Conference on mobile learning
By mplsssc
Conference on mobile learning – Aston University Mon 21.9.09
I went to this conference as a replacement for James Todd who wasn’t able to go. It was organised by CILIP (ex Library Association) , MMIT section, with speakers mainly from the education and consultancy areas rather than libraries. Brief notes follow on what I heard at the conference.
Two areas of particular interest to me were the sections on Wikitude and on the use of QR codes in the OPAC at Bath – both of these are simple applications that any student equipped with a ‘smart’ mobile phone or digital camera (I phone or similar) can use. There are endless possibilities for how these could be used for enhanced services but I rather felt the conference speakers hadn’t yet advanced very far beyond ‘interesting idea’.
Ongoing general definitions etc – confusion between two different concepts:
1. Learning not based eat a fixed location (i.e. the learner is mobile)
2. Learning using mobile technologies such as PDAs, mobile phones etc
“Mobile learning is often seen as a response to the inadequacies of normal e-learning”.
Many of the projects described assume the use of a mobile device such as an I Phone which has wireless internet access and connection to satellite location data so that it can react based on your current geographical location etc.
Mike Sharples University of Nottingham.
Outlined history of hand held devices:
1st phase: starting with voting clickers in use since 1947 apparently! Followed by e-book readers, handheld computers in the classroom, data logging devices.
2nd phase was when the learner became mobile eg personal learning organisers, time tabling systems, attendance monitoring hardware
3rd phase – sometimes known as ‘Ambient learning’ Various applications were described, with use in various learning environments such as geography field trips, architectural trips etc.
The most interesting was Wikitude – this is a software program (API) whereby you point a mobile phone or digital camera at a geographical location and the device displays useful information about whatever you’re pointing at. It works by getting its own geographical location from a satellite system (and measuring the distance to the focus point) and then interrogating a huge world wide Wikipedia database of geographical, political, statistical and tourist information to find useful information to display.
Various applications used in museums etc designed to take the students view of the everyday world and enhance it. For example if the student has a head mounted camera, and eye level projection system then there are mobile software devices that will project the current view from a different historical perspective. For architecture students – what did this view look like in Victorian times.
Modern classroom response systems based on each student using a PDA. It then facilitates group work in the classroom by allowing groups of students to be fed the same problem and each come up with their own answer, then see all the groups answers and evolve a group preferred response. Currently used in some primary/secondary level projects but maybe not university at the moment.
Some discussion of the most appropriate technology preference eg I Phone is becoming accepted as a standard but it may not be acceptable to all students because of price etc. Some research indicates student resistance to being given specific equipment (clickers?) they react better if its using stuff they already have eg their mobile or mp3 player. Some research suggests that simple or rudimentary devices, purpose made are no longer effective as people expect a standard keyboard, mouse etc
Claimed benefits – greater control of the classroom environment, fuller involvement of each student. The most IT literate tend to dominate LESS than in other environments. More time ‘on task’.
Martin Bazley (Consultant, Science Museum etc).
Museum systems eg Urbis in Manchester and Bletchley Park. You can go round clicking on your PDA or I Phone and at the end of the visit data about all the place you clicked can be sent to a personal web site.
Spoke about library systems using QR codes. A QR code (stands for Quick Response I think) is a two dimensional barcode which encodes a URL rather than just a number. You point your camera at the QR and it sends the image to some database that reads the URL and returns full data from that website. Or this link to see how University of Bath explain it to their students: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/services/qrcode.html
Library example of QR codes – Bath university is putting QR codes on catalogue records. When a student finds that record in an OPAC search they just photograph their OPAC screen and it download the floor plan links to the book or whatever other information related to it.
This is an example of an OPAC record with a QR photo it and see what happens:
See http://splashurl.net/ for how to create a QR code for any URL. This site also generates ‘tiny urls’ and displays them in large print suitable for reading into your camera or mobile phone
Melissa Highton Oxford University
Various projects described:
1. Podcasts – 50 hours a month of recording of lectures, seminars etc (mostly one off events not course lectures). Sent to I Tunes for storage, with reference links to Bodleian Library materials etc.
2. ‘Erewhon’ project designed to allow students in Oxford to search library catalogues for all Oxford libraries and find holdings that are related to their geographical location at the time of the search and also user specific ie based on knowing who they are and therefore what borrower type they are. Also encodes the time of day…
so it can tell you which of 100 libraries in Oxford has the book you want, which is the nearest to where you are now, which ones will allow you access and loan, and which are open at this moment in time…
it also stores a calendar of information about current events in Oxford, so you can do a subject search and get a list of lectures and seminars on that subject, with walking (or cycling!) route to the event from where you are now.
3.OpenSpires – a licensing system for other universities to use the Oxford podcasts and other materials that they have stored at the I Tunes site.
Steve Campbell
22.9.2009
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