Mobile Learner Support

The final update from this current round:

In addition to cross-unit discussions about the above projects and sub-projects – some for technical integration, some for knowledge-sharing as part of the Mobile Technologies Special Interest Group (SIG) or the eLearning Community programme of events from Sept 09, there are many other activities underway:

Emulators – to aid those staff who don’t have access to devices themselves for exploration, the Digilab ‘mobile zone’ equipment has been updated, and the Mac and PC desktops have also been supplemented with device/browser emulators or simulators for newer devices including Apple iPhone/iPod Touch, Google Android, Palm Pre, in addition to older Microsoft Windows Mobile 6, Sun Java Mobile and the OperaMini demos [also available online via http://operamini.com/demo ]

Knowledge-sharing sessions – an ongoing programme of activities include mobile themes, presentations and seminars. These include the eLearning Community and the Mobile Technologies SIG as well as IET Technology coffee mornings and other Faculty and Programme-initiated seminars and symposia. There is also interest in improving the online presence available to staff interested in Mobile Learning, but until this is specified and agreed further, a co-created list of teaching and learning projects is also available for updating.

Staff briefings – most recently there are two briefings that provide an update and overview of mobile learner support coordination of teaching and learning activities and LIO projects, given as part of the above knowledge-sharing sessions: IET and eLC.
Ongoing briefings are also being conducted as part of the Digilab facilities, where ‘Digibytes’ and ‘Digiquests’ can be followed, by consultation with the staff: http://digilab.open.ac.uk

Cross-faculty consultation – commencing September 2009, there will be broader consultation via a group established by LIO, complemented by further interaction with course managers and teaching and learning staff in each unit. Building on this will be a series of activities to better coordinate information on any ongoing teaching and learning projects that are relevant to mobile learner support. While the main thrust of activity will be to improve communication and networking, the activities will also be an opportunity to feed back new areas of innovative practice and models for e-learning (and m-learning) for wider dissemination and to LIO. Evaluating new MobileVLE designs and small-scale student trial coordination is also expected to be part of the ongoing work in this area.

IET EPD and forward planning – although there was no Educational and Professional development programme for mobile learning this year, IET have released Teaching & Learning guide on Mobile Learning by Agnes Kukulska-Hulme and Anna Page.
The intention for 2009/2010 currently is to build on the consultation outlined above by working with course teams not only to explore which elements of current provision are most appropriate to mobile learning, but also to establish ‘microchunked’ course materials and activities lending themselves best to mobile learning. There is also currently interest in further investigating mobile usability with an educational focus, the facilities within the Jennie Lee Labs being ideal for conducting focus group investigations and establishing mobile learning journals among other activities.

As part of the eLearning Community event this week, I’ve made use of the OU Podcast Directory in beta development by KMi to host a screencast of the initial presentation I gave on podcasting from devices to a group mostly consisting of ALs. We tried a couple of video and audio recordings and uploaded directly to the system. You might like to look at the resulting podcast collating the results. The presentation slides are also available here.

While on the theme of screencasting, there are also now a couple of examples of using the Java/OperaMini emulator and the iPhone simulator, both available in the Digilab, as part of the Mobile Technologies knowledge-sharing group wiki. Still looks like I have to improve my sound levels, so may need a re-record!

A quick note for now to say that as part of ongoing wider conversations on Mobile Learning, I’ve uploaded the presentation due to be given on Sat 7th June, and hope to record the session to be added later.

UPDATE: The setup in Chatham wasn’t optimal for this so I’ll aim to upload two short segments on Opera Mini and the iPhone emulator, both available for Walton Hall staff in the Digilab 

There is also an Elluminate recorded session from the second part of the EPD workshop which I’m currently working on extracting, which will hopefully be a useful resource. Workshop details are on the Knowledge Network workspace: http://kn.open.ac.uk/epdmlearning

Dear all, the following event may be of interest to (aspiring) practitioners in this area:

Podcasting workshop on Wednesday, 13th February, 2008

Venue: Meeting Room 8, CETL Offices, 1st Floor, East Perry Building, Walton Hall

Time: 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Organisers: Shailey Minocha and Kay Bromley, Department of Computing

The attendance is restricted to 25 participants. Deadline for receiving the position statements (as described below) is Thursday, 24th January.

The aim of this one-day workshop is to bring together colleagues across different disciplines in the University to discuss the role of podcasts in teaching and learning in distance education. The workshop will involve invited presentations by colleagues who have experience in designing, developing, and delivering podcasts in academia and industry. They will present their approaches to developing and using podcasts to address key technological, teaching and learning challenges, and the lessons learned.

The workshop will also involve group and panel discussions on the following themes: (a) pedagogical rationale for educational podcasting; (b) how podcasts could be integrated within existing course materials, or used in conjunction with existing materials on a course; (c) how podcasts could be used in conjunction with other VLE tools such as forums, blogs and wikis; (d) role of podcasts in development of academic skills such as communication, analysis and reflection.

To participate, please submit 100-words description by e-mail to Shailey Minocha, by Thursday, January, 24th describing which aspects of educational podcasting are of interest to you and why. The attendance will be confirmed by Tuesday, January, 29th.

The position statements (100-word summaries) will be placed in the workshop’s area on the Knowledge Network (KN) ahead of the workshop. Access to the workshop’s area will be restricted to the workshop attendees. The workshop discussions will be consolidated in a report which will be disseminated via the KN.

As I’ve recently been helping IET with their Mobile Learning Workshops, it seems that there needs to be a multi-pronged approach to widening participation within the University. We’ve noticed that there is a lot of interest in Podcasting for example, and there is a lot of horizon scanning, but few opportunities for practitioners to get broad exposure for what they’ve been doing, and for newcomers to revisit topics already discussed in some groups. So we’ll be promoting the knowledge-sharing groups again more heavily, I’m sure, and aim to capture more of the discussions for reflection.

On a related note, a lot of folk won’t be able to get access to devices to try things out for themselves (although you should always try the Digilab first to see if there’s anything suitable to loan) – which also impacts on testing and ongoing support as the variety and complexity of the technology changes quickly (this also came up in a CTSS session). What I’m hoping is that we can get ongoing support for software emulation on desktop machines to give a taste of what’s available – so watch this space…

As promised in the last input session, I’ve now collated the stakeholder feedback and hope I’ve captured the essential points. Please let me know if something essential is missing.

I’ve also been looking at how to simplify the Windows Mobile Emulator installation process as a few folk have now expressed an interest. In the meantime, as we’re also looking at mobile phone browsing, you may like to look at the emulators available from Yospace.

Finally, you may have noticed that a ‘tag cloud’ has appeared on the right hand navigation – just a way to access the (project) shared bookmarks on del.icio.us/mobilerod…

Here are details of tomorrow’s session, to be held in:
HR Learning & Development Centre Seminar Room 3,
Wilson B Block First Floor
Time: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

I’m intending to run through possibilities afforded by mobile instant messaging and new mobile upload and sharing facilities, and would like to discuss how we go about including specific mobile requirements to further developments in collaboration and ePortfolio tools.
You may like to look at the slides I’ll be using to guide the session

UPDATE: You may also like to look at the MEF white paper on Mobile communities and user-generated content

A final quick note to say that the last of this round of consultations will be this Wednesday 14th from 2PM in HR Learning and Development Centre Seminar Room 3.

Social and User-generated content has had plenty of interest from industry and media of late, and there is much new development taking place in the mobile arena. We are in a position where some of the VLE tools could be adapted slightly for greater accessibility, so I hope the session will assist in adding this dimension to future plans.

Here are details of tomorrow’s session, to be held in:
HR Learning & Development Centre Seminar Room 5,
Wilson B Block First Floor
Time: 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

I’m intending to run through a few examples of eBooks and Flash assets, and would like to discuss how we go about including more options and flexibility in our provision of material to students.
You may like to look at the slides I’ll be using to guide the session.

Just a quick note to say that the next wider consultation will be next Wednesday 7th from 2PM in HR Learning and Development Centre Seminar Room 5.

I am aiming to talk through our current provision of eTexts, what ‘true’ eBooks can offer, and look at what learning objects we have that can be accessed on mobile devices. We may also wish to bring gaming in to the discussion.

Again, space at the session is limited, but we have a few seats left…just let me know and I’ll add you to the list.