MobileDot - Mobile Computing as a Learning Tool

Closing Blog

2010-03-23T16:32:00.006-07:00

I have moved this blog to www.garymarrer.com/wordpress My latest post...

My BlackBerry/ASP.Net Faculty Mobile Web Site

can be found there.

It’s Presentation Time – Educause ELI Spring Forum

2010-03-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have been preparing two presentations for the Educause ELI Forum on Mobile Learning. One presentation is a short 10 minute summary on mLearning Assessment and update of some slides I prepared for the Distance Education Conference at the University of Wisconsin – Madison I did this past August. I cannot say there is more research but there is a better framework since I have had more time to reflect on what I uncovered then and an opportunity to spend more time on mobile learning. I hope to have the presentation placed in SlideShare for anyone interested.

The second presentation is the one that may not make the conference. It is a back up keynote presentation I have been asked to put together in case of technical issues that could potentially arise with another speaker (I will make it available in SlideShare one way or the other). In my presentation, I make the assertion that mobile learning for most public higher ed. in the US is really mobile assisted learning. Mobile learning and its unique pedagogical elements (learn anywhere at any time, exploration, collaboration, etc.) can enhance learning with tools that other technologies or traditional learning cannot do as well. In my presentation, I present the idea of mLearning really being just another technology tool for the classroom. Unless you are delivering content for distance learning, most students will be using mobile technology for some aspect of their learning. They will be using “mobile assisted learning” and not implemented learning entirely delivered via a mobile device.

Whereas much has been done abroad with mobile based learning, in the United States (at least and with public institutions like community colleges), the expense of smart phone devices and carrier pricing of Internet always on support is too expensive for most students. That coupled with the fact that most colleges have extensive PC labs and wi-fi capability already, most students do not opt for the expense of a monthly data contract and the additional cost of smart phone hardware. Although it seems that everyone has an Apple iPhone, Google Android phone or Blackberry, it does not pan out in antidotal data/experience or from surveys done by groups like Educause in their 2009 ECARS Study on Student Information Technology. Sometimes I feel like the iPhone U’s get the big press but it is colleges like my own that really need to establish their mobile learning identity. This blog has talked to this in the past and will continue this thread hopefully with examples of low tech (less than a Smart Phone) mobile learning exercises.

My social spaces and tools (You need more than one!)

2009-12-27T09:15:00.003-07:00

One of my revelations in 2009 was the importance of social learning and how I need more than one social learning space. I am a teacher but I am also a computer hobbyist (a.k.a. computer geek). I use Facebook for my personal social networks, my blogs and wiki’s are always open to all but my twitter tweats are both. Huh?

For the classes I teach, Facebook (FB) probably has a limited benefit. Computer programming tends to be a personal activity where interaction with a computer is probably more likely to be in the form of a search or a reference manual lookup. I keep my Facebook pretty much student free. Facebook for me is private and filled with family and friend feeds with information that is not relevant or necessary for my student’s consumption. Maybe someday this will change but FB is strictly a social network with an emphasis on social and less so on learning.

I have always used blogs (WordPress and Blogger) and wiki’s (PBWiki) as part of my classes since the social learning it presents can be relevant and informational. Most software problems do benefit from multiple perspectives and the ability to comment and inquire. I have used a wiki to develop classroom resources and student participation. My last Introduction to Java class started work on updating my class notes with more code examples in the hope that someday the wiki can become a free textbook for future Java classes.

I have used blogs (like this one) for articles and educational pieces. I will also be using WordPress as a presentation tool (in lieu of presentation graphics options) so that I might have more follow on comments to promote additional social learning after the presentation. I have spam filtering set up on my blogs so I catch the spammers posts before they hit my blog and I do get some comments (more would be better). My blogs have also been set up so that students can read them on mobile devices if they have a mobile browser.

I have two Twitter accounts. One I use from myself (for my political and sports rants) and one for students. For my students, I give course status (grading updates, testing reminders, etc.) via Twitter and encourage students to set up my account for device echoing so they can receive the tweat update as an SMS message. The content in Twitter is primarily class info that I use for student retention (a huge problem at most community colleges). I make sure that both of my Twitter accounts are set up where I control who follows me (students can follow the student account, others can follow my other account). I use TweetDeck as my tool for monitoring and sending tweats. TweetDeck also allows my to monitor Facebook and LinkedIn. I almost forgot LinkedIn but I do use that for professional networks (great tool).

So why so many social networks? Because it is not one social network that you belong to but many. How many may depend on your interests, the technology it provides (Twitter versus FB) and your relationship with the group you are a member of. Remember this as you post and as you set up accounts. Just like we remind our students to be careful on what they post on Facebook but also where you post and to who your audience will be and if the social network chosen is appropriate.

I am thinking of putting together a little Blackberry Java program for GCC Mapz (a mobile device program I developed for .Net, Java ME and Google Android during my Sabbatical and documented in an earlier blog post). Would anyone be interested in seeing it? Comment if so…

I am also getting ready for a Web 2.0 presentation next month. I will be creating the presentation in this blog so that it is viewable on a mobile device.

Back to Blogging… What mobile device features are students using?

2009-12-14T21:56:00.001-07:00

After a bit of a hiatus from blogging (I have been on a special project working with strategic planning and accreditation this semester), I am back into mobile learning and picking up where I left off. After looking at a few of my favorite mobile tech places on the Internet, it is like I never left. As the iPhone continues to add apps and as BlackBerry and Android chase, my students are still not any closer to using data plans and using primarily SMS as the dominant fear

Which leads to the questions I think is critical to mobile learning… what will the platform be and what features can we count on most (if not all students will have)? My peers will point to the iPhone. Go to any meeting with a lot of techie types and it is all iPhone (to the point where I am considering the purchase of one) but the students have not made that transition. They are still photo’s, sms and mp3. Data plans for the average community college student is probably cost prohibitive.

My challenge for the Spring semester to start surveying as many Community College students who will let me know … what is their mobile device? What features do they use with this device? Do they access the Internet? Do they run applications from their mobile device? These are questions that need to be answered. (If you are interested in helping me with the questions or the students to take the survey, let me know via a comment. I am sure it will be a Google form with 12-20 multiple choice responses.)

If these questions on mobile device usage and features are not answered, the pioneers who are developing this technology for their classrooms will not be able to introduce it to other instructors (and see a spread in this technology). Stay tuned in 2010 for surveys and working examples of mobile learning in a community college setting. We have to move beyond the expectation that the iPhone is the only answer to one with is pregmatic and realistic (at least in the short term) and understand to get this off the ground the short term mobile learning opportunities will probably be with sms gateways, Internet ready mobile devices and utilization of video and sound on the device.

Lets think strategically here and not science fiction.

What mobile device features are students using… The question remains.

Random Stuff on Mobile Learning

2009-09-14T15:03:00.002-07:00

I have been a little delinquent on my blogging the last couple of weeks. School has started and aside from having three classes to teach, I have also been working on a special project related to Strategic Planning at my College. But,,,, I have been thinking mobile.

Mobile for my Fall Classes

A couple of observations… They say Twitter is used more by (older) adults and I would agree but I would also say it is not used by college students. SMS messaging is one thing but micro-blogging is something parents do. Maybe students are not as narcissistic as older users of technology (baby boomers versus millennials). As a result, I still post class messages to Twitter but I have less than 5 percent of my students following me. At least for community college students, Twitter might not be a technology of significance. Thoughts / Comments?

My MLEX program has done me well this semester. I quickly created mobile syllabi and course calendars for my Fall classes.

And the big news …..maybe MLEX going open source this fall. A University in Canada (I am not sure I should publish the name without asking them) is interested in taking my MLEX (currently written in VB.NET) and migrating it to Java with the hopes of making it more powerful. The plan is for it to be open source so others can add to the program also. I am excited about this and as soon as some plans have been formalized, I will have more to share. I am psyched!

Leave it to Google

We have from time to time discussed how mobile device browsers do not do well with JavaScript and therefore it has not been easy to create mobile assessments (quizzes, tests, etc.). I created a solution using ASP.NET but this is somewhat constrained since you must use a IIS Server to host your pages. I have been experimenting with Google Forms for some surveys I have been creating and it appears to render fine on my cell phone. You can create text, M/C and option type questions from a Google Docs spreadsheet (select forms once in there) and it uses the spreadsheet to collect the responses and automatically summarizes the results. There are even themes to choose regarding form format. I think this would work fine for both quizzes and tests and the beauty is Google hosts it. You can also set up the document to "shared" where others can modify and read form captured results. Results are private by default unless sharing is specified. Many schools… such as mine… are taking advantage of Google email, calendar and Docs for students. Go Cloud Computing!

Google Forms does have promise…..

How uses iPhone

Get a group of techies in a room and everyone has an Apple iPhone. Get a group of community college students in a room and you see a lot of non-iPhones but cool looking hardware. Is hardware a bigger driver in cell phone selection then features? Is SMS the only feature really used and desired by the typical student? If so, we need to be spending a whole lot of more time on SMS gateway servers…. Food for thought… I think we are reaching a point where the mobile landscape has some definition with the following rules (my antidotal evidence):

Wi-fi for mobile devices - not so important
Applications for mobile devices - not so important
GPS support - not so important
SMS – critical
Internet Browsing – too early to know for sure but Internet Apps and cloud computing might be the direction
PDA's – probably dead

Thoughts/Comments?

Mobile Learning Assessment – same…different then other course assessment?

2009-07-16T06:34:00.003-07:00

The back drop of the question…(warning: this is a thinking post)

I am preparing for a panel discussion at the 25^th Annual Distance Teaching and Learning Conference at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Part of my responsibility is to cover the topic of mobile learning effectiveness (a.k.a. assessment). I would summarize my interpretation of that request to be “is mobile learning as effective as or more effective than other delivery systems (specifically, traditional which is still the most common).”

Assessment is never one of the most popular teaching activities and although quality improvement programs and accreditation have placed an emphasis on assessment. It is still a topic that is more often than not treated as an afterthought rather than a priority. In the case of new technology, it is easy to become focused on getting the technology to work and not as interested in incorporated a formal assessment. Usually, the faculty member will create an end of course professional assessment on whether the new technology worked or not. Typically, is ends up being and evaluation of the class technology and whether it should be scrapped or more likely modified to make sure the technology works better next time. An attempt to prove its validity against other delivery mechanisms is not usually part of the plan. For me, my assessment is an assessment of learning objectives and if they were met. The delivery mechanism is not important unless it causes learning objectives not to be met. I currently teacher in a traditional, hybrid/blended and online format. Mobile devices/learning supplements all my classes (this is another subject in itself).

Mobile Learning Assessment

I would argue that assessment is assessment. When a teacher evaluates their learning objectives whether through testing, survey and observations, the process supports defect prevention and continuous quality improvement. This is good. Standardized assessment may be very difficult to achieve. Even if it was standardized, to what extent is it important? Even if a standard is created; Not all teachers are the same; Not all subject can be viewed the same; Not all technology is same; Technology changes and it can affect classes from semester to semester. The nature of mobile learning can be very diverse. One teacher may leave students mostly on their own and another may have close supervisor of student learning on mobile devices. A standardized assessment maybe “a tough nut to crack.”

I vote, any assessment is good…

I think a discussion on discussing the merits of any delivery system is helpful to the extent it can make the delivery mechanism better through improvement. Whether mobile learning is better or worse than traditional delivery is the same argument that has been going on with on-line versus traditional. I think the most important thing to consider is that learning has become and is becoming even more personalized. The class is designed in a way to cater to each student. This is good because it allows students who are many times 20 years younger than their instructor the ability to learn in a format that works best for them (i.e. multi-tasking, technology, audio/video based, etc.). Personalization of instruction may remove age, learning preferences and cultural biases that all teachers may innocently include in their course delivery and approach. Because of this personalization, I think the teacher needs to choose the assessment process that is the most helpful to the instructor. Teachers are as different as students.

What changes with mobile learning…

There is no doubt that there are new pedagogies with mobile learning that do not exist in traditional delivery. We may want to consider these approaches when we are specifically evaluating a class that uses mobile learning. Mobile learning does some things that traditional did not and visa versa. However, we may want to look at mobile learning from these different perspectives and incorporate this in our assessments.

Mobile learning might additionally want to evaluate:

Was the technology available (especially in regards to network connectivity)?
Was the performance of the technology acceptable?
Does it work on a variety of hardware platforms?
Was the class truly mobile and did the mobility factor meet the course learning objectives?
Did the mobile technology support mobile learning elements (video, phone, audio, GPS, etc.)?
Many more could be added here….

So what?

What do you think? Do you have some thoughts on mobile learning effectiveness and assessment?

Send a comment.

NOTE.... This blog is being moved. You can now find it at www.garymarrer.com/wordpress

Mobile Experiments with MS-ASP.Net

2009-06-19T14:23:00.015-07:00

I have for some time been using and teaching Microsoft ASP.Net. ASP.Net is a product created by Microsoft to support client and server side web programming on its IIS Internet Servers. Even though Microsoft does sell tools to program in this environment, you can use it entirely for free. You will need a hosting service that supports ASP.Net (IIS server support) to store your pages but there are many very reasonable hosting services available (I use GoDaddy.com). ASP.Net started out as just ASP (Active Server Pages) and has undergone many changes over the years (including the addition of .net to its name). This is not the blog for that so I would suggest you visit one of the many web sites dedicated to ASP.Net. You will find info on its history, future direction and free training options.

How do know if you have used ASP.Net?

ASP.Net pages have a file extension of .aspx. If you look for them you will see them while surfing (just keep an eye on the address box in your browser). If view page source on an aspx file, you will see some html, some asp tags and maybe some JavaScript (ASP.Net can accommodate client side JavaScript but scripting languages are not supported by all mobile browsers yet so we will avoid it for mobile pages).

ASP.Net works by letting you combine html, asp graphical controls with the Visual Basic or C# programming languages to create rich web pages. The programming languages make this a very robust solution and the beauty of this is that the programming takes place on the server which sends the client device just html (note: there are some exceptions to this so like html only web pages, you have to be careful what you use in your page if you expect it to work on a mobile device). Whereas scripting is usually avoided for mobile apps and can be embraced with ASP.Net since the scripting takes place far away from the client browser (on the Internet Server).

So what's the big deal?

The benefit of this way of creating web content is that many of the limitations placed on mobile devices (scripting first and foremost) can be overcome by doing the programming on a server and having the server send just html to the mobile client. I have for some time wanted to create assessment pages for a mobile device (i.e. a quiz or a test). With ASP.Net, I can use html to create the questions and use the server programming to evaluate the answers and score the assessment. This is demonstrated in a page I created to illustrate a simple quiz Click Here.

The ASP.Net code used for this application consists of two files. One file describes the page (questions and answers selected with radio buttons) in a combination of html and asp elements. You easily see both in this file snippet (click here for full aspx file).

<%@Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" inherits="_Default"%>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<htmlxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

.style1

{

font-family: Calibri;

color: #333399;

font-weight: bold;

font-size: xx-large;

}

.style5

{

font-size: xx-large;

font-weight: bold;

color: #333399;

}

.style6

{

font-family: Calibri;

color: #000000;

font-weight: bold;

font-size: xx-large;

}

</style>

</head>

<body>

<div >

<span class="style6">ASP.Net</span><span class="style1"> Assessment Test Experiment </span>

<span class="style1">mobiledot.mobi<asp:Label ID="errLabel" runat="server" Text=""></asp:Label>

</span>

<br/>

</div>

<! Question 1 -->

….

</form>

</body>

</html>

Behind this ASP.Net page (the user interface page that has the definition of the screen has an extension .aspx. The programming file behind it has a file extension of .aspx.vb) are programming statements which read the input and process it against code that will provide a new feedback page viewable on a mobile (or PC) browser. That programming code looks like this. I don't believe is very complicated for anyone who has written a macro program before. This example is written in Visual Basic.

Partial Class _Default

Inherits System.Web.UI.Page

Private intScore As Integer

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As
Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

Application("hit_counter") += 1

hitCount.Text = Application("hit_counter")

authorproduct.Text = Session("author") & " | " & Session("product")

End Sub

Protected Sub btnSubmitt_Click(ByVal sender As
Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSubmitt.Click

If RadioButtonList1.SelectedItem.Value = "Blue" Then

intScore += 1

RadioButtonList1.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkGreen

RadioButtonList1.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

Else

RadioButtonList1.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkRed

RadioButtonList1.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

End If

If RadioButtonList2.SelectedItem.Value = "Dr Zhivago" Then

intScore += 1

RadioButtonList2.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkGreen

RadioButtonList2.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

Else

RadioButtonList2.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkRed

RadioButtonList2.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

End If

If RadioButtonList3.SelectedItem.Value = "Kite Runner" Then

intScore += 1

RadioButtonList3.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkGreen

RadioButtonList3.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

Else

RadioButtonList3.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkRed

RadioButtonList3.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

End If

If RadioButtonList4.SelectedItem.Value = "VB.Net" Then

intScore += 1

RadioButtonList4.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkGreen

RadioButtonList4.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

Else

RadioButtonList4.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkRed

RadioButtonList4.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

End If

If RadioButtonList5.SelectedItem.Value = "mobiledot.net" Then

intScore += 1

RadioButtonList5.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkGreen

RadioButtonList5.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

Else

RadioButtonList5.BackColor = Drawing.Color.DarkRed

RadioButtonList5.ForeColor = Drawing.Color.AntiqueWhite

End If

lblScore.Text = "Correct right was " & intScore.ToString & " out of 5."

End Sub

End Class

The Experiment continues…

I am working to exploit the programming friendly environment ASP.Net affords mobile computing and hope to add an easy to use assessment component to MLEX. I also have plans to convert MLEX to an Internet application via ASP.Net. I think is a better way to deploy the program and will remove the requiement to run on MS-Windows (Even though ASP.Net is a MS product, it creates web pages which are displayable on any browser regardless of the operating system).

Summer Break (taking a little break…)

I have been very busy since starting my sabbatical in the Fall and teaching again in the Spring and over the summer. I am going to suspend my blog posting until September at a point in time that I hope to have more done on the web version of MLEX.

Web pages on mobile devices (an xHTML template)

2009-05-20T08:25:00.010-07:00

Anyone who has gotten the courage to venture on the Internet with a mobile device (usually from your cell phone), as found out immediately that size (screen size) is important with mobile devices. You may have also noticed that some pages looked better than others. The most annoying problem is scroll bars around the display because the page does not fit inside the screen.

What makes a page viewable on a mobile device is largely due to the html (or the xHTML) that has been created for that page. The page must be designed to fit on any screen size. The best way to describe the good mobile web pages is that they lack the features available on PC browsers and tend to look a little retro (circa. late 1990's). The HTML for mobile devices needs to be simplified to be displayable.

When I created the MLEX tool (soon to have a screen cast on mobiledot.ning.com with tutorials to get started) I simply created a program that made sure that the pages were kept simple and html elements what would not work on mobile devices were not included. The MLEX software tool keeps you on target but does not prevent you from breaking the page on a mobile device by adding elements and features that are not supported (JavaScript, frames, tables, etc.).

A xHTML Template

But, you don't have to use MLEX to create web pages that are viewable on mobile devices (and BTW also viewable on PC browsers). I have added to this blog a template HTML file (using xHTML tags which will work best with mobile browsers). You can take this file and open it in any text editor or HTML Editor and modify it to your requirements. Once saved, you can test it in your PC browser and finally, place it on your HTML server so others can access it.

About the template

The template is just a text file that has text and xHTML tags. I have placed HTML comment tags (which are ignored by the browser) inside the template to give clues as to what is happening. You may want to access a site on the web that discusses xHTML but anyone who knows a little HTML should be able to handle xHTML without any problems. The template references two css external style sheet files. CSS is a little more complicated and too much for this pos but it is not hard to learn and I have deliberately kept it simple. You can see a sample css file that could be used with this document below.

Note: The text in the web page is random letters just used to fill in the document.

<?xml version="1.0"encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC"-//WAPFORUM//DTD XHTML Mobile 1.2//EN""http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/DTD/xhtml-mobile12.dtd">

<head>

<title>Web Page Title Goes Here!</title>

</head>

<body>

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque at risus. Pellentesque sapien metus, lobortis at, elementum et, malesuada non, urna. Sed dignissim justo sed urna. Nulla nibh. Suspendisse vestibulum imperdiet est. Aenean enim. Nunc lacus diam, imperdiet eget, consectetuer quis,euismod eget, sem. Morbi attis. Praesent viverra massa vehicula sem. Nunc viverra varius mi. Vestibulumultrices elit quis quam dignissim ermentum. Fusce tristique leo vel lorem. Mauris dictum massa.Integer fringilla. Phasellus vitae tellus vitae elit varius eleifend. Maecenas egestas blandit dolor. Cras sagittis lobortis nunc.</p>

</div>

<br/>

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed justo non est feugiat porta. Phasellusornare placerat dui. Phasellus lacus mi, vulputate non, semper quis, imperdiet vitae, nulla. Aliquam tinciduntjusto ut purus. Maecenas vitae felis. Vivamus porta nunc sit amet risus. Ut at elit. Phasellus vestibulum.Vestibulum at lectus a nisl ultrices euismod. Proin ornare adipiscing eros. Maecenas convallis ultrices mauris.Sed turpis est, porttitor vitae, luctus et, rhoncus in, leo. Nulla tristique ligula interdum elit. Sed lacinia pulvinar odio.</p>

<p>Aenean sodales lectus vel lectus. Suspendisse nibh est, hendrerit sit amet, auctor a, dictum pretium,nisi. Cras suscipit consectetuer eros. Pellentesque mattis augue nec tellus. Vivamus ut leo. Curabiturpretium mattis pede. Sed volutpat egestas diam. Fusce eget nunc non ligula rutrum elementum. Sed erat turpis,placerat ut, tempus et, vulputate ac, dolor. Fusce convallis rhoncus sapien. Phasellus elit. Donec nec risussed nisl viverra adipiscing. Aenean mauris mi, malesuada vel, facilisis id, faucibus nec, velit.</p>

<p>Proin bibendum massa a urna bibendum pulvinar. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netuset malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Pellentesque ultrices scelerisque risus. Sed velit felis, convallis sed,fringilla sit amet, porttitor vel, eros. Aenean mollis, nibh id faucibus fermentum, enim quam facilisis nisi,non convallis enim arcu vitae nulla. Nulla vulputate. Integer imperdiet. Nulla feugiat dui ac sapien. Maecenas pretium.Mauris gravida. Fusce ut metus vitae diam congue vulputate.</p>

</div><br/>

<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum lacus. Suspendisse vel turpis. Sed tempus faucibus elit. Suspendisse et lacus imperdiet nibh semper tempus.</p>

</div>

<br/>

</body>

</html>

Mobile.css File

/* pagebody style                                              */

.pagebody {

    background-color: #D1E5D1;

    font: Segoe UI;

    color: black;

    font-size: x-small;

    text-align: left;

/* header style                                              */

.header {

    font-size: small ;

    font-weight: bold;

    color: #00006A;

    text-align: center;

/* Foot style                                              */

.footer {

    font-size: small;

    font-weight: bold;

/*  Make author info stand out.                                          */

.author {

    font-weight: bold;

    color: red;

/*  link style  */

A {

    background-color: transparent;

    color: green;

A:Hover {

    background-color: white;

    color: black;

A difficult subject… Learning (Teaching) Styles

2009-05-05T16:53:00.007-07:00

I was all set to do a technical blog post this time around but I have had a couple of recent conversations (related to a mobile learning presentation I am preparing for) with some other faculty which has prompted me to write this blog post instead.

This post is a little more "pithy" than normal but I think it is a discussion important to mobile learning.

Topics to avoid...

There are several things/topics in life that make no sense in trying to change another person's opinion on. If the topic is religion, politics, operating systems (PC versus Mac), it makes no sense in trying to convert the person to your thinking. In all cases, you may be very passionate in your beliefs but chances are the other person will be in total agreement or disagreement with you. If they are in disagreement, you stand little chance of changing their mind. Read on...

Learning Styles (Teaching Styles) and Mobile Learning

I was at a presentation last week that highlighted the differences in workers attitudes/perceptions based on when they were born. Studies have shown that depending on when you are born (I am a baby boomer whereas my kids are millennials), you tend to look at things differently. The idea is that you are influenced by the events of your youth. Baby boomers are the post World War II generation that tend to be workaholics and millennials tend to value honesty and also be especially adept at multi-tasking. There is allot written on this subject framed around everything from how it applies to human relations to marketing and sales. I will let you Google the topic for more info.

Where I am headed .... an instructor's teaching style is influenced by their learning experiences and when they were born. How and instructor learns maybe different than their students based on these experiences. A student may like multi-tasking whereas an instructor, may not. Should the instructor try to teach to the student or should the instructor teach in the way they learned (hopefully understanding that in the middle is probably the best answer)?

In the research I did for my sabbatical and from my observations in the classroom teaching 18 and 19 year olds, I have come to the conclusion that I may be more effective in the classroom if I better understand how they may best learn even though I do not share life experiences with them. Given their preference for multi-tasking and personal electronics, my thinking is that any opportunities for me to take advantage of mobile devices (SMS) and Web 2.0 tools like Twitter, FaceBook, Ning, cloud computing (Google Apps) , collaborative computing, etc. the better chance I have of delivering content that will interest them (I should also note that I teach technology and business classes). It seems to be a very responsible and pragmatic way to creating active and engaging environments' for my students. I think most people would agree that on its face this does not seem to be an unreasonable approach to take.

What I am finding from my other Baby Boomers is some resistance. Many teachers' administer heavy penalties for text messaging during class time. They see use of portable electronic devices as a invitation to sanction a lack of concentration and discipline. They would say these are "bad habits promoted by the support of multi-tasking learning behaviors." I also suspect that many statements and policies on mobile devices tend to be blurted out without qualification when in fact most teachers are probably less strict concerning mobile devices then they advertise in syllabi and class rules.

I tend to be less strict but I too have times where text messaging inhibits my ability to teach (in lecture I need to see students and their body language to determine if I am getting my point across or if there are still questions). I can appreciate a resistance to an unstructured classroom but I also see many of my peers seeing multi-tasking as a lack of discipline and more or less ineffective in regards to learning. So much so, that there resistance is leading me to wonder if I should add "teaching styles" to my list of topics to stay away from. This is a problem. How do we introduce new asynchronous technologies to the learning process if multi-tasking learning styles are seen by many as ineffective? A mobile phone is a computer. A computer can be a very using learning tool. My suspicion is that there is some level of multi-tasking with mobile devices which is appropriate for the class and subject. My fear is that more often the reaction to mobile devices may to be draw a line in the sand that shall not be passed and this topic will end up on my list of things to avoid.

I am sure someone has written a paper on this but I am not sure this has to be an empirical discussion. Is this history just repeating itself? Did the same discussion also happen when the personal computer was introduced to the classroom? Is this a topic to avoid (I hope not)?

Anyone else have any ideas?

I told you it was pithy... maybe the last two weeks of class have gotten to me ;)

Other stuff this week – Mobile Learning Assessment

I am collecting data on how teachers and faculty are assessing mobile learning. Since most us have to provide learning objective evidence as part of accreditation. What is your campus doing? Is the assessment done the same as a traditional class or do you assess mobile learning differently? Let me know your thoughts and join my Ning at mobiledot.ning.com to join into discussion.

An Example: Mobile Assisted Active Learning

2009-04-20T13:45:00.004-07:00

So what else can we do with a mobile device (like a cell phone)? Cell phones, aside from being a communication device also typically have audio, image and video capture support. In this post, I will discuss a way of using the video features of the cell phone for active learning.

I am going to use a business communications example for this post, one that would be covered in my general Introduction to Business class but the possibilities for similar uses in other subjects are only limited by your creativity. In my general business class, there are ample opportunities for role play exercises to learn business topics. We might do a role play exercise for job interviews, reprimanding an employee, performing a performance review, examples of potential sexual harassment, excellent salesmanship, etc.. One of the topics I spend time on is business communication. All forms of communication are covered but non-verbal communication presents an excellent opportunity for role play and the use of the cell phone to create a video to support learning.

For example, I might be able to take advantage of active learning on a mobile device by asking my students to record a short video demonstrating examples of conscious (looking at a clock when the class runs over) and unconscious examples (a frown when someone says something you disagree with) of non-verbal communication. Students could use their cell phones and with one or more students in their group, record an example of non-verbal communication for playback to the class. They would be asked to script out their example and make it obvious enough for the other students to recognize. The discussion could be expanded to cover other examples. It is active learning at its best and will engage students in topics that otherwise may not be as interesting. For visual learners, it may be the best way to reach them on a topic of this type.

When the video was recorded it will be sent to the instructors email (or to the Instructor's YouTube account if you trust the content provider) so that the videos could be played back to the class. YouTube is already a popular web site for playing videos submitted by others but many people do not realize that with a YouTube account (its free) you can submit your own videos and share them with a select list of family and friends or everyone via your YouTube email. To email directly to YouTube you will need to go into your account mobile settings and enable your YouTube account to accept videos via email. YouTube will produce an email for you to use. I will leave the explanation on how to use YouTube to YouTube. They have lots of great instructional videos to get you started.

For my cell phone carrier (Verizon), I can set my YouTube email account as a contact so when I need to send the video, I can just select from my contact list.

As always, make sure that before you start sending video files to YouTube, that your calling plan supports video file messages and that this feature is included with your plan and does not cost extra.

The mobile device facilitates an active learning exercise where the students get to have some fun with an important topic and also some technology which they own. For the instructor, it removes the need to acquire and share video equipment and allows for role play learning exercises. The mobile device does not deliver the course content but provides for a mobile assisted learning.

Do you have an idea for how you might use mobile assisted active learning? Post a comment to this post to tell us more. Also, you can also to the mobileDot Ning site and post it there.

A mobile learning definition for my Campus

2009-03-30T21:55:00.006-07:00

A definition …. and a little history

I was preparing for a class on mobile learning for the faculty of my campus. Something to get them thinking or started with mobile learning. I was adding a PowerPoint slide on the definition of mobile learning from some sources on the Internet. The definition looked good….

It defined mobile learning essentially as distance or e-learning on a mobile device.

This simple definition seems to work but how practical is it for my campus?

I teach at a pretty good size community college (main and satellite campus) that is part of a county system of 10 campuses (yes, our District is very large by most standards but the campus is not). Our I/T infra-structure is very good. We have many opportunities for students and staff to access college computer resources from on campus (wired and wireless) and from home via the Internet. The mobile devices used by staff and students are quite powerful but not all students or staff have the financial resources for high end smart phones with application support and always on data connections. Most all have unlimited text messaging and many also have Internet connectivity with their cell phones. I think the mobile technology is typical for most metropolitan campuses.

Our faculty are suffering a little from technology shock (in total and not use mobile technology). A lot of money has been spent on technology but not all of the technology has lived up to the hype. As a result, there are many who may look at mobile technology as being a little "over the top" and something that is in the future and not today. Because of this, I know my best bet for mobile technology is with a teacher who has traditionally been an early adopter and supportive of new technology even with a few bumps and bruises. New faculty are also good candidates because they are typically techno savvy and are looking for a way to set them apart from more established faculty. Having said this and by giving you a little history.... Now from a practical standpoint, my definition...

A new definition – mobile assisted technology

Mobile learning technology on my campus will initially be rolled out as "mobile assisted technology". This means the mobile device will not be a primary or exclusive delivery mechanism. More likely for now, mobile devices will be used to supplement learning in one of a couple of ways. This mobile assisted technology can help the college in areas of student retention and active learning.

Student Retention

Community college student's multi task. They expect and require information to be available on-line and real time. They work on many things at the same time and they like it that way. Learning providers have to understand that this is the learning style they prefer. One way to support this is through the use mobile devices to provide syllabi, course calendars, course assignments via web pages browsable on a mobile device. With products like MLEX, one page can be used for both a PC or mobile display. The extra work for faculty to support a mobile component is marginal. The only limitation currently caused by providing mobile support is that the display size and technology supported in mobile browsers limit some page features (graphics size, animation, javascript). On-line, real-time, portable and mobile delivery of class information is quite feasible.

Active Learning

We often forget that most mobile devices are also computers. They also can support the recording and playback of audio and video not to mention digital pictures. I was walking across campus and a group of students approached me with a digital camera to record my response a their question they were asking students and faculty for use in their class. They were going to take my answer back to class. Discuss it with other students. Why not have a geology or botany class go out into the campus and take pictures of rocks and trees and catalog them with digital pictures? A cell phone is just the tool needed. For many active learning exercises, the mobile device is not the primary means of learning but an assistant in learning.

State of Mobile on my Campus

There is no scenario today on my campus where exclusive delivery on a mobile device is practical or essential. Distance learning is typically not an option for our campus which is a typical residential campus who just expanded into e-Learning just a few short years ago (I suspect very typical of many community colleges). But.... as hopefully my definition will demonstrate, mobile learning does have a place today in our toolbox for learning.

Any comments....

Freebies… Final Episode (for now)

2009-03-18T10:18:00.006-07:00

I have dedicated this post and the previous two blog posts to free products that might be useful in getting a educator started with mobile computing via text messaging (SMS). Textmarks.com and especially twitter are very popular because they are mobile and because they are social media in nature (real time micro-communi

cation).

This post explores something a little different then there previous two SMS tools. Many educators have been using (or are thinking of using) clickers in their classroom. A clicker is an infrared or radio device that allows a student to vote a response to a question posed by the instructor. These devices come with software that will display results to a screen and in some cases capture responses to be used in assessment. The biggest plus is that these devices help practice active learning which is an excellent way of getting the student actively involved in the learning process for that content area.

The down side of clickers is that they do cost money and they have a tendency to get lost or broken in the classroom. Someone has to distribute and collect the devices before and after each class. They can get stolen and lost like socks in an electric dryer. There is a mobile alternative.

PollEverywhere.com provides support for clicker via a cell phone (with text message support), a smart phone (via a browser interface) and a PC (via a browser interface). The instructor can work from the polleverywhere.com web site to display questions and output or can build PowerPoint slides which can be connected to the polling process (real-time with hardly any delay). The student can use their cell phone as a clicker (if they can send text messages and yes, charges may apply if the student does not have an unlimted texting plan). If in a classroom with computers, the student can use the web interface via a browser and participate in the same surveys as others using a smart phone or cell phone.

The product may be used for free in a limited format and there are educational discounts available if you are interested in bringing the product into a class or school. The free version which can only collect responses from 30 respondents has most of the feature set available for testing and certainty enough for a test run in a class. They have an excellent FAQ and blog. The web site is easy to use and well organized.

When the student is presented a question, they respond by sending text message to the polleverywhere.com gateway and the number that corresponds to their selection.

Surveys can by multiple choice, text and goal based. There are some report tools available with the free edition and even more with the paid edition. You can also have PollEverywhere.com create html for the poll questions or poll results to it can be placed on a web site or embedded in a another web page or blog. This embedded web page survey would be the approach taken if the student had access to a classroom PC connected to the Internet.

Polleverywhere.com is free to try and another great tool to get starting with mobile learning in the classroom.

Next up on the blog.... Using MLEX to create one web page that displays on a PC or mobile device.

Using Mobile Freebies … continued

2009-03-08T21:33:00.003-07:00

If you read my blog last post you learned about a free SMS gateway service called textmarks.com. Textmarks.com provides free mobile keywords that can be access by messaging 41411 with the registered keyword. From this keyword, a broadcast alert service could be utilized by students to subscribe to text messages related to one of my online classes. Whenever I had something to share with the class (class or assignment changes, a hint or help with a course topic), I can still update the class web page but also broadcast a text message with textmarks.com to all the students who opted into subscribing to my textmarks.com keyword. The jury is still out as to whether this will become a hit with students but given the popularity of text messaging, I think it has a better chance than some of the alternatives (email. Message boards, phone calls, etc.).

But there are still more options….! It is pretty hard not to pick up any magazine or newspaper (online or the real thing..real paper) where they are not talking about Twitter. Twitter is a personal micro-blog service (used by individual or by organizations as a communication and customer service tool) to shared information and communicate with others who are following you. A tweet is a single micro blog message that is published to the Twitter service. These tweets can be accessed from the Twitter web site or from tools which have been written to access the Twitter network (i.e. twhirl). There is a lot more to say in regards to Twitter but that is for a different blog (and there are all sorts of publications writing about it). We are more interested in some of the SMS text messaging services built into twitter.

Built into Twitter is the ability for you to select which people you are following that you want messages sent. Messages are not only to your Twitter account but also to the SMS capable cell phone/Smartphone you have registered with Twitter. Remember, whenever you are sending and receiving SMS text messages, charges could apply.

For your students to use Twitter as a way of receiving updates, you (1) will have to get you own (free) Twitter account (2) they will have get their own Twitter accounts and (3) configure their account to follow you. They will also want to (4) configure their Twitter account to receive text messages. Finally, they will (5) go into their following list and turn device updates on for your account. They can opt in or out whenever they would like by turning device updates off or stop following you in Twitter.

So here we are… another way to keeping students engaged by utilizing a free SMS tool found on the Internet. This post only talks about twitter as a broadcast / alert tool. It can also have other class room uses. Stayed tuned.

Next Post another freebie worth noting…. http://www.polleverywhere.com. (you cell phone becomes the clicker for surveys)

After that… a multi-part introduction to my mobile webpage tool called MLEX.

Why Not Use Free! Mobile Resources

2009-02-24T21:05:00.002-07:00

One the reasons I became involved with mobile teaching and learning was because of the pervasiveness of mobile devices (namely the cell phone) with my students. I would see them text messaging before, during (to my dismay) and after my class. As soon as they had a free minute, they were checking for text messages. So as teachers, how do we use this to our advantage? After all, a cell phone is just a handheld computer with wireless connectivity….

The Service

Textmarks.com is a web site that provides (free and for a fee) SMS gateway services. This is a fancy name for a service that provides the ability for you to broadcast text message alerts or provide a send and query function via a cell phone. An alert is a text message that goes to all of the cell phones subscribed to your Textmarks.com keyword. A send and query task allows someone to send a message to a keyword and have a response returned. Maybe a message is sent to the MyLibrary keyword and a book title and the send and query keyword would return the books available (like a database lookup up except with text messages instead). Testmarks.com also provides a for fee service which goes far beyond alerts and send to query text messages. The most important thing for us is that they have a free service that lets you try their services out.

The Experiment

I have a class on online Visual Basic students who I "see" only via BlackBoard and the Internet. One of the biggest challenges in retaining students in an online class is not the computer or the material covered but instead procrastination. Putting off today turns into tomorrow and then a week passes. The first test arrives and the student panics and drops the class. I try to keep my students engaged with emails and the Bb Announcements page but I could still use some more help. In comes Textmarks.com and the experiment…. I have registered a keyword with Textmarks.com and have told my students to subscribe to my keyword if they would like text message alert announcement (the same announcement I would put on Bb). Now time will tell but I think it might work. Textmarks.com has an easy to use management interface and you can look at the phones which have subscribed to the alert.

Will it work on you also….

I have also set up a keyword for you to try. If you send a text message to 41411 (cell phone message charges will apply) and use the keyword mobileDot, you will receive info on my webpage if reply to my message with a "y", you will automatically be added to my alert list. Easy as one, two, three

Creating Mobile Flashcards

2009-02-18T16:33:00.011-07:00

One very practical learning application for a mobile device (Cell phone) is flashcards. I created an application that has a small number of questions (almost like a quiz) using MLEX (a mobile page tool I created) so my page will display on both a cell phone or a PC.

One of the design limitations with mobile pages is the lack of JavaScript support. My flashcard application contains no Javascript and uses a linear layout to also work more effectively on a mobile display. Finally, no tables or frames are used because they will also cause problems in mobile browsers.

Graphics have been kept to a minimum and when there is a graphic is is less then 100 pixels so that it fits within the display. Click here to see the web page and use a PC browser to look at the source code. Go to this link on your cell phone and you can run the page and flashcards in its mobile format. Note: you will see tags like


which are used by my MLEX tool to format data.

Display the Page
Think of an answer and select answer
See the answer and the next question





















2



















3




















As always, send me questions via a comment.

mlearnopedia - A Great Mobile Learning Site

2009-02-16T10:17:00.003-07:00

mlearnopedia has aways been a great Internet site for mobile learning but now it has gotten even better. mlearnopedia now has a new learning community section of its site that will include many blogs and resources which focus on mobile learning (this one included).

Visit mLearnopedia learning communities

Practicing what you preach..

2009-02-11T11:45:00.006-07:00

It has been a month or so since I last posted. Now that I am back to teaching full time, my time to spent on mobile technology is limited.

However, I am committed to seeing mobile tech grow in teaching and learning and I am continuing to work towards that end although it will be on my own time and not as part of my sabbatical.

Now that the sabbatical is complete. What I have been working on is using MLEX to create web pages for my students to access on a mobile device. I have also upgrading my cell phone with an Internet connection so that has helped my testing.

Some links you might be interested in seeing are:

www.mobileDot.net - my new mobile portal for research
web.gccaz.edu/~gmarrer/mobile/ - mobile pages created for my students.

All of these pages were created by MLEX

I continue to put together a list of improvement in MLEX and would invite anyone who would like to try the beta version of the product to let me know via email.

It really works!!

2008-12-20T09:41:00.003-07:00

I thought it only appropriate the the ending blog post of 2008 have a picture of a web page created in MLEX. I wanted to show the page on my unSmartPhone which is very much a garden variety Motorola mobile that a student might have (actually they have better phones). As you can see with a $15 unlimited Internet fee to Verizon, I can browse the Internet and see my page (with text and graphics) quite easily. I guess it works ;)

See you next year!

T-Minus 1...

2008-12-18T14:02:00.004-07:00

T-minus 1 day before the Fall semester ends and my sabbatical with it. Not that the projects will not end. The MLEX project will continue. I have recently added some new features to the MLEX program and my hope is that I can make it more available for public comment after the New Year. I eventually would like to make the project open source but I am still building a base level of function that will give others an idea of what the goal of the program is. Once the concept is understood others will be able to add to what has been done so far. I will communicate the changes and updates to MLEX via my Google Group and one of my web sites (most likely www.yeomanresearch.com).

I have created a discussion within the LinkedIn Educause group and I have also joined the Educause Ning site. I want to continue to act as a "pied piper" to help others move their web pages to a format that can be displayed on a mobile device.

The rest of my Sabbatical time will be spent finishing my final report and thinking of the best ways to share what I have accomplished. It has been a great experience and I am very thankful for those at the Maricopa Community College District who selected my project.

Check the mobileDot web site for the Final Report.

Happy Holidays !

What's next

2008-12-11T14:29:00.003-07:00

As my sabbatical draws to a close, I have been working on plans to distribute my mobile tech findings. I have been working to better publicise what I have built this fall during my sabbatical and also working with MCLI and GCC to set up demonstrations and workshops to show others how to create contents for mobile devices.

With MCLI I hope to create a presentation for a dialogue day workshop to show other faculty how to use my MLEX application and document conversion tools.

For the Spring MCLI technology event at GCC, my plans are to review some of the findings that speak to trends in mobile technology as it relates to teaching and learning.

I am assisting the MCCCD National Center for Teacher Education - ATLAST Project in creating a demonstration for 11th and 12th grade teachers on how to use a mobile technology in the classroom and a discussion of mobile trends.

I also hope to have a industry sponsored project at GCC that will include cellular equipment / training on mobile tech programming or mobile assisted learning.

Finally, I have also submitted my MLEX (Mobile Learning Experiment) project to be published in the Educause / New Media Consortium Horizon 2009 Report. My hope is that I can get a lot of faculty to use the tool and provide feedback to make it better.

With these meetings and presentations, my goal is one (which I specified in my sabbatical proposal) which was to create a District / National Dialog on mobile tech for Higher Ed. learning. I will be using my existing mobileDot Google Site along with a mobileDot Google Group which has been in place for some time but has yet to solicit traffic for mobile tech discussion.

Stay tuned....

SMS Server - Final Chapter?

2008-12-03T08:41:00.005-07:00

My final project is to create a SMS (Simple Mail Service) Server which would function in a similar fashion as the BlueToot h Kiosk Server.

Since most SMS traffic is handled by the carrier I thought this might be a show stopper. Turns out Microsoft India has created a SMS Server for farmers in India (now Vietnam) that provided a low cost ubiquitous solution that replaced a PC network solution. The project is call Warana and you can click here for more information and the SMS SDK they created to develop the SMS server. If you Google Warana SMS Server, you will see several articles on the project.

Although poor farmers in India do not share much with American community college students, the use of SMS to inexpensive SMS servers controlled by someone other than the carrier can ver a very attractive option for cash strapped I/T budgets.

How it might work

A MS Smartphone is connected via a USB connection to a personal computer. The client uses their cell phone to send the Smartphone a message. The Smartphone receives the message ands hands it over to the PC via the Microsoft ActiveSync software bridge. The message is evaluated with a Visual Studio created program that is using the SMS SDK. If the message requires a data update or response, the database connected to the PC is called with the appropriate file maintenance commands. If data needs to be returned to the caller, a SMS message sends back a SMS message.

It could be class information, school calendar, a message to the instructor to be picked up later, etc..

Now the Show Stopper... :(

I have tried to replicate what was done in India but without a MS Smartphone, I am more or less at a dead end. Where as I have been able to use emulation or my MS PDA for other projects, this one may require the real deal (i.e. A MS Smartphone as opposed to my non-MS Dumb one..)
I am going to see if I can get around this issue but this project might have to be another grant where monies can be reserved for acquisition of a MS-SmartPhone.

Wrapping Up

As it getting close to the end of the semester so goes my sabbatical. I will be finishing up editing the mobileDot web site and seeing if I can get some traffic to my mobileDot Google group. I am also going to see about presenting at one or two events next semester at GCC and at another MCCCD location on mobile learning tech.

Try, try, try again... success!

2008-11-24T07:44:00.009-07:00

Bluetooth and I have had a troubled start. I was able to use built in Bluetooth services for my phone and PC but ran into some problems when I tried to use the Bluetooth serial port communication between two computers. My hope was to establish a client server communication between two devices much like a student might connect to a on campus service with there cell phone. I have great optimism that Bluetooth may be the most affordable and most common communication transport for community college students.

Perseverance prevails...

Despite this optimism, the last couple of weeks was making my re-evaluate my Bluetooth goals to the point where I was starting to believe the best thing to do was to leave Bluetooth to a later date and work on some other loose ends with my sabbatical. but..... I am a stubborn person and my vanity got the best of me and I spend one more morning looking for the "Rosetta Stone" that would provide the missing link in my writing a Bluetooth server in either Visual Basic, Java, C# or PYTHON. Fortunately, the answer was found and it was a Visual Basic solution (which is the language I am most productive with). The other good news about VB was that I could write my own client device for my PDA to act as the client to communicate with my Bluetooth server.

Classroom Clickers Revised

The one Bluetooth app which seemed to make a lot of sense what the classroom clicker. Many publishers and content providers have been selling faculty on the benefits of real time class room surveys via class room clickers. Little devices given to each student to capture their understanding of class concepts via games or one minute surveys. These tools have

merit but they do cost $ and they get lost, and they have to be handed out and collected..

What if the student could run a small voting app from their mobile device and send their responses to a Bluetooth server in the front of the room. Bluetooth provides the communication link in this simple client server application.

I was able to create a BT server (my laptop) and client (my PDA) and create a BT Clicker application. Screen shots are below and more information on the design can be found on my

Sabbatical portal (click here).

BT Server Main Screen

This screens shows the result of two students sending a response to a question asked by the instructor.

This screen sits on the instructors laptop and displays a running total of student votes. The counters can be reset for other questions to be asked.

Student BT PDA Clicker

The student sees something a little different. I have screen shots of the survey running from a PDA and what would like like from a Smartphone. What I have created so far only runs on mobile devices with Microsoft Mobile 5.0 or SmartPhone 5.0. The SmartPhone has not been fully tested since the Microsoft Device Emulator software can not emulate Bluetooth and serial communication to another device at the same

time. I would need a MS SmartPhone to finish final development and testing.

BT SmartPhone

The rest of the week is testing...testing...testing.... Trying not to leave a stone unturned.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone....

Introducing pocketCourse beta

2008-11-18T16:23:00.004-07:00

This week I put the finishing touches on the pocketCourse beta. Since I used MLEX to put together the pages, I also made usability improves on that project also. I have more written up on pocketCourse along with a screen cast to show how it works.

pocketCourse underwent a few changes from its original design. Gone is lesson tabs on video and mp3 and new are tabs for assessment (quizzes and tests) and also a journal tab for students to keep personal notes or a journal/blog for their instructor. I also did some work on the color scheme and integrated more icons as opposed to text buttons. The user interface is now very clean and I think functional.

Still left to complete are instructions for the Instructors who use it but setting up pocketCourse is primarily just building two xml files and then preparing the html files for lectures, assessments and assignments. Oh BTW, mp3 and video files can be called from the html and also I integrated the CSS files from MLEX into pocketCourse so there are also some styling options.

The BlueTooth Kiosk maybe a project will be left for now. I am having difficultly getting two computers with BT devices to consistently communicate in a client server dialog. The technology here is much less developed for application development than with PDA mobile device programming.

BlackBerry continues to push for more application development so that it can compete with Apple and Google offerings. With there new Java tool, I might have a chance to create a BB version of my GCC Mapz program. I left it for dead earlier but I may try to revisit it before the sabbatical ends.

In the mean time, I will be testing and polishing up what I have done so far and perhaps will submit a couple of the projects for presentations at conventions and symposiums on mobile devices and learning.

The economic news continues to be bad for everyone and for Motorola and SonyEricsson who seen to be the most vulnerable to the slowdown. See WSJ story link for full story. Mobile device acquisition and new features will be effected by the downturn.

Catch Up ... (ketchup)

2008-11-10T09:25:00.005-07:00

This week has been catch up on documentation and samples. The pocketCourse project code is essentially done so I have been using MLEX (note name change from MLX to MLEX). I have three pocket course lectures done. I need to have completed courses to really test out the concept. I think pocketCourse could have some benefits for home bound students or folks overseas (maybe military).

I am waiting for my new bluetooth usb dongle to arrive from Hong Kong. Great price on eBay but it has to be air mailed from Hong Kong. I think I have proven that a bluetooth kiosk would be easy enough to build and use but with my PDA as the client tester I can not put it though its paces. The new BT dongle on my laptop should expedite the testing.

I don't suspect I will be doing much more on the sabbatical in terms of new development. I need to document and further test what I have done far. I will continue to add to the mobileDot web site and I have been adding some new features to the next version of MLEX. Using the tool for the pocketCourse project has opened my eyes to some new features that should be helpful.

Let me know if you would like to test the MLEX beta.

MLX Ready for Beta and Thinking Outside The Box

2008-10-30T16:49:00.011-07:00

MLX has officially reached beta. The program is packaged for deployment, has been tested for basic operation, a operations document has been created to describe how the program works, a FAQ about how and why the program was created and finally, a Screen Cast (click on each to view Flash version and Windows Movie version) showing how MLX works. It is ready folks.... If you would like a copy to try/test, send me a email.

As I mentioned in last weeks blog, I would be moving on to new topics and thinking ...

Outside The Box...(outside the rocks?)

I have already begun work on PocketCourse which will take content and deliver it via a PDA or MS Mobile Device.

I am also looking at two new technologies. A Bluetooth Server and and SMS Server. Given the availability of Internet support on mobile devices (WiFi, GSM and CDMA Internet) and the cost of the services, the average student may still not have the resources to use html browser delivered content.

I am experimenting with the concept that SMS (text messages) and Bluetooth servers could be placed on a campus and a local connection could be made to these access points and a transfer of information via messages could take place. A student could walk up to one of these servers with their cell phone and send either a text message or Bluetooth message asking for campus services.

I have been working first with a Bluetooth server (written using the PYTHON programming language) and resources available from Google. A student could ask for a syllabus, an assignment or other class information as long as they are close to the server. I have some proto-type code already running but both the Bluetooth and SMS solutions are very much out of the box for me. Stay tuned ...

On the Verge...

2008-10-23T14:19:00.004-07:00

I have held out on this weeks blog as long as I can and unfortunately I was not able to get everything done that I had planned. If anything, it might prompt some visits to my web site.

I have finished a beta version of the MLX (mobile learning experiment) tool. I have talked about this tool in the blog and on the mobileDot web site. It will let you create a single page that will display on a PC or mobile device. I have set it up for deployment so that anyone who would like to give me feedback and suggestions can. I am asking that I receive and email before I give the executable out. You need a Microsoft Windows device capable of running Microsoft .Net 3.5.

I have been also using the tool to prepare some content for my GCC Spring 2009 classes. I am going to be adding a web page on my mobileDot web site that will show you some of the examples I have come up with so far. It is using the tool and more fully testing features (and adding enhancements that have been slowing me down. It is hard to decide what is enough function for the beta when I know I can fix this and that to make it better. Decisions... decisions. Worst case I will be announcing its availability for others to use this weekend.

This week, I will also be returning to a new project for my sabbatical called pocketCourse. A .Net application that delivers all course content on a PDA.

This is a short blog for this week. I will post another short one when the MLX code is available for download.

p.s. For you cell phone guru's, G1 (T-Mobile Android Cell Phone) was available for purchase yesterday (10/22). Not the fanfare of iPhone but there is quite a bit in the press (even the bad economy and politics couldn't drown it out!

In the New$... It's the ecomomy !

2008-10-16T07:49:00.008-07:00

With the economy dominating the new$, it has also impacted the mobile device market. As companies wait to see what consumer spending will look like, announcements on new products and features seemed to have slowed. It is hard to tell what the impact to my project will be except to say that the impacts may not be fully seen until after the election and the holidays.

What I wanted to highlight this week was some articles and web pages related to mobile technology. I also am seeing that it looks like the most feasible inroads to mobile computing for college students is wifi enabled devices (cell phones, pda's and mp3 players). With the GCC campus (as well as most college campuses) being wifi enabled, a free Internet connectivity option is already available to introduce mobile content (Syllabi, assignments, lectures, and supplemental resources) to students as part of class.

I see wifi enabled devices (even if access is via a wifi enabled mp3 player like iTouch) as a real area of optimism. As an experiment, I went to Google and eBay to see the number of options for wifi enabled cell phones and also the options available to me with my provider (Verizon). On the Bizrate web site I found a number of wifi enabled mobile devices that were cell phone at a variety of prices (prices $20 to $1700). Obviously the higher price products were newer and include more and better technology.

My second experiment was to go to eBay and search on "Verizon cell phone wifi". eBay returned several pages of cell phone devices for Verizon with again, prices anywhere from $50 to $1000 dollars depending on the features and if the device was refurbished. I was surprised a the number of options and the pricing.

I have a couple of articles/web pages from lifehacker.com in this blog. The first article just came out out today (10/16/2008). It is an extensive review of the T-Mobile Google Android G1 product. It reviews features and contrasts it with the market leader in smartphones, iPhone. The reviewer is a iPhone user and presents some interesting observations.

My last article/web page comes from www.lifehacker.com where it recently asked its members to vote on their favorite mobile operating system. The implication here is that the winning operating systems will determine what software development options will exist. The vote produced what I would consider predictable results:

(1) iPhone (versions 1 and 2) 38%
(2) Microsoft Mobile 16%
(3) Blackberry at 9%.*

*Interesting was 13% are waiting for Google Android G-1 even thought it has not been officially released by T-Mobile yet.

The numbers are probably predictable since lifehacker.com is a popular tech site and the folks who visit it are likely to be more of the "tech junkies" who tend to favor the Apples leading edge products.

Have you seen the latest output from the MLX1 tool that creates one html page that can be viewed on a PC (large screen) or mobile device (small screen)? Check out the mobileDot web site and test it out.

Do you like this blog? If you think it is important. let me know with a comment. If you would like additional/other topics, also let me know.

Testing 123...

2008-10-09T08:54:00.005-07:00

This week was Demonstration Week for my web page tool. I had the opportunity to show a couple of people the web pages created by my mobile web page tool. It is important to remind everyone that the goal of this tool is to provide a easy to use web development editor that will create a single web page that will be readable on a PC sized monitor or a mobile display. Normally, a web page designed for a PC will shrink to microscopic size when viewed by browsers loaded on a cell phone.
See how it works!

I will give you a url that has a page (http://www.garymarrer.com/sabbatical/cis159.html) that was built by my mobile web page builder. Look at it first on the PC browser of your choice (IE, FireFox, Safari,Opera,etc.). Once you have viewed the page (note: it still has some edits I need to make), then go to http://www.operamini.com/demo/?url=http://www.garymarrer.com/sabbatical/cis159.html . This site is maintained by Opera to demonstrate their mobile browser. It is really a cell phone emulator running a browser program that can link to a URL on the web.

Compare the two browsers (PC and Opera cell phone browser). You will see that both documents are very readable. You can also connect to other web based cell phone browsers (http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php) to see even more cell phone browsers.

If you want to see what a web page that has not been setup for mobile display looks like, use the Opera mini browser and look at http://www.operamini.com/demo/?url=http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~gmarrer/ . See the difference? Notice how the page is squeezed into the display making it very difficult to see.

Try it out and let me know what you think. I think I have established that I can create a single page that is viewable on a PC or a mobile device.

Comments?

Google Android To Go..

2008-10-01T16:15:00.003-07:00

After a couple of trying weeks with the Java Wireless Toolkit, my spirits have been lifted with Google Andorid. Still Java (probably my favorite programming language), the Android Toolkit with the Eclipse IDE provided a very robust development environment. Not only did it offer superior debug facility but also syntax help at a mouse click (a very important feature when you are using a new programing environment). It was nice to hit the ground running and not run into a parked car ;)

I have been programming for twenty years but will each new programming language or API comes a learning curve. With the help of numerous examples and excellent resources provided by Google (videos, samples and forums) I muddled my way through a clone of my .Net GCC Mapz application is short order. A couple of videos last week and some documentation over the weekend, I had the Java MIDlet I created cloned in one day and a more robust version (similar to what I had done in .Net) in two days.

My experience is that whenever you have a new technology to learn (whether your experienced or not) it is always better to look for another program to use as a template. If your new to the technology, creating a program from scratch is very difficult. It is a lot like learning a new language. It is easier to read it from someone who knows the language then trying to speak it to a native from scratch...

I am very impressed and encouraged about Android. If just for a PDA, it is a very robust environment. Put with a smartphone, it can be a very powerful tool. Two weeks ago, T-Mobile and Google announced their intention of marketing a Google Phone. It is hard to say how the market will embrace Android but from a initial pricing standpoint, it seems much more attractive then the cost of an iPhone. I am hoping it is successful in the marketplace.

If you are interested in seeing what I have done, you can visit my web site and look at the screen shots and source code it took to create the Android GCC Mapz application. This is the first programming language I have used that took advantage of XML for the UI (although XAML and other technologies by different vendors are also going in that direction) and it was a little challenging at the start. Fortunately, with some good examples provided by many on the web, I was successful.

For the next week, I am going to start on a more robust thick client app (provide course content delivery on a mobile device) that has been started in .Net but which I have plans to implement in Android. I will also be looking at deployment strategies and the options for personal mobile apps on the various cell phone providers in the Phoenix area.

If you have and questions or comments, chime in.

Four steps forward two backward...

2008-09-25T18:53:00.004-07:00

This blog entry is a little later than normal. For the last week and a half, I have been working to clone my .Net GCC Mapz thick client application into a similar version written as a Java MIDlet. When it comes to thick clients, there is no one common mobile app solution (yet!). .Net, Java, iPhone and Android all are different that require different solutions with no dominant solution (although I have my preference so far) The .Net version of GGC Mapz will run on a .Net mobile device and the Java MIDlet will run on about everything else (almost).

The Java environment is one that has been in place for some time and offers the mobile app designer a variety of processes and tools for development. For my GCC Mapz app, I chose a MIDLET (like applet) for CDLC which is a version of Java mobile apps for more powerful (processor and memory) mobile devices. I found that Java development was much slower than .Net. Part of this is that I am a more experienced .Net programmer and partly because the .Net development tools are much more robust (more function). I worked with two Java IDE's. I used a Sun community open source IDE called NetBeans (version 6.0.1) and I also used the Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2 for CLDC. Both are a development standards for Java mobile apps with each having different strengths and weakness.

As an FYI, I have listed strengths and weaknesses of both (my opinion only)...

Java Wireless Toolkit 2.5.2

Strengths:

Most stable and been around the longest
Some examples on the Internet
The components are many and have most or what you would want for development
Decent documentation with examples
Interface very easy to understand

Weaknesses:

No coordinated IDE that you can use to access all of the necessary tools for development
No integrated debugger (BIG PROBLEM)
Documentation could be better

NetBeans 6.0.1

Strenghts

Integrated IDE - All tools available from one program
Good debugger
Included Examples
View Design (see weaknesses)
Has tools unavailable to the JavaWireless Toolkit

Weaknesses

Document voluminous but not as helpful as could be
A big foot print on install (takes a lot if space)
If you use Visual Tools development is quite a bit different that without the visual designers where development is similar to Java ME SDK
The IDE has so much attached to it that it can be difficult to use

Winner:

NetBeans (so far).... Without an integrated debugger Java mobile apps are a challenge. Java mobile apps are fundamentally different than with a Windowed app and requires practice to become proficient. Bottom line... Even if you are good at Java apps you will need to learn a additional skills for mobile apps. This is contrasted with the .Net IDE Visual Studio where development in a PC or mobile world is almost identical.

What the Java mobile environment needs is more examples and the programmer needs a lot of time to get comfortable with the design and coding. Screen controls for Java are fewer and less robust than their PC counterparts. As you will read in my thick client review of Java, I had to cut back on some of the features build into the .Net GCC Mapz program because of limitations (mostly caused by my inexperience with this part of Java).

Moving on ... yes I am moving on. I have a workable GCC Mapz Java program which I can use for deployment testing so I am going to leave it at that for now. I am going to start with an Android version of GCC Mapz which is also Java (a different IDE and the industry leader - Eclipse IDE) but have been impressed with the amount of documentation Google has made available. I am encouraged.

On the taking more steps forward..

This past week:

Google Android is demonstrated on T-Mobile phone. See articles on web site.

Thick Clients Started...

2008-09-15T08:17:00.006-07:00

This past week I started the section of my sabbatical on thick clients. This phase has two outcomes I am investigating.

Outcome one has to do with the development of a download able mobile app that would serve some educational purpose. I have decided on an application I started last year that displays a search able campus map (GCC Mapz). Since the first couple of weeks of school are always challenging for a new student to find their way around and since evening students do not have the available persons to ask directions to rooms and buildings on campus, I have written and application that can be downloaded once and used over and over to help locate building at GCC.

The application is already mobile ready for the .Net environment (and for mobile devices running the Microsoft Mobile or SmartPhone operating systems). I am now focusing on writing the application using the Sun Java Mobile SDK so that it can run on more types of mobile devices and finally, I will develop it on the Google Android environment which represents a future platform for mobile applications. I am working through the Java app right now.

GCC Mapz running in Windows PDA Emulator

The second outcome I am interested in for thick clients will be deployment. What cell phone carriers can I download these applications to and the process for doing so? This is an area where I do not have much existing experience and I am expecting to spend time with Verizon, t-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and Qwest staff and technical web pages understanding how applications are downloaded from their systems. This is an area which is rapidly changing due to the success of the Apple iPhone and the iPhone App Store.

I will also look at other deployment options such has Internet based wi-fi connections and Blue-Tooth connectivity.

I will do a little traveling this week so my sabbatical goes mobile. Keep watching my mobileDot web site for changes (note: with Google Site you can subscribe to changes and see how and what I am updating).

Let me know what you think out my blog and web site by sending an email.

A (thin client) tool is born...

2008-09-08T08:03:00.013-07:00

One of the goals for my sabbatical is not to reinvent the wheel in regards to mobile apps but to make creating content for the average faculty developer, easier. To take existing technology tools and software and combine, simplify and integrate. To this end, I have taken the findings of my first three weeks of work on thin clients and created a tool called mLearning Experimental 1.

larger view

It is a simple and very controlled html editor that hides from the author the technical settings in html and CSS necessary to display a web page readable on both a PC screen or a mobile device screen. As the screen shot shows, I have the same content on two different screens. This meets one of my goals which it to have a tool that allows faculty to create a page once and let the student view it from either a PC or mobile device.

Mobile page Screen Shot larger view

PC Page Screen Shot larger view

The program I created to accomplish this is almost completed testing. I have a few features I need to add before I can make it available to download. Anyone who would like to test it out shout let me know via email or a comment to this blog.

Visit my web site to see all three parts of my thin client project.

Next Up:

For this week I am going to move in to thick client projects where I have a campus map application that can be downloaded to smart device. The Microsoft .Net version is one I started earlier and is near completion. I will be porting the same application to both Google Android environments and the Java Mobile environment. With thick client, the entire application is downloaded to the phone so Internet connectivity need not be a requirement.

Food for thought:

I am investigating mobile technology primarily as a secondary source of content for the student. With the current state of cell phone tech (not all cell phones can run thick client apps or do not have access to the Internet), I can not assume all students have the accessed needed to make this the primary delivery mechanism. How long do you think it will take for all cell phones to have Internet access as a part of standard cellular plans? If you have a guess let me know and also go to my web site and take the mobile app survey on the top right corner of the web page.

Mobile Page Authoring Made Easier for Educators...

2008-09-02T08:39:00.008-07:00

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.

Week one complete and a little smarter...

2008-08-25T15:31:00.004-07:00

Communication Plan:

I have now spent my first week working full time on my sabbatical. It has been a productive week since it has give me the opportunity to concentrate on how I want to disseminate my research and also some boundaries on what projects I want to focus on. The plan from my original sabbatical proposal has not changed but some of the technology, topics and products has. With the advent of Android (from Google) and the iPhone from Apple, the climate for mobile computing is perfect for identifying how mobile technology will benefit on-line learning.

Deliverables:

mobileDot Blog: I want to use my Blog for weekly summaries of findings. It will focus on major events. I will also reserve the right to include (during the week) anything with major ramifications.

mobileDot Web Site: Most of the action will take place here. Announcement on sabbatical activities, links to mobile tech web pages, links to important articles on industry changes along with project pages that will contain info, applications, research on my key sabbatical projects. A site summary has been added and soon I will be asking others to help me in testing some of the tools and applications I have developed.

mobileDot Google Groups: The groups site is more for after the sabbatical is completed with the hope that I can share my findings with others and they can in turn share via a mobile app for learning community.

Google Tech... I have trying to take advantage of as much Google cloud technology as I can. I am using Google Sites for my mobileDot web site, Google Groups for discussion and collaboration, Google Docs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. Google think this experience will benefit me and my students as I return to GCC this spring and the plan to use Google Tools across MCCCD.

Week in Review:

This week I have been researching what others have done in regards to developing mobile content. This is a thin client approach but I believe is an area which has much benefit to students. If we can use their cell phones to disseminate class information, we can improve chances for success. I have looked at xhtml and css as to how they could be standardized for web page delivery. I have created my own templates for syllabi delivery over a small screen along with a emulator to test their effectiveness. I have looked at a variety of cell phone emulators (various hardware emulators along with symbian, .Net, iPhone and Opera software emulations).

One site in particular was outstanding in support of cell phone emulation and mobile design standards. dev.mobi.com is a must for the mobile developer. See my Thin Client (Generation One) for last weeks work and Thin Client (Generation Two) for my work this week.

Visit my site and comment freely...

I couldn't have said it better ... almost

2008-08-19T12:05:00.005-07:00

In the morning news....

In this mornings Wall Street Journal - Tech Blog, Ben Worthen did a very good job summarizing what I believe is the direction of mobile application development. There is no clear platform that has won the standards war so Apple (iPhone), Google (Android), RIM (Blackberry) and Microsoft (Smartphone and Mobile PC) will continue to fight it out. Diversity is good and we can expect the technology to only get better. With no common denominator in regards to platform, the most feasible standard is web page access but with the Mobile device taken in consideration in the design (screen size, app speed, etc.). Also as I have posted in a previous blog, wi-fi access in cell phones is still yet to be a cell phone standard but this is a critical piece for higher ed.

The suggestion is that your organization should not adopt a standard too soon and let your workers investigate the options to see what rises to the top (I guess you might say that what this sabbatical is all about), I think is a good one. You could look at cell phone platforms today being a little like the IBM/Microsoft versus Apple discussion that happened when personal computers were first available (actually that battle still goes on today with the addition of the Linux operating system).

I would add an additional concern to higher ed that was not included in the article. The blog was written for the business world. I think cost is an important factor for higher ed. With the cost of classes and books, students will not have the extra money to invest in costly custom software.

My goal is in my sabbatical to locate software and tools that are open source (preferably) and free for academic use. My feeling is that if enough of us in higher ed pool our resources and expertise, we can come up with cost effective solutions that will make our technology more effective in student learning (or at least that is the plan).

Cell Phone Di$play Emulator$

I am doing some work on cell phone display emulators this week. Since I do not have the budget to purchase a cell phone and contract will all of the major cell phone vendors (Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Qwest, AT&T, etc.) in the "Valley of the Sun", I want to rely on emulators that will allow me to put a "faux" cell phone on my computer screen that would look roughly the same as a real cell phone. I can then display web page and run web applications and see how they will look and perform on at least a "faux" cell phone emulation. I am looking at several "free" emulators. Some are web based and some, like MS Device Emulator, are installed on a PC. I have also created my own emulator page which is still a work in progress but can be accessed if you click here.

There are more resources on my sabbatical web site at http://sites.google.com/site/mobiledotsite/Home

Wi-Fi makes progress on Cell Phones

2008-08-15T13:05:00.002-07:00

Perhaps the technology with the most potential for the classroom is cell phones with built in wi-fi. This presents the best of many worlds. Most campuses have wi-fi support already so the infra structure is in place at no cost to the student or faculty. In addition, the Internet standard of contetn delivery represents a known commodity for faculty to publish content. With some estimates of 94% of students owning cell phones, if they also contain wi-fi support that means 94% of are students walking around with network devices. Read this c/Net article on the status of wi-fi in cell phones (yes, it is almost here).

Cell Phone Features/Standards - A helpful web site

2008-08-14T09:30:00.003-07:00

One of the goals of my sabbatical is to attempt to identify if a standard is emerging in cell phones as it pertains to the delivery of academic content (web pages, mp3, video, files, etc). If we are going to bring online mobile content to students, cell phones are truly ubiquitous and they certainly are pervasive and therefore a central point of connectivity to academic materials. Issues like the ability of the cell phone company to allow downloads and the cell phone technology they employ (CDMA versus GSM) is also critical to understanding if an open system standard is emerging and which companies will be following it.

Students at MCCCD need a cost effective solution that will be easy to use and hopefully come without any additional cost. One of my challenges to isolate the features and directions of the cell phone plans in the Phoenix area. Since these features are connected to the marketing and sales of each the fine print is important.

The other part of the equation is the phone itself. Not all phones are created equal so comparing phones in regards to size of display, keyboard and wi-fi access is also an important piece of information.

I was Googling terms this morning and came across a helpful web site to get a snap shot of cell phone provider services and cell phone features. The PhoneDog.com web site http://www.phonedog.com is very helpful in evaluating side by side feature comparisons of providers and phones. The site appears both comprehensive and neutral although it is obviously benefiting from numbers cell phone provider and manufacturer advertising.

Check it out. It could save you some search time.

My Sabbatical Timeline

2008-08-12T13:35:00.003-07:00

As August 18 approaches and the official start of my sabbatical, I thought those reading this blog might be interested in what I hope to accomplish (at a minimum). I expect that given the changes that we have seen in the cell phone market regarding applications, much new material will be added and the project will grow.

Stayed tuned… much more to come.

Sabbatical Timeline

Sabbatical Setup (August 2008)
- Select blog site with RSS support
- Enable web site location
- Plan web site design
Documentation and Findings (August – December 2008)
- Weekly Blog updates
- Weekly Web site updates from Blog and Development
Phase One (August –October 2008)
- Research and Planning
  - Survey electronic resources (small screen technology)
  - Survey print resources (small screen technology)
  - Search for conference workshop opportunities (small screen technology)
  - Research mobile style topics with Cascading Style Sheets
  - Research Opera small screen rendering support
- Design
  - Select best of breed technologies for 5 case studies
  - Determine if additional tools need to be developed
- Development
  - Create five working examples of small screen technology
  - Development of software tools (if necessary)
  - Enable examples on Sabbatical Web Site
Phase Two (October – December 2008)
- Research and Planning
  - Survey small screen technology futures
  - Meet with personal wireless device vendors in Phoenix area
  - Search for conference workshop opportunities (small screen technology)
- Design
  - Design five future feasible small screen technologies research with vendors
  - Describe the design development for web content five years out
- Development
  - Create five working examples of future small screen technology
  - Document five futures examples on Sabbatical Web Site
Wrap up (December 2008)
- Finalize documentation on Web site
- Setup of web site discussion forum
- Prepare PowerPoint presentation for web site and interested parties
- Sabbatical final report

Expected Outcomes

My hope is that the culmination of this sabbatical will create a dialog across the district on how to effectively use personal wireless device technology for teaching and learning. The benefit will be to both students and faculty. Any software tools I can develop will only help adoption and use of personal wireless devices.

Mobile Apps - A new openness

2008-08-05T13:06:00.007-07:00

There is an interesting story in today's online New York Times on the effect the iPhone has had on previously reluctant cell phone companies to give users freedom to place non-sponsored apps on their cell phone. The article Aug. 4th by Laura Holson describes the change of heart at Verizon (to name one company) and gives a nice survey of topics and factors that influence the mobile app market.

What is clear is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel but there is also much to still do. The consumer is now putting pressure on their cell phone providers to supply the services seen on the iPhone (and their PC). A good read and a good step for more educational uses of the cell phone in higher ed.

Google Android versus Apple App Works

2008-07-20T18:13:00.002-07:00

The battle for who becomes the standard in cell phone mobile apps continue to heat up with Google's Android facing real pressure from the new Apple iPhone App Store. CNet has an interesting perspective on recent developments via a blog by Garett Rogers. Click here to read the blog and see some of the responses.

My Summer slow down...

2008-07-14T08:42:00.006-07:00

It has been some time since I have posted to the blog. Part of this is because I have been teaching this summer and part of it is because I did not want to get ahead of myself on the sabbatical.

Two big events have happened since the last post (or within the last two months). One was the purchase of Symbian by Noika and the establishment of a new app development alliance. This might be seen as an alternative (and therefore threat) to Android by Google. The other big event(s) has been the product announcements by Apple to the iPhone. THe iPhone has gone 3G and also is pushing app development by third parties.

The iPhone, Symbian and Google Android will all have a significant impact on what mobile computing will look like next year.

I will be officially ramping up my posts for my sabbatical after the first of August. I will be teaching and enjoying a little vacation until then.

2008-05-13T13:23:00.001-07:00

Getting Started with Google Android

I took my first steps in my sabbatical today with a Google Android video series available on the the Google Android site. As a person who has done quite a bit of programming across multiple platforms, I am struck with the openness of the product design and other products used to make the environment (Linux, SQLite, etc.) and also the reusable and component design of the application development. This is a shift or I should say a next step from what I have been using in the .Net and Java development environments.

The first video "Androidology" covered the internal and review the architect of the Google Android product and how parts of the architecture would be used by those developing applications for Android enabled devices. You can see an Android demo video. This is not only very impressive from a graphics standpoint this seems to have all of the power of navigation and ease of use of the iPhone.

The last video in the series is on developing Android applications. A programmers demo if you will that will walk you through the typical "hello world" application in Android.

I am very excited about this product and can see it having allot of potential for apps in the classroom using mobile devices.

2008-03-12T07:25:00.001-07:00

Geting started with Cell Phones

Understanding this technologies infrastructure is critical to using this platform for cell developlment. I have started my search of good web links to use as resources. I found a good one today that I like for its comprehensiveness and relavance. Cellular Basics has an excellent page on some infrastucture fundamentals. it is technical and it is mostly a discussion of hardware and radio frequency but still a very good resource for basic information on cell phone technology. THe article appears on the PrivateLine web site. Read on.

Food for Thought

"The number of computers using mobile broadband technology to access the Internet grew by 154 percent in the 4th quarter of 2007 versus the same period in 2006, according to comScore, a research firm. comScore, which measures online behavior, said the total number of computers going online through mobile broadband technology grew to 2.1 million from 854,000."

Dian Schaffhauser, "Mobile Broadband Internet Use Growing Dramatically," T.H.E. Journal, 3/7/2008, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/22192

The complete article from The Journal can be found by clicking here.

What is Microsoft up to....

2008-02-11T12:26:00.001-07:00

Note:
I have been busy so this blog has been a little slow. It will be much busier the end of the spring semester as I ready for my sabbatical.

I did fall upon a couple of stories from Business Week and the New York Time's on the state of mobile computing at Microsoft that appeared interesting. I have placed the link below:

Microsoft's Mobile Progress

Here is a similar story from the New York Times:

Sony Ericsson to Make Windows Mobile Phones

Students Love their Cell Phones

2008-01-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

In an article printed by Campus Technology publishing data captured by Eduvendtures showing that 97% of college student own a cell phone. It also shows that 5% have cell phone enabled PDA's. The survey also shows that 79% of students have laptops (versus 49% for desktops).

The article can be read on the Campus Technology by linking this web page:

http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/57155/

Welcome to Mobile Dot

2008-01-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

First, a little about the name of this Blog. I plan on using this blog for discussion on mobile applications. Sometimes the content with be mobile app development and sometimes the content will pertain to using mobile devices in education. I am interested in both topics.

The Mobile Dot means that sometimes it might be a mobile.edu or a mobile.com theme. Mobule dot covers them all. I will be adding to the Blog sound so keep posted.