Mobile learning 3 april 2009 - Erik Duval http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~erikd

context

also non-mobile

who: identity

when: time

where: location

proximity

what to learn about, web of things

whom to learn with, twitter

soon

tired, bored, ...

emotion

affordance

any time

any place

barriers

organisation

neutralizes innovation

attitude

FUD

Fear

Uncertainty

Doubt

geen cultuur van risico

privacy

silos

Toledo...

examples

shazam

compare everywhere

wikitude

MIT sixth sense

MIT siftables

effect

reduces friction

"always on"

"instant gratification"

"take advantage of opportunity when it is hot"

I can subscribe to podcast during meeting and listen to it on my trip home

snowflake effect

we will give it you before you ask for it, or even before you know you want/need it

also

explores the bonds that information such as text and image, time and space, weave between themselves. (Niki Lambropoulos)

"Mobility of learning should not so much refer to mobility of the person, because: any time, any place (mobile or not). It should refer to the creation of learning opportunities to pick and choose from. And I don't mean video lectures. Challenge 1: Think of them as "learning jam sessions" open to others with sufficient/suitable baggage. Challenge 2: How to determine sufficient/suitable Challenge 3: Make the learning jam sessions interesting by mixing people from different backgrounds" (Leo Plugge)

"@ErikDuval is there such a thing as "mobile learning" with a concept different from learning" (Peter Karlberg)

"Harder than I thought to put this down in any concise form … here are a couple of things, that I think are key for “mobile learning” … remember, my space is mainly corporate. 1. Phones are replacing “keys” as the most important item to carry. This makes them almost truly ubiquitous. Thereby, providing a “terminal” or “gateway” at all times. 2. Mobile “learning” is not what I traditionally thought … it is more “knowledge access” then learning, as I’ve come to understand it. A key to the learning part is the ability of the system to be aware of the user and their interactions. Capturing interaction by the learner seems to be a key differentiator. 3. UI design is critical, more so than on PCs. The smaller and simpler the device, the smaller and simpler the interface needs to be. Tolerance for poor interface design is almost non-existent. “If it isn’t intuitive obvious … then it won’t be used.” … a coveted URL is something like jamwap.com … why … a word spelled with only a single keypress on a phone … jamwap = 546927 … most all of these URLs are already registered. 4. The ability for the system to “respond” to the user input is critical. 5. Learning design becomes very difficult in this form factor … little can be done by instructional designers … this seems to focus the effort on the quality of the content. It needs to be very concise, as verbose content is not tolerated. This seems to be much more difficult to do, then anyone thought. 6. “Mobile” technology change is accelerating, rather than stabilizing … more OS’s, more phones, more interface paradigms exist today then did a couple of years ago … one anecdotal point (cannot confirm), is that there are more different type of phones available in 2008 than in the previous 10 years combined. This is a significant challenge for content developers, as capabilities between phones are very different, and the gap huge. 7. Lots of focus has been put on smartphones, yet they represent less than 20% of the global handset market… this is important when looking at content design options. I’ve been very intrigued and impressed by what is being done in mobile “learning” delivery … a couple of examples. 1. A non-profit group wanting to extend the reach of science and math education used a novel approach. They create modules in the form of a “quiz” … then at local football (soccer) and baseball games advertized the following on the large displays in the stadiums … “Test your knowledge of the sport … SMS “quiz” to XXXXX”. Over 25000 “lessons” delivered in 9 games. The lessons where things like … “Does a soccer ball travel further on a wet field or dry field?”. The user would answer … then the system would explain the correct answer regardless … the explanation was about the physics of friction. This was available to any WAP phone. The highest score at each game where given a prize … the back-end learning system, would tally scores realtime. 2. A country in the middle east is looking to use a learning delivery system to create online surveys for doing the countries census. The delivery tool would be a phone, the user would be told what questions to ask at each door, then the results captured and sent back realtime. The tracking system would be able to provide realtime information, as well as adapt quickly to changes. Not sure this is “learning”, but it uses the same “engine” as the one above. Anyways … some thoughts … I’m working on a couple of presentations on this currently … hope it helps, John " (John Alonso)

@ErikDuval In case you don't know it already, Mohammed Ally's book might be interesting for you. http://tinyurl.com/cszl4e (hoever)

Alan Calvillo mobile learning... the new mini-lap, iphone, itouch, blackberry, provide a strong platform, you can develop an application in web that works perfectly in desktop or mobile ... \nI have some applications about e-learning working perfectly in mobile... (Alan Calvillo)

Thanks for sharing. If you didn't see it previously (WHAT! You don't read all my stuff!!??) I had what I thought was an interesting posting on OCOT about the "4th screen" that you might find interesting and ties into this a bit. \nI'd certainly concur with your observations John and add some additional random thoughts: * I think there is a huge opportunity/need to find more combinations of old/new when it comes to interfaces and design for these smaller devices. For example, handwriting, page turning, sketching, touch, are all fundamentals that I believe we all have as humans and are almost at the DNA level; always been there, always will. Anything and everything that can be done to take these essential characteristics we have of how we like to interact with our environment, capture our knowledge and intent, will pay off huge dividends. I still believe for example that true digital paper is a coming revolution (paper made from a combo of traditional pulp plus digitally control molecules) such that each page is both a digital surface, a display and an input mechanism. * Closer in, figuring out how best to incorporate touch into these devices will be increasingly important. For example touch is OK for some limited input but not for typing large amounts of text as you've experienced John with your BB Bold. And my new Kindle is SCREAMING to have some touch input for things like markup, handwritten notes, page turning, etc. * as you too have discovered I don't think this is all about either the devices or phones or mobile per se, but about being ubiquitous, always connected (I wish!) immediate, location aware, environment aware (temp, alt, speed, etc.) Some of what I commented on in the 4th Screen posting. * as for learning, if anything I think this is about, let's use the term for now, informal learning. Your football example is a good one, and so too are things like the totally handy offline version of Wikipedia I now have on my BB. To me, this means that potentially any and all "content", including that of conversations in calls, text messages, Tweets, maps, etc. is "learning content". This then spills over into design where it is NOT about design of the content so much as it is design of the experience. And even in the case you don't usually want to nor are you able to design the actual "learning experience" BUT you can create adaptive environments which increase the probability that better learning will take place. I think of this sometimes in terms of learning as a "conversation" not so much in the literal sense, but in the way that conversations are NOT planned (if they are they are called marketing!) and instead are these wonderfully serpentine serendipitous experiences that take us to unexpected places that often exceed any expectation we had before hand. The three of us have these experiences regularly whenever we have conversations. At least I know I have fabulous and very much learning experiences almost EVERY time I talk to one of both or you!! * as you would know, this is all very much a part of the overall Snowflake Effect trend toward mass customization and mass personalization that I (and Erik) are so passionate about and focused on. (Wayne Hodgins)