moblearn: an agent for change

Mobile learning in Iceland

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:41:00 +0000

Tour bus drivers in Iceland are using our mobile learning to improve their English language skills.

I had the huge privilege of a trip to Reykjavik to meet some of our mobile learners. I loved it. Iceland is awesome. The people we met were great fun (and perfect hosts).

The entire island is dominated by nature in the raw. Waterfalls. Geysers. Volcanoes. Glaciers. Wild seas. Lava fields and piles of ash.

But the most impressive thing of all was one of the learners I met!

He was one of the older drivers, and he took me aside for a chat. 5 weeks before he could speak no English at all, and here he was explaining to me the m-learning programme he was involved in, and discussing which bits he liked best. In English! Wow! Especially since he is exactly the type of learner that some people say "don't get mobile". He doesn't have a smartphone of his own. He must be close to 60. Here are some quotes from some of the others:

Erlendur: “I realized I am better than I thought I was. I am no longer afraid to speak. Now I like speaking English – even to my colleagues“

Gudni: “We had a great time learning together. I liked it a lot. I felt I was not at school. Using the phone was good fun.“

Karl: “I liked the combination of learning in the group and on my own, the phone was a good companion. I felt comfortable.“

Pall: “This course would be good for all our other colleagues as well“

Laugi: “Now I can speak to the tourists - I would do it again!“

The training was organised by BEST training, from Austria. Long time partners of ours. They were using mobile devices and content sent over from our office in the UK, but then blended by them into a 5 week programme delivered in Iceland ... with a mix of a few face to face sessions, and a lot of working alone, in free fragments of time.

I was there as part of the evaluation, and had the chance to work with senior members of the unions, employers, tour guide association and training funds. Very enlightening, and reassuring how good training is good training, wherever in the planet it happens!

Thanks again to the entire Iceland crew. I look forward to the next chapter

iBooks 2 – Introducing the future textbook?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:46:00 +0000

Today Apple released iBooks 2, a beautiful new format for interactive books that they hope to use to “re-invent the textbook”.
Steve Jobs reportedly spent the last few years of his life planning to shake up the textbook market, and revitalise education. Today’s event in New York is the first education-only launch from Apple in a long time. Has Steve added to his legacy? Or is this announcement just hype?
The background: Textbooks are big business. They are expensive. The industry is dominated by a few publishing giants. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying the US market for text books is worth $8bn per year. According to Reuters, 90% of this market is controlled by the big three: Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Apple vision is by moving textbooks onto the iPad, they can be cheaper, more interactive, and ultimately more useful as educational reference tools. And at first glance it does look exactly like that.
So what is the iBooks 2 format about?
The iBook format has been enhanced, to allow embedded video, interactivities, quizzes etc. In itself this is nothing new. There are several beautiful eBooks that have been released as apps that do exactly this (like The Elements). But the big difference here is that these capabilities are included in the eBook format itself, so you don’t need to create an app to distribute it. You can do so as an eBook. You can also highlight and annotate the books, and even generate flash-cards to help you learn key sections.
Which textbooks are available?
All three of the major publishers mentioned above have been signed up already. Right now there are only a few in iTunes (none available outside the US), but there is a very lovely (free) sample called Life On Earth, which is well worth a viewing.
Early pictures from the event, here: http://www.theverge.com/apple/2012/1/19/2718539/ibooks-2-first-hands-on-photos
And who else is making the new eBooks? Right now, anybody can!
The best bit about the format is the free iBooks Author which allows anybody to create an eBook, and add media, and interactivities. We are not just talking textbooks here. Anybody with a great book idea can add their own media!
The theory is you can even add rich HTML / Javascript but we haven’t tried this yet.
If you would like to see more samples, those good people at TheVerge have a bunch of photos of it in action over at http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/19/2718646/ibooks-author-hands-on#2879838
Will this transform educational publishing? Yes, I think so.
Especially in the marketplaces like the US where so much money is currently being spent on the old-skool paper versions.
But I also think that Open Educational Resources will transform educational publishing too. As will other non-Apple platforms. Remember, these eBooks are iPad only. So this is an important step forward for education at large, but not the only way.
Will this transform education? No.
This is the point where technology enthusiasts and real teachers often get “their streams a little crossed”. It is useful to have a richly engaging eBook? Absolutely! Do on-screen interactivities take away the need for any interaction with peers and teachers? Of course not!
So – we are hugely enthusiastic about the new format, especially given the free authoring tools. But also slightly concerned that the hype is masking some more significant issues ahead. As Seb Schmoller says, we probably need to watch and wait to see how many of the details pan out over the next 18 months.

Mobile Learning at TEDxLondon

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:40:00 +0000

Geoff Stead presents mobile learning as a tool for empowerment at TEDxLondon – a TED event dedicated to shaking up education

Original slides available on slideshare

Presentations by the other (amazing!) co-presenters on the TEDxLondon site

Transcript:

I’d like to introduce you to a word. Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an African concept that doesn’t translate easily into English. It means “I am me because of us”, “I grow myself by helping others around me to grow”.

It is an awesome word. I try to live my life by it. And it is the philosophy behind the projects I would like to tell you about.

Mobile phones have become part of our lives. There are more phones in the developed world than people. The developing world is catching up fast. Mobile connectivity is transforming how we communicate. And where. And when. It has fundamentally changed how we look up information. It has generated new kinds of job that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. New types of entertainment. New forms of art.

So why not new ways to learn?

This is already happening - it is called mobile learning. Bringing mobile devices and phones into the class to enhance learning.

Smartphones are like a swiss army knife, packed with school friendly tools:
They are cameras, writing tools, eBook readers, calculators, diaries, reference books. You have the entire web in your hand

But more importantly they are agents for change - encouraging new ways of teaching

    * Learner centered: Learning is mobile and can happen anywhere. It can happen anytime: in or out of school. It can be collaborative. It can also be intensely private.
    * Teacher is no longer the source of all facts, but rather a collaborator and guide
    * The encourage lots of future skills like those listed on the slide

In the UK I mostly work with learners NOT in school. Kids who have dropped out. Young offenders. The unemployed. Adults in training but struggling to read and write. People for whom traditional school didn’t work out. I build software to support their learning – regularly making use of mobile phones as a stimulus. But a few years ago I happened to meet a fellow South African who shared my passion for education, and wanted to take these same ideas back into South Africa, to mainstream schools

And we did! The projects are collectively called m-ubuntu, and use mobile learning as a stimulus to encourage critical debate between teachers, and improve the quality of teaching.

They take refurbished smartphones, with some educational software and tools installed onto them, and use them to improve teaching and learning. The results have been inspiring. Local teachers even won a grant from the US to go to Washington and share what they had learned with American teachers!

But the successes are not down to putting smartphones into poor schools – they are about using them as an agent for change.

The real wins happen when teachers work with other teachers to discuss how best to use these new tools.

<< stepping through a range of photos from the project >>

Of course these happy photos only tell a fragment of the story. There are some challenging new skills to learn for both students and teachers. What happens if they are stolen? Or if students give away personal data? What about internet safety? Or plagiarism. By working on these challenges together, the real value kicks in . Students get engaged and build real life skills

Mobile learning is certainly here to stay. It may be initially disruptive – but isn’t that exactly the stimulus we need to help focus education towards the future?

If you want to try this for yourself, here are my 3 top tips:

Firstly – don’t be constrained by pre-packaged learning resources. Think of the smartphone as a tool to do stuff. Record music. Film a movie. Build an app. This is what they are made for, and makes for the best learning.
Secondly – It won’t be right first time, but if you try again it will get better. And the time after than even better. It is OK to make mistakes – so plan in flexibility
Thirdly – Share the learning with your students. Discuss mobile learning with them. Let the kids learn the details about the phones, and become your technical support. By building autonomy and problem solving skills they will be learning some real future skills

Mobile Learning InfoKit [free download]

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:32:00 +0000

Hot off the press, we are pleased to present the Mobile Learning infoKit. Launched at ALT-C 2011

The infoKit offers valuable advice for any organisation starting out in m-learning, as was compiled with interviews and contributions from all the main thinkers, creators and educators in this space

See the overview presentation (below) for a great introduction to m-learning, and if you want more you can download the entire infoKit at http://bit.ly/mobilelearninginfokit

Many months in development, this infokit was put together by Doug and those nice people at Jisc infoNet as a service to the education community. Thanks all!

Google’s App Inventor … liberation or stagnation?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:54:00 +0000

A year ago, Google released App Inventor – a fascinatingly visual, albeit rather buggy tool for developing android apps. Although not robust enough for our commercial development, we loved the fresh ideas about interface, and app building. Perfect tools for learning about coding. Today I found an email in my inbox announcing that Google are dropping support for it.

Google are open-sourcing the code base. Often a sign of a project’s demise. Sounds like bad news for education … or is it?

Here are the key excerpts from the email:

Dear App Inventor User,
As a result of the recent changes to Google Labs and App Inventor, effective immediately, the URL for App Inventor will change from appinventor.googlelabs.com to appinventorbeta.com. …
… Google will end support for App Inventor and open source the code base at the end of this year. Additionally, in order to ensure the future success of App Inventor, Google has funded the establishment of a Center for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab, where MIT will be actively engaged in studying and extending App Inventor. This transition will happen at the end of 2011. …
… Please visit the App Inventor user forums to get future updates on App Inventor.
The App Inventor Team

What do you think? Despite my initial dismay, this might work out well for future learners. Why?

Funding for a new Centre for Mobile Learning at MIT?
Awesome news! See this google blog post from Hal Ableson, the prof who will be running it
New injection of energy for the constructionist theories of learning.
The Blocks Editor is an innovative metaphor for building code, based on long standing foundation blocks started by Seymour Papert in the 60’s. (Logo, Lego Mindstorms, etc). For the uninitiated, the idea is to use programming as a vehicle for engaging powerful ideas through active learning.
MIT is the perfect home for App Inventor.
The Blocks Editor uses MIT libraries, created by MIT researchers. Most of the current best thinking, and many of the most innovative thinkers, AND technology tools that weave together constructivist learning and programming have an MIT connection. (STEP, StarLogo TNG, StarLogo, Scratch, Logo etc)

So – while saddened by the implication that there will be less Google financial investment in it, I cannot think of a better new home for what seems to be a powerful tool for learners.

Long may App Inventor live as a tool for learners, and good luck to Hal and his new Mobile Learning Centre!

Best tools for cross platform app development

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:47:00 +0000

As part of our work on the MoLE project we have been revisiting the rapidly growing number of frameworks, libraries and platforms that developers can use to create cross-platform mobile apps

If you are new to app development, you may know there is a constant debate between app developers, building “native” apps, and mobile web developers, championing “web apps”. The native app developers get better performance and integration, while the web app developers get broader reach and better standardisation

In the middle of this debate are a growing team of developers championing a hybrid of these two positions. Developing code once (like “native”) but deploying across apple / android / blackberry (like “web apps”). This is a rapidly emerging area, with a flurry of very exciting toolkits available.

To keep you up to date, we are very happy to share our recent report:

Cross-platform mobile development

a review of the top cross platform mobile app development frameworks, libraries and platforms

In it we look at these 22 solutions, drilling down into more detail with Rhodes, Appcelerator Titanium, and Phonegap.

Framework	URL	License	Type
Rhodes	http://rhomobile.com/products/rhodes/	Open Source	Platform
Phonegap	http://www.phonegap.com	Open Source	Framework
FeedHenry	http://developer.feedhenry.com/	Commercial	Platform
Appcelerator	http://www.appcelerator.com/	Open Source	Platform
Grapple	http://www.grapplemobile.com/	Commercial	Framework
MotherApp	http://www.motherapp.com/	Commercial	Framework
Corona	http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/	Commercial	Product
Sencha Touch	http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/	OS/Commercial	Library
MoSync	http://www.mosync.com/	Open Source	Platform
Resco	http://www.resco.net/	Commercial	Platform
CouchOne	http://www.couchone.com/products	Commercial	Platform
MobileIron	http://mobileiron.com/	Commercial	Platform
WidgetPad	http://widgetpad.com	Open Source	Platform
AML	http://www.amlcode.com	Open Source	Framework
Jo	http://joapp.com	Open Source	Library
xui	http://xuijs.com	Open Source	Library
JQuery Mobile	http://jquerymobile.com	Open Source	Library
JQTouch	http://jqtouch.com	Open Source	Library
QT	http://qt.nokia.com/products/qt-formobile-platforms/	Open Source	Framework
QuickConnectFamily	http://www.quickconnectfamily.org/	Open Source	Framework
Bedrock	http://www.metismo.com	Commercial	Platform
WebApp.net	http://webapp-net.com/	Open Source	Framework

Our mobile development team focuses primarily on educational apps, and we did this report for our own, internal benefit. We have hope you find it useful. Please feel free to add any suggestions or feedback in the comments

this post originally appeared on the TribalLabs blog

mLearnCon presentation

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:12:00 +0000

I have just finished a very enjoyable discussion-filled presentation at mLearnCon – a mobile learning conference in Silicon Valley arranged by the eLearningGuild.

My session was all about helping the mostly US audience look a little wider at international m-learning projects, to see what lessons could be learned for the many current m-learning projects that are starting up right now

See below for the presentation we gave – comments (as always) welcomed

m-learning across the world

View more presentations from TribalSlides

Use Smartphones in class, say school principals

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 06:03:00 +0000

The National Association of Secondary School Principals have been trying to make sense of the whirlwind that is Social and Mobile Technologies.

They have just released a position statement, summarizing their thoughts on the matter … and it is surprisingly good!

They actively encourage schools to accept smartphones, and social networking as part their educational provision, and offer a range of guidelines and advice to different levels of practitioner.

In the report, they deal head on with the challenges:

The rapid growth in the use of social media and mobile devices has created both a crisis and an opportunity for school leaders. Unfortunately, many principals first became aware of social technologies under unpleasant circumstances, such as conflicts stemming from social media exchanges. And school leaders would often be paralyzed by cyberbullying and sexting incidents for which guidance was often inadequate and contradictory. It's no wonder that school leaders responded by attempting to eliminate the use of mobile and social media in schools.

As well as the opportunities:

Yet as mobile and social technologies become ubiquitous, attempts to block them are increasingly ineffective. For example, in schools that prohibit cell phones, 54% of students still report sending texts during the school day (Lenhart, 2010). And it's the rare student who can't do an end run around Internet filters with a simple proxy server. More importantly, as mobile devices become more powerful and more affordable, their potential for enhancing student learning has come into clearer focus. Social networking sites provide platforms for student creativity by enabling them to design projects using words, music, photos, and videos. In recent years, there has been explosive growth in students creating, manipulating, and sharing content online (National School Boards Association, 2007). Recognizing the educational value of encouraging such behaviors, many school leaders have shifted their energies from limiting the use of these technologies to limiting their abuse.

They propose some solid guiding principles, which any enlightened teacher would share:

Education should prepare students to be active, constructive participants in a global society.
Technology-enhanced instruction has the capacity to engage students deeply in their work, connect them with countless resources, and allow them to collaborate across time and space.
Schools should provide a student-centered, personalized, and customized experience for all students—a fundamental tenet of the Breaking Ranks school improvement framework.
Schools should advocate and model values that are essential in a civil and democratic society.
Learning can take place only when students feel free from violence and harassment.
Schools should offer meaningful roles in decision making to students to promote student learning and an atmosphere of participation, responsibility, and ownership.

And then offer specific suggestions for different leaders in education.

Very impressive!

In a statement released to coincide with their paper, executive director, Gerald N. Tirozzi, added that blocking technologies like smart phones and social networking sites takes education in the wrong direction.

"For years, the conversation about mobile and social technology in schools has revolved around how to block it, but it's becoming increasingly clear that simply blocking such technologies does students a disservice. An education that fails to account for the responsible use of mobile devices and social networks prepares students for our past, but not for their future."

Thanks to Andy Black for spotting this, and to Tribal Labs for sharing the good news

Mobile market share 2011 – really?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Fascinating overview of mobile operating system market share - but is it real?
Those nice folks at icrossing have updated their infographic summarising mobile operating systems all over the world.
It is a great visual image. I use it often. BUT BEWARE … it is easy to read too much into it. The same old problems with mobile stats apply here.

The stats this is based on all come from one source – statcounter. And statcounter does exactly what it says on the tin. They offer analytics services to millions of websites. If you use their services to track your site, your visitors contribute to these stats. (but if you don’t, they don’t!)
If you want to dip into the statcounter mobile stats yourself, they are free to access, and very interesting.
But it does mean that these stats are NOT a real assessment of who is buying which phone. Nor is it an assessment of which mobile devices are dominating in each market. Nor is it a real assessment of which phones are using mobile data all over the world. Instead, it is a measure of the percentage of hits on statcounter-tracked sites made by each type of phone.
So – to use an extreme case: If the only African website that happened to use statcounter was an Android developer site, it would show Africa as almost 100% Android when in actual fact the dominant phone in the entire continent is Nokia!
Further exceptions:

statcounter doesn’t track WAP sites, yet most of the huge rise in mobile banking and mobile data use in Africa and India is driven by this technology.
most of the tracked sites are designed for big screens, which skews the mobile users towards those using powerful (smart)phones, in countries with fast, cheap wireless data.

Stats are great – but you need to be sure you are asking the right questions of them
(I am by no means belittling either statcounter or icrossing here. Statcounter are very clear about what their data is based on, and icrossing are clear about their source. It is just healthy to understand what the stats are really saying)

Mobile stats for 2010 and 2011

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:29:00 +0000

I can’t help but be bowled over when I try to get my head around exactly how many people are doing useful tasks on their phones.

There are always a flurry of stylish YouTube presentations around this time of year, showcasing the “growth of mobile” – here is one I like:

We are in the midst of some “deep dive” research at the moment, which is cool (because we have very current stats), but it does also turn us into cynics, as we realise how easy it is to over-sell the feel-good factor.

Many of the stats are by their nature skewed. A good rule of thumb is that “the more financially viable, the more accurate the stats”. So if you want to know mobile internet usage in Ghana – you will struggle. But if you want to know which mobile apps are bought most in the USA … easy!

I like the stats, above, as they are a pretty accurate, global summary. We will be uploading some of our own perspectives on this in the future

App-fatigue? There’s an app for that!

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:48:00 +0000

Feeling overwhelmed by the total onslaught of apps that sound a lot like … other apps?

Nielsen estimates that 24% of US Adults use apps on their phones. They see mobile apps as “an important new part of the technology world of many Americans”

But if you are one of the remaining 76%, and are starting to develop “App Fatigue”, never fear! Those fine fellows at Sesame Street have an app for that!

mobile phones: the e-readers of choice in South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Our m-Ubuntu project in South Africa hits the news in USA!

I have blogged about m-uBuntu before – a growing family of schools in South Africa who are using “cell phones” to transform how they teach.

We have been out there a few times, and were very excited to hear it being reported on by “The Word”, a US radio channel who spent a while in Cape Town visiting two great mobile literacy projects there:

M4Lit – Mobile Phones for Literacy. Young people writing mobile stories. Championed by the excellent Steve, Ana & Marion at the University of Cape Town
m-Ubuntu – Helping transform teaching in impoverished classrooms, and empower resource-poor teachers.

You can here the recording here:

Well done the the m-uBuntu team! It is the perfect example of collaboration, empowerment, and shared learning.

- based in South Africa
- dreamt up and managed from Washington
- funding from Sweden, UK, USA
- feet firmly planted on South African soil
- championed by Learning Worldwide (Theo), Duke University (Lucy), Tribal (Geoff & Jess), diGameworks (Jeff) and many other friends

Even the learning itself follows the principle of “u-Buntu”, helping one another to help ourselves. This is not an initiative trying to push unwelcome solutions – rather they are helping the South African Education system rise to the challenge of supporting more students with less money.

iPad + apps = amazing archaeology

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 10:41:00 +0000

(by Andrew Merryweather - @merryux - our UX guru)

The iPad, loaded up with a few off-the-shelf apps, is revolutionising the way archaeological digs are run.

As an ex-archaeologist I keep an eye on digital trends in the digging world, and came across a great post on Apple.com about an old friend and colleague Dr Steven Ellis of the University of Cincinatti and his digitally-enhanced fieldwork at Pompeii. He is using iPads, with simple off-the-shelf apps to collect data in a simpler, and more shareable manner than ever before.

Computers and archaeology have a long history, but excavators have been waiting for mobile tech to hit the right balance of portability, usability and power to really have a big impact on the way they conduct fieldwork. The latest generation of mobile devices, and especially the iPad, has hit the sweetspot.

Ellis credits the introduction of six iPad devices at Pompeii with helping his team solve one of the most difficult problems of archaeological fieldwork: how to efficiently and accurately record the complex information they encounter in the trenches.

This kind of digital data collection could be a learning opportunity in the making. There's a chain ready to be created which takes live data from field projects (in any scientific discipline, not just archaeology), being captured by fieldworkers on iPads, iPhones, and other devices, and feeding it up to a web site, from where it could be pulled directly into a classroom.

It's not hard to imagine a collection of classrooms 'partnering' a dig, and getting data piped straight from the trench to a few iPads of their own. Activities could be built around looking at the latest photos and maps each day, discussing the latest finds, following the life of the project from start to finish.

M-learning with a twist?

If you like the sound of this, please also check out Nick Short’s work at the Royal Veterinary College. He is using Android devices, and off-the-shelf Google tools to support Vets in Africa collect and share some extremely valuable data

Sending text messages during sex … really?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:27:00 +0000

I get a constant flood of statistics reminding me how many mobile users there are in the world, but despite that, every now and again something pops up that makes me say … “what!”

Have a look at this infographic from CellPhones.org pulling together a range of stats about SMS usage in the US.

Any surprises?

1: that an average teen sends 3000 messages a month!

That one I get … and am making a mental note to update my teen’s phone contract

2: that between 6 – 10% of interviewees thought it was OK to text while making love!

Doh … sorry. That one I just don’t get at all. Maybe I really am still a digital immigrant after all!

Handy list of references at the bottom of the graphic

Apple u-turn is excellent news for cross-platform app developers!

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 17:55:00 +0000

The big news of the moment amongst App developers, is the surprise announcement by Apple that they are relaxing some key restrictions on how Apps can be made. In particular they say:

…we are relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

As one of a small (but enthusiastic) set of app developers striving to make cross-platform apps, this is a HUGE deal.
Apple is not against cross-platform apps per se, but until recently they were very against Adobe & Flash, and their previous stance was to a large extent an attempt to block several different technologies that allowed Flash apps to be automatically disassembled, and automatically re-assembled into an App.
Ignoring the Adobe vs Apple squabbles for a moment, there was another group of developers who were being caught in the fallout. Those are the app developers using one of a few choice systems (many open source, collaborative frameworks) that allow you to code once, and deploy to iPhone, Android, WinMob, Blackberry …..
The smallprint of the Apple restrictions, also restricted this sort of App. And an increasing number of them started getting refused across all of the frameworks
The fundamental technical problem is that it is not possible to write one piece of native software that plays on iPhone, Android, WinMob, etc. They all use different languages. The only way to do this is to use a computer to generate multiple different versions for different platforms. And it is this interim computer intervention that caused the trouble.
But – today this has changed. And all the cross-platform app developers around the world are heaving a sigh of relief
So – good news for cross platform mobile apps!
(Another equally interesting development, is Apple going public with their developer guidelines – previously us developers had no way of knowing the criteria used to decide whether to accept, or reject an app!)
For a quick synopsis of the top tools for building cross platform apps read on …

Appcelerator Titanium - http://www.appcelerator.com
Like most on my list, Titanium lets developers create an app in traditional web coding (HTML, CSS, Javascript), and then it renders the web code into a native apps for iPhone and Android (Blackberry in the pipeline)
The system builds apps. But you also get access to the converted (native) source code which allows for a second round of platform specific tweaks - if you know what you are doing
Initially Titanuim started as fully open source, but now a “free” and better supported “pay” version.
Nice review here: http://labs.thesedays.com/2010/02/04/review-of-appcelerator-titanium/

PhoneGap - http://www.phonegap.com
Like Titanuim, developers code their app in web coding. Unlike Titanium, the final app that is built still contains the original web coding, but buried within the app. Fully Open Source, all the app code is available, and can be customised for your own needs
We use both of these two quite a bit, and they are both great. Lightweight native apps embedding web-apps that can be both online, or offline.
Although not really “app building”, special mention needs to go to JQTouch (http://www.jqtouch.com/) and Sencha Touch (http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/), 2 AJAX frameworks that you need to use if you want web-apps to look and feel like native apps

Rhodes / RhoMobile - http://rhomobile.com
Rhodes is a harder-core techie solution, which tries to do without the browser, giving you tools to build cross platform native apps. Free to use (MIT license) plus premium support options
it is good – but uses Ruby as a programming language. Ruby has a cult-like following, unless you are already a Ruby developer, you may be better to stick to one of the other options
One of the big advantages of Titanium over RhoMobile is that with RhoMobile you don’t get any source code – only the finished (and un-alterable app). But it does support more phones (iPhone, Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Android)

These three are the main players. They have very technical arguments with one another about exactly how “native” each other’s apps are – but in all cases they use the same basic trick – embedding a web-browser into the app, and using that to deliver web-esque layout and features in an app

Others worth looking at include

Grapple Mobile - http://www.grapplemobile.com
Grapple are not Open Source. They recently hit the news with some (untrue) speculation that the 7 month old startup was bought for £15m! They use a similar approach as the previous systems, as well as a secondary system to support older phones. (On iPhone and Android, it uses Webkit. On Blackberry and Symbian it compiles to J2ME.)
Most commercial engagement with them seems to be from marketing and advertising companies

MotherApp - http://www.motherapp.com
Like rhomobile, motherapp tries to build native apps without needing to include a browser in your app. We have only recently found out about MotherApp, so don’t know much about it apart from the fact that you use a special subset of html to define your app, then upload to motherapp who will render it into native apps for different devices, passing any calls for data back to your website (supports iPhone, Android, WinMob)

Corona (by Ansca) – Corona is specifically for building games. You need a Mac to develop in it, but you can build apps for iPhone, iPad & Android. It uses the unusual Lua language, which is purpose built for describing 3-D type games (like World of Warcraft!)
Free 30day trial, then fairly inexpensive developer license (currently $99)

If you want to find out more, there is a very considered, and well presented comparison on AMLCode’s site

There are also A LOT of offerings that help you build apps automatically. These are not developer tools as such, but do allow non-technical people to auto-generate apps. Examples include AppBaker, App Inventor, AppMakr, AppBuilder, MyAppBuilder, Wapple and more appear every day.

If you would like me to post a bit more on these apps, either the developer ones or the others, leave me a comment

why mobile changes things?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:37:00 +0000

Living in the middle of “mobile learning”, it feels totally obvious that mobile is important, and that it fundamentally changes the way we look at information … but I can’t help noticing that not everybody else shares my view!

(shocking, I know!)

That’s why I really like Bryan’s presentation – with (quite a lot of) simple, non-technical images and statements he manages to capture the excitement, the challenges, and the diversity of the mobile landscape

I especially like the simplicity he uses to get the message across – if I wasn’t already enthused, I would be now! Thanks, Bryan

Introducing the $35 tablet!

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 18:31:00 +0000

I had the honour of meeting one of the Global VPs at TATA today, and getting a small insight into the extraordinary power of the Indian market for technology.

One part of our discussion was about the recent announcement of a $35 Android powered tablet targeting education

Yes – you heard that right. $35 !

(it is not quite that simple, of course. An Indian manufacturer has made a lovely prototype, and has offered to supply 1m of the devices for $35m, which the government is considering to buy for education)

But = still. $35 for an Android powered tablet (with all the extras you would expect) does sound awfully compelling!

What do you think?

Let us know your comments, or if you find further links to it

Can my m-learning course run the same on every phone?

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:19:00 +0000

There are a few m-learning conversations that pop up again and again when talking to clients about mobile courses. It often starts with a seemingly simple question:

“I want richly interactive content for any phone”

“Will it do Blackberry? And iPhone? And Nokia?”

“all my students need to have the same access to learning”

These are good questions, and the obvious response to any is “yes, of course”, because we would all like equality between mobile users. But there is a painful reality that (right now, in 2010) makes this an impossible dream:

The painful reality about making m-learning content is that there is no single solution to push richly interactive mobile content onto every possible phone. Rather, there is a spectrum of possible solutions: On one side, going for the richest possible interactivities (but narrowing down to single platforms) and on the other side going for the widest possible phone coverage (but limiting interactivities to the very lowest common denominator)

Examples on either side of this spectrum would be some of the delightfully interactive apps you can get for the iPhone (which exclude all other devices) vs several SMS / text messaging solutions (which work on just about any phone)

This spectrum is just the reality. There is no getting away from it. if somebody tells you otherwise they are not seeing the whole picture.

M-learning developers have been trying many creative approaches to cover as wide a range on this spectrum as possible, but it is technically impossible to cover it all. Examples are:

- making a different app for each device, playing whichever bits of the same central content that device supports

- delivering media-only courses (video or audio) that make up for lack of interactivity with wide device coverage

- using 3rd party players (like Flash, or eBook readers) to render a common course format to different devices

- putting content online, in the browser, and allowing the web-server to decide which versions suit your device

In all of these scenarios, there is a functionality sacrifice (because you are not exploiting device specific features, like GPS), but the benefit of create-once but used-by-many.

So, if you are thinking of making your own mobile content, my best advice is to be pragmatic about this spectrum of solutions. Instead of starting with the big dream (“for every single device”) rather start a little more pragmatically by narrowing the range of technologies you are looking at, and them work backwards to see which type of authoring tool or technical approach works best.

A popular example of a narrower range is "smartphones", though depending on who you are trying to reach out to it might also be "phones with decent browsers".

Another good subset (if data rates are not an issue) are phones with decent browsers, since the latest smartphones and high end featurephones all have a pretty good web browser, which is a lot more standardised than their operating systems.

Currently, my team in Cambridge cover the spectrum via a hybrid approach. We build for iPhone and Blackberry by hand. We have a java (j2me) engine we use for old-skool phones. We use a hand-made authoring tool for WindowsMobile / Android / UMPC / Linux / Windows / Mac (also sold commercially as MyLearning Author). We use another handmade tool for SMS activities (SMS Quiz / SMS Survey).

A lot of our current research work is looking at a hybrid between our MyLearning app (building installable learning apps) and browser-based content (wider cross-device support), so that we can get the best of both – with content that can be installed like an app, runs both on- and off-line, and uses the browser to play back courses wherever possible.

m-learning at the White House!

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:19:00 +0000

Our work with m-uBuntu has suddenly gone global - two weeks ago we were sitting in a rural school in South Africa, and this week we are in Washington, DC with four of the students presenting our work!

We were picked as one of 3 projects to showcase Mobile Learning to the White House officials who spearhead technology-assisted learning initiatives in the US.

By “we”, I mean Tribal (Jess) and Duke University (Lucy), masterminded by the ever energetic Theo at LearningWorldwide who turned this dream into a reality.

At the event, a Global Digital Media and Learning competition was launched in collaboration with Presidents Obama’s Educate to Innovate initiative, ‘challenging designers, inventors, entrepreneurs and researchers to create digital environments that promote building & tinkering in new innovative ways’.

Following Jess’s travelogue, it seems that the highlights were a double whammy of:

meeting the Aneesh Chopra, first Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States of America, and
taking the students out for pizza!

See what the students themselves have to say.

This is deeply moving stuff. Children who had not even touched a mobile phone before using it to build literacy skills. And the project is working!

Go m-Ubuntu! it is a pleasure to work with you.

m-learning in South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 23:38:00 +0000

We are back in South Africa again this week, this time working with Spectrum Primary school, and Lucy Haagen (of Duke University) to continue the very successful m-Ubuntu project

Spectrum have been part of the m-Ubuntu project, and working with mobiles for a year already, though this is Tribal’s first visit – what a great group of kids! For a blow-by-blow account of the visit, as well as some great ideas for how you can use mobile devices in your own classroom, please visit Jess’s blog.

Digital Giant – Martha Lane Fox on mobile web

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:48:00 +0000

Martha Lane Fox drawing the links between mobile + web + social networks + mobile-entrepreneurship

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/digital_giants/8551890.stm

It is a 3:40 minute micro-interview from the current BBC series “Digital Giants”. She isn’t saying anything new, but makes the same point that keeps popping up everywhere at the moment …

- mobile is everywhere!

- it is about inclusion, as much as about trendy gadgets

- ignore it at your peril

These points apply to teachers, and teaching too!

I am surprised how often I still get into conversations that start “but do you think mobile learning might work?”.

Of course it works!

In Africa. In Europe. In America. In India. In Australia. For young. For old. For rich. For poor. It may take different shapes, but mobile learning is working well, and is coming whether you like it or not.

Surely it is far better to learn how to make it work well, now, than be a victim and be overtaken by it in 3 years time!

mLearning in the House of Lords

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:23:00 +0000

I am just back from a very enjoyable hour spent in the House of Lords with Lord Lucas, discussing new technologies for learning and looking at some of our mobile learning works.

A very interesting man. Like other IT-savvy Lords, he uses his blog and to be open and honest with his views – and has a special interest in home-access and support for parents.

He was very enthusiastic about many of our learning technology initiatives, especially any that encourage providers to have less dependence on short term funding initiatives, and more on successful learning.

In particular, he liked:

m-learning (of course), both in the UK and the 3rd World. We was particularly interested in some of the big UK successes, like Wolverhampton’s Learning2Go, which for some reason hadn’t yet crossed the House Of Lords radar.
NCETM – the National Centre of Excellence in Teaching Maths that we run to support CPD in all maths teachers across the UK
The online learning portals we run for Sainsbury’s, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, KFC and other employers (using our AdvanceLearningZone platform and an army of amazing home-based tutors & mentors)
The learning Score – A lesson planning tool that is still in Beta, and just creeping out of our labs which we are lucky enough to have endorsed by many of the great and good in UK learning technology

Wow – heady stuff!

I learned a new term - “target chasing” – both providers, and suppliers focussing on current government targets and losing sight of the real goals of education that underpin that (and was secretly relieved that he felt our initiatives / tools / approaches didn’t fit that category!)

I hope that he left the meeting as enthused as we did … I assumed so (but maybe that is just British politeness!)

Even the US Military wants mobile APPs!

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:55:00 +0000

There has been a flurry of news over the past few days including the words “US Military” and “mobile Apps”

part one:

DARPA, home of the pentagon’s technology research gurus, has announced it wants to buy an “AppStore” to use for distributing mobile apps to soldiers.

This is newsworthy on several fronts:

1: DoD (department of defence) are thinking of using normal, everyday-type connectivity (3G), on normal, every-day type devices! (Android)

2: They plan on taking their own 3G coverage with them, to save relying on the possibly unfriendly locals when in far away lands

3: they have dropped both WindowsMobile and iPhone in favour of Android

4: they plan on asking the open market to bid for funding to make apps

Read those again. Bog standard kit. Mainstream networks. Open standards. Open market for apps. Wow.

part two:

A couple of days later, DoD announces the A4A (Apps for the Army) initiative to encourage software-savvy soldiers to propose and make apps (mobile and other).

There is only enough funding for 100 lucky soldiers, but this is clearly just the beginning because …

part three:

DARPA are expected to announce that they are looking to buy apps. If you have a good idea for an app, and the technology skills to make it, they might well be in the market to buy it.

“Flurry of news” is definitely the phrase, here. Until a few weeks ago I had seen hardly any publicity from the US military around mobile learning. Here in the UK, there has been a bit more, with people like Major Roy Evans who has been doing some innovative trials in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You can here him talking about it here (though you will need to ffw the first few minutes, which have no sound!)

Publicity. Nice projects. But quite small trials.

Now, all of a sudden the US has significantly upped the game and leapt for a very mainstream, and imminently achievable solution. Wow!

Bring on those Android Apps, and as Google says, “don’t be evil” :-)

mobile learning in africa …

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:07:00 +0000

Much excitement in our Cambridge office as we pack our bags for … Grabouw (“where”, you ask?). Come on … Grabouw! Major fruit growing region a few hours out of Cape Town, South Africa!
For almost a year we have been sponsoring a few South African schools with online coaching, and access to all our software via the US based charity learningacademyworldwide, but thus far it was all virtual.

Together with Theophilus van Rensburg Lindzter and Lucy Haagen (Duke University) we are working on m-uBuntu (m-ubuntu.org) – trying to use mobile learning to deliver more project-based, reflexive learning into hard to reach schools.
Well – as luck would have it, the US team were unable to do one of their trips, and have asked us to help out!
Hooray!
We are travelling out there tomorrow to De Rust Futura Academy, with a oversize bag stuffed with mobile devices, cables, cameras and assorted bits & pieces in what Theo enthusiastically calls a mobile classroom, and will be spending much of the next two weeks working with the students and getting a crash-course in the South African school curriculum.

All the usual flurry of device-rollout has been going on:
- badging them all up / cataloguing so we can tell them apart
- upgrading all the e-book readers / media players / browsers
- download of our top software picks for learning
- e-books and audio files versions of the poems and stories they are studying
- custom built content (using our MyLearning Author)
And they are now all safely tucked away, and ready to travel

Jess hopes to post snapshots of her visit on her very first blog - http://m-learningtravels.blogspot.com so please stop by and drop her a comment or two.
wish us luck!

Mobile trends for 2020

noreply@blogger.com (geoff) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:27:00 +0000

As memories of Christmas feasting slowly fade, it is a good time to take stock of the year ahead … and Rudy de Waele (of m-trends.org) has been doing exactly that. He asked all of his mobile gurus what they predicted would happen in the next 10 years, and published them yesterday.

It is kinda long, but full of some great, thought-provoking stuff.

My biggest complaint would be that he has missed out learning entirely. The next 10 years are filled with mobility in every shape and size … except for learning!

Mobile Trends 2020 - but without anything for Education :-(