Overview of Mobile2

A nice slideshare on Mobile2:

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Sunrise @ Blind Billies - Middlmarcn

The one redeeming feature of Blind billies! & the showers!

Cycling the otago railtrail

Halfway through the otago halfway - a great relaxing 4 day ride with good food & quaint accomodation!

N80 Launch with BDesign (Product) students!

Yesterday we handed out the Nokia N80's and got students underway with WiFi accecss while we're waiting on Vodafone to sign students up on voice and data plans (C'mon Vosafone - get your act together!!!).

MobBlogs

This post from Roger's Vox blog today: (Bachelor Product Design Tutor)
PS - it was a fun session - a bunch of enthusiastic students and two enthusiastic Tutors as well!

MobBlogs: "MobBlogs







Blogging Session

A huge thanks to Thom Cochran from the Unitec CTLI (Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation) who came into studio this morning and ran a session on blogging and mobile blogging.
The staff along with Thom are researching into the effectiveness of mobile blogging and how it might contribute to or enhance teaching and learning. The Bachelor of Product Design is based upon the 'classic' studio teaching model and through our research project we aim to disrupt this model and seek a new model(s) for the programme. Thom is running another research project with the Landscape Architecture Department and both these projects will be contributing to his PhD studies.



Today we gave out Nokia N80's to a 8 selected students. The N80's come with folding bluetooth keyboards to make copy writing that much easier.
All students in the 3rd year are required to blog as part of their final year projects but these 8 will be taking part in the mobile blogging research project. Each client has been encouraged to take part in the blogging process and to interact with the students whenever possible.

DesignProjects3 11/03/08 8:59 PM DesignProjects3 mobile blogging ctli"

(Via DesignProjects3.)

iPod Touch Trial begins!

Today we started an iPod Touch mobile trial with Diploma of Contemporary Music students! Great fun - everyone got their iPod Touch configured and setup on the WiFi network.










Participants:

12 students – students volunteer to participate using provided iPod Touch.

Course Tutors

Technology Steward (Thom Cochrane – CTLI)

The main focus of this project is on the support and enhancement of face to face teaching and learning by using mobile wireless devices (iPod Touch) as a means to leverage the potential of current and emerging collaborative and reflective e-learning tools (e.g. blogs, wikis, RSS, instant messaging, podcasting, social book marking, etc…). These are often called “social software” tools. The iPod’s wireless connectivity and data gathering abilities (e.g. photoblogging, video recording, voice recording, and text input) allow for bridging the on and off campus learning contexts – facilitating “real world learning”.

The learning outcomes for students are

• Developing critical reflective skills


• Facilitating group communication


• Developing an online eportfolio


• Developing a potentially world-wide peer support and critique network


• Learning how to maximise technology to enhance the learning environment across multiple contexts

Students and teaching staff will be provided with an iPod Touch (16GB) for the duration of the trial (2008). Internet connectivity will also be available via Unitec WiFi network while on campus. This provides faster, free web access while on campus.

The project will be guided and supported by weekly “technology sessions” facilitated by Thom Cochrane (CTLI).

The core activity of the project is the creation and maintenance of a reflective Blog as part of a course group project. However the iPod can be used to enhance almost any aspect of the course:

The project will use the iPod Touch and PCs (Macs) for the following activities:

• A reflective Blog (Vox.com)


• An eportfolio (Vox.com)


• Email (GMail)


• RSS (Newsgator.com)


• Shared Calendars (Google Calenders)


• Image Blogging (Flickr)


• Video Blogging (YouTube)


• Podcasting


• Instant Messaging and Skype


• Shared bookmarks (Delicious)


• Accessing the Course Management System (Blackboard)


• Document reading (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF using QuickOffice and Google Docs)

iPhone/iPod Touch Web Apps

A brief list of some favourite iPhone/iPod Touch Web Apps (While waiting on the flood of new iPhone apps as a result of the upcoming iPhone SDK release ;-)

• * Flickr Poto Sharing m.flickr.com/h


• * YouTube m.youtube.com/


• * Wordpress Blog m.wordpress.com/


• * Vox Blog www.vox.com/


• * Google Reader www.google.com/reader/m/view/


• * Google Calendar www.google.com/calendar/render


• * Google Docs docs.google.com/


• * GMail mail.google.com/


• * Pownce m.pownce.com/


• * Picasaweb photo sharing picasaweb.google.com/home


• * Google Maps maps.google.com/


• * MobileWebDocs www.mobilewebdocs.com/


• * iPocket Bible www.ipocketbible.com/go/login.asp


• * Netvibes Homepage iphone.netvibes.com/


• * SnapMyLife www.snapmylife.com/


• * Skype for iPhone s4iphone.com/index_iphone.jsp


• * AIM Instant Messaging x.aim.com/ty/#_startPage


• * JWire - find free WiFi hotspots iphone.jiwire.com/


• * Stopwatch www.kudit.com/desktop/kudit.php?shortname=stopwatch&success=false


• * Bloglines RSS Reader www.bloglines.com/mobile


• * Zoho MS Office mini.zoho.com/iZoho.jsp


• * Mundu Instant Messaging iphone.mundu.com/


• * Newsgator RSS Reader m.newsgator.com/iphone.aspx


• * iGoogle Homepage www.google.com/ig/i


• * Mobile Delicious Social Bookmarking mobilicio.us/

Product design student presentation

Moodle Case Study

An interesting case study of students perception on the use of Moodle and its web2 tools integration: from Educause

"Moodle, an open source course management software, is not only a tool for communication and reflection but also a virtual learning object. Explore how students in an information-literacy course respond to, comprehend, and use a variety of web 2.0 technologies in a single online environment."

Read the PDF report HERE.

Students use of IT

An interesting survey summary from Educause ECAR, outlining 10 key findings of the 2007 ECAR study of Students and Information Technology usage.
"What information technologies are used by undergraduates? How does IT contribute to their academic experiences and learning? What has changed since 2005? ECAR presents 10 key findings from the fourth annual survey of undergraduates, with responses from 27,846 students at 103 higher education institutions."

1. One size does not fit all


2. Social Uses of IT- Important and Personal


3. CMS Usage is Up


4. IT is All About Convenience


5. IT as a Utility


6. Students’ Assess Their IT Skills


7. Curriculum Matters


8. IT in Instruction –Striking the Balance


9. Mobility –A Steady Increase


10. Learning –It’s All about Instructors

ECAR conclude with two key action focii:

1. Action Focus: IT Services
   
   • • Move toward 24 x 7 availability
     –Networks
     –Email
     –CMS and other services
     
   • • Strengthen the Help Desk
   
   
   • • Continue wireless initiatives
   
   
   • • Watch usage trends for handheld devices


2. Action Focus: IT in Courses
   
   • • Know your students’ IT profile
     –What technology do they own?
     –What are their IT skills?
     
   • • Assess use of IT in courses
     –Is there a balance between IT and instructor
     interaction?
     –How can you leverage the curriculum?
     –Are faculty trained in the IT they need?
     –Do students have the skills they need?

Read more below:

Caruso, J. B., & Salaway, G. (2007). Highlights of the 2007 ecar study of students and information technology. ECAR Symposium 2007 Retrieved 21 January, 2008, from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ECAR/Highlightsofthe2007ECARSt/45912

YouTube Mobile Updated

The YouTube mobile website version (http://m.youtube.com)has been updated with more features and a better interface, so now it supports almost any mobile phone with a data connection (Best viewed over a WiFi network!). There is also a YouTube Java appplication (currently for a small number of 3G phones - includes the Nokia N95) that can be downloaded from http://m.youtube.com/app. The Java app gives a similar experience to YouTube on the iPod touch or iPhone. Videos can now be uploaded directly from compatible mobiles to your YouTube account, or emailed to a special MMS number associated with your YouTube account.

Read more here:
http://www.youtube.com/mobile

iPod Touch Blog test2

There appears to be no option for adding attachments to emails on the
iPod touch - however when choosing a photo from the iPods library
there is now an "email photo" option!

Blog test.

Blog test.
I've updated my iPod touch with the Mail & Notes apps from todays
MacWorld announced 1.1.3 software update! These two apps should
significantly increase the usefulness of the Touch as a moblogging
device. I think this was the most interesting announcement of MW2008.
The Macbook AIR is nice but still too large & expensive to be a
contender for mobile education. The Apple TV has some nice updates.
Disapointingly no word on third party iPhone apps or 3G iPhone. I guess
we'll be waiting till Feb for those.

Sent from my iPod

Newsgator RSS reader clients now FREE!

Newsgators Mac & Windows and mobile device RSS readers are now all FREE!

I've been using the free version of NetNewsWire for years (lite) - but now the full version is free! I've also been using Newsgator Go (Java application) on my cellphone for RSS synchronization - this is now free as well. Newsgator is a great RSS solution that works anyway you want to (Desktop client, web interface, mobile - all synchronizing seemlessly). They must be facing tough competition from the likes of Bloglines and Google Reader to dump their client fees!

Isn't competition great!

Nokia E90

The Nokia E90 looks interesting as an all-in-one (UMPC) device. Rather expensive ($1600NZ), and heavy (232gm) but you don't need a Bluetooth keyboard or external screen (builtin 800x365 resolution!).

http://www.nokia.co.nz/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_742130

PicoProjector - mobile video projector coming of age!

Microvision are about to demo their tiny Pico Projector at CES.

The tiny battery powered projector is designed to work with mobile devices that have video out - e.g. N95, new PSP, iPod etc...



Microvision are also working on an embedded version - built into a cellphone!

Very cool.

Fring Updated

Fring has added AIM & Yahoo talk to its list of supported IM services. A great free application for virtually all mobile phones, supporting:

• Skype


• MSN


• AIM


• ICQ


• Yahoo Talk


• SIP


• Google Talk


• Twitter

Fring describes itself as a VOIP application that provides:

• Presence
• Free Calls
• Live Chat

Over 3G and WiFi networks.

fring is compatible with Symbian 8, 9.1, 9.2, Windows Mobile 5 & 6 and UIQ handsets.

JISC Online Conference proceedings

The JISC online conference proceedings on institutional innovation are now available online: HERE.

Check out the summary of Giedre & my presentation: Cochrane, T., & Kligyte, G. (2007, 11-14 June). Dummies2delight: Using communities of practice to develop educational technology literacy in tertiary academics. Paper presented at the JISC online conference: Innovating eLearning, JISC online conference. Pages 36-38.

We discussed Communities of Practice for professional development, and the use of web2 technologies. JISCebookone2007.pdf

TruTap

http://trutap.com is a mobile Java client for social networking. It includes:

• Instant Messaging - MSN, AOL, Yahoo, ICQ


• Messaging (cf email)


• Blog Posting - Blogger, Flickr, etc...

It's interface is somewhat clunky - no where near as smooth & mature as Shozu. Worth keeping an eye on.

7 things you should know about Skype: Educause

Another short paper in the Educause 7 Things series:

Abstract:

Skype is a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) application that lets users make free phone calls between Skype-equipped computers and inexpensive calls between Skype computers and landline or cell phones. Skype functions on a P2P model rather than as a centralized application, and it offers features such as voicemail, call forwarding, conference calling, and video chat. In most circumstances, Skype provides access to voice and video communication for a fraction of what other options cost. It allows more frequent contact between colleagues, collaborators, and friends and permits connections with those not likely to be in conventional phone systems.

Download PDF.