Is it about "mobile" or "learning"?

The tablets have rapidly changed from mere text-based eBook readers to versatile multimedia-capable prosumer devices. We are using chat, discussion, notification and conferencing capabilities more and more on tablets instead of pc's and laptops. With an iPad, one can produce an interactive book without sweat or share a project as a Google Document or a NearPod collaborative network. 

This is called mobile authoring, as Harvey Singh named it in his session on the hottest trends of mLearning. Actually he focused on mobile learning technology, and there was nothing about the learning itself - but Singh kept his logic and didn't even try to tinker with pedagogy.

Singh discussed the differences between mobile/native apps and web/browser-based services. New trend is to make a hybrid app. That means that some features are downloaded to the tablet/app memory, and some features, like rapidly changing content,  are to be fetched online. The app of the conference itself, mLearnCon is a good example on this. The schedule, my own agenda, my notes, and session notes are downloaded to the tablet. Twitter feed and app/content updates are updated whenever online. I found this approach handy.

Almost ten mLearn startups to watch

Thurday keynote was by Jason Calacanis, a renowned venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley. His subject was Ten Mobile Learning Startups to Watch. 

Calacanis' shortlist of (almost) ten startups:
- flipping the classroom
- dashboards
- adaptive systems
- gameification
- rockstar teachers
- social
- largely free
Many of these may seem cryptic and they'd all deserve a separate blog entry for themselves, but this is not the time and the place.

Calacanis is a digital business expert and no doubt has a vision of the mobile business industry trends. Alas, he is not a teacher, nor has he any particular expertise on that sector. It would have been a good decision to focus on the business and tech. Anyhow, he chose to discuss what the learning is like nowadays, and how it should change.

Calacanis presented old conceptions and examples of current education and made generalisations that do not have anything in common with the personalized facilitation a talented teacher can give. 1-to-1 facilitation, peer learning and collaborative knowledge construction have been around for decades. If some teachers do not take advantage of these methods, there is no "deus ex machina" technology to make them to do so. It's more about attitude, thinking and methodical skills than about the tools used.

It's also not about whether a certain technology or pedagogic method is applied - is't about how it fits the learner, the context, the subject. "Teaching" and "learning" are about interaction.

The issue and even problem of much the fuzz over mLearning is that the interest tends to focus on "mobile", although the key, the stem word of the concept is "learning".

Asking Tiresias by pen&paper

mLearnCon final panel session had a nice method of getting the un-answered questions heard.

Every attendant wrote down a question on a card, shared it with another participant, rated the question 1-5, and passed the card over. This way every card got 5 ratings, and those gotten 22-25 points got answered by the panel.

Works fine, even without any digital device :)

PS. I'll be blogging about yesterday & this morning sessions later this week and continue with ISTE next week.
PPS. I deleted my blog entry by accident after having published it in a wrong blog. Doing a Google search with "cache:fillari.blogspot.com" helped me to find a cached version of the blog before deleting the post, thus this kind of framed picture.

Cellphone 150 – toothbrush 2

Changing habits is as easy as brushing your teeth

The opening keynote of mLearnCon by BJ Fogg was from an unexpected point of view – psychology and behavioral change. Fogg provided us three winning recipes which he exemplified mostly with the social media.

1. Put hot triggers into the service. As an example Fogg gave Facebook and the way joining and liking requires activity and selection from user while they open up some new interesting realms to him or her.
2. Trigger the right sequence with a path of baby-steps. They are small triggers that must be designed to form the successful sequence. For example GroupOn.com makes you click first to see something more, then order a free sample, then download a proper app for it, and after that it feels natural to let the app get to know more of your behavioral procedures.
3. Build from habits to habits+. Use the tiny successes snowball effect. Tie the change into good anchors, to old habits & situations. Self-celebrating tiny successes is a key factor. So: If you want do do more push-ups, use some anchor, preferably in you morning routines. After brushing your teeth or after peeing, like he said, do it every time. (The mens’ bathroom might be an odd scene if every participant decided to make the change.)

There are more cellphones in the world than toothbrushes or pants

Judy Brown gave an overview of mobile learning. With the help of some statistical graphs she let us learn eg:

“there are more cellphones in the world than toothbrushes or pants” (and in the US, a mobile device is grabbed 150x a day, which seems to hold water also with my behavioral pattern)

“there are more mobile subscriptions in the world than access to electricity or pure drinking water”.

Brown presented trends, some strong already and some just igniting:

• iPads are coming fast (eg. over 400 th. USD savings per reduced 25 pounds per year for an airline company for delivering onboard schedules and manuals in iPad format)
• Gamification
• Location-based learning (from distance to proximity learning)
• Augmented reality and data goggles are just aroung the corner

Well planned is half done, and well done is… naturally, a success

University of Central Florida has produced a mobile app as a front end for their online courses and other studying activities like campus news&events, maps, library, Facebook&Twitter link etc.

I was impressed by the clear strategy and execution of it, how they had planned, tested, piloted and released the app. If you are a project manager or if you are involved in a similar project, check their slides (will be available here, see session 402).

Ultrathin keyboard and mLearnCon app make a paperless con

I type a lot, and I use touch typing, so the input system of the iPad has felt too slow and it has required watching your fingers. Now I've gotten a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard. It has made typing easy while being a handy cover for the iPad. These blogtexts have been written with it.

Another sign of the maturing of the iPad scene are the well executed situational apps, like the mLearnCon app. It is a good example of a well structured, easy to use and yet versatile app.

The conference attendant finds all the practical info and Twitter feed on the front page. What I like a lot is the session specific ability to make notes, give feedback and see slides from the app.

There are some things to code better, though. The Notes field show only one third of the text. Also, personal agenda selection is device-specific. So, I can't see my agenda on my iPhone if I've done the selections on my iPad.

Overall, the iPad app of the conference freed me from the printed papers altogether. Kudos to the team that made the app!

Tiresias, anyone?

Ulysses set his foot on an airplane in Helsinki, Finland. He sat down to his seat and opened James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds.

Surowiecki shows how a numerous and varied crowd can hit the nail a lot better than one or two experts, and how it’s possible to get better results by adding some less-informed laymen to the decision-making, if they make the group more versatile.

If the group is too homogeneous or if it relies on one authority, the decision-making process is doomed into one-minded and one-eyed group thinking. In it, criticism and radical alternatives are regarded as threats to the truth of the group and as wrong and impossible solutions.

We'll have wonderful opportunities to vision and mold the future of education in mLearn and ISTE2012. We will see and listen to world-renowned professionals in plenaries and other sessions. In reflecting on these visionaries, modern-day Tiresias, let's keep the real subject, the learner clear in our mind. What is the core essence and the actual goal in the particular learning process? What will change in his or her learning by changing the tools or methods?

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The Sirens sing irresistible songs, marketing hype if you like, to all Ulysseses who sail on the sea of knowledge and try to make smart decisions and choices. I’m not talking about eLearning or mLearning now, as topical they might be here, but about sustainable development.

American Airlines served us a mug of coffee, and not just any standard java, but Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee. That comes from farms which will protect the wildlife and improve the quality of life for farm families.

"Sustainably Grown" they've written on the mug. On a styrox mug. A mug made of material that takes five hundred years or more to decompose. I hear the call of the sirens. I listen to it, and I drink the coffee. Hope the crew maintains the course.

Telemakheia, or what did the sparrow learn

A young man came from his room, trudged across the floor and uttered a vague g’morning. Not in a stately manner, not even a plump figure, but enough in the mild morning air to represent a son of a Ulysses. He had woken up to drive his parents to the airport.

This Ulysses is a learning solutions specialist who set off for a journey on Bloomsday, to attend mLearn conference in San Jose and ISTE2012 conference in San Diego. This Odyssey is a blog about his experiences and ideas gotten along the way.

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Being noticed asks for the right time and the right place. Practically no one would pay attention to a sparrow at the parking field outside the mall, or on the fence of the rare birds cage in a zoo.

However, if the sparrow walks on the shiny floor at an airport, trying to maintain balance on a difficult surface at the gate 38, it comes a central point of attraction.

Has it learned that the travellers drop food enough to nourish it? How near it lets people and their bags come before it flies further? Oh, and it didn't bother to fly, but took some steps away. How funnily it jumps, must be because of the uncommon ground. It must have learned a lesson or two.