My presentation on Mobile: The State of Play (featuring MoLeNET) at the JISC Cetis Mobile Tech Event at The University of Bolton on the 15th June 2010.
MoLeNET Conference 2009
December 1, 2009Today is the MoLeNET Conference, the second conference MoLeNET has had. Last year the conference was at the Emirates Stadium, this year at the Grange Hotel near St Pauls.
Gloucestershire College will be there in force today. Last year I did a ten minute slot on the Glossy Project. This year, Alan Graham will be presenting in the research strand on what we did in the Shiny project in terms of research. Whilst Rob Whitehouse will be doing the ten minute slot on the use of video assessment and the impact on learning. Rob Allen, who has done some fantastic work on mobile learning in plumbing and heating will be on our stand. And…. myself and Greg Smith, the college Principal, will be delivering one of the keynotes.
Glossy and Shiny have had a real cultural impact in the college and I hope to share how we achieved this in the college.
In case you were wondering, our third MoLeNET project is called Sparkly and is about sharing what we do with two partners, Stroud College and Royal Forest of Dead College Royal Forest of Dean College.
Update: Oops that should be Royal Forest of Dean College, must have dead on the brain!
The Future of Learning is Mobile Presentation
October 22, 2009My 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
October 20, 2009At 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.
Networked handheld devices for learning and teaching
October 8, 2009The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is pleased to announce that with the support of Becta we will be running a good practice workshop for schools, colleges, universities, work-based learning, and community education about the Successful deployment of networked handheld devices for learning and teaching.
The workshop will be facilitated by Professor Gilly Salmon, head of Leicester University’s Beyond Distance Research Alliance, and it will take place between 16.30 on Thursday 12 November to 15.30 on Friday 13 November at the National College for Leadership for Schools and Children’s Services in Nottingham.
There is a full description below and at http://www.alt.ac.uk/workshop_detail.php?e=339.
If you wish to attend this event please express an interest using the form at http://tinyurl.com/y9t6an2 by no later than 12 noon on Friday 23 October.
Mobile learning in a military context
October 1, 2009Yesterday I was in that for me was in some ways a very alien environment and in other ways a familiar environment.
I delivered a session on mobile learning to a group of military personnel down in Torpoint in Cornwall. With Navy, Army and Airforce the day was looking at advanced learning and how the military can draw ideas from how learning is changing from a series of presentations from a group of experts.
I gave a presentation on mobile learning in which covered (if you have seen me present before) familiar ground. I talked about the use of mobile technologies, the use of mobile web technologies, learning while mobile and the mobility of the learner.
I did focus on how we use mobile learning at Gloucestershire College more to enhance and enrich the learning experience at this time, over replacing traditional learning modes. Eventually I know we will be able to take advantage of what mobile learning has to offer and enable our learners to access learning at a time and place to suit the learner.
Despite radical differences between the focus and operation of the armed forces and a typical FE College; we both do train and teach learners. In some cases we deliver very similar subjects, vehicle maintenance, catering, plumbing; and in some very different subjects, handling a 20mm light cannon, disassembling a GMPG.
We both face similar challenges, we both have our Innovation Prevention Departments™, we have traditions that were laid down that are believed can never be changed, a changing society, fast moving changes in technology.
We also have our differences, the security issues faced by the armed forces are different to the ones faced in an FE College. The turnover of instructors, in the armed forces often instructors will only do a two year tour before moving back on ship, back to their regiment, etc…
We have our differences, we have our similarities, in the end we can learn from each other and this can only benefit both of our groups of learners.
Mobile Learning Thoughts
September 1, 2009Often when people mention mobile learning they automatically think about mobile technology, notably mobile computers, specifically Windows Mobile PDAs and iPhones.
For me it is a different philosophy, much more about learning when mobile.
It was walking around different colleges which made me realise that when it came to mobile learning, it wasn’t about getting PDAs running learning content (though I am sure there are scenarios which they would enhance and support learning), but was much more about using the devices our students already have.
These could include
One end result of this was a presentation I gave at the 2006 JISC Online Conference, available here, which looked at how to use a range of consumer mobile devices for learning. I also made a video of the presentation which was made available to delegates at the conference for their mobile devices.
Since then, three years later, the market has moved forward quite dramatically, it is now even easier for learners to access audio, video and web content on their mobile devices. Devices such as the PSP, the iPhone, the Nintendo DSi are more widespread and are also much more connected and can play a lot more content.
One of the key factors has to be how easy is it for the learner to access that content?
Another barrier to overcome is to realise that the mobile device is only one tool that a learner may use for learning. So though a learner may listen to audio, or view video on a mobile device, assessing their learning may take place using a traditional computer or a pen and paper. For me mobile learning is not about learning on a mobile, but learning when mobile.
A (paper) notepad can be used when mobile, though mobile devices do allow for a more interactive, collaborative, engaging learning experience.
Certainly this model is how my institution is moving forward in terms of mobile learning.
m-Leaning, enabling accessibility
July 14, 2009Back in April I delivered the morning keynote at the RSC Eastern Mobile Learning Event, Dave Foord provided the closing keynote. I have finally managed to find the time to edit, encode and upload the video to the blog.
The future of learning
July 10, 2009After posting the “video” of my presentation I have uploaded some more media from the MIMAS mobile learning event.
A video of my presentation.
A slideshare overview of my slides.
Some images from the day.