Dial M for Learning: mLearning ideas

A fabulous series of articles from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). Read an abstract and then downlaod a PDF which provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:

• What it is
• How it works
• Where it is going
• Why it matters to teaching and learning

Covered so far:

1. Virtual Worlds
2. Google Jockeying
3. Remote Instrumentation
4. Screencasting
5. Virtual Meetings
6. Grid Computing
7. Collaborative Editing
8. Instant Messaging
9. Augmented Reality
10. Blogs
11. Video Blogging
12. Wikis
13. Podcasting
14. Clickers
15. Social Bookmarking

Now that should keep you busy for a while.

This is the very last reminder on Call for Papers:

8 – 10 November 2006
Mooloolaba on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast, Australia

Reminder that both Call for Papers & Super Early Bird end on 30 June for the ninth Learning Technologies conference to investigate new & emerging learning technologies & their use.

Members of LTUG, USDLA, UKDLA & JeLA joined in cyberspace today to hear Dr. Kecia Ray, Policy and Strategic Planning at Nashville Public Schools and well-known industry author, speak on the topic of The “Virtual” School. Dr Ray reviewed some statistics related to virtual schools as well as defined different types of schools, instructional strategies and tools of VS.

She posed several questions at the end of her presentation & we’re addressing these through a discussion forum:

• Where do we go from here?
• How do university distance programs influence K-12 program models?
• Are teachers prepared to teach via distance?
• Will social skills be affected by online classroom design?
• How does US compare with others in adoption of distance technologies?

If you’d like to participate (or just lurk) please click here to join the discussion forum.

I suggest you ’subscribe’ yourself (top left-hand corner) so that you receive an email when something is posted. This saves you having to remember to come back & check for postings.

An interesting story in the New York Times abut editorial control at Wikipedia. The volunteer administrators now have the authority to delete unsuitable articles and protect those that are vulnerable to vandalism.

According to the  New York Times: Wikipedia is not the experiment in freewheeling collective creativity it might seem to be, because maintaining so much openness inevitably involves some tradeoffs.

Personally I can understand that these control measures would need to be in place or we’d have anarchy

Of interest is how ‘open’ a wiki can be and and how does this impact on our use of wikis in mLearning? I’d be interested to hear about your experiences of using wikis in learning programs

PS: From the New York Times article I followed a link that took me to:
Congresspedia: a collaboratively written “citizens’ encyclopedia on Congress,” designed to shine more light on the workings of the U.S. Congress.

I’ll leave it with you…..

Robert Cailliau is renowned as co-developer of the World Wide Web. Originally graduating as a civil engineer in electrical and mechanical engineering, Robert went on to do a Masters in Computer, Information and Control Engineering. His work with CERN the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, began as a fellow in the proton synchrotron division, and developed to group leader of Office Computing systems in the data handling division.

In 1989 Robert and Tim Berners-Lee independently proposed a hypertext system for access to CERN documentation; this then led to the World Wide Web. He finished working at CERN in 2005. Robert has co-authored ‘How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web’ with James Gillies. This book details how the idea for the Web came about at CERN, how it was developed and how it was eventually handed over for free for the rest of the world to use.

Robert Cailliau will be presenting at the Global Summit 2006, Sydney, Australia 17-19 October.

Learning Technologies 2006 Conference

8 – 10 November 2006
Mooloolaba on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast, Australia

Reminder that both Call for Papers & Super Early Bird end on 30 June for the ninth Learning Technologies conference to investigate new & emerging learning technologies & their use.

This year’s theme explores the concept of Learning Partnerships and how these can enhance and support our teaching and learning communities.

The Conference Program runs on Thursday 9th and Friday 10th November. On Wednesday 8th we will be hosting optional extra 90-minute Workshops.
More information & online registration

I’ve just discovered Pod Pedagogy – educational uses for the iPod. A blog covering news, tutorials, tips, and techniques.

It’s put together by Rodney McPhail from the Dept. of Biological Science at Purdue University, Indiana.

There’s a lot of good information and tips in non-technical talk that is easy to understand. Particularly check out the Tips & Tutorials section.

Further extending its curricular reach to the iPod generation, the University of California, Berkeley, recently announced “Berkeley on iTunes U“, a free service that makes video and audio recordings of a growing number of course lectures available both on and off campus through Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store.

“Berkeley on iTunes U” is now available and is open to the public as well as to all UC Berkeley students. Read more.

If you’re not sure what RSS is and how to use it then go to this website. The folks who put this page together really do mean EVERYTHING! Enjoy.

The 4th World Conference on Mobile Learning, mLearn 2005, was held in Cape Town, South Africa from 25 to 28 October 2005.

Abstracts & papers from the conference are available for download in PDF.

mLearn 2006 will be held in Banff, Canada 22-25 October.