Category Archives: Youth

Phone sharing in Europe and emerging economies

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Via Experentia:

According to a recent Nokia survey of consumers in emerging markets [conducted in India, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Vietnam, Russia and Egypt], a new trend appears to be emerging: phone sharing. More than 50% of respondents in India, Pakistan and nearly 30% in Vietnam indicate that they share, or would share, their mobile phone with family or friends – a figure which contrasts consumer behaviour in more mature markets.

“Phone sharing is a logical trend – more and more families are purchasing a mobile phone for the entire family to use, not just the head of the household. In addition, digital cameras are quickly becoming more popular in these markets, and as such taking and sharing digital images is becoming more common,” adds Lambeek. “In response, Nokia has developed a number of innovative features like the multiple phonebook to support phone sharing, and we have added technologies like Bluetooth to some models to make transferring images and ringtones easy and affordable.”

Interestingly, this is not only occuring in emerging markets (although i’m sure that emerging market lead the way in this behaviour as it just plain makes sense for consumers with lower incomes.)

A recent large French study (French PDF) found that families in varying income brackets tend to share devices:

1. The mobile phone is no longer just a personal device. In 2007, the phone is integrated within collective practices both in the family and between friends.

Mobile phone are increasingly objects that circulate within a group. The owner of the mobile phone is no longer the only one to touch it, check it and use it.

Mobile phones can allow for exchanges based on the amount of credit left before the end of the month and on the range of hourly allowances when calls are free. This can also lead to a collective choice of operators, of discount plans and of prepaid cards, with the sole aim of optimising cost within the group.

Within the family, mobile phone reinforce the asymmetric role and character of the parent-child relationship: whereas parents do not think about money when calling their children, the children themselves try to save money by “beeping” their parents, in order to be called back.

The mobile of the child is a jointly managed tool and a transaction device. It is experienced by the parents – and mainly by the mothers – as an opportunity for exchange with their child and as a way for children to learn to manage a financial budget.

Within a group of friends, mobile phones serve to define roles and affinities. One can find the expert, and the user with difficulties, the “banker” who always has some credit, and the “borrower” who always asks for text messages and minutes (without ever giving them).

Beyond these roles, the mobile phone created relations of exclusivity with those whom one calls most often based on the tariff offers and their compatibility.

More on this study–again on Experentia.

Reading list, Virtual online worlds and MMOGs

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(Preface…not much blogging lately as i’ve been struggling with my spam issue for several months. At least i’m not alone with this particular problem but having to wade through instructions to harden WordPress and worry about the nasty emails i’ve received from Google are making me reconsider the amount of energy required to host a blog on my server vs a hosted provider. Spam is gone…for now…will see how things continue to develop before I make any drastic decisions…)

Been learning about virtual worlds and economies lately and thought i’d share some of the interesting links i’ve dug up:

Kids, Technology, Brands…(Part 2- Gary Pope on the interaction of preschoolers with branded/licensed products.)

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Preface: I watched three great presentations about kids over the past few weeks. The first at Fjord’s MobileCamp London; was mobile focused. The second, at Brandlicensing Expo 2007 was about preschoolers and their relationships with branded/licensed toys. The third was Marc Presky’s plenary presentation at Handheld Learning 2007 on kids, technology and learning.

All three presentations were—in some way—about play and discussed (directly or otherwise) many of the reasons technology is so compelling to children. The similarities and contrasts in these presentations; despite their differing audiences and subject matter were also interesting.

Talk 2: Gary Pope from Kids Industries spoke about the interaction of preschoolers with branded/licensed products.

Once again…lots of paraphrasing but the original presentation is available for download on the Kids Industries web site.

What games did you play as a child? What games do kids play today?

[Interesting that the audience replied with actual games like hide and seek, building stuff, playing 'house'/'adventure', puzzles, as what they used to do but the names of brands (Nintendo, Barbie, Playstation etc.) as what kids do now.]

But ignoring the brand names for a moment, do kids still play other games? Yes they do—just maybe in a different way [with technology and brands as enablers or point of inspiration.]

Why are children different from adults?

The Developmental Superhighway. [Picture of a highway with 4 cars—one social, emotional, physical, cognitive.] It’s a way for us to remember why we’re all different. The highway is analogous with the development of a human being. Each child has four lanes on his/her highway. Each lane represents one of the four key developmental aspects that we should all be considering whenever we make product for children. When we are born the cars in each of the development lanes race off…but some move more quickly that others. Some of us become more social and emotional, or cognitive. This affects life experiences. And this is why we’re all different because we each encounter different things and learn how to deal with them at different stages.

As they grow, kids explore (try out…) different personalities…then eventually, settle on the one that feels most like them. Their development also affects the way they perceive the world around them. [Goes on to give a variety of examples of things that kids will see differently than adults. The ability to decipher (or not) an abstract representation of a very common thing (a face), an experiment to assess kids' perception of volumes of liquid in a container (flip the container over and the water rises since the bottom of the bottle is wider than the top...is there still the same amount of water in the bottle?), the ability/inability to perceive differences in colour based on contrast or luminance levels etc.]

Products designed for children should aim for the zone of Proximal Development (the space between what they ‘can do’ and can’t do’. The area just above their developmental age.)

“The child’s Needstate is for product and service offerings which enables exploration at the very boundaries of a child’s abilities–cognitive, social, emotional and physical”.

Products that connect with kids address a common need—power. “Products that connect with children [do so] because they resonate so very deeply with the emerging adult human being.” Kids are always being told what to do. A very natural need…to leverage what power they do have. Effective socialization, development of peer groups (second only to family) are fundamental to success in life.

“The Need is for product and service offerings that enable the children to socialise effectively in the 21st Century living.” [Technology is a huge enabler in this respect—gives kids power to create and negotiate relationships, maintain peer groups, assert creativity etc.]

“In the new experience economy, companies must realise that they make memories, not goods” (Joseph Pine, 1998.) “The reason for the existence of a product is to offer an experience. Children (and adults) only truly learn through experience. Children need to make meaning to connect. Compelling products allow children to connect with it on their terms. “This is a complex process reinforced by the ability of a product to retain attention, allow the child to become engaged and create memories.

Children identify with branded characters in 4 ways.

  • Reflective: the character is like them.
  • Emulatory: they aspire to be the character.
  • Nurturing: they want to take care of the character.
  • Disidentification: they identify with darker elements and begin to make sense of what this means for them.

And what is Play?

  • An end to itself.
  • Freely chosen
  • Pleasurable
  • Non-literal (make believe is always present in some way)
  • Actively engaged – physically and psychologically

Is play with branded toys bad for children?

What makes a character ‘traditional’ vs ‘licensed’ [Is it how it looks? Primitive vs high design/production values? Where does culture enter in? Can a traditional looking thing in one culture look more commercial in another?]

Naysayers say branded toys are not creative, bring advertising into the home, compel kids to imitate rather than imagine, don’t engage parent. Is this really true? Branded toys are often the point of inspiration. Bring fully formed characters into the child’s play but from there…play takes over. Barbie, Star Wars and Sponge Bob can co-exist in a storyline that has nothing to do with the brand but is enhanced by favourite characters and scenarios.

“There is no such thing as Traditional or Licensed toys as far as children are concerned. There are only good toys and bad toys.”

Goes on to discuss the different types of play: solitary, socio-dramatic, parallel, associate, cooperative, constructive, dramatic and character play. Also provides a charming photo of his daughter’s favourite pocket-toys—all licensed characters—taken on a family trip to the London Eye. The toys were carefully arranged within the observation capsule for an inspiring view of London and participated in the family outing. Would this experience created by a small child deciding to take her ‘friends’ along on a family outing have been any more or less meaningful had these been ‘no-name’ characters or toys?

It’s also worth noting—for those who find this talk a bit too marketing focused that Gary also appealed to brand owners to stop packaging these toys in such an un-sustainable manner. We could easily berate the tech/electronics industry in the same manner for all the overpackaged dongles, flash drives and USB connectors.

[I tend to agree with Gary's perception of licensed and overtly branded toys. As an adult, I have a variety of branded characters on my desk—accumulated over the years and carried around the world every time we moved. Some of these toys attracted me because of the design but the fact that many of them have stories behind them have great appeal and are integral to my affection for them. From a kids' marketing point of view, there is still the huge issue of the pressure created by advertising for parents to buy these toys. There also seems to be a bit too much personal identity wrapped up in having 'cool stuff' whether this is a branded toy, or an iPod. I don't think however that this is totally limited to kids. I would suspect that adult, early-adopters of technologies, brands and pop culture (the three are pretty much intertwingled at this point) suffer from the same pressures at times. Still, should we be exposing youngsters to this pressure.

Many thanks to Gary from Kids Industries for sending me a copy of his presentation to use as backup to my notes.]

Kids, Technology, Brands…(Part 1 – Dr. Norman Lewis on Digital Kids and Disruption)

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Preface: I watched three great presentations about kids over the past few weeks. The first at Fjord’s MobileCamp London; was mobile focused. The second, at Brandlicensing Expo 2007 was about preschoolers and their relationships with branded/licensed toys. The third was Marc Presky’s plenary presentation at Handheld Learning 2007 on kids, technology and learning.

All three presentations were—in some way—about play and discussed (directly or otherwise) many of the reasons technology is so compelling to children. The similarities and contrasts in these presentations; despite their differing audiences and subject matter were also interesting.

Talk 1: Dr. Norman Lewis (ex Director of Technology Research, Orange UK—now at Wireless Grids) on “Digital Kids and Disruption”.

Paraphrased from my lengthy notes…

An important aspect in the process of the internationalization of digital technology into childhood is tension between the agenda of adults and those of young people.

Kids spend more time in the presence of adults than ever before, as a result, there is no space ‘for kids. Parents used to say to kids “get out of the house, play, come back at dinner”, now kids are driven around, attend supervised sports, after school classes, ‘safe’ activities etc. This new intergenerational dynamic is the key to understanding why digital technology is so attractive to young people

Kids see technology as entertainment, diversion, relief from boredom—parents want it to be educational.

Parents see technology as a way of minimizing risk (of the outside world)—kids see it as freedom from constant supervision. The changing character of childhood particularly the shift from outdoor play to indoor play mean children want digital apps that are under their control, help them pass time, provide entertainment, connect with peers and evade supervision.

It’s not the tech/gadgets that attract the kids it’s the desire to break out of that space and experiment.

Therefore if not sensitive to this motivation—products will get it wrong

Self-expression becomes a key element of how they interact with the world, a mechanism to develop identity and reputation or develop a peer culture. Studies show that kids may have 300 ‘friends’ on MySpace, Bebo etc. but often only have 6 IM friends. These friends often live on same street, go to the same school—are ‘real’ friends. The most important thing about blogging (mySpace, Bebo etc.)—for kids—is peer acknowledgement (creativity and sharing). Teenage girl are the biggest blogging demographic by far.

For kids, moderating their social status depends on their ability to personalize these new technologies within a peer context.

Old approach to disseminating personal ‘content’: Top down, information is broadcast to friends and community. New approach: you are in the middle (of a big organic circle) surrounded by your ‘people’, devices, content—all this creates a personal, organically shaped and overlapping network that defines who you are. You determine what content, what means of communication etc—you decide. The communication of content becomes less significant than the network of communication

When exchanging pictures, talking about a show it’s not the content that’s important, it’s the creation of a network/relationship using the content. Service providers shouldn’t be thinking “how can I make a deal with ‘x’ brand owner to put on this content on my network” instead “how can I enable the audience to consume this content amongst friends which will in turn drive usage of my network”.

Myth: children are naturally good with tech. Why is this untrue? Maybe they simply have a less structured approach to discovery, less baggage. This tech is there, all around them so why not use it, try it, play—it becomes part of the means through which they exist in the world, through which they appropriate and internalize the world. No distinction between tech and ‘non-tech’—it’s just life.

What will they need when they grow up? Will they put up with the bad UIs? Will they push the boundaries [think out of the box…naturally because it's a different box that they conceptualize]. We do them a disservice when we flatter them (call them ‘digital natives’)—we should use this opportunity to tempt them to investigate the technology, by flattering them we are letting them (and us, and everyone) off the hook from innovating.

Went on to talk about an ambitious project while he was at Orange to port Scratch to mobile devices as an authoring environment. Would allow kids to make content, share it, adapt what their friends made, and share it again. If we enable this, the younger generation would/could do exciting stuff.

How can you apply all the above insights to the design of products for mobile devices?

Brighton, London, conferences etc.

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We’re moving on again (on Monday…yikes…) Bryan has been offered a full-time position working with Future Platforms in Brighton. I will be taking a month or so off to sort out what i’m doing next (definetely something mobile…) and in the meantime; I already have a very full schedule.

  • September 29-30: Mobile BarCamp at Fjord in London
  • October 10-13: HandHeld Learning 2007 (There are a bunch of discounted passes on offer at the moment. Tony Vincent at Learning In Hand is offering £70 off while Tribal CTAD are offering a 15% off voucher over on Geoff’s blog.)
  • October 16-17: Symbian Smartphone Show (they have some pretty eclectic speakers on offer–all for free–including Padmasree Warrior (CTO Motorola), Tomi Ahonen and Matt Millar from Adobe EMEA(/Mobile Innovation.) And of course lots of phones to play with…I really miss the tech malls in Bangkok so this will be my hansdet fix for the month :-)
  • November 9th: I will be moderating a panel discussion at Wireless World Forum’s mobileYouth Trends Workout 2007
  • November 14: I will be attending the Future of Mobile event (for you Flash Lite folk…this will be the second opportunity to see Adobe’s Matt Millar talk about ‘Next Generation UI’s.
  • Haven’t decided if i’ll be attending Flash on the Beach yet…would have loved the option of a 1 day ticket…not enough I want to see to pay for 3 days. I have signed up as a volunteer however so you may see me handing out t-shirts!

Who knows what else will come along… Then at some point I will have to get back to work…probably far sooner than later…(I don’t do ‘idle’ well :-) )

Eurobarometer: Mobile & internet habits of EU 9-12 yrs olds

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The European comission for Information Society and Media has released a very comprehensive report on the habits of European youth.

In a pan-European qualitative study covering 29 European countries, children of 9-10 and 12-14 years old were interviewed in-depth about their use of online technologies, like the Internet and mobile phones, and how they see and deal with risks…This study covers 29 countries (the 27 Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway) and it involves children of 9-10 and 12-14 years.

There is a seperate report available for each EU member country with a seperate section in each on mobile habits including download preferences, content acquisition habits, safety and digital literacy, mobile web use and the percentage of students with and without a mobile or computer access.

Findings in the overal European study include:

  • More than three-quarters of girls and boys aged 9 to 10 have one.
  • Nine out of ten girls and boys aged 12 to 14 have one.
  • More often than not the mobile phone was received as a present (from parents, uncles or aunts, grandparents).
  • Those who have a mobile phone show themselves to be very satisfied, and even “proud” to own one. This is clearly a form of valuation, a kind of “rite of passage”, the clear “sign” of access to a state of relative “maturity” and of belonging to a new group.
  • Among the youngest children, keeping in permanent contact with their parents is advanced by a majority.
  • Sending/receiving text messages is the favourite and intense activity of children, in particular, as we have just stressed, of the older children (aged 12 to 14). Apart from the fact that text messages are “cheaper” than voice calls, sending and receiving text messages is part and parcel of a specific “culture” in these age categories. This very evidently involves a language of their own, which is “coded” and differentiated, attesting to a mutual recognition and the sense of belonging to a group. In a nutshell: “you phone your parents but you text your friends”.
  • Connecting to the Internet by mobile phone is a very marginal use, deemed by a very large number to be pointless when you have a computer at home, but above all too expensive, complicated and also risky, since it potentially generates viruses.

Some of the country specific reports are in English so it’s worth downloading a bunch to compare attitudes in different countries!

Mobile Learning at BETT

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Ahem…a tad late blogging about BETT. I’ve been super busy.

Having spent several years working in Canadian schools, and about 7 years involved in the Canadian ‘kids’ content’ scene—attending an educational technology trade show such as BETT was quite the treat. The sheer volume of content and services on offer was overwhelming and there seemed to be a healthy combination of small and large vendors in the mix.

Surely, some of the accolades should go to the UK’s Curriculum Online/eLearning Credit scheme.

Curriculum Online is central to the Government’s drive to transform teaching and learning in schools by improving access to ICT and multimedia resources for all pupils. Here’s how eLCs fit in…

The Government has set aside substantial funds for your school to spend on multimedia resources in the form of eLCs (eLearning Credits). The money is distributed from central Government via LEAs to individual schools, which decide locally how to spend it….Here at www.curriculumonline.gov.uk you’ll find the definitive list of the multimedia resources that your school can buy with its eLC money. All the resources here are geared to the subjects taught in schools in England….By April 2006 schools will have received £330million in eLC money. In addition a further £125 million has been allocated over the next two years…

What this seems to have resulted in is an ability for content producers (big and small) to seriously focus on educational content and not deviate into more mainstream consumer based products or seek sponsorship dollars through affiliation with youth focused food, beverage and entertainment brands.

Very little of the material on display this year was aimed at mobile but i’m sure given a few years, things will be quite different. Here’s what the show had to offer in the area of mobile and devices.

Tribal/CTAD Mobile Learning

CTAD MLearningI got to play with CTAD/Tribal’s new mobile learning authoring tools! The M-Learning Author for Pocket PC allows teachers to create simple memory games, snap quizzes and multiple choice quizzes complete with scoring and tracking capabilities. The authoring tool outputs Flash (swf) files to a format suitable for Pocket PC.

CTAD has also created a companion SMS quiz maker which allows students to submit answers to quiz questions via SMS or subscribe to daily/weekly SMS information blasts. Scenarios for use could include…

Adult learners working towards the multiple-choice National Test in Adult Literacy or Numeracy are given a handout with a ‘mini-test’ on it – five questions in the style of the National Test focusing on a particular curriculum element that they have revised in the last class.

They are asked to try the quiz and text their answers by a given deadline. In addition to receiving a feedback message confirming how many questions they answered correctly, learners receive a daily SMS message for three more days, informing them of the topic for the next class and pointing them towards useful web sites to look at in preparation.

I was really impressed by the authoring tools. The content they allow you to create is simple and will obviously evolve further based on feedback from participants (this is already version 2 I think) but —growing pains aside—the important thing is that the tools are simple to use. The ability to sit down, grab a few clipart or photo assets, compose some text and spit out a fully functional ‘mobile learning thing’ is still pretty unprecedented at this stage and CTAD has done a great job.

Many thanks to Susan and Siobhan for taking the time to walk me through the demos!

Publications

I picked up some useful publications at the Learning and Skills Network booth including “Learning with mobile devices : research and development – a book of papers“, “Mobile technologies and learning: A technology update and m-learning project summary” and several series of papers from the MLearn series of conferences. On a related topic, they also had copies of “The use of computer and video games for learning – a review of the literature” which includes some mobile specific research as well as “Computer Games and Simulations for Adult Learning” (Burkbeck University of London) which I can’t seem to find an online version of but includes a great case study of the BBC’s very successful Skillswise series.

Handheld Learning UK

EDA Fujitsu SiemensThe folks at Handheld Learning were previewing the Fujitsu Siemens/Andres Industries Pocket LOOX N560 EDA—a PDA specifically designed for the educational market. This device has a truly lovely feel to it. Unlike most PDAs which can feel somewhat fragile, it’s been encased in a bright blue rubbery protective casing. Part of the reason for this is to make it drop-proof but as a result, it also feels loads more comfortable to hold. The EDA comes with a 1GB SD card and piles of software including Inspiration, PhatPad, Calligrapher, Pocket Painter, Opera, Red Media Composer and Red Flipper. At the moment, this device is only available in the UK through distribution from Steljes. A case study involving the device in a literacy and numeracy program at Cap-le-Fern in Kent can also be downloaded from the Steljes web site.

Learning2Go

Wolverhampton Learning2GoI sat in on a presentation given by a group of kids and teachers in Wolverhampton. They’ve been involved for some time in the Learning2Go mobile learning project and came to BETT to share their experiences. The project involved over 1000 pupils and their teachers in 18 schools and—unless I misunderstood—directly led to the development of the Fujitsu Siemens EDA mentioned above based on the feedback and experiences of program participants.

The program web site is interesting in that in includes information about all aspects of the trials including costs and technical challenges. There is also a program blog which includes podcasts and photos.

FutureLab

Walking by the FutureLab booth you feel a strange creative energy. For starters, the booth is gorgeous and just sucks you in. Not sure who does their design but the branding is spot on. While not specifically mobile focused, FutureLab continues to innovate with interesting research and prototypes in the area of social mobile experiences as well as learning through games. Their annual Call for Ideas is now open and they have recently started up a blog which I’m quite enjoying. (Don’t miss the dispatches from Richard Sandford who is in Singapore working with the Infocomm Development Agency, exploring ways of creating new digital learning tools for Singapore schools—as part of the 2-year iLAB 2015 collaboration between Futurelab and the IDA.)

WildKey

Also in attendance was WildKey, a user-friendly identification key for handheld devices (pocket pcs, smartphones, etc.) to enable non experts to identify wildlife in the field. The application allows students to identify what they are looking at in the field based on process of elimination aided by images and descriptions. They can then use their mobile device to record the location of the flora or fauna they’ve discovered. Their current products include Butterflies, Pond Life and Rocky Shores with Birds and Lichens in the works. (LOL! only in Britain could school kids get excited about Lichens—what a lovely idea!)

Sony PSP

I was a bit shocked to see a booth specifically aimed at convincing educators to use PlayStation Portable devices in the classroom. My surprise was mostly due to the fact that the booth was off in a corner, on the second floor and not run by Sony. PSPs are lovely devices with what is still one of the nicest handheld displays i’ve seen, and offer lots of features that are useful in a classroom setting. And with the addition a few years back of a decent browser and wi-fi capabilities—they can be used to access learning objects designed in either HTML or Flash—not to mention extensive image libraries and content stacks. (Geoff at CTAD has examples on his blog of their Flash-based learning content converted to PSP.)

Flash Key Chains

A final note on Flash memory drives/keychains/thumbdrives. There were lots of these on offer and what a lovely idea as a super useful product for the classroom. Some vendors offered fancy casings and carry straps to make the drives a bit more chique but the key feature was that they’re cheap, can carry loads of data and help extend ICT resources by allowing students to own and carry data without the need to own and carry an actual device. It reminded me of a company called Inveneo who is collecting and distributing old or donated thumb drives to NGOs, schools and small businesses in emerging nations.

In fact, Dean Bubley on Forum Oxford had this to say a on the topic while back: “I heard a great anecdote from an aid-worker in Zambia. She said that the really cool kids don’t want a mobile—they want a USB memory stick on a chain round their necks.”

Mobile Youth Interview

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This week, Xellular Identity has an interview with Nick Wright from Wireless World Forum’s Mobile Youth report.

…One of the more interesting findings is that mobiles have come to take the place in youth culture traditionally held by cigarettes. They provide or allow private communication, the activity is carried out largely unsupervised and they effectively create a rare private space for youth to interact in…

…One of the reasons for the low adoption of new mobile services is because youth cannot access the service easily either due to budget or the difficulty of setting up the service to begin with. One of the key factors in reaching the youth mass market is the ease of use of a service which allows it to become widely accepted across peer groups…

According to Nick, youth from 5-24 make up 28.1% of the mobile phone ownership market (does he mean worldwide? Not sure.)

And via, Wireless World Forum, there’s also a related series of video interviews with British teens who discuss mobile music, mobile web (“Never used it, Don’t know how. Too expensive I think”), SMS habits and how they feel about mobile devices.

M-Learning with Flash Lite Content Packs from Taiwan

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Ok, this is a brilliant idea from Gigabyte out of Taiwan—on two fronts. Firstly, their new g-re line of devices are being marketed as a mobile learning phone.

The g-re is a slider phone with a neat look and rich content. Besides ten novel motion-sensing JAVA games, g-re is equipped with an unprecedented GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) learning tool, providing a complete mobile life of entertainment and learning. g-re supports a series of interactive GEPT learning tools co-developed with National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. Plug in the GEPT memory cards and enjoy a mobile English learning environment from basic to advanced level, and from listening to reading.

The content pack idea is not new but this is a really interesting implementation as it ties specific content with a specific device and specific target group. The phone is fun, colourful and clearly meant for students so the tie-in of ESL practice and learning (a popular subject throughout Asia) with a personal device is a good one. And—assuming developers’ resources (SDK, device profile etc.) are eventually made available to the community and there is no DRM on the cards themselves, it introduces a great secondary market for new m-learning content that would be once again tailored to this group and this device. Plus—due to the flexibility of Flash Lite—with some judicious coding and testing, it’s quite likely that these SWF files would also work on S60 and Sony Ericsson devices—and maybe even the U10—despite the difference in controllers and softkey configurations.

I also really like the way they’ve incorporated the motion sensors into fun yet very useable (sounding) features.

  • Shake and Change wallpapers. I love this idea! Shake the phone, the wallpaper changes. A nice, simple yet non-gratuitous and low-stress use of the motion sensing abilities of the device.
  • Bodyguard. Once again taking advantage of the motion sensors, the phone can be placed on personal property (ex. hang it on a door) and will activate an alarm when disturbed.
  • Smart Alarm. Apparently this built in alarm clock can only be turned off with a ‘sober head.’ Hmm…not sure what that means but opens up some possibilities for early morning skill testing questions or motion sensing calisthenics in lieu of simply pressing the snooze button.
  • Built in Motion Sensing Games: They don’t elaborate on what these might be but judging by some of the awesome games coming out of the region that involve movement already, they could be really fun.

I’m quite the geek but I don’t care much for gratuitous uses of technology. Motion sensing technology prototypes for handsets have often struck me as trying to do too much. Phones spend their days being moved around from hand to pocket to purse to desk to floor (oops!) etc. So the above examples seem perfect to me as they are useful, yet not integral to any of the vital functions of the phone (making a call, sending a text, opening an application, scrolling through a menu etc.)

Plus the features are fun! For all the glitter, handsets are getting a bit boring these days. The Carl Zeiss lenses and all that are wonderful—don’t get me wrong—but when was the last time just using a handset was actually fun, made you giggle, or made you smile right out of the box?

Nokia, Youth, and ICT

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“Nokia and international children’s organisation, Plan (formerly Foster Parents’ Plan), have joined forces to use modern communications technologies in Africa to raise children’s awareness of their rights and opportunities. Nokia has provided an initial donation of 1 million Euros for 2006. The first stage of this new joint effort will see Nokia focus on supporting Plan’s existing media and communications technology projects for Africa’s children and youth.” [via Mobile Africa]

More about Plan’s media and communications programs can be found on their site. The existing programs seem to mostly focus on children producing radio programs for local broadcast:

Africa – Rights of the Child in Malawi
Radio program in Malawi, in partnership with Malawi Broadcasting Corp and funded by UNICEF. Children produce radio shows about their rights.

Asia – Agami | “Future” in Bangladesh
Weekly television show in Bangladesh broadcast by BTV, the national public network. Children host the shows and talk about issues relevant to their lives. The show reaches millions of viewers.

Asia – Children’s voice in Nepal
The radio project produced and broadcast in Nepal has involved more than 100 children. The show aims to promote child rights and child participation.

Adding mobiles with video, audio and moblogging capabilities to all this would certainly enhance the content creation capabilities and lead to all sorts of interesting roving child journalist programs. I ran into an example (PDF) of a similar project a while back from India via Nokia’s New Horizon’s Newsletter. The project offered students a 7610 cameraphone along with a copy of Life Blog to allow them to creatively record aspects of their community engagement.

Their assignments were aimed at fostering the self-directed, collaborative approach to learning that is often lacking in Indian schools. The most significant benefit of the Learning Lab Initiative for students, says Mr Sood, is that it offers them a hitherto unavailable chance to learn by expressing themselves creatively.

You can subscribe to the newsletter on this page (beware, it’s a paper copy sent by mail. A PDF is also available if you hunt for it.)

I also ran into the related Nokia Community Involvement section which outlines other similar projects, case studies and success stories involving youth in emerging markets.