 |
| From Barcelona 24/02/09 |
Lots of questions - good discussion generated, time for coffee now!
 |
| From Barcelona 24/02/09 |
Saturday, February 28, 2009
IADIS 2009 Conference presentation
Lots of questions - good discussion generated, time for coffee now!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
IADIS Mobile Learning Presentation
IADIS Mobile Learning Conference presentation notes now on wiki: http://ctliwiki.unitec.ac.nz/index.php/MobilePedagogy2
Feel free to discuss IADIS presentation here: http://ctliwiki.unitec.ac.nz/index.php/Talk:MobilePedagogy2
MySpace Mobile
MySpace are actively persuing mobile users by creating very mobile friendly applications for checking and updating your MySpace profiles etc...
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/009/02/myspace_launches_new_mobile_website_for_s60_devices.htm
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Photos from Barcelona
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Monday, February 02, 2009
Smartphone Marketshare 08
Table of smartphone marketshare 2008 from ABI Research
Legend: SS = Samsung, Sony E = Sony ericsson, Mot = Motorola
Wikipedia has different numbers for the last quarter of 2008 - showing the iPhone in second place!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
A third report below for Q3 2008
http://www.canalys.com/pr/2008/r2008112.htm
"The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July and Apple’s expansion
into many more countries helped propel the vendor to second place
globally, taking it above RIM in the quarter and resulting in higher
shipments than for all the Microsoft-based smart phones combined."
CTLI Learning Technologies Slideshare
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
New Media Consortium Emerging Technologies 2009 Report
The 2009 Report identifies Mobile Devices as an emerging technology with time-to-adoption of one to two years.
■ Mobiles. Already considered as another component of the network on many campuses, mobiles continue to evolve rapidly. New interfaces, the ability to run third-party applications, and location-awareness have all come to the mobile device in the past year, making it an ever more versatile tool that can be easily adapted to a host of tasks for learning, productivity, and social networking. For many users, broadband mobile devices like the iPhone have already begun to assume many tasks that were once the exclusive province of portable computers.
Identified emerging technologies in education include (in order ofadoption timeframe)
- Mobiles
- Cloud Computing
- Geo-Everything
- The Personal Web
- Semantic-Aware Applications
- Smart Objects
http://www.nmc.org/news/nmc/2009-horizon-report-released
http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf
Monday, January 26, 2009
Smartphones & the future of Music Sales
NZHerald article on future delivery of music – via smartphones!
Schweizer, K. (2009, January 24). Musicians turn to tech-savvy audience: Smartphones and the internet prove popular with both artisits and fans. Weekend Herald, p. C5.
"Most music will eventually be accessed over smartphones such as Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry, said Terry McBride, who manages Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne."
"The smartphone is changing the music industry because of its platform and I predict most consumption of music will be through a smartphone in the future," McBride said in Cannes.
Read full article HERE:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10553302&pnum=0
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Some Mobile Learning Options:
- Eee PC 901,
- Nokia N95 with bluetooth folding keyboard,
- Nokia Xpressmedia 5800,
- Nokia E90,
- 3M MPro110 pico projector
- Apple iPhone (not shown)
- Palm Pre (not yet released)
- Nokia N97 (not yet released)
You may notice an absence of windows mobile or Blackberry devices - this is by choice ;-) . I'm interested in devices that students will want to own and use, rather than 'business' focused devices.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Nokia XM5800 & MPro110
Needs quite a dark environment to be effective.
Ning iPhone 1
Ning mobile version optimized for iPhone
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Nokia Share Online services
Screenshot of Noka XpressMusic 5800 Share Online destinations
Posted via Pixelpipe.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A way forward for learning
Here's a thought-provoking post!
Teemu Arina has a link on his blog to an article he wrote for his company blog on ‘Horizontal technologies for learning.’ The following definitional distinction between LMS and PLE is huge. It is a key insight into why education has barely moved into the connected age and why social technologies are, as he says, ‘a way forward’:
Horizontal integration is a way forward. In the eLearning sector many vendors have created eLearning solutions primarily for educational institutions. These technologies are supposedly designed for learning but that is not true. These technologies are institution-centric and vertical by nature. The concept of Learning Management System (LMS) was wrongly named. Better fit for a name would be Teaching Management System or Institution Control System.
No student would use the current so-called learning environments during their worktime or freetime. In 2006 I was at EC-TEL where Scott Wilson asked the audience full of educational technology specialists, ‘how many of you use a LMS for your personal learning?’. Surprise. No hands.
Social technologies are different. Blogs and wikis are already being implemented by learners themselves. Call them Personal Learning Environments (PLE) if you want but the key issue here is that they are based on user-centric design.
(Via Smart Mobs.)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
PixelPipe
PixelPipe is a media uploading service for mobile and desktop that supports over 60 web2 services. It appears very similar to Shozu. It works via email or "Share Online" (Nokia NSeries only), iPhone App, or Android App for mobile uploads (No Java or WM App). This is a PixelPipe Uploader upload - testing Mobile upload soon.
Posted via Pixelpipe.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Picasa for Mac
Google have finally released a Mac version of their photo management/uploading/editing application Picasa. It's been a long-time favourite of mine on the PC, but I've usually defaulted to iPhonto on the Mac with Picasa and Flickr scripts for web uploading of photos or the Picasa web uploader application. While it's great to see it available for Mac, I'm not sure (yet) that it brings anything significant to the party - apart from better Blogger and Picasaweb albums integration. Perhaps if you are usually a PC user Picasa would feel like 'home'?
Download link HERE
Monday, December 22, 2008
Top 20 iPod Touch & iPhone apps
Here's my list of my top twenty apps (All on the iTunes Store for download - some free, some not):
1. Mail
Great for checking mail anywhere, anytime. Awesome preview of attachments (no saving :-( ). My favourite way to blog.
2. Safari
The best Mobile Web experience around!
3. NetNewsWire
For keeping up with all my RSS Feeds.
4. Fring
Instant Messaging extraordinaire!, also includes Skype, Gmail notifier, and Twitter posts.
5. Twitterriffic
Finally Twitter makes sense ;-)
Includes GPS and Photo microblogging to Twitter.
6. YouTube App
Search, bookmark, email, blob-out to YouTube Videos on the awesomely viewable screen!
7. Google App
Shortcut to Googles Mobile Web Services - formatted for iPhone.
8. Shozu
A social Media-blogging hub!
9. Google Earth
Cool maps! Zoom in on your house!
10. FourTrack
Ditch the cassette recorder - record your musical masterpieces in multitrack using FourTrack.
11. Caravan
Easy Mac & PC file-sharing with iPhone.
12. Bible reader
Carry a searchable Bible everywhere!
13. Path Tracker
Track your movements over Google Maps and savethe path - could be a great car-rally or treasure hunt tool!
14. Mobile Fotos
Flickr on your iPhone.
15. Band
Create some musical inspiration - WOW!
16. Comic Touch
Annotate your pics.
17. DecibelMeter
How load is that music???
18. iProRecorder
Record a voice note or audio PODCast.
19. Voice4Fun
Edit your audio recordings on the iPhone
20. Speedtest
Test how fast your internet connection is - is Telecom/Vodafone ripping you off???
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Beached Whale
Check out this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
iPhone Music Video
Rap Music Video recorded entirely on iPhone using Jailbroken iPhone and Cycorda app.
I used Cycorder to shoot everything. This app rocks, but you can only use it if your phone is jailbroken, so go out and jailbreak your iPhone - you will thank me later. After Effects was used to edit the video because Final Cut didn’t like the resolution and frame rate that came out of Cycorder. I particularly like the look of the footage when it gets all warpy because the sensor can’t keep up with the motion. It kind of has this retro/film/stopmotion feel.
See the authors Blog
YouTube video HERE
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
MLearning the new (fun) frontier
http://wimba.netspot.com.au:80/wimba/player?action=display&rid=1-1226988860644&mid=87-1228211062495Podcast interview after my presentation at Ascilite2008.
Sent from my iPhone
Nokia N97 Demo - the great Fondle Video
Check out this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-elt8MN3I
The N97 looks great, but it looks like the user interface is not as
slick or intuitive as the iPhone, and appears to require multiple
touches to achieve actions? Will have to try one out - can't wait
until June July09 :-)
This of course gives Apple time to introduce the iPhone v3 before
then! Here's hoping! Competition is great!!!
Sent from my iPhone
Nokia N97 Demo
Check out this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O2Li74EYew
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
mLearning - Using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning
mLearning - Using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning
University of Woolongong mlearning project, a series of 6 week long mlearning trials using Palm Treo680 smartphones and iPods, funded by Australian govt.
Critique: short-term projects with unoptimum choices of technology!
Publishing affordances of mlearning - but will results be coloured by the projects limitations?!
See Ascilite2008 papers of the various case studies. Herrington et al. The study was supported by a team of 12 staff - wow! 12 people doing what I have been doing all on my own at Unitec!
Networked Student
Check out this video on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, December 01, 2008
Auzzie PrePaid Mobile Broadband
'3' have a PrePaid mobile broadband data 'account' option - I'm using this while in Melbourne for ASCILITE2008!
Cost is $10 for the SIM card, $29/month for 2GB data
This is pretty good value & no long term contract required!
AND you can use your own 3G Modem - I'm using a NZ Vodafone 3G Expresscard Modem with the '3" SIM. Only downside is some of the activation process requires the '3' modem software, and it's a pain having to remove cookies to get beyond the 'activation' page each connection :-(
Friday, November 21, 2008
Subway Mobile!
The ubiquitous nature of mobile connectivity is illustrated by the availability of a Subway Express downloadable application for mobile phones for ordering subway sammies from anywhere anytime - as well as "learner generated contexts" we also now have "consumer generated eating" ;-)
Cost = 20c per order - as the application forwards your order as a txt message.
Download yours HERE
Blackberry Storm 9500
The Blackberry Storm 9500 touch-screen smartphone has been getting some good reviews, including from Mac users! e.g:
MacWorld review
The Storm has a couple of features that give it an edge over the iPhone in specifications,
- Cut and Paste
- Higher resolution camera: 3.2MP
- Video recording
However, it BIG limitation is the lack of WiFi!!! WiFi has become a BASIC feature of smartphones, and is critical in educational settings as WiFi provides cost-effective (FREE) access to the Internet on campus for students, whereas the 3G only Storm will cost $$$ for EVERYTHING the students do! :-(
Blackberry are still in a business users mode!
Monday, November 17, 2008
WOA - electronic musicians - SLOrk and "iBand"!!!
Check out this amazing 'band' - all using iPhone/iPod touch music applications to form a band! They have some great videos and audio samples on their website - awesome!
iBand
iPhone Drumming demo:
iBand performance:
SLOrk
Currently highlighted on Apples website is SLOrk - the Stanford Laptop Orchestra!
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/slork/
http://slork.stanford.edu/
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Mourning the End of the Mobile Projects
Students mourn the return of their smartphones at the end of mobile learning projects at Unitec 2008!
Mourning the N95
“This is what I am left with!
It cannot…
Take Photos
Email
Check the wind
Make videos
Be my friend
Tell me where Ennismore Rd is
Or how to get there
Take more photos
Do other internet things
Film this
Be my calendar,
Reminder,
Or memory
(I have a bad memory)
The screen on this is tiny
There is no -
Sports tracker
Bouncy ball
Keyboard
VOX
Location Tag
YouTube
Plus all the rest
I miss my N95
Everything else
Doesn’t
Cut
It”
Mobile Learning Reflections
A series of student reflections on some of the Mobile Learning Trials at Unitec 2008.
Diploma Contemporary Music - iPod/iPhones
Bachelor Product Design (Year2) N95
Bachelor Product Design (Year1) iPhones
Diploma Landscape Design - Sonyericsson P1i
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Txttools
Txttools is an SMS (short message service, or text messaging) solution for organizations, including education. There are two main ways to use txttools:
- Web interface at http://www.txttools.co.uk
- LMS plugins for Blackboard or Moodle
Features:
- Create groups
- Integration with user profiles in Moodle or Blackboard - i.e. txttools plugin recognises groups, and mobile phone numbers in user profiles.
- Database of sent and received txt messages
- Statistics monitoring - showing sent/received status of messages for each user.
- Automated actions via administrator defined keywords
- Automatic registration of users by txting a keyword to a dedicated txttools number
- Cost confidence - cost = annual license fee, not per message.
Below is the Web Management interface for Txttools:
Moodle Txttools plugins screenshots:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Fring on iPhone
Another free IM client for the iPhone/iPod touch. I've used Fring for a while on a range of Symbian based phones (they also have a Java version) - it's unique feature is the support for Skype over Wifi on the iPhone/iPod touch (Fring supports Skype over 3G in its other versions in addition to WiFi). Fring can be a bit flakey - being a bit of a memory hog, and requires a good signal to logon. However I prefer Fring's interface to that of Palringo or AIM. Previously I have used IM+ on UIQ, which I thought the interface was really nice, however IM+ seems to have logon issues with MSN servers now :-(
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>
Ning mobile version optimized for iPhone
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Nokia Share Online services
Screenshot of Noka XpressMusic 5800 Share Online destinations
Posted via Pixelpipe.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A way forward for learning
Here's a thought-provoking post!
Teemu Arina has a link on his blog to an article he wrote for his company blog on ‘Horizontal technologies for learning.’ The following definitional distinction between LMS and PLE is huge. It is a key insight into why education has barely moved into the connected age and why social technologies are, as he says, ‘a way forward’:
Horizontal integration is a way forward. In the eLearning sector many vendors have created eLearning solutions primarily for educational institutions. These technologies are supposedly designed for learning but that is not true. These technologies are institution-centric and vertical by nature. The concept of Learning Management System (LMS) was wrongly named. Better fit for a name would be Teaching Management System or Institution Control System.No student would use the current so-called learning environments during their worktime or freetime. In 2006 I was at EC-TEL where Scott Wilson asked the audience full of educational technology specialists, ‘how many of you use a LMS for your personal learning?’. Surprise. No hands.
Social technologies are different. Blogs and wikis are already being implemented by learners themselves. Call them Personal Learning Environments (PLE) if you want but the key issue here is that they are based on user-centric design.
(Via Smart Mobs.)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
PixelPipe
PixelPipe is a media uploading service for mobile and desktop that supports over 60 web2 services. It appears very similar to Shozu. It works via email or "Share Online" (Nokia NSeries only), iPhone App, or Android App for mobile uploads (No Java or WM App). This is a PixelPipe Uploader upload - testing Mobile upload soon.
Posted via Pixelpipe.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Picasa for Mac
Google have finally released a Mac version of their photo management/uploading/editing application Picasa. It's been a long-time favourite of mine on the PC, but I've usually defaulted to iPhonto on the Mac with Picasa and Flickr scripts for web uploading of photos or the Picasa web uploader application. While it's great to see it available for Mac, I'm not sure (yet) that it brings anything significant to the party - apart from better Blogger and Picasaweb albums integration. Perhaps if you are usually a PC user Picasa would feel like 'home'?
Download link HERE
Download link HERE
Monday, December 22, 2008
Top 20 iPod Touch & iPhone apps
Here's my list of my top twenty apps (All on the iTunes Store for download - some free, some not):
1. Mail
Great for checking mail anywhere, anytime. Awesome preview of attachments (no saving :-( ). My favourite way to blog.
2. Safari
The best Mobile Web experience around!
3. NetNewsWire
For keeping up with all my RSS Feeds.
4. Fring
Instant Messaging extraordinaire!, also includes Skype, Gmail notifier, and Twitter posts.
5. Twitterriffic
Finally Twitter makes sense ;-)
Includes GPS and Photo microblogging to Twitter.
6. YouTube App
Search, bookmark, email, blob-out to YouTube Videos on the awesomely viewable screen!
7. Google App
Shortcut to Googles Mobile Web Services - formatted for iPhone.
8. Shozu
A social Media-blogging hub!
9. Google Earth
Cool maps! Zoom in on your house!
10. FourTrack
Ditch the cassette recorder - record your musical masterpieces in multitrack using FourTrack.
11. Caravan
Easy Mac & PC file-sharing with iPhone.
12. Bible reader
Carry a searchable Bible everywhere!
13. Path Tracker
Track your movements over Google Maps and savethe path - could be a great car-rally or treasure hunt tool!
14. Mobile Fotos
Flickr on your iPhone.
15. Band
Create some musical inspiration - WOW!
16. Comic Touch
Annotate your pics.
17. DecibelMeter
How load is that music???
18. iProRecorder
Record a voice note or audio PODCast.
19. Voice4Fun
Edit your audio recordings on the iPhone
20. Speedtest
Test how fast your internet connection is - is Telecom/Vodafone ripping you off???
1. Mail
Great for checking mail anywhere, anytime. Awesome preview of attachments (no saving :-( ). My favourite way to blog.
2. Safari
The best Mobile Web experience around!
3. NetNewsWire
For keeping up with all my RSS Feeds.
4. Fring
Instant Messaging extraordinaire!, also includes Skype, Gmail notifier, and Twitter posts.
5. Twitterriffic
Finally Twitter makes sense ;-)
Includes GPS and Photo microblogging to Twitter.
6. YouTube App
Search, bookmark, email, blob-out to YouTube Videos on the awesomely viewable screen!
7. Google App
Shortcut to Googles Mobile Web Services - formatted for iPhone.
8. Shozu
A social Media-blogging hub!
9. Google Earth
Cool maps! Zoom in on your house!
10. FourTrack
Ditch the cassette recorder - record your musical masterpieces in multitrack using FourTrack.
11. Caravan
Easy Mac & PC file-sharing with iPhone.
12. Bible reader
Carry a searchable Bible everywhere!
13. Path Tracker
Track your movements over Google Maps and savethe path - could be a great car-rally or treasure hunt tool!
14. Mobile Fotos
Flickr on your iPhone.
15. Band
Create some musical inspiration - WOW!
16. Comic Touch
Annotate your pics.
17. DecibelMeter
How load is that music???
18. iProRecorder
Record a voice note or audio PODCast.
19. Voice4Fun
Edit your audio recordings on the iPhone
20. Speedtest
Test how fast your internet connection is - is Telecom/Vodafone ripping you off???
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Beached Whale
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA
Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
iPhone Music Video
Rap Music Video recorded entirely on iPhone using Jailbroken iPhone and Cycorda app.
I used Cycorder to shoot everything. This app rocks, but you can only use it if your phone is jailbroken, so go out and jailbreak your iPhone - you will thank me later. After Effects was used to edit the video because Final Cut didn’t like the resolution and frame rate that came out of Cycorder. I particularly like the look of the footage when it gets all warpy because the sensor can’t keep up with the motion. It kind of has this retro/film/stopmotion feel.
See the authors Blog
YouTube video HERE
I used Cycorder to shoot everything. This app rocks, but you can only use it if your phone is jailbroken, so go out and jailbreak your iPhone - you will thank me later. After Effects was used to edit the video because Final Cut didn’t like the resolution and frame rate that came out of Cycorder. I particularly like the look of the footage when it gets all warpy because the sensor can’t keep up with the motion. It kind of has this retro/film/stopmotion feel.
See the authors Blog
YouTube video HERE
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
MLearning the new (fun) frontier
http://wimba.netspot.com.au:80/wimba/player?action=display&rid=1-1226988860644&mid=87-1228211062495
Podcast interview after my presentation at Ascilite2008.
Sent from my iPhone
Nokia N97 Demo - the great Fondle Video
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-elt8MN3I
The N97 looks great, but it looks like the user interface is not as
slick or intuitive as the iPhone, and appears to require multiple
touches to achieve actions? Will have to try one out - can't wait
until June July09 :-)
This of course gives Apple time to introduce the iPhone v3 before
then! Here's hoping! Competition is great!!!
Sent from my iPhone
Nokia N97 Demo
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O2Li74EYew
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
mLearning - Using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning
mLearning - Using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning
University of Woolongong mlearning project, a series of 6 week long mlearning trials using Palm Treo680 smartphones and iPods, funded by Australian govt.Critique: short-term projects with unoptimum choices of technology!Publishing affordances of mlearning - but will results be coloured by the projects limitations?!See Ascilite2008 papers of the various case studies. Herrington et al. The study was supported by a team of 12 staff - wow! 12 people doing what I have been doing all on my own at Unitec!
Networked Student
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, December 01, 2008
Auzzie PrePaid Mobile Broadband
'3' have a PrePaid mobile broadband data 'account' option - I'm using this while in Melbourne for ASCILITE2008!
Cost is $10 for the SIM card, $29/month for 2GB data
This is pretty good value & no long term contract required!
AND you can use your own 3G Modem - I'm using a NZ Vodafone 3G Expresscard Modem with the '3" SIM. Only downside is some of the activation process requires the '3' modem software, and it's a pain having to remove cookies to get beyond the 'activation' page each connection :-(
Friday, November 21, 2008
Subway Mobile!
The ubiquitous nature of mobile connectivity is illustrated by the availability of a Subway Express downloadable application for mobile phones for ordering subway sammies from anywhere anytime - as well as "learner generated contexts" we also now have "consumer generated eating" ;-)
Cost = 20c per order - as the application forwards your order as a txt message.
Download yours HERE
Blackberry Storm 9500
The Blackberry Storm 9500 touch-screen smartphone has been getting some good reviews, including from Mac users! e.g:
MacWorld review
The Storm has a couple of features that give it an edge over the iPhone in specifications,
However, it BIG limitation is the lack of WiFi!!! WiFi has become a BASIC feature of smartphones, and is critical in educational settings as WiFi provides cost-effective (FREE) access to the Internet on campus for students, whereas the 3G only Storm will cost $$$ for EVERYTHING the students do! :-(
Blackberry are still in a business users mode!
MacWorld review
The Storm has a couple of features that give it an edge over the iPhone in specifications,
- Cut and Paste
- Higher resolution camera: 3.2MP
- Video recording
However, it BIG limitation is the lack of WiFi!!! WiFi has become a BASIC feature of smartphones, and is critical in educational settings as WiFi provides cost-effective (FREE) access to the Internet on campus for students, whereas the 3G only Storm will cost $$$ for EVERYTHING the students do! :-(
Blackberry are still in a business users mode!
Monday, November 17, 2008
WOA - electronic musicians - SLOrk and "iBand"!!!
Check out this amazing 'band' - all using iPhone/iPod touch music applications to form a band! They have some great videos and audio samples on their website - awesome!
iPhone Drumming demo:
iBand performance:
Currently highlighted on Apples website is SLOrk - the Stanford Laptop Orchestra!
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/slork/
http://slork.stanford.edu/
iBand
iPhone Drumming demo:
iBand performance:
SLOrk
Currently highlighted on Apples website is SLOrk - the Stanford Laptop Orchestra!
http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/slork/
http://slork.stanford.edu/
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Mourning the End of the Mobile Projects
Students mourn the return of their smartphones at the end of mobile learning projects at Unitec 2008!
Mourning the N95
“This is what I am left with!
It cannot…
Take Photos
Email
Check the wind
Make videos
Be my friend
Tell me where Ennismore Rd is
Or how to get there
Take more photos
Do other internet things
Film this
Be my calendar,
Reminder,
Or memory
(I have a bad memory)
The screen on this is tiny
There is no -
Sports tracker
Bouncy ball
Keyboard
VOX
Location Tag
YouTube
Plus all the rest
I miss my N95
Everything else
Doesn’t
Cut
It”
“This is what I am left with!
It cannot…
Take Photos
Check the wind
Make videos
Be my friend
Tell me where Ennismore Rd is
Or how to get there
Take more photos
Do other internet things
Film this
Be my calendar,
Reminder,
Or memory
(I have a bad memory)
The screen on this is tiny
There is no -
Sports tracker
Bouncy ball
Keyboard
VOX
Location Tag
YouTube
Plus all the rest
I miss my N95
Everything else
Doesn’t
Cut
It”
Mobile Learning Reflections
A series of student reflections on some of the Mobile Learning Trials at Unitec 2008.
Diploma Contemporary Music - iPod/iPhones
Bachelor Product Design (Year2) N95
Bachelor Product Design (Year1) iPhones
Diploma Landscape Design - Sonyericsson P1i
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Txttools
Txttools is an SMS (short message service, or text messaging) solution for organizations, including education. There are two main ways to use txttools:
Features:
Below is the Web Management interface for Txttools:
Moodle Txttools plugins screenshots:
- Web interface at http://www.txttools.co.uk
- LMS plugins for Blackboard or Moodle
Features:
- Create groups
- Integration with user profiles in Moodle or Blackboard - i.e. txttools plugin recognises groups, and mobile phone numbers in user profiles.
- Database of sent and received txt messages
- Statistics monitoring - showing sent/received status of messages for each user.
- Automated actions via administrator defined keywords
- Automatic registration of users by txting a keyword to a dedicated txttools number
- Cost confidence - cost = annual license fee, not per message.
Below is the Web Management interface for Txttools:
Moodle Txttools plugins screenshots:
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Fring on iPhone
Another free IM client for the iPhone/iPod touch. I've used Fring for a while on a range of Symbian based phones (they also have a Java version) - it's unique feature is the support for Skype over Wifi on the iPhone/iPod touch (Fring supports Skype over 3G in its other versions in addition to WiFi). Fring can be a bit flakey - being a bit of a memory hog, and requires a good signal to logon. However I prefer Fring's interface to that of Palringo or AIM. Previously I have used IM+ on UIQ, which I thought the interface was really nice, however IM+ seems to have logon issues with MSN servers now :-(
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style="text-align: center;">
style="padding: 9px; border: 1px solid; width: px; margin: 10px auto;"
>
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style="text-align: center;">
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>
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
DipMusic iPod/iPhone Trial Overview
I've put together a 10min overview of the Diploma of Contemporary Music iPod/iPhone Trial for 2008 - makes for fun viewing!
Student Smartphone Usage
A quick survey of what students are using their N95 smartphones for (Bachelor of Product Design, Year3, 2008)
MLearn2008 Pics
Link to Picasa slideshow of MLearn2008 pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/thomcochrane/MLearn2008#slideshow
http://picasaweb.google.com/thomcochrane/MLearn2008#slideshow
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| MLearn2008 |
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
MLearn 2008
MLearn 2008, the good, the bad and the ugly!
The Good:
- Meeting great people doing cool stuff in MLearning!
- Conversations
- Two great social events - Visiting Ironbridge and the RAF museum
- Getting inspiration both theoretically and practically for MLearning in education
- Experimenting with RFID and Bluetooth
- Getting great feedback on projects and presentations
- Discovering edutxt and Steve setting up an international SMS number for us poor international attendees! - still cost more than local SMS though :-(
The Bad:
- The conference venue facilities - described by someone as modelled on "Fawlty Towers"!
- RFID and Bluetooth system not working until the last day!
- lack of air-conditioning or temperature control in rooms
- Long research papers that should have been relegated to short papers, and short papers that should have been full papers! Defining good methodologies and research questions but having little practical value shouldn't qualify for full papers!
- Printed Conference timetable missing two venues on Friday!
- Compare' mumbling incoherently into microphone - no presentation skills whatsoever!
The Ugly:
- Presentation facilities - almost third world! - bad or no sound, small screens
- Some presentations even had no video projector available - "sorry but it wasn't requested" - arrrrggggg! It should be default setup!
- The assumption that all presenters would use Powerpoint and Talk!
- WiFi access $45 per day!!!
- Having to resort to Roaming 3G data costs for connectivity!
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Nokia Xpressmedia 5800
The Nokia touchscreen smartphone is finally official. See a Flickr slideshow of the device here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahintampa/sets/72157607671323920/show/
Overview here: http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_5800_xpressmusic_hits_it_off-news-612.php
More here: http://www.nokia.co.nz/5800xpressmusic
Thursday, September 25, 2008
G1 to iPhone is What Linux is to Mac OS
There's a nice quick comparison between the iPhone and the new Google Android powered G1 at Mashable:
G1 to iPhone is What Linux is to Mac OS: "
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
MLearning Case Studies
The MLearning trials at Unitec this year have mostly been going really well, particularly the Bachelor of Product Design trials. Here's a few resources overviewing these trials:
MLearning Slideshow:
MLearning Overview Workshop Notes:
http://ctliwiki.unitec.ac.nz/index.php/MlearningWorkshops
MLearning Slideshow:
MLearning Overview Workshop Notes:
http://ctliwiki.unitec.ac.nz/index.php/MlearningWorkshops
Friday, September 19, 2008
BDesign student presents Vox blogging to Certificate students
Well done Noel on a great presentation on the benefits of blogging for Product Design to the Certificate students - give that man a chocolate fish ;-)
Captured using N95 & uploaded to YouTube:
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Friday, September 12, 2008
Media Streaming on the iPhone
While the iPhone works great with YouTube, using the YouTube application, it does not play friendly with other Flash video sites (at least without 'jailbreaking' it!).
The iPhone dosen't support Flash video - which the main browser video versions of most web - based video sites, such as www.ted.com videos are formatted as, HOWEVER, the iphone happily plays and streams .mp4 video! So finding the .mp4 video link from sites such as www.ted.com videos actually do stream nicely OTA (Over The Air) directly to the iPhone. See screenshots below ;-)
To do this:
Browse to the video site on Safari on the iPhone. Select the 'RSS' feed links on the iPhone, you can then stream OTA .mp4 video or audio directly from sites like www.ted.com. The iPhone uses an online feed reader to do the conversion for it: http://reader.mac.com, which then displays a Quicktime plugin icon, selecting this icon will then stream the audio or video directly OTA to the iPhone YAY!
Be aware that streaming media does not store it on the iPhone - if you want to watch/listen more than once, it's best to use the iTunes links on your PC to download the video/audio to iTunes on your PC, then sync the downloaded files to your iPhone for offline viewing!
The iPhone dosen't support Flash video - which the main browser video versions of most web - based video sites, such as www.ted.com videos are formatted as, HOWEVER, the iphone happily plays and streams .mp4 video! So finding the .mp4 video link from sites such as www.ted.com videos actually do stream nicely OTA (Over The Air) directly to the iPhone. See screenshots below ;-)
To do this:
Browse to the video site on Safari on the iPhone. Select the 'RSS' feed links on the iPhone, you can then stream OTA .mp4 video or audio directly from sites like www.ted.com. The iPhone uses an online feed reader to do the conversion for it: http://reader.mac.com, which then displays a Quicktime plugin icon, selecting this icon will then stream the audio or video directly OTA to the iPhone YAY!
Be aware that streaming media does not store it on the iPhone - if you want to watch/listen more than once, it's best to use the iTunes links on your PC to download the video/audio to iTunes on your PC, then sync the downloaded files to your iPhone for offline viewing!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The "Myth" of the cost of Mobile Web2
We had an interesting interjection in our Mobile Web2 presentation at eFest - claiming SMS is cheaper and does 90% of what we can achieve via Mobile Web2!
Sadly this miss-information is rife! Lets bury that myth right now!
1. SMS is NOT a media rich, collaborative, user content creation tool! Mobile Web2 is!
2. Costing 20c($0.2NZ) per 160 character message, it is the equivalent of the minimum 3G data, which is charged per kilobyte or part thereof.
Casual 3G data now costs $1NZ for a 10MB per day 'data cap' ($1 per MB thereafter) - soooo, for the same price of 5 x SMS messages (approx 5kb) you get 10MB of rich media using casual web2!!!
OR, to get the equivalent data in SMS messages, it would cost 10000 x $0.2 = $2000NZ. HHhmmmm - who's being more cost effective now!
New iPods and 2.1 iPhone update
iPod receives speaker and headset with microphone and voice recording application - so now you can create multimedia content with the iPod. However I'm disappointed the iPod didn't get updated with a camera as well!
There's also some cool wireless MIDI controller apps available for iPod Touch & iPhone from Silicon Studios - MIDI Controller apps. 
IPhone 2.1 solves looong sync times - YAY!
also discovered some NZ developed iPod/iPhone apps by ORSOME. 
Check them out at the app store.
Thom
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Flixwagon
Quite impressed with how easy it is to get Flixwagon video streaming going on the N95.
Flixwagon allows you to broadcast live video from your cameraphone to the Internet, and saves it for later editing and sharing. WHY? you may ask - particularly as the N95 takes such great video on the device itself, that can then be uploaded in a multitude of ways to the Internet later?
Reasons I see are:
My first example:
Live mobile broadcasting by Flixwagon. First try using Flixwagon on N95 and 3G streaming, with direct upload to YouTube as well. Obviously some practice needed - including turning camera on first!
YouTube Version
Flixwagon allows you to broadcast live video from your cameraphone to the Internet, and saves it for later editing and sharing. WHY? you may ask - particularly as the N95 takes such great video on the device itself, that can then be uploaded in a multitude of ways to the Internet later?
Reasons I see are:
1. Save memory space on your memory card - video is streamed directly to the Internet, and not permanently stored on your memory card (This is also a downside if you want the higher quality original version later!).
2. Flixwagon provides a direct upload link to YouTube - so you don't need to send your video to YouTube later - it will go there automatically (note - this only works for 'public' video streams).
3. If you have a 'jailbroken' iPhone you can record and save/share video!!!
My first example:
Live mobile broadcasting by Flixwagon. First try using Flixwagon on N95 and 3G streaming, with direct upload to YouTube as well. Obviously some practice needed - including turning camera on first!
YouTube Version
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