Keitai

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

I 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

The 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

I 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.”