Welcome to the Mobile Learning Blog

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.

Top 10 Favorite Android Apps

Posted by Coop On July - 19 - 2010

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 list. First, let’s throw out the obvious. Yes, I’m addicted to social media, so Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook are a given. I use the native apps for all three. I use these three apps more than any of the others aside from Gmail. Another set of obvious picks are Gmail, Google Talk & Google Voice. Come on. It’s not called a Google phone for nothing. Okay it’s not really the Google phone, but close enough.

With the obvious out the way, here are my top 10 Android apps by daily usage.

Soul4real’s Top 10 Android Apps

9 total, 9 free (100%), 0 paid (0%), 7MB total size, $0 total price

  • Aldiko Book Reader : Great app for reading ebooks in the epub format. Organizes the books and has lots of features to make reading easier on the small device.
  • Barcode Scanner : Handy app for getting more information about something on the web. Just scan the bar code and the web page pops up. Great for downloading new apps.
  • Dolphin Browser : Great alternative to the native browser. Allows for pinch and zoom, bookmarking and more.
  • PdaNet free edition : Need to connect your laptop to the internet? This is the app for that. Works great. Connect via usb or bluetooth. Pretty fast speeds once connected. This is a must have app.
  • RunKeeper Free : Great app for tracking your athletic activities. Uses the GPS to track your every move and then creates a great map to review. Very accurate and keeps track of pace, distance, altitude, speed. Integrates with Google Earth too.
  • Pixelpipe Post & Upload Pro : Awesome app for posting to multiple social networking sites. Take a photo and send it to Twitter, Flickr and Facebook at once. Easy to set up pipes and easy to use. Integrates will with all services on the phone.
  • PRO Paint Camera : This camera app is far superior than the standard camera app. You can really tell the difference in quality, especially in bright areas. The picture viewer is really cool too once you figure out where it is.
  • Dropbox : If you need files from your computer on your phone, this is the app for you. It works great. Let’s you view just about anything you can put in your Dropbox. Must have app.
  • YouMail Visual Voicemail Plus : Replaced my Verizon voicemail years ago in favor of YouMail. The Android app works great. Records voicemails and then transcribes them (fee)and sends a notification and an email with the transcript. Excellent visual voicemail.
  • Car Home: This app comes standard on your Android phone (except for AT&T), so you won’t find it in the Android Market. It is very cool. Use Voice Search to tell it to navigate to McDonald’s and it uses the GPS to locate you and then finds the closest McDonald’s and gives you turn by turn navigation. When you arrive at your destination it shows a Google image of the front of the location so you know you’re in the right spot. Totally awesome. It does more, but that’s the coolest part for me.

View this app list on AppBrain

Top iPod Touch Apps for Education

Posted by Coop On June - 25 - 2009

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