Yesterday, I seemed to spend the majority of my time in the exhibit hall, and very little in session, but regardless I got some good things done. From the sessions yesterday, including the poster sessions, I really started to get some ideas about mobile learning.
From the technical side, it really seems that SMS is the way to go as it has the least questions as to how to handle and present the data to the students via WAP and Midlets (Java Phone Apps) varies as much by handset as it does carrier. On the SMS side, all you need to worry about is your CSC (Common Short Code) and the aggregator you are going to use to handle all the inbound messages.
From the instructional side, you need to work with the instructors to design the use of the SMS service to be able to respond to student requests with useful data (I think this would be great for field based learning as students can txt for more info in the field – like they did in Norway or Finland with Nokia or Ericsson). This of course requires work, which all but those blessed few who care about teaching are not willing to even consider. As much to create the database as to craft the messages that get fired back out to the students.
Finally, from the students, it requires beefy txt plans.
With this in mind, I’m thinking “Mobile Mobile Rah Rah Rah!”. People seem to want to have the information that they want in a form that is intimate and personal. This is certainly the realm of the phone – it’s small, personal and personalizable. It also delivers information in nicely bite sized bits and pieces.
Then, this morning, I was in a session about “where students compute” and it was a session by a small residential collage in the US who found that students, even though they bring their laptops to school, they prefer the labs and often they will bring their laptops to the lab, using the lappy and the desktop at the same time – something that really surprised the presenter, especially after constructing laptop areas – which turned into book flats. The thing that surprised me was (and I don’t know why), that they were able to shape the useage of their labs by the age of the machines. I think what surprised me was that students didn’t abandon the old labs.
So now, heading into the last session, I’ve got more things to think about in terms of the nature of computing… it has to be powerful enough, personal and social. I know that… but how do all of these play together when students need to get stuff done.
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