This blog is the result of a summer project titled: Going Wireless: An Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies. The general purpose of my project is to continue learning about new and emerging technologies that might better facilitate teaching and learning in general. This is the result of my work.
Okay, someone asked, so here is my list of my top 10 apps. I’ve been rockin’ the Motorola Droid for about 7 months now. I love this phone, even though I covet the HTC Droid Incredible. But things just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t covet some piece of technology even when I have a pretty awesome phone already. I use my phone everyday, so my picks here a based on that usage. There are many awesome apps available, but I don’t use them every day, so they are not on this... (more...)
Earlier this week I noticed that Amazon had dropped the price of their Kindle to $189, and I said to myself, wow they’re getting close to my price point. My price point is the price I think a gadget should cost before I’m willing to buy it. And because ereaders are really one dimensional (used mostly for reading), I’m thinking they should be priced around $150 or lower. Turns out Barnes & Noble had lowered their price as well, and yes, it now costs $149 for the wifi only version.... (more...)
Trying to figure out all the ebook formats can be quite daunting. Seems ebook reader creators have the same ideas as video camera makers and audio player makers – make your file format work with your player only. As a result we end up with a ton of different file formats and confusions as to what plays on what. When I first got my iPod Touch, I downloaded four ereaders because I just couldn’t decide which worked best. Here are the four, plus one extra I tried on my Blackberry: Stanza... (more...)
Audiobooks are a great way to get students reading on the go. No, they may not be reading the words, but sometimes it’s just as good for students to hear the words. And in some cases they can read along with the audio version. There are many uses, but the point being, audiobooks are highly portable. They can be played on phones, mp3 players and some ebook readers. You’ll be surprised at how many audiobooks are freely available online. Free Audio Books LibriVox if you don’t know it... (more...)
Say you are a lit teacher, and you’ve assigned a novel for your students to read. Depending on the novel, you may find a free copy in the public domain. For instance, I teach D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover in my ENH295: Banned Books & Censorship class. I provide links for my students to download the ebook version for free online and a link to just read it online. But LibriVox goes even a step forward by providing audiobooks for free. I couldn’t find Lady Chatterley,... (more...)
Session 2-3: Smart Phones, iPod Touches, Netbooks… OH MY! 10:40am – 11:25am Room CM447 Introduction to Mobile Learning Blog (5 min) Current Mobile Devices and How Best to Use Them (10 min) Creating Course Content for Mobile Delivery(10 min) WordPress Blogs iTunes U Accessing Course Content Using Apps (10 min) iTunes U Academic Sync eReaders (Stanza) Engaging Students in Course Content (10 min) PollEverywhere Posterous Read More →
REFLECTION: Respond via Cell Phone Using Gabcast: Answer the following question by calling 1.866.282.2457. When prompted enter the channel number: 9070 and the channel password: 3341. Questions: What would be the most challenging part of your course to adapt to learning or what would be the easiest? Follow-up post to: Creating Course Content for Mobile Delivery Read More →
Introduction to Mobile Learning (30 min) Introduction to the current research on mobile learning and sharing of a list of resources available on the workshop blog Mobile Learning PowerPoint Presentation .prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; } Mobile Learning on Prezi Read More →
Mobile Learning Showcase (15 min) Overview of a course designed for mobile access using WordPress MU, iTunes and Blip.tv. An updated version using WordPress 3.0 will also be shown. ENG101 Online is a Freshman Comp I course designed in WordPress MU, or multi-user, a blogging platform designed to run hundreds of thousands of blogs with a single install of WordPress. The site is optimized with plugins to help mobilize the content provided on the site. The first essential plugin used is WP Touch plugin... (more...)
Current Mobile Devices and how best to use them (30min) Participants all choose their current mobile devices to research. They will fill in a matrix online to share the features, pros/cons for mobile learning for each device. Discussion about which devices are most appropriate follows. The New Generation of Smartphones Comparison and reviews of currently available smartphones Comparison chart for netbooks eBook Reader Comparison Chart Choose your current smart phone/pmp/netbook/mp3 player/cell phone... (more...)
