eFest reflections - Diana Oblinger

Diana Oblinger presented a keynote via video conference, covering a lot of ideas on how to approach teaching with todays learners.


Some key points (for me anyway):


1. For teachers:

develop networks

social connections - e.g. http://www.linkedin.com


2. For learning environments:

Round tables, small screens

Formal and informal learning environments


3. To change Teachers:

Focus on the learners - what are the like?

Change the teaching/learning spaces - promote interaction/collaboration environments

Gain a students perspective - get them to describe how they use different tools in their lives/learning


4. Stats

34 million blogs

16000 blog posts per hour

Av age of online gamers = 38!


5. Students are:

digital

connected

experiential

immediate

social

CPIT Mlearning initiative

CPIT are doing some great stuff with mobile phones:

http://mportfolios.blogspot.com/

They are using a mashup of springdoo, filemobile, and flickr, integrated into Moodle lms (using the Moodle 'Journal' feature - must check this out, however I think elgg may be better suited for this!) to create a mobile eportfolio system for baking apprentices. However, they still require PCs to consolidate the portfolio.

Mobile Web2 resources/networking

Check out the following lists of web2 & mobile web2 websites from three different academics - very helpful of them ;-)

http://mportfolios.blogspot.com


http://cpitwebtwoinfo.pbwiki.com


http://metaledblog.blogspot.com


http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/all_things_web.html

Nokia N95

WOW! - this is some phone - available 2007 for ~ $550 euros

"The Nokia N95 comes with an HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE/GSM radio, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0 radios, integrated GPS receiver (with free maps), 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and 30 fps video recording capability, integrated WiFi radio, 3D stereo speakers, miniUSB connector, 3.5 inch standard headphone jack, microSD memory card slot, and 160 MB of internal storage. The form factor is more similar to a N80 than a N90"

http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1077775

http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=160

Evoca - Phone Podcasting

This looks interesting - record directly via your phone, or PC in built mic.

Now everyone can easily record and Podcast with their phone.


Get 60 minutes FREE



Record using your phone

Post to your profile, blog or website

Search spoken words and meet new people
Use EvocaMic™ to send messages to friends

Form an Evoca group - share your cause

Record your conference calls

http://www.evoca.com/

Kaywa Reader

Kaywa Code generator

Kaywa Reader

Moodle For Mobiles

eFest Mobile Moodle Course Notes

GeoTagging With Flock

View Location In: Google Maps, Platial, Google Earth, 37.393803,-122.076145
Geotagged with Flock: geo:lon=-122.076145, geo:lat=37.393803, geo:lon=-122.07

Blogged with Flock

CTLI.jpg

CTLI.jpg,
originally uploaded by thomcochrane.

Example of a geotagged Flickr photo

Thom's SplashBlog

View All

Heres a pic I uploaded from an SD memory card from a Casio digital camera to my Palm TX

Go2Web2.net - Social Site Directory

Go2Web2.net - Social Site Directory: "It’s a nice roundup and a reminder of just how many of these sites there are these days - it seems that only a few will survive."

(Via Mashable!.)

Windows Mobile users can take advantage of Yahoo Mobile

Windows Mobile users can take advantage of Yahoo Mobile: "Windows Mobile Treo users make note that Yahoo Mobile could prove a good resource for you. 'With Yahoo! Go™, your stuff is always with you and easy to use.

Click on the arrow to the right of the phone to learn more:

* Contacts — Stored phone numbers are automatically synched
* Photos — Take a picture and it’s stored online
* Messenger* — Record voice instant messages
* Mail — Get notified when new email arrives'
Yahoo Mobile"

(Via PalmAddicts.)

New iPod, iTunes, Treo750v

Apple - iPod - Features

Interactive Flash demo of new iPod interface on Apple website.

There's also a new version of iTunes, its main new feature is the integration of the third party application 'coverflow' for album art downloading - Apple is good at integrating good third party ideas into their main apps!

Also announced today - the Treo750v UMTS Treo for Vodafone networks - Windows Mobile 5 powered unfortunately :-(

I think I'll wait for the Palm OS version (if it comes) or Symbian (Sony Ericsson M600i)

Vodafone launches 3G broadband - 12 Sep 2006 - Technology & Science

Vodafone launches 3G broadband - 12 Sep 2006 - Technology & Science: "Vodafone launches 3G broadband

3.00pm Tuesday September 12, 2006

Vodafone said today it will next month launch 3G broadband services at a price competitive with Telecom's fixed line service.

The service will run ten times faster than its previous offering at a speed of up to 3.6 megabits per second -- faster than conventional broadband running over a copper wire. The average speed will be 800Kbps-1.4Mbps, 58 times faster than dial-up and considerably faster than most entry level conventional broadband services.

Vodafone NZ chief executive Russell Stanners said the big advantage for customers is the system is mobile.

The company said that mobile connectivity would quickly become the preferred way of accessing the internet and critical business applications.

Prices will start at $29.95 per month for 200MB (megabits) or 1GB (gigabit) for $49.95. The service may not be suitable for customers wanting to download large volumes of data.

Mr Stanners said the good news was this development did not rely on unbundling the local loop, which will not come to fruition until mid-2007.

Although Vodafone has around half the mobile market, he said it only had around 20 per cent of the total telecommunications market and the scope for growth was enormous."

embedding Podomatic Podcasts

To create your embedded Podomatic player, go to
http://www.podOmatic.com/podcast/embed/yourusername

Then copy & paste generated html into your web page - easy!

eBible.com

Here's the first cool 'Christian' Social Software/Web2 site I've come across!

http://www.ebible.com: "Here are some reasons for signing up (or take a tour)

FREE. It's completely free to have an eBible.com account
PERSONALIZE. Save personal bookmarks, assign topics/tags, add your own notes
COMMUNITY. Email verses to friends and add them to 'My Community' and share your bookmarks and notes with each other.
BOOKSHELF. Start building your own custom Bookshelf online. Free Nelson Illustrated Bible Commentary (limited time)
ACCESS ANYWHERE. Login and access all your bookshelf titles, bookmarks, notes, topics and community features on any machine with an Internet connection, anywhere in the world"

Treemo Launches - YouTube Plus Photobucket on Your Phone

Treemo Launches - YouTube Plus Photobucket on Your Phone: "

Treemo, which launches today, is a social network and media sharing site with a focus on cellphones. Formerly known as HyperMob, the Seattle-based startup also has a social mission - they’re encouraging users to recycle their old digital cameras and phones.

‘Media sharing’ is a fairly vague term, but the short version is that Treemo combines Flickr-like photo and video sharing with a mobile platform. You can upload photos, videos, audio or blogs via the website, email or your phone, organize your content into sets, bookmark your favorite media and view channels on your cellphone. What’s more, you can navigate the content using social filters like those on YouTube: most recent, most commented, most viewed, most favorited, top tags and featured media. The upload limit is 200MB per month. Other features include tagging, RSS, drag and drop management tools and the ability to share media with your network of friends. Another notable feature: you can embed the media in external sites like MySpace, hi5 and Piczo using the embed codes supplied.

In fact, these features are very similar to the media-sharing site Twango, and many other players, too. Treemo is trying to differentiate itself with a focus on mobile, allowing users to upload and consume media on their phones. However, I’m not sure that it’s enough: this is a crowded market to say the least. What’s more, it doesn’t bode well when lazy headline writers like me can sum it up with a comparison to another service: YouTube, Flickr, Webshots, ImageShack, Fotolog and Photobucket all overlap with Treemo, and all of them have more resources and users. The only strategy that I can propose is to become more of a niche play: targeting socially-conscious users perhaps. Because without a stronger angle, I think many of these media-sharing startups will struggle.

Treemo User?



Mashable’s Treemo profile is HERE - feel free to add Mashable to your friends list if you sign up.

"

(Via Mashable!.)

uBlog

uBlog

Just a quick test to check my uBlog settings for this afternoons presentation

Macworld: News: CrossOver virtualization software public beta offered

Macworld: News: CrossOver virtualization software public beta offered: "CrossOver virtualization software public beta offered
By Peter Cohen



Codeweavers has announced the release of a public beta version of CrossOver Mac, their virtualization software that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows applications, without having Windows installed.
Based on the open-source project WINE, CrossOver Mac provides the ability to run Windows applications and some games on the Mac without having to reboot or switch to a virtual machine interface %u2014 applications appear in the same Finder interface that Mac users are accustomed to. Because it%u2019s based on WINE, which translates Windows-specific code references to other operating systems%u2019 technology, no Windows operating system license is needed in order to get CrossOver to work.
By comparison, Boot Camp, Apple%u2019s Windows-enabling software for Intel Macs, requires you to install a copy of Windows. Similarly, Parallels Desktop for Mac needs a Windows operating system (or other PC-compatible operating system) in order to operate.
Codeweavers advises that CrossOver Mac%u2019s public beta %u201Cwill give you a taste,%u201D but %u201Cshould be considered an early test release.%u201D The developers promise %u201Csubstantial further improvements%u201D before the production version ships. In other words, unless you%u2019re willing to tolerate issues that sometimes pop up with experimental software, %u201Cyou should skip this and wait for notice of the production release.%u201D
The CrossOver Mac public beta is a 60-day version. Users interested in placing a pre-order can, for a reduced price of $39.95."

(Via .)

Plone

Another open source CMS - Plone, runs ontop of 'Zope'. Currently we have a demo up locally on an X Serve, in the process of getting an external IP & Domain Name for the server.
Check out their intro movie on their web site for an overview of Plone - looks promising, maybe not as flexible/full featured as elgg, but looks nicer, and perhaps simpler for the end-user than elgg (which I find slightly confusing for creating groups within etc...).

Metering Social Bookmarking Services

Metering Social Bookmarking Services: "SocialMeter looked interesting- enter a URL and it pulls some stats from major services like del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Google, Yahoo, technorati for how many times the URL has been bookmarked. It returns a total hit count, and you can click each service to yank up its results."

(Via CogDogBlog.)

Free File Sharing

Upload, Download and Share Files for Free. GigaSize the easiest one-click file hoster.: "Our goal is to provide the best file sharing platform, to be the UPS of file sharing. We didn't think that our early alpha version would get catched up that early into digg and that it would be the 2nd most dugg post of the day today (2088 diggs so far)! We thank you for all the feedbacks, even tough ones, that you gave through the digg comments sections; we really want to offer the best experience. You can give us your feedback here."

(Via http://www.seomoz.org.)