Mobile Learning Jam Reflections

Last week in San Jose I was pleased to participate at DevLearn in the Mobile Learning Jam. Thanks to Jay Cross for taking this picture and posting it on Flickr.

For two days plus there were 15 sessions -- in addition to 9 regular conference sessions -- all about mobile learning. At times the noise and commotion in the hall area made it difficult to hear and the afternoon sun caused some attendees to get out their sunglasses inside, but there was considerable interest. The questions and comments from the attendees was awesome. All in all it was very tiring, but lots of fun!

I was involved in 7 sessions plus 3 breakfast byte discussions. One of the sponsors, OnPoint Digital created a mobile app for the Mobile Learning Jam materials. If you have a mobile device and want to take a look at the app and all the presentations on your mobile, go to http://mlj.mlearning.com and self-register. You will receive an email with instructions specific to your device.

Several attendees also requested that the slides be posted online so that they can share them with their co-workers, so I have posted PDFs of the following sessions:

• Overview of Mobile Learning – Who is Doing What?
• Getting Started with Mobile Learning Planning Session with Austin Winters, Microsoft
• Mobile Learning in Government and Military - Mark Friedman and Jason Haag
• Discussion of Mobile Learning Standards, or Lack Thereof with Mark Friedman and Jason Haag
• Tools for Mobile Learning Examined
• Mobile Learning Examples Examined
• Future Directions in Mobile Learning: A Look at New Technologies and Potential

There is also a document with lots of resources available here.

Thanks to The eLearning Guild for their support, the sponsors Intuition and OnPoint Digital, the other presenters and to the attendees. You were all great!

Learning 2009 Audience Response

Last week at Elliott Masie's Learning 2009 in Orlando, Elliott asked the group of about 1300 learning professions to respond to a question on their audience response pads. The question involved over hyped learning categories:

I was very pleased that mobile learning was in a class with performance support and user generated content. Learning professionals are beginning to understand the importance of mobile access to learning and support at the time and place of need.

Over 100,000 iPhone/iPod Apps

Apple just announced that the app store has surpassed 100,000 apps.

"Apple® today announced that developers have created over 100,000 apps for the revolutionary App Store, the largest applications store in the world. iPhone® and iPod touch® customers in 77 countries can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. App Store users have downloaded well over two billion apps, continuing to make it the world’s most popular applications store."

Because of the sheer volume of apps, it is getting harder and harder to locate good education and training apps. I am currently exploring a new iPhone app released yesterday entitled Chorus.

"Chorus is an intuitive, fun and easy way to connect with friends to see the apps they're using, which apps they rate highly, and to stay up-to-date on the hottest new apps available. Now available for iPhone and iPod touch®, Chorus features real-time feeds from your designated friends, displaying the apps they are downloading, and what they are saying about them. You save time and money by viewing what your friends bought, and what they think about them, before you buy or download."

I'd love for us to build a group of "friends" from the learning community to share our findings. If you are looking at educational apps for the iPhone (and other devices) why not join me there? (Judy Brown)

Mobile Industry Count

Gary Hayes has created a very interesting mobile count widget shown below.

I have been amazed at the phenomenal growth in the mobile industry and this just gives you a taste of the speed. (Note that the numbers shown are since you loaded this page.) The source articles and statistics are listed here.

Spacing Effect for Mobile Learning

For some time I have been reviewing research on the spacing effect of learning for maximum recollection. This research has been documented for over 100 years. In the past with teaching at specific times and places, this has been difficult and expensive to implement, but today with ubiquitous communication devices in our pockets and purses, it is easy to accomplish.

Dr. Will Thalheimer has been reviewing the literature and writing about the spacing effect for some time. See Spacing Learning Over Time: A Research Based Secret from the June 2007 ASTD Annual Conference.

Several mobile learning products have integrated the capability to send reminders and spaced knowledge checks, but they have not been implemented to any degree yet.

SpacedEd has a Beta site called Addictive Learning That Sticks using the research on the spacing effect. You can also view their list of frequently asked questions or check out the peer-reviewed research behind spaced education in their Research section.

This is how SpacedEd has structures their materials:

• Each learner receives 2 questions every day via email.
• If a question is answered incorrectly, it will be repeated 1 week later.
• If a question is answered correctly, it will be repeated 3 weeks later.
• If a question is answered correctly two times in a row, the item is retired from the course and is no longer repeated.
• The learner completes the course when all of the questions are retired (answered correctly twice in a row).

Today MIT's Technology Review ran a story An App so You'll Never Forget: Adaptive-learning algorithms calculate how often people need to see information to remember it about a new iPhone app based in Tokyo called Smart.fm.

Spaced learning is one application of mobile learning that will grow in importance as we open our eyes to the additional capabilities afforded by using mobile devices.

October Hot List: Mobile Learning Content

Best of Mobile Learning

October 1, 2009 to October 31, 2009

Featured Sources

The following are the top items from featured sources based on social signals.

1. Augmented Reality and On-Demand Learning- The Mobile Learner, October 17, 2009
2. Mobile Learning Tools #2- mLearnopedia on Blogspot, October 2, 2009
3. CCK09: does Connectivism want to change the world?- Ignatia Webs, October 9, 2009
4. Students Can Use SMS to Check & Post to Their Google Calendar- Cell Phones in Learning, October 6, 2009
5. M-Learning Goes Corporate and Succeeds- mLearning is Good, October 5, 2009
6. Using an iPod Touch with 8 Year Old Students- The Mobile Learner, October 3, 2009
7. Mobile University Access- mLearnopedia on Blogspot, October 24, 2009
8. TIME between TIMES: the joy of educating during a time of rapid technological change.- uLearning Blog, October 2, 2009
9. Simpsons: Goes Mobile!- Cell Phones in Learning, October 5, 2009

Other Sources

The following are the top items based on social signals.

1. matthewbuckland.com » The future of social networking – a concept investigation, October 1, 2009
2. Text Message Reminders to Take Medication Works, October 15, 2009
3. Australian uni goes mobile!, October 22, 2009

Hot Topics

Ipod Touch (15)

1. Using an iPod Touch with 8 Year Old Students, October 3, 2009
2. You are Never Alone » From the Coal Face: iPod Touch in the Classroom, October 24, 2009
3. Essential Ingredients for the Implementation of Mobile Learning | Personalising Learning with the iPod Touch, October 12, 2009
4. Learning in Hand Blog by Tony Vincent, October 13, 2009

Handheld (12)

1. Handheld Learning 09 - still pushing the frontiers, October 13, 2009
2. Handheld Learning 2009, October 6, 2009
3. BrainPOP UK | Our Handheld Learning 09 Review | POPtalk, October 12, 2009
4. Handheld Reflections Day Two « e-Learning Stuff, October 13, 2009

Safari (5)

1. Learning in Hand Blog by Tony Vincent, October 13, 2009
2. Handheld Reflections Day Two « e-Learning Stuff, October 13, 2009
3. Mobile learning in a military context « e-Learning Stuff, October 1, 2009
4. Doc’s Blog » Blog Archive » how do you use your mobile computing device to support your learning?, October 18, 2009

Augmented (6)

1. Augmented Reality and On-Demand Learning, October 17, 2009
2. Mark Power » Augmented Reality - A Game Changer in Mobile Learning?, October 21, 2009
3. matthewbuckland.com » The future of social networking – a concept investigation, October 1, 2009
4. M-Learning Goes Corporate and Succeeds, October 5, 2009

iPod (17)

1. Using an iPod Touch with 8 Year Old Students, October 3, 2009
2. You are Never Alone » From the Coal Face: iPod Touch in the Classroom, October 24, 2009
3. Essential Ingredients for the Implementation of Mobile Learning | Personalising Learning with the iPod Touch, October 12, 2009
4. Learning in Hand Blog by Tony Vincent, October 13, 2009

Commercial Mobile Learning Content Examined

I have been looking at some commercial mobile training modules recently and have found some excellent examples -- as well as some lessons learned.

The first one is Presenter Pro for the iPhone ($.99 in the iTunes store). The content includes presentation skills techniques with supporting graphics, audio, and video; hundreds of quick tips accessible by shaking the device; a checklist feature to capture and email any content for later review; notes capability; practice exercises; and knowledge check quizzes.

There is a lot of information and it is organized for quick retrieval. Overall the UI is quite good, however when arriving at the end of the knowledge check, there is only a previous and next. The next does not work, so the user needs to assume that they have finished and need to go back to the main menu. How much nicer it would have been if QA has caught that and added text either with the score or some text like congratulations you have completed the knowledge check, press here to return to the main menu. In addition, a nice feature would be to offer to return to the applicable content for review when missing a question rather than just saying sorry, try again.

Understanding Photoshop Quick Fixes ($1.99 in the iTunes Store) includes three modules plus an introduction and help section. Each of the modules has videos, tips and a quiz. Favorites and a search feature are included, plus an included recent Twitter feed from @rhedpixel. The quiz feature is quite nice with the results, as well as a link to the video for missed questions. Unlike Presenter Pro, there is no easy access overview of the content, but there is the search feature. The videos are well done. By submitting your email address you receive a link with the examples from the video. These are only available on a computer -- not an iPod or iPhone and must be downloaded separately for each module.

Thanks to an email from Dr. Davide Terranova fom Italy, I checked out his new site medicalearning. Currently there are four care and management modules featured for asthma, diabetes, hypertension and influenza virus H1-N1. The modules use Flash Lite and are available for a large number of phones (and even larger following the recent Adobe announcement of upcoming partnerships and availability of the Flash player on mobile devices.) The catalog, store and clean user interface are quite nice. Check it out.

Mobile Web Best Practices

You may be familiar with the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 for delivering Web content to mobile devices (July 2008). It is an excellent reference resource.

Thanks to MAMK's recent posting, I found a great condensed reference of the same in a flipcard format (PDF).

Included are:

• Design for One Web
• Rely on Web standards
• Stay away from known hazards
• Be cautious of device limitations
• Optimize navigation
• Check graphics & colors
• Keep it small
• Use the network sparingly
• Help & guide user input
• Think of users on the go

Check it out...

Mobile University Access

For those in higher education looking for examples of a campus that is providing mobile access, you might want to check out a very nice solution at Australia's Curtin University of Technology CurtinMobile.

They provide students and staff with the access and information they need via their mobile devices. The application automatically provides both an icon-based layout for current higher-end phones or a text format for older phones.

You can view it on your mobile at m.curtin.edu.au or see a video demo here.

Featured available include:

• OASIS: Access Student Email, Official Communications and more!
• Maps: Browse the campus map so you never get lost!
• News: Find out about the latest exciting news & events at Curtin
• Library: Opening hours, browse the catalogue and more
• Facilities: Information on the the gym, food and drinks and much more
• Support: Having trouble with student life? Get helpful information here
• I.T.: Find an available computer on campus
• Transport: Courtesy bus schedule and Transperth information
• People: Find Curtin Staff members
• Emergency: Emergency information and phone numbers

Google Wave and Mobile Learning

I have been experimenting with Google Wave and so far am pleased with what I see. I am not certain how much this will be used for mobile learning, but was pleasantly surprised that it works on the iPhone (although there is a warning that that browser is not supported.) It can tend to be a little slow, but usable.

Here are a couple screen shots from my iPhone.



If you have a Google Wave account, please join me on a new public Wave I created to discuss mobile learning. You should be able to find it by title "Mobile Learning" or creator Judy Brown or judycb. I have not yet figured that out. ;-) UPDATED: I just added some tags and you should be able to find it by entering "tag:mobile learning" (without the quotes) into the search box and choosing Mobile Learning Public Wave. Hope to see you there.

Update 10/15/09: I have received emails that none of the comments work to locate this Wave. I just received assistance (thanks taylorkirk) and found that the following does work.