XMind

Mobile & Wireless Technologies review - themes

1. Future

   1. Potential with HTML5

      1. Location awareness

   2. Scenarios

      1. Getting from A to B

      2. Specific location information

   3. Augmented Reality

      1. Tied up with advertising

      2. Some say too specific

         1. Really about virtual experience in physical environment

      3. Some say needs to be tightly defined

         1. e.g. Layar & Google Skymap are different

            1. Purpose, openness, etc

      4. 'Ambient buildings'

         1. Anything that 'augments' everyday experience

      5. Not going to be so big

         1. More location-based stuff

            1. Privacy issues

      6. Talk to Pervasive Media Studio (Bristol)

      7. Lot of opportunities, no real case studies yet

      8. Lots of potential

   4. Social Learning

      1. Next big thing according to James Clay

   5. iPad

      1. The future, according to James Clay

      2. Hyped out of all recognition

         1. iPod touches are better for education (David Sugden)

      3. Android tablets potentially useful

      4. People starting from the wrong place

         1. Issue = institutional vs student-owned devices

   6. Open/Closed debate

      1. Practitioners probably not thinking about this at moment

      2. Also about apps vs open web

         1. Publishers interested in apps because easier to make money

         2. Apps aren't going away because so profitable

      3. 'Platform agnosticism'

         1. Cloud computing

      4. Open will prevail (Ian Singleton)

         1. But more complicated than that

      5. Be careful of bandwagons

         1. Need to focus on accessibility

      6. Room for both?

         1. Lowest common denominator = most important

   7. Mobile operators

      1. Changing how they sell mobile data

   8. Modules/courses

      1. Institute of Education

         1. MA in ICT in Education

         2. MsC in Learning Technologies

   9. User-generated content

      1. Explosion in FE/HE

   10. Hamstrung by assessment regimes in secondary

       1. Need to teach 'mobile phone proficiency'

          1. Mobiles currently 'playthings'

       2. Need to separate teaching and assessment

          1. Branding

   11. More project-based learning

       1. Semi-formal learning

   12. Unconferences & grass-roots events

   13. Devices with projectors built-in

       1. Key issue = responsibilities

   14. Distribution = key

   15. Cloud computing

       1. Goes hand-in-hand with mobile

       2. More you can outsource the better

   16. Mobile maturity

       1. Many projects repeating previous mistakes

2. Current practice

   1. Fragmented landscape

      1. Could hinder educational use

         1. Suggestions

            1. Key bits of info on website

            2. Investigate exciting new hardware

      2. Two reasons

         1. Innovative stuff being done by practitioners taken for granted (by them & institution)

         2. MoLeNet reticence to engage with publications

      3. Public perception that homogenizing, but not the case

      4. Divide between pragmatic and academic approach

   2. Relationship with desktop machines

      1. Fuzzy line

      2. Mobile should do things better

   3. Students

      1. Need to build on critical mass

      2. Use surveys to find what the state of play is

         1. Things going mainstream & achieving 'critical mass' important

            1. Positive externalities

               1. e.g. Fax machines more useful the more people have them

      3. Higher proportion with smartphones than general population

         1. 99% will have smartphones within 2-3 years

         2. Social networking integration?

            1. Facebook = c.40% of mobile internet traffic

   4. 'Context' is big keyword at the moment

      1. Learning 'in' and 'across' contexts

   5. VLEs

      1. Current idea to put VLEs on mobile devices

         1. Will fail because not appropriate

      2. Move towards digestible pieces of learning

      3. Blackboard going to add mobile element

   6. Location-based

      1. Lots happening at the moment

         1. Has gone mainstream along with games-based learning

            1. University campuses perfect for this

               1. Make Freshers info available year-round

      2. Move to Augmented Reality

         1. e.g. Museum of London iPhone app

   7. Senior Managers

      1. Want simple stuff (e.g. SMS)

         1. Equality of access considerations

      2. Tension

         1. Economic best practice

         2. Pedagogic best practice

      3. Should take advantage of iTunesU and OpenCourseWare

   8. Response systems

      1. Bluetooth

      2. Wifi

      3. Twitter

      4. SMS

   9. Digitization projects

      1. JISC

   10. MoLeNet works because teachers experiment

       1. Catalyst

   11. Bluetooth is a dying technology

       1. Being replaced by email and uploading directly

          1. Smartphones increasingly have functionality

   12. Reducing friction

       1. e.g. Eee PCs & Dropbox

          1. Case study from Chesterfield College

   13. Mobile games devices

       1. PSPs, Nintendo DS, etc.

          1. Pilot studies promising

          2. PSPs good

             1. Screen size

             2. Camera

             3. St Helen's College, Lancs. (case study)

          3. DS working well at Ashton-under-Lyme 6th form college

          4. Blackburn College using iPhones with teacher training

   14. Mobile devices banned or frowned upon in many places

       1. Ethical considerations

   15. iTunesU

       1. Dominated by filmed lectures

   16. Convergent devices

       1. e.g. iPhone

          1. Question becomes not 'how?' but 'what?'

   17. Student-owned devices

       1. Too expensive/too much friction for institution-provided

       2. Digital divide/social justice issues with using student-owned

   18. Passive use

       1. Media given to students

          1. Need to be creating (David Sugden)

             1. Evaluation & comparison skills

   19. Barriers

       1. Classroom management

       2. Philosophy of Heads of IT/Estates

       3. Accessibility

3. Past 3 years

   1. Benefits of mobile access

      1. Topic

         1. Create anytime/anywhere version of current offerings

            1. Trivial to do

            2. Currently just screen-size changes

   2. No mechanism for collective purchasing

      1. Topic

         1. Need something similar to CHEST?

   3. MoLeNet

      1. Only small-scale projects up to 2006

         1. MoLeNet started in 2007

      2. Publications

         1. 'Go Mobile' (with JISC TechDis)

         2. Games technology for learning

      3. MoLeNet Academies set up after Year 1

      4. Resulted from initial European projects

         1. Follow-up work from LSC

      5. 40,000 learners involved in projects

         1. 7-8,000 members of staff

      6. Change in activities

         1. No longer focused on shiny toys

            1. Greater understanding of e-learning

   4. JISC

      1. JISC eBook collections observatory project

      2. Rapid innovation grants

         1. Language students able to record colloquialisms

         2. Mobile campus at Bristol

         3. Historical maps

      3. Landscape study (2008)

   5. Lots of interesting things happening because of extra features of mobile

      1. e.g. video, GPS

         1. PSPs especially good

         2. Media delivery easier

            1. No longer need laptop for audio/video

   6. About tablet PCs as well as smartphones

   7. Clear standards r.e. technology for doctors/nurses, etc.

      1. Not in education

   8. Move away from PDAs

      1. Wifi on smartphones

         1. No need for data contract

      2. More mobile-friendly sites/apps

         1. e.g. iPadio

   9. Not just mobile phones, tablets, etc.

      1. Also digital cameras (e.g. Busby)

         1. Students use own memory card

4. Other

   1. Education's relationship to commercial mobile technologies/opportunities

      1. Being behind 'hype curve' = a good thing

         1. Topic

            1. Means education can cherry-pick

      2. e.g. email used by businesses first

         1. click to add more

      3. Assumption that commercial always innovative is wrong

         1. Education needs flexibility

      4. eBooks tested with OU in 2001

         1. Have tested several things since then (poor usability with Kindles)

            1. Knew what to do with iPad immediately

   2. What is a 'mobile device'?

      1. 17" MacBook Pro?

         1. To do with location of learner

      2. Four different types

         1. People who have huge investment in e-Learning

         2. Academics looking for ultimate device

         3. Changing pedagogies using technologies

         4. Standards

   3. m-learning is not an improverished version of e-learning

   4. Research funding

      1. Social improvement (e.g. LSN, NIACE) --> tends to be uncritical

      2. Research activity (e.g. research councils) --> tends to be obscure

         1. Bubbling of research activity, but no real sustainable approaches

   5. Mobile learning is moving fast

      1. Institutions aren't

      2. Mobile devices change pedagogies

         1. Unlike IWBs, etc.

   6. MFL using mobile devices a lot

      1. Spoken element

      2. Situated element

      3. Ability to break stuff down

   7. London Mobile Learning Group

      1. Brings together people from range of backgrounds

      2. Database of projects

   8. Talk of 'net generation' = too simplistic

      1. About behaviours & awareness

         1. Not necessarily generational

   9. Easier to get stuff onto Android devices

5. International

   1. Lack of legacy infrastructure

      1. Exciting things happening as a result

      2. Pragmatic, as opposed to philosophical concerns

   2. Countries/areas to look at

      1. Australia

         1. Early innovators

            1. Distances involved

            2. Group of pioneers

      2. Scandanavia

         1. Finland (Nokia)

      3. Italy

      4. UK

         1. Seen as 'extending' learning (e.g. home access)

         2. Leads the world in mobile applications

      5. USA

         1. Lagging behind

            1. Very corporate

      6. Africa

         1. Attempting to 'leapfrog' the west

      7. Japan

         1. mobile culture

            1. High-end devices due to small houses

         2. Asia ahead in hardware but not software

   3. Organizations & projects

      1. International Association for Mobile Learning (iamlearn.org)

      2. European Mobilearn & mLearning projects were about learning outside the classroom

         1. Basic education

         2. Workplace learning

      3. Norbert Pachler has database of projects

      4. MOTILL project

         1. Still in dissemination phase

            1. Italy, UK, Hungary & Ireland involved

   4. FE/HE issues

      1. FE seems to experiment more than HE

      2. Sheffield College moving to support all student mobile devices

         1. Bradford College doing something similar

      3. Diana Laurillard attempted unified strategy across all education sectors whilst at DfES

   5. Publications

      1. Horizon Report 2010

      2. Mobile and blended learning journal