The Future of Learning is Mobile Presentation

My presentation slides from the joint Becta and LSIS Conference on Learning Innovation, Embracing Technology where I gave a presentation entitled, The future of learning is mobile.

There is an audio recording of the presentation.

The future of learning is mobile

At the joint Becta and LSIS Conference on Learning Innovation, Embracing Technology I gave a presentation entitled, The future of learning is mobile.

This is an audio recording of the presentation.

I am hoping to put up the slides when I have more bandwidth.

Learning Innovation, Embracing Technology

It’s a busy week this week, though in the main because I am getting asked to do lots of things.

Today I was giving a keynote (and running an exhibition stand) at the joint Becta and LSIS Conference on Learning Innovation, Embracing Technology. My presentation was on mobile learning, though (as you might guess) I covered a fair bit more than just “what is mobile learning”.

I was on just before lunch, prior to my bit we had had LSIS and Becta give their views on embracing technology and a workshop.

Alas (or luckily) I only had ten minutes to do my presentation and using the digital clock on my iPhone I did keep to time.

I would loved to have more time and engaged the conference delegates in conversation and discussion. Well to be honest I did over lunch, where for an hour I chatted and engaged with the delegates on my stand.

As well as showing off a lot of mobile kit (from my bag of crap) I also had bundles of LSN publications about MoLeNET which were taken in their droves.

Went very well, so much so, I never got a chance to eat my lunch!

After lunch I went to Becky Barrington’s workshop on tools that she uses with her staff. Though I know practitioners love to create content, and the tools Becky showed demonstrate how much easier that it is to now, I do question the sustainability of a that model across the FE sector. How can we share all that wonderful content that is being created in various colleges across the country? How can we ensure that the shared content is being utilised effectively and for the benefit of learnings.

We can’t be the only institution who once more will create a series of slides or quizzes on customer service?

I enjoyed Stuart Edwards’ presentation and nice use of this video to prove how social media is having a huge impact on the way we communicate. Glad I didn’t show my video in my presentation as we used the same audio track!

Overall it was a very interesting conference.

Keeping ahead of the game…

Doing the rounds on Twitter today has been quite a few people talking about the Next Generation Learning video from Becta.

Some people have posted the video to their blogs, Steve Wheeler for example, Andy Oliver is another.

So am I going to post the video?

Well…

I already have!

Nearly a month ago, on the 12th May!

So if you want to keep ahead of the game and find out what is happening check back more often.

What is Next Generation Learning?

Thoughts?

Becta Next Generation Learning Conference 2009

Today I am in London for the Becta Next Generation Learning Conference 2009.

Is this the Ferl Conference, well no.

Is this the Post-16 Practitioners Conference, well no.

Are all the usual suspects there, well yes!

The theme of this conference is much more strategic and aimed at senior management than previous conferences I have been too, which reflects the new strategic slant that Becta have had over the last few years.

It’s a typical ILT conference, even with voting units, it’s a very passive transmission of information experience, with keynotes (and even though they haven’t started) workshops which will consist more of presentation and five minutes for questions.

There is wireless, but this wasn’t announced to the audience, so it was down to rebels like me to find out what the code for it was.

So far we have had Siôn Simons, Stephen Crowne and currently listening to Jane Williams.

Should be a good day as conferences go, but I suspect I will get more from the people than the presentations.

Technology in education and training: a leadership issue

A joint event between Becta and the MoD looking at the transformative impact that using learning technologies can have on education and training.

I delivered a ten minute presentation on how mobile learning is having an transformative impact at Gloucestershire College.

It is always a challenge to deliver a 61 slide presentation in just ten minutes!

No it wasn’t death by Powerpoint (partly as I was using Keynote on a Mac) but think of it as more as a video with a narration by me.

Always disappointed that I have only ten minutes which never allows time for the audience to think about what I am presenting on, no time for discussion, debate, reflection; no opportunity to engage with the technology, use the technology.

Ten minutes is never enough.

However it went down really well with the audience.

Though to be honest there was thirty minutes at the end of the day which did give an opportunity, but it was just thirty minutes.

Okay what about the rest of the day?

Well as is typical at these events, lots of presentations, lots of content, lots of Powerpoint slides, but I wonder if much learning happened? Certainly according to the feedback it stimulated debate and thought, so maybe I am being a little negative.

I know that at these events that part of the issue is that the organisers and stakeholders feel that they need to cram the event full of short presentations in order to “transfer information” and meet the needs of the differing stakeholders, as in everyone has to have their say and present their view or vision.

I would argue that sometimes you need to take a step back and ask yourself, what is the aim of the event, what are you trying to get out of the event?

As a delegate you should also be asking yourself what are you expecting from the event and what preparation did you do prior to the event?

The whole day was not entirely presentations and there was a panel session, some discussion sessions and a hands-on session. My view though was that the weighting was wrong with the presentations taking up too much of the day.

Or is it that I just don’t like listening to lots of presentations.

Becta, they say yes to open source…

Though getting a large amount of criticism from various sources (including this list), the Becta Software for Educational Institutions Framework (SEIF) was never about banning software, but about getting a framework in place to allow schools to “purchase” software avoiding many of the problems and pitfalls that may arise from a school going it alone.

The problem that many found with the SEIF was that it favoured proprietary software vendors and discriminated against open source.

The Sirius Corporation revealed yesterday that it was among 12 software suppliers to have been awarded places on the £80m Software for Educational Institutions Framework (SEIF) agreement.

This means that schools that wish to use linux, Open Office, Moodle, etc… now have a framework which allows them to use the software more easily.

The Register on the story.

Sirius press release.

Are any colleges out there looking at open source alternatives beyond Moodle?

Parents ‘want texts from schools’

BBC reports on the survey from Becta about how schools need to use e-mail and SMS to communicate more with parents.

Many parents would like school reports on their children’s performance texted or e-mailed, a survey says.

One in 12 of the 1,493 parents polled by government education technology agency Becta said schools kept them informed using these methods.

But 68% of parents said they wanted schools to use such technologies to keep them up to date more frequently.

Of course if schools are to take heed of this survey, then FE Colleges need to do likewise. Does your FE College already communicate to the students by e-mail and/or SMS text messaging? Can the students communicate back?

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #003 – Mainly Phone Stuff

This is the third e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Mainly Phone Stuff.

e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Mainly Phone Stuff

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Shownotes

• “Facebook a valid educational tool” – Have a look at the full report.
• Nokia buys out Symbian.
• LSN announce MoLeNET Conference.
• 3G usage rises as prices fall.