Catching up over the long weekend

In preparation for 3 upcoming workshops the first week in June, I have been reorganizing and reviewing my various notes during this long weekend. Thus just some random entries on my mind...

If you missed the LearnTrends e-Learning Tour last Thursday, you can access the recording here. Our mobile portion is the first video. You will see various types of mobile learning, hear an interesting podcast option, and learn about the iPhone/iPod Touch initiative at Abilene Christian University. It appeared that we had about 125 attendees and lots of good questions and follow up since then.

Any of you researchers with iPhones available who are crunching data and looking at different ways to visualize it, check out RoamBi. There is a TryMe application on the site to view from a desktop if you don't have an iPhone. Oh, did I mention that the app was free?

I have been excited about 2D barcodes for learning for some time, but now that they seem to have almost arrived in the U.S., there may be other options as well. This week there was an article in USA Today entitled "New '2D barcodes' puts info at the tip of your camera phone" which discussed some 2D initiatives with companies such as Nike, Sears and Hardee's. I have thought that once these readers were readily available on phones that it would be much easier to utilize them for learning. These codes are very popular in Japan and certainly could make it much easier to access specific content.

The USA Today article cites InfoTrends/CAP Ventures stating this year 89% of new mobile phones shipped to the U.S. will have cameras.

What else is there just around the corner for what I have been calling Point and Learn?

• You may have seen Mobile Search by petitinvention. If not, check it out here.
• There is also Wikitude here.
• This month Nokia rolled out their Point and Find project in a limited area, but it could have a lot of potential uses for learning.
• Check out the iVisit real time object recognition for the blind YouTube video for some very powerful capabilities.

Background video is available today even on the first generation iPhone that I have. A new app entitled Email 'n Walk was created for those who are engaged with their phones and don't look where they are going. Thus a view of one's surroundings through the working screen (see screen capture above.)

Not utilizing the camera, but GPS is an interactive 3D map from UpNext (UpNext NYC) to explore and search Manhattan. The app is available for the iPhone as well, and includes connections to Twitter and Facebook. Something like this could be used for new student or employee orientation to a campus.