Mobile Learning Blog

Mobile Learning Showcase (20 min)

• Overview of 3 courses designed for mobile access using WordPress 3.1, YouTube, Dropbox, JotForm, Engrade and iSpring QuizMaker ($150). All tools are free with the exception of the quiz making tool. Also, if your school does not host WordPress on the school servers (SCC does), you will have to pay for hosting service ($5 month)
• ENG101 Online is a Freshman Comp I course designed in WordPress 3.1, 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 WPTouch plugin that optimizes the site for viewing on mobile devices. The video below showcases the site on both the iPod Touch and a Blackberry Storm. This site also utilizes a popular plugin called BuddyPress that embeds social networking features into the site. These features are not easily accessible via mobile devices however.

• ENG102Online.com is another mobile optimized course created in WordPress 3.1.
• ENH295Online.com is the third mobile optimized course created in WordPress 3.1. Again this site is the same with the exception that every student in this course has their own blog attached to this one. The man class blog is the hub that connects all the others.

This is a quick overview of some of the features of a mobile course developed in a WordPress blog. I cover assignments, forms, quizzes, and private discussion, viewing on both the iPod Touch and the Blackberry Storm.

Below is a quick look at the mobile course in traditional blog form on the web – what it looks like not on a mobile device. This is the same website that is shown in the Mobile Learning Course Overview (Mobile Gadgets) video above. The site is built using WordPress MU. I’ll be demoing the updated version live in the workshop and will replace the video that was here soon.

Reflect:

How can you demonstrate learning in a photo? If you can think of a way, snap a photo with your cell phone and email it to: showed*******@photos.flickr.com Title your photo: MobileMCCD. Then on your mobile device, visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/professorcooper/ to see our workshop reflection photos.

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 been having a little exchange on our list about mobile gadgets and apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch, so I decided to blog about what I have on my iPod Touch. Not so surprisingly, I have very little music. I have an iPod Video and Nano for that. The Touch is for mobile learning. I’m trying to see how this gadget can be used in education. The obvious is podcasts, both audio and video. It’s easy to find good podcasts to share and recommend with students, as well as create your own. So I have over 3 GB of video on my Touch, mostly video podcasts. One of my favorite apps on the Touch is iTalk. I can hook up an external microphone and record lectures right on the Touch. Then I can sync and have the podcast uploaded to where ever in a matter of minutes. Sound quality is really good.

Most of my apps are free, unless indicated by (paid). Here is a list of my first page of apps on my Touch.

• Google
• YouTube
• Remember the Milk (RTM)
• Twitterific & TwitterFon
• iTalk
• Facebook
• Bb Learn

These are all obvious choices. We haven’t had a chance to try out the Bb Learn app yet. District says we will be able to do so after the upgrade, which just happened, so I’ll check into that next week.

My second page of apps is a mixed bag. I have a few ereaders I’m trying out and some blogging tools.

• Kindle & eReader & GReader (Readers)
• Google Voice & GV Mobile (Paid)
• Google Talk & Skype (chat)
• Gyminee
• WordPress
• Animoto
• WootWatch
• Tumblr
• Where
• Brightkite
• TripIt
• Nike +iPod

These are some of the more important mobile tools for blogging, reading documents, books and RSS feeds, and communicating via chat, voicemail and text messaging.

As I move through my app pages, the apps get less and less relevant to mobile learning. So far we’ve seen lots of social networking apps and reading and writing apps. That trend continues, but I start to add more home automation and fun stuff. I mean, you never know when you will need to Tivo a show for class, right.

• myhomework (Keep track of classes and homework)
• Evernote (This could be a big elearning app)
• Shakespeare (Complete works on my iPod)
• Yelp
• Yahoo!
• LinkedIn
• i.TV & DirecTV & PhoneFlix (Schedule DVRs & Netflix)
• fring (IM & Skype in one/VOIP)
• Assistant (PageOnce – Acct Management)
• WSJ (Wall Street Journal)
• Flickr
• Ustream (watching only)

I found lots of apps that have created collections of works like the Shakespeare one. This would make teaching a lit class easy in terms of access to free books. Evernote has the biggest potential for impact in the mobile learning space. I will be exploring this a bit more this summer.

My last two pages are just a bunch of games and sports apps like for the Master’s and the NBA playoffs. Also MLB (At Bat) lets you listen to live game audio for $10 for the whole season. I also have the Stanza ebook reader, a dictionary, notes, and a calculator. That’s it. And like I mentioned earlier, I only paid for 3 apps. As I explore and try new ones, I’ll probably purchase more if they are worth it. We’ll see.

So what’s on your iPod Touch or iPhone? Leave a comment and let me know so I can add to my collection.

Who needs an iPhone when you have an iPod Touch? I downloaded the new Skype App and made a call to a landline and chatted with @befitt on my Touch over wifi.

Skype Calls & Chat on my iPod Touch from soul4real on Vimeo.

Who needs an iPhone when you have an iPod Touch? I downloaded the new Skype App and made a call to a landline and chatted with @befitt on my Touch over wifi.