Mobile Learning K-12 Chat

Last week I participated in a "chat" for Education Week entitled "Emerging Mobile Technologies for K-12 Classrooms". Unfortunately the co-presenter had technical difficulties and was unable to connect until half way so I typed as fast as I could. ;-)

The questions were great! CoverItLive was used and the transcript is now available at http://www.edweek.org/ew/events/chats/2009/09/03/index.html.

After the session I received several requests for further information about mobile learning and disabilities which is not my area of specialty, but an interest. Recently I read a couple papers addressing this issue, but they were for conference proposals and not yet available. I went back through some of my notes and responded with the following:

• JISC in the UK has conducted a lot of mobile learning research including research on disabilities. A good place to start is http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=9_5
• EU project including accessibility - http://motill.eu/
• Another UK initiative - http://www.rsc-northwest.ac.uk/acl/eMagArchive/RSCeMag2008/May08/accessibility_and_mobile_learning_project.html
• Also http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=ferl.aclearn.page.id958
• Several years ago there was even a Braille reader for Pocket PCs. Take a look at the potential for those with sight issues on this YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUUxGvDqok4
• Also look at QR codes and the potential demonstrated by Nokia at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1wM6nlcALA
• There are also some articles on http://mlearnopedia.com easily found by searching for disabilities.

If you are aware of other resources for mobile learning and disabilities, please add your suggestions in the comments. Thank you.