22 April 2011: Mobile for development (m4D);
Facilitators: Niall Winters and Yishay Mor

Week 4: Saturday 23 – 29 April 2011: Leading edge innovations in mLearning;
Facilitator: David Metcalf

Week 5: Saturday 30 – 6 May 2011: Interaction between mobile learning and a mobile connected society;
Facilitator: John Traxler

Week 6: Saturday 7 – 13 May 2011: mLearning in k12;
Facilitator: Andy Black


What really cool is the MOOC concept Its a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC.
I've got to say looking forward to it hugely . Great video from Dave Cormier ( his blogs worth a read to !) http://davecormier.com/edblog/2010/12/20/moocs-knowledge-and-the-digital-economy-a-research-project/

a website has recently appeared as well http://www.mooc.ca/index.html

Following in the steps of some serious pioneers Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Dave Cornier   .

Dave Cormier has done a great video on success in MOOC 

The whole thing is really challenging the way I think about learning and sharing and putting the message across or more importantly listening to the evolving conversation .

Come and help me out and join the conversation at MobiMooc join the Wiki and the Google group details on the wiki at http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com

Using mobile phones in field your views required

worth a look and please contribute see presentation below and comment at http://geodonn.blogspot.com

Over the Air 2009

The date for over the air 2009 appears to be emerging likely date is 25/26th September.

Its not on there blog yet http://overtheair.org/blog/ what is over the air simply its a

"Bringing together developers, designers, hackers and entrepreneurs to explore the exciting future of wireless and mobile devices/applications."

Want to learn/experience spoken French look at Madame Thomas youtube channel

For those of a MFL frame of mind or just interested in use of YouTube for education. This teacher has over 400 films made by herself or her students .

http://www.youtube.com/user/MadameThomas

Little Brother's iPhone is watching you

interesting take on things . institution owned devices but with a twist Japanese example from  Aoyama Gakuin University, located just outside Tokyo.

http://www.telecomtv.com/comspace_newsDetail.aspx?n=45018&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10#

M-posium

Great synopsis of last weeks Learner Higher CETL M-posium at Manchester Metropolitain University  article by Bob Harrison on Merlin John Online . Great contributors if you ignore my efforts.

http://www.agent4change.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=319:mobile-learning-warning-for-schools-m-posium&catid=65:conferences&Itemid=194

Ahead by a red nose Gamesbased Learning 2009

Hi all

Due to change of circumstance I am now able to attend Gamesbased Learning 2009 with is the 19th-20th March at the Brewery in London .

The organisers have done great things for red Nose day (thats tomorrow) if you register tomorrow they will donate £50.00 to the red nose day charity youve got to use the code rednose when booking. Good on you Graham ;-)

The two day conference the first day having loads of good practice from real people in show ! The second day has some real industry heavyweights and the God Derek (DS) Robertson form learning and teaching scotland .

Download the programme here

Register here

View confirmed speakers here

what made my heart leap was this phrase encouraging young people (maybe the real experts). Please note we are also keen to include young people at the event and registered delegates are welcome to bring a student 16 years or younger with them. School parties are also welcome by arrangement. Please contact us here.

Looking forward to it Ive also added link to the conference website on my blogroll on the left.

Students appropriation of technology and new media

Had the pleasure of attending Professor John Cooks inaugural lecture a week or so ago the slides are on slideshare worth a look .

The digitally literate learner and the appropriation of new technologies and media for education

View more presentations from John Cook. (tags: personalised mobile)

http://www.slideshare.net/johnnigelcook/the-digitally-literate-learner-and-the-appropriation-of-new-technologies-and-media-for-education

death of the computer lab ??

Interesting piece but up to you if you think its true

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i38/38a01301.htm.

worth a read.

Handheld Learning 2008

When doing a bit of site maintenance I noticed I had the link for Handheld Learning 2007 in my links in the side bar . Well I have updated it worth keeping an eye on it regularly because I know its being updated very regularly . http://www.handheldlearning2008.com/

plus of course its in the sidebar !!

Mobile Mondays London anyone want to push for mobile learning focused event !!

Hi All
Ive been in touch with Dan at mobile Monday promoting an idea of a mobile Monday meeting focussed on m learning. Anybody else keen to get involved ?

Just noticed the Finnish chapter are ahead of us http://www.mobilemonday.fi/event/mobile-learning-need-and-tools

will keep blog readers posted !

vodafone unlimited data package for free

Not my words review the small print and remember other operators are available . Is this another step towards the tipping point for mobile you decide ???

Vodafone has just announced that all new and currentcustomers on monthly plans will now have an Unlimited Data Packagethrown in for free. Until now Vodafone had charged £7.50 to add theirUnlimited Data package to a monthly plan.

Of course in the Mobile Industry "Unlimited" is always finite and limited bya fair-use policy. In the past Vodafone have set this limited at a thrifty120MB but the announcement indicates that the limit has been raised toa more useful 500MB.

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.

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 !!

MOMO cracking night leads to revelation of over the airways

Great night at my first ever mobile monday. looking at mobile apps for londoners majoring on stuff around transport. The great revaltion was the BBC backed over the air event. Its basecamp v hackaday v mobile plug fest if your interested in mobile youve got to be there !!!

Over the Air is a special event being organised by Mobile
Monday London, hosted by Imperial College and supported by the BBC. 48 hours of mobile and wireless development by and for the leading lights in the industry.

Some people are calling it Hackday for mobile but they’re quite different. Over the Air
is focused squarely on the mobile and wireless platforms. These
platforms are quite specialised and tend not to be very open to the
casual bedroom developer or for the busy professional. Over the Air
will be that chance many of us have wanted to try, play, experiment in
this new interesting sector. Not only that, a chance to learn from our
peers and industry leaders across the many platforms. Be it Android,
Series 60, OSX, Java, compact .net, etc, there all welcome to join the over the air party. So I look forward to seeing you

http://overtheair.org/blog/

Blog first Mike Short, Head of Research & Development at O2 reveals predictions for Mobile World Congress

Thanks to Mike Short chairman of Mobile Data association for this . Mike a legend in his own lunchtime ;-))) in the mobile world has supplied an insight into what's likely to be hot at mobile world congress . In Mike typical modest style he has canvassed opinion of colleagues in the sector. Unusually I quote his words directly .

Hi everyone,

Last year, as the last European Chairman of the Global GSM ASSOCIATION, I was asked by many people heading over to Barcelona, what I thought the big trends from Mobile World Congress 08 (MWC) would be. As Head of Research & Development at O2 and Chair of the UK Mobile Data Association I see a lot of innovation and new initiatives in the mobile space. So I thought I would repeat the exercise this year. Below are my key takes about what will be the most talked about themes at this year’s hotly anticipated show:-

Mobile Data and Applications

There will be a lot of experience shared around the 3G evolution, mobile internet and mobile email space again this year as we head towards a much richer and comprehensive data market.

The growing influence of the web will also come through in both business and consumer applications, touching new sectors such as Transport, Health and Education

Mobile Commerce and banking

Support for the GSMA Pay-By-Mobile initiative took off last year with a range of handset manufacturers and operators such as Nokia, Motorola, O2, Vodafone and Orange pledging to examine the use of NFC for contactless payments. With the UK’s first large scale NFC trial – the O2 Wallet – going live in November 2007, Mobile World Congress will be a platform for further brands to review and discuss their plans for using NFC technology in 2008.

This may also be complemented by GSM A led money transfer initiatives, to help the unbanked through mobile around the world.

Mobile advertising

2008 will be the year that mobile advertising comes of age. With more consumers than ever now browsing the web through their mobile handsets, there is a significant and largely untapped audience for advertisers to target customers appropriately with relevant messaging. At MWC expect operators, partnering with advertising specialists, to discuss how they can provide better targeting and measurement for mobile advertising, campaigns, from behavioural and demographic to geographic and channel-based targeting.

Screens, eyewear and accessories

When Bluetooth was first unveiled, largely for headsets, back in 1998 it did not achieve immediate consumer acceptance until around 2002. Talk has now moved to the adoption of screens and video eyewear. MWC 2008 should see the start of products such as pico projectors. With companies like Plastic Logic, Polymer vision, Vuzix, Microvision, and MyVu on show it will be interesting to see how this market develops as we move from a verbal to a visual world of mobile. It may not be long now before wearing video eyewear on the beach to watch the latest episode of Lost, whilst still getting a tan and protecting your eyes from the sun may not be far off.

Mobile communities and social networking

The steady growth of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace means making these communities truly mobile will generate excitement as well. The mobile industry has dabbled in this area with messaging and applications that can be downloaded straight to a handset there are still a lot more to be understood and implemented. We will see further offerings coming down the line later this year, potentially around what the future holds for user generated content (UGC) on mobile. The recent announcement of EYEVIBE by O2 and 3 in the UK is just one illustration of this.

M2M Forecast

Machine to machine or M2M will continue to grow as mobile provides new opportunities for machine as well as people connectivity. Telematics services are already growing rapidly now that GSM/ 3G modules have fallen in cost, and can be designed into longer term telematics applications from health care to transport, from environmental management to energy .

With more (mobile) phones than people in most developed nations the global forecast of M2M could be as high as 60 Billion by 2020, based on there being 10 times more machines than people around the world, but this will only happen with broader cross sector cooperation and partnerships.

Barcelona tapas – something for everyone

• Mobile video and TV - expect many more demos and trials to be announced, but no one single standard adopted globally .
• Mobile bar code standards
• GPS will be integrated more fully into networks and devices enabling many new innovative mapping and location based services
• Environmental /climate change solutions – the role that mobile can play in this
  

I am sure there will be a million more thoughts and ideas that will come out of Mobile World Congress and I would love to hear your views on the big stories and trends.

Can I also say I would love to hear any visitors to WMC . if you cant be there check the website out at http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/aboutcongress.htm

Looking forward to MLearn2008

I know its months away but book early !!!
I was lucky enough to visit one of the venues while presenting at the "The Learning Lab" as part of there seminar program . They've got

• web 2.0
  
• text messaging in education
• iPod technologies for learning innovation
• ePortfolios- Profiles for Employability

see the full list here

The website for Mlearn2008 in October is here

I also visited a location of part of the event at Ironbridge often cited as the birth place of the industrial revolution .

see the slidr show below of the few shots I took.
Created with flickrSLiDR.

E learning techblog predictions 2008 gives thumbs down for mobile , I disagree!

While reading Tony Karrer's blog (yes I do read other blogs).

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/01/ten-predictions-for-elearning-2008.html

I came across a piece on eLearning Technology: Ten Predictions for eLearning in 2008. He is commenting from North America.
I initially picked up on the negative comment about mobile learning.

Prediction #5 => Mobile Learning - Continued Scattered Examples and Disappointment

I not surprisingly disagree. I will dilute it and say that isnt the case in the UK and maybe Europe. His comment on 20% of web access being via mobile devices is good and is going to increase very rapidly over 5 years.

I would like to quote Daniel Applequist of Vodafone who states in "5 years there will one Internet and it will be mobile".

Prediction #9 => Niche Online Discussions
I liked this idea of the growth of more niche online discussion and small targeted online conferences. This whole area is getting so much easier to set up . But the role of specialist facilitators is coming to the for. spend money on the human side not the platform.


those interested in gaming and its use in education and training wont like his comment on serious games.

Go on read the blog you may not like all he says but its a view !!!

Molenet projects read all about it !!!

If you've been following my blog for a while you might know of my enthusiasm for mobile learning. I am lucky enough to be on the expert group for the Molenet project managed by the Learning and Skills Network and funded by the Learning and Skills Council . The team who are really busy have finally produced this document summarising the projects who have successfully won funding you can down load the PDF or order hard copies at the following link

This publication provides an overview of the MoLeNET initiative, the UK's largest and most diverse implementation of mobile learning. The Learning and Skills Council and consortia led by Further Education colleges are together investing well over £7 million in MoLeNET with 32 projects, supported by a Support and Evaluation Programme led by LSN, in This publication provides an overview of the MoLeNET initiative, the UK's largest and most diverse implementation of mobile learning. The Learning and Skills Council and consortia led by Further Education colleges are together investing well over £7 million in MoLeNET with 32 projects, supported by a Support and Evaluation Programme led by LSN.