Mobile Learning Blog

The following is  a list of apps I’ve found useful in my life in regards to teaching and learning. Click the link to visit the AppSafari website (http://www.appsafari.com) where you will find excellent reviews of the apps and links to download from the Apple App Store.

Free Apps

Blackboard Learn: Receive course information and updates from Blackboard Learn right on your iPhone!

GV Mobile:  GV Mobile is an iPhone app that lets you leverage your Google Voice account to make phone calls and send SMS text messages from your iPhone. (Apple disabled this app, but you can still access your GVoice account via Safari and it works great.)

Dropbox App: Dropbox iPhone app gives you full access your Dropbox from your iPhone, including your photos, videos, and documents.

Animoto Videos: The Animoto app for the iPhone lets you select from the pics on your phone, choose a soundtrack from their library, and click a button.

Google Docs: You can view your Documents and Spreadsheets and Presentations on your iPhone with a very slick user interface.

Remember the Milk: This is a personal task management tool. Some of the features included are the ability to view upcoming tasks, view your tasks in a list, add new tasks and notes, and edit existing tasks.

Evernote: Evernote for iPhone (and iPod Touch) lets you capture any moment or idea as it happens, wherever you may find yourself. And, thanks to Evernote’s amazing cloud-based sync, you can recall it all any time from your iPhone, Mac, PC, the Web, or other mobile device.

Kindle for iPhone: Thanks to the Free Kindle for iPhone app from Amazon which gives you wireless access to the same 240,000-plus e-books previously only available on Amazon’s own Kindle and Kindle 2 electronic readers.

Stanza: Stanza app for iPhone lets you read eBooks on your iPhone and iPod Touch. With a clean and organized interface, Stanza is expressly designed for reading digital publications, including electronic books, newspapers, PDFs, and general web content.

eBuddy: eBuddy is a powerful chat app for the iPhone that supports MSN, Yahoo, AIM, GoogleTalk, ICQ and Facebook! You can use eBuddy on your mobile Safari web browser or download the free app from the App Store for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Skype: Superb quality Skype-to-Skype over WiFi using the Skype application. Finally be free of your computer and microphone to make those long distance calls. (Similar: Truphone)

Not Free, but Almost ($.99 – $3.99)

AcSync – Academic Sync:  Fast access to Blackboard Academic Suit(R) and any other web pages on your iPhone. You no longer need to go through all the course web pages to check for homework updates ($3.99).

CliffNotes to Go: The CliffNotes that you know and love have gone digital and you can buy and read them on your iPhone or iPod touch ($.99).

Expensive, but May be Worth it (Over $3)

TextFree Unlimited: Currently the best alternative to high SMS plan costs, offering free text messaging using Push Notification. ($5.99)

Papers: Papers for iPhone and iPod touch holds your personal library of research literature wherever you go ($9.90).

Quick Office: Edit Word and Excel documents on the go.($19.99)

Other Lists

• 8 Must-Have Education Apps for iPhone | Edu in Review Blog
• The Top Educational iPhone Apps | Open Culture
• Top 50 Free Education Apps

We’ve known for some time now that podcasting is a valuable tool to help faculty extend the classroom by providing audio and video podcasts for students. We’ve even signed on here in Maricopa for 10 iTunes U sites to help us do just that, but the unfortunate truth is that podcasting has not caught on as quickly as we’d hoped here in Maricopa. We have a lot of nearly empty iTunes U sites just waiting for content. But it’s not all our fault as faculty. Those of us that are using the sites and podcasting have been met with many disinterested students. So both sides of our supply and demand seem to be weak.

In the following video, I will show you how faculty can use existing iTunes U sites to provide supplemental course materials to students. The video also shows how you can sync your ipod with itunes and take the course content on the road with you. It’s easy. Check it out.

The demo shows the Glendale Community College iTunes U site.

• GCC iTunes U Login Page: http://www.gccaz.edu/itunes/?id=13168
• Direct Link to ENG101 iTunes U Site: https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/BrowsePrivately/gc.maricopa.edu.2069823739

With a BlackBerry® smartphone, educators and administrators have mobile access to the communications and information they need to get things done, whether it’s collaborating with their colleagues, doing research online or managing appointments. Mobile access to phone, email, organizer and web browsing streamlines communication on a single device.

Find tons of apps designed for your BlackBerry® smartphone in one convenient place in BlackBerry App World.

Whitepapers

• A Connected Life: A look at mobile strategies for schools, colleges and universities. A strategy paper from the Center for Digital Education (PDF)
• Exploring Mobile Learning: Part 1. A whitepaper by Judy Brown, Mobile Education Technology Strategic Analyst (PDF)

Chalk’s mLearning platform, Mobile chalkboard™, makes it easy to create media rich and interactive content, reliably push it out to a dedicated inbox and track its effectiveness.

Receive 25% off with the Mobile Learning Kick-Start Package (for organizations looking to get started with a group of less than 900 users).

Receive 30% off with the Mobile Learning Roll-Out Package (for organizations looking to target more than 1000 users).

• Find out more about Chalk’s mLearning Kick-Start and Roll-Out Packages

Imagine a classroom where students use their BlackBerry smartphone to participate. The ResponseWare application allows students to respond to interactive class questions and send their answers in real-time.

• Get a 30-day ResponseWare trial subscription
• Find out more about ResponseWare

MERLOT Mobile Search facilitates access to the 65,000+ member, higher education, community-managed collection of peer reviewed online learning materials.

• Download MERLOT Mobile Search for free

I found a great website about netbooks and more called Learning in Hand. Learning in Hand is an educator’s resource for using some of the coolest technologies with students, written by Tony Vincent. Below Tony writes about netbooks.

Two trends in the world of technology are making a big splash in education: web applications and netbooks. These trends excite me because I’m all about easy, free, and cheap. There are many tasks that used to require software that you can now do from inside of your Web browser. These sites and services are called web applications. They are sometimes called webware because they are like software but stored on the Internet instead of on a computer’s hard drive. Web apps are great for students and teachers because they are usually free and do not require software to be installed. Because they run in a web browser, web apps are cross-platform, so it doesn’t matter if you are running Windows, Macintosh, or Linux operating systems. Because Web apps and their data are stored online, students and teachers can access the apps and data from anywhere (this is called cloud computing). Teachers and students can access web apps on any school computer and also their computers at home. Some web apps even give access on mobile devices. Another bonus: web apps tend to facilitate online sharing and collaboration.

Continue reading Tony’s thoughts on his website Learning in Hand, where you will also find a great list of web apps. Web applications are great sites to visit using a netbook. Information is stored online and you won’t have to install software.

Simple Spark, a directory for web applications, has over 9,900 web apps listed. Besides looking there, check out the list of links to the right. These are web applications I’ve recently bookmarked. Click here to see Tony’s complete list.

Creative Commons Licensed BY-NC-SA Tony Vincent, Inc.

SnapGrades lets students and parents check their current grades and homework online anytime. Everyone has their own password, so grades are always private. Everything is updated live, so you never need to upload anything. Or you can turn off web access and email grades instead. SnapGrades is fully compliant with FERPA and COPPA. http://www.snapgrades.net/