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.

Preparing for a Charter School Conference Presentation

In preparation for a K-12 mobile learning presentation tomorrow in Wisconsin, I have been trying to catch up on my reading.

I discovered a few new (to me) interesting resources including:

• A listing of iPhone and iPod K-12 applications from "Learning is Change" at http://web.me.com/dowd/Touch/Welcome.html
• Information about the use of QR codes in physical education (PE) classes at http://mrrobbo.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/using-geocached-qr-codes-for-revision-in-a-pe-classroom/ and http://mrrobbo.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/learning-the-skeleton-with-qr-codes/
• A lecture entitled "Opportunities and Barriers for Mobile Learning in the Philippines" by Dr. Jose Lloyd Espiritu, in which he talks about the importance of having "learn mates" or "learn buddies" and cautions to focus on "real learning, not just classroom learning." Read the paper here.
• A wiki full of successful stories (or failures) about deployment of ICT in Developing Countries in general, and more specifically using mobile phones available at http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories.
  

I was also pleased to see the ASTD Resources on Mobile Learning and very happy that they had some of my materials at http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0409_mobilelearning.htm.

If you would like to see my presentation (minus some videos), I just posted it on SlideShare.
(The presentation was created and will be delivered using Keynote, but since it would not upload to SlideShare I had to move it to PowerPoint and lost some of the formating. If anyone has any tips for using SlideShare with Keynote, please leave a comment. Thanks.)

2D Barcode News

Microsoft has entered the barcode reader and creation space with their new Microsoft Tag. You can see a demo, download the reader and create tags here. The tag shown here is one that I created for my contact information and intend to include it on the back of my business card.

Microsoft has already entered into agreements with major players and it does have several advantages over the market leaders Datamatrix, EZcode and QR, but there are also some unknowns.

At CES, Tikitag was showing a RFID type tag kit including 10 tags and a USB reader development kit at $50. Because of the high cost of the tags, they indicated upcoming support for other types of 2D barcodes.

Regardless there are numerous applications for 2D barcodes in learning.

CES 2009

Last week I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas seeking mobile learning related tools and announcements.

The biggest mobile news in my opinion was that of the Palm Pre. The demo was very impressive and it should again move the industry, but until we get a chance to put it through its paces we will have to wait. The one thing that we know is that despite the down economy there will be new mobile devices hitting the market, each touting new improvements. We do need to make certain that our learning and performance support content will still operate on them.

If you are interested in the Palm Pre, check out the Palm site for information and the announcement video. For a good overview see Engadget’s review.

Bar codes were front and center with Nokia. Visitors were encouraged to send an SMS message with Nokia as the content to receive a link to download a 2D barcode and then bring their phone to the booth for a chance for a prize. The booth was busy. I had checked it out both with a BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone. The code was quite small, but the Nokia reader read it just fine. They certainly have improved it since last year.

BlackBerry’s booth was crowded with 3rd party apps. The arrangement of it made it very difficult to go through it systematically and make sure that you saw all the vendors.

LG showed their “Wearable Mobile Communicator” digital watch behind a glass case and did not release pricing or availability. It could be useful for SMS alerts.

MobileTV was being shown in several booths. I had planned to try it this week, but don’t have the bandwidth available.

While I was in Las Vegas I was able to use Qik on the Bold to video a few demos an interviews and was impressed with the ease of use and quality. There are so many used for this tool in education and training.

Although CES touted mobile as one of the next big things, most of their references were to automobiles and navigation or syncing. This was mainly in the North Hall where the bass speakers were blasting so loud that it was impossible to carry on a conversation.

Since mid-November we have driven over 5,500 miles escaping the snow and frigid weather. I certainly do not miss it, but have to admit to missing sitting in front of the fireplace. We are really enjoying the mobile lifestyle, but are experiencing varying levels of connectivity.