Most of my time this past week was spent narrowing down css and xhtml elements that work best with mobile devices. I have decided that the content format will be xhtml with all style controlled by css (cascasding style sheets). This will make the templates more difficult for a novice user to understand but provide a much more effective standard for content development. My hope is that by creating templates for the user, all the user will need to do is fill in the text.
A major design goal of my sabbatical is to create mobile device solutions for the faculty member with average web authoring skills.
In the area of "making it easier" for the novice. I have found a product and a site that should (with some tinkering by me) make the creation of standard learning documents (syllabus, assignments, reading and assignment calendar, lecture and collabaloration) as easy as typing with the help of exeLearning. Another resource is .mobi. .mobi is a site dedicated to mobile content and application development. The best thing about .mobi is its resources and a tool that will test your web pages to see how well they will function on a mobile device and what would need to be done to make the pages "mobile ready".
Below some specifics...
ExeLearning
exeLearning is a project coordinated out of New Zealand with funding supplied by a vari ety of government and university resources. This is the second time I have seen quality open source learning tools come from our friends in the south pacific. The project is essential a tool that
works with the FireFox browser to give the web page author a series of iDevices that can add content to a web page. You can make your own iDevices or use theirs. iDevices have already been created or freetext, multiple choice, objectives, case studys, etc. to name a few. The iDevice
elements add themselves to the page and you fill in the details. You can have multiple pages and a visual tool tracks the pages built. There are a number of ways to export your finished pages (xhtml format) to a web server. SCORM is also support. I would give this tool a look even if
you are not interested in mobile learning and just need a easy to use tool for creating learning content. There web site has all of the files to get started along with help documentation and a member forum. The is product is open source so you can also download and look at the
programs. This is where I will need to spend time if I add a mobile option to deliver exeLearning pages to a mobile device.
.mobi
.mobi is a organization from Ireland. Their web site is http://mtld.mobi/. It is not dedicated to education but the broad field of mobile computing. It has some excellent materials on mobile standards and a tool called readi.mobi that will check a web page for elements that will cause problems when rendering a web page. This site is for the more advanced mobile developer but I have found it invaluable at this point.
Google Chrome this week...
As I am writing this blog, the blogosphere is a buzz with the announcement of a new browser from Google (9/2). The browser, called Chrome, will be available this afternoon and I will certainly evaluate it as it pertains to mobile learning. I will be starting on my Android apps later in the week so I guess the theme for this week and next will be Google.
Help me Test
I have added a link a the top of my mobileDot web site to solicit the emails of people who would be interested in helping me test mobile pages or mobile apps. Since I am mostly at the mercy
of mobile emulators testing on the real deal is important. All I would need is for you to is is to load a page from the Internet or possibly install a mobile app and some feedback as to how it works.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment