FLOSSE Posse just rocked my world!
Leigh Blackall
Teemu from FLOSSE Posse blog just rocked my world with
a post introducing the MobilED project.In short, it's a service where you can send a txt message as a search and get a call back from a screen reader who reads you the Wikipedia entry for you results! I could really, and I mean REALLY use that! And if that wasn't enough! If the entry doesn't exist, then it will take your dictation and start the article for you!
You just absolutely have to download and watch the video to comprehend how very cool this idea is!
By the look of the video and surrounding articles, this initiative is targeting less areas where the electro infrastructure is not in place to support computer and Internet use. As Teemu puts it:
According to the International Telecommunication Union in 2004 the Internet penetration on the planet was 13%. The mobile phone penetration in the very same planet was 32%. Internet penetration is growing slowly. The growth in the number of mobile subscribers does not show any signs of slowing down. (ITU report: What's the state of ICT access around the world?)This is such a great idea! I mean, I get really inspired by this. Just like MIT's $100 laptops, I look at projects like this and think wow! If they can do that there, we should be able to do that here. We have heaps of people in our so called weathier nations who can't afford a computer and Internet, but many who make the choice to carry a mobile phone instead...
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Posted by Leigh Blackall to Teach and Learn Online at 3/14/2006 08:08:00 PM
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Leigh Blackall
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alexanderhayes
I've just been wading through about a stack of emails and feeds since
this link was sent to me three weeks ago....Peter Holden CLI is scoping
this from a collaborative approach with 5th digit's involvement from
SA. Far out .....we are rolling again.
I cant get boo from the AMPLN group .....group ?.......at all but
disbanded so i've dropped the AMLN google group in preference for this
discussion area. Why ? Well where do I start...
Why the $#@! do people bother hiding what we all know of anyway ? Why
cant we share information that is simply that ? I dont give two hoots
as to who hosts what where and when provided those that matter benefit
from the collaboration .......It's beyond me why mobile is so precious
- it's simply an extension of the elearning environment...
I'm chasing it Leigh and yes all the functionalities are beyond
cool....
cheers.
Alex Hayes
Leigh Blackall
alexanderhayes
happening....but ..............sheesh with the mobile web extensible we
could be going elearning neat if we can get mobiled.uiah
listening....here goes......first email to them to introduce thy self.
:-)
Regards,
Alex Hayes
alexanderhayes
minh mcCloy
A band of pioneers wants to do for your cellphone what Linux did for your PC
Would you pay $400 for a handful of microchips and, armed with only a circuit diagram, build your own cellphone? With elegant, powerful phones already on sale for a fraction of the price it's not something that will appeal to many.
Yet despite the cost and inconvenience, a growing group of techies are attempting to build the first practical home-made cellphones. They hope to spark greater innovation in cellphone design and, more crucially, in the software that makes the phones work. Their aim is to develop a critical mass of free software that will lead to a flowering of new cellphone applications. Some foresee phones acting as affordable hand-held computers running novel applications tailored to the needs of the developing world.
The movement is riding on the back of a burgeoning market in wireless devices for machine-to-machine communication. These devices are, in effect, stripped-down cellphones, and a typical application combines ...
Sean FitzGerald
As technology becomes ubiquitous and gets integrated into learning, the concept of "technology in education" will start to be less relevant. Indeed the word "elearning" will probably become redundant, as all learning will have an networked, online or technology component in the future.
Pens, paper and books have been integrated into learning for a long time. We don't call it "Pens, paper and books learning". These technologies have become an invisible part of the process.
Who thinks of the traditional telephone (which we all grew up with) as technology? What about mobile phones? Maybe the older generation still think of them as technology, but certainly the NetGen who have grown up with them wouldn't be thinking "Ooh - I'm using technology" every time they SMS one of their friends.
So the same argument goes for mobile technologies which will become so integrated into everything we do (including learning - since mobile devices allow us to be learning all the time, wherever we are) - it will no longer be a separate field.
I (and I suspect others here) are very interested in mobile devices in learning, but I think that people will post news about mobile learning here, because it's all part of what we do (or at least it will be once the affordable technologies arrive, as they are due to soon).
Sean
-- Sean FitzGerald Tel: +61 (0)2 9360 3291 Mob: +61 (0)404 130 342 Skype: seamusy Email: se...@tig.com.au Website: http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/ Blog: http://elgg.net/seanfitz/weblog/ The life of man is like a game with dice; if you don’t get the throw you want, you must show your skill in making the best of the throw you get. -- Terence
alexanderhayes
Sean Fitzgerald wrote:
>> On reading this great post from Minh I had some thoughts as to why Alex
had problems getting a separate Australian Mobile Learning Network
Google Group happening <<
Alex replied ; I concur with you Sean. Minh's post is tops and yes the
Google Group is..............hmm.... the term "pointless" comes to
mind. The term 'helpless' might define my actions a little so it gives
me scope to reconsider my position and take on board your comments.
Sean Fitzgerald wrote:
>> As technology becomes ubiquitous and gets integrated into learning, the
concept of "technology in education" will start to be less relevant.
Indeed the word "elearning" will probably become redundant, as all
learning will have an networked, online or technology component in the
future. <<
Alex Hayes replied ; Fantastic descriptor Sean and precisely why I've
now voted for the removal of such a 'seperated' discussion occuring
that places mobile technologies as seperate to other new and emergent
technologies. In actual fact, having read your post and thinking over
it for a while I am now happy to promote ubuity as a concept and
integrated as the key term for how this all works in a connected
learning environment. of course it now makes sense that mobility is
simply a concept ...NOT a technology.
However, in my opinion, adults work in ways of defining differences
between technologies as a meta reference and I think mobile learning
has been coined because it defines a shift in the teaching and learning
paradigm; as technology is no loner PC driven, static and locked into
a localised intranet. The firewalls of the mobile technology world are
a little different in architecture to that of the "static" internet
driven PC and hence students will not coin 'mlearning' but adults and
educators may do so as it gives them a starting point to define WHEN
electronic learning became popularised.
Just like the conversations I had ten years ago with educators about
"vacuam suction cleaning" or " Sony Walkman learning" I think we have
had maturity and an evolved growth of how to describe the difference
between sitting on our butts and e-learning juxtaposed with zipping
around m-learning.
Sean Fitzgerald wrote:
>>> Pens, paper and books have been integrated into learning for a long
time. We don't call it "Pens, paper and books learning". These
technologies have become an invisible part of the process. <<<
Alex Hayes wrote; Genius. So why has the key research bodies worldwide
coind the terms "mobile learning" , "m-learning", "mlearning" and so
on.....just to name a few. Shouldnt it just be learning or at the very
most e-learning ie. electronic learning using electronic devices. ???
Perhaps these technologies MUST become an invisible part of the
process....and not a kinky fetishised element of the teaching and
learning ecosphere. i sus pect though that educators and "mature"
adults will cling to a seperateness between e-learning and m-learning
because many educators can get the point that they are both forms of
electronic learning. One makes you fat and static and the other gets
you off your ass and interconnected on-the-run in-between always-on and
all the other terms that they come up with.
Sean Fitzgerald wrote:
>> Who thinks of the traditional telephone (which we all grew up with) as
technology? What about mobile phones? Maybe the older generation still
think of them as technology, but certainly the NetGen who have grown up
with them wouldn't be thinking "Ooh - I'm using technology" every time
they SMS one of their friends. <<
Alex Hayes wrote;
I've got a great anecdote to ellucidate that one. Dr. Jim Mullaney -
http://www.futurepd.org/blog/ - once told me that he played a trick on
his son....his son kept calling his mobile phone using his own from the
back seat in the car and then hanging up when Jim answered - before the
days of caller id. Jim worked out what was happening and so stopped the
car an gave his son fifty cents to go over to the phone box and dial
home and tell Mum that they were turning around because Jim felt sick.
His son had no idea what a phone box was nor had he any idea how to use
the dialing wheel. So..........the answer to that bit was that kid's
these days dont think of the technology too deeply...they use it and
trash it when it's too slow for their OOBA brain modality.
>> So the same argument goes for mobile technologies which will become so
integrated into everything we do (including learning - since mobile
devices allow us to be learning all the time, wherever we are) - it
will
no longer be a separate field. <<
Alex Hayes replied;
Agreed. It isnt a seperate field......and from now on I'll try my best
to contest it - maybe all you e-learners will accept me and we'll have
a marvellous party either on our laptops or mashing marvellously in our
web 2.0 virtual reality worlds.
Sean Fitzgerald wrote:
>> I (and I suspect others here) are very interested in mobile devices in
learning, but I think that people will post news about mobile learning
here, because it's all part of what we do (or at least it will be once
the affordable technologies arrive, as they are due to soon). <<
Alex Hayes replied;
Affordable my arse..............I dont think mobile communication will
ever be affordable....... We live in a priveleged country about to go
back to war I know that. We live in a community that excludes people
due to their gender, social status and proximity to knowledge sources -
I've experienced that. People are interested in mobile phones for WHAT
they privelege and HOW they privelege. People will post things in TALO
regarding mobile technologies because there is a growing
demystification from other TALO members such as us having these
conversations.
I really appreciate your feedback Sean. This has got me thinking again.
Regards,
Alex Hayes
Sean FitzGerald
In actual fact, having read your post and thinking over it for a while I am now happy to promote ubuity as a concept and integrated as the key term for how this all works in a connected learning environment.
The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.It starts off well, although gets a bit bogged down, as much of what he is writing has already come to pass (the article was written in 1991 after all!), but the general concept is still sound, and very much in line with the MIT Project Oxygen you previously linked to.
of course it now makes sense that mobility is simply a concept ...NOT a technology. However, in my opinion, adults work in ways of defining differences between technologies as a meta reference and I think mobile learning has been coined because it defines a shift in the teaching and learning paradigm; as technology is no loner PC driven, static and locked into a localised intranet. The firewalls of the mobile technology world are a little different in architecture to that of the "static" internet driven PC and hence students will not coin 'mlearning' but adults and educators may do so as it gives them a starting point to define WHEN electronic learning became popularised.
I wasn't arguing against the term, I was suggesting it should be viewed under the umbrella of educational technology, not separate.
One reason to actively discourage the use of terms like "elearning" is that it they can cause marginalisation. When Ive mentioned to people in the past that I'm involved in elearning, they go "Aaah, computer geek, teaching computer studies". What they don't realise is that, for me, it's not about the technology, it's about the change in how we learn.
One makes you fat and static and the other gets you off your ass
Bring on those cheap, practical, mobile devices, with affordable blanket connectivity so I can be writing this sitting under a tree in the park any day. And maybe I can work of some of this gut during the walk there!
Sean
-- Sean FitzGerald Tel: +61 (0)2 9360 3291 Mob: +61 (0)404 130 342 Skype: seamusy Email: se...@tig.com.au Website: http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/ Blog: http://elgg.net/seanfitz/weblog/
It does not matter what other people say or do. What matters is how I choose to react and what I choose to believe about myself. -- Affirmation
alexanderhayes
>One reason to actively discourage the use of terms like "elearning" is
that it they can cause marginalisation. <
Alex replied:
Too right! e-learning and all that jargon immediately turns the
hardcore educators off and besides my "geekdom" only really began when
I started choking on my beer in a rush to answer my mobile device :-)
I love your quotes and hey.......I totally agree - why begin a new
conversation regarding e-learning in a mobile paradigm when it's only
really a construct of telecommunications companies anyways.
Sean Fitzgerald said;
> Bring on those cheap, practical, mobile devices, with affordable blanket
connectivity so I can be writing this sitting under a tree in the park
any day. And maybe I can work of some of this gut during the walk
there! <
Alex Hayes replied;
On that note lets see if we can provide the education sector with a
"picture" of what thay may look like. Lets hook up a conference call
via mobile Skype and conduct a "radio-show" for podcast on this exact
topic and then cast it to the net. proving it's possible on the run is
something I'm keen to demonstrate. A moblog will provide a visual
example of that occuring and we could alert TALO members to the feed
which might be titled Run Lola Run for the first session.
Regards,
Alex Hayes
Leigh Blackall
Sean Fitzgerald said;
>One reason to actively discourage the use of terms like "elearning" is
that it they can cause marginalisation. <
Alex replied:
Too right! e-learning and all that jargon immediately turns the
hardcore educators off and besides my "geekdom" only really began when
I started choking on my beer in a rush to answer my mobile device :-)
I love your quotes and hey.......I totally agree - why begin a new
conversation regarding e-learning in a mobile paradigm when it's only
really a construct of telecommunications companies anyways.
Sean Fitzgerald said;
> Bring on those cheap, practical, mobile devices, with affordable blanket
connectivity so I can be writing this sitting under a tree in the park
any day. And maybe I can work of some of this gut during the walk
there! <
Alex Hayes replied;
On that note lets see if we can provide the education sector with a
"picture" of what thay may look like. Lets hook up a conference call
via mobile Skype and conduct a "radio-show" for podcast on this exact
topic and then cast it to the net. proving it's possible on the run is
something I'm keen to demonstrate. A moblog will provide a visual http://www.lulu.com/leighblackall