Sharing Tips and Tricks on Mobile Learning

[Carrie Albin]

In your courses you have been asked to share any tips or tricks you may have regarding Mobile Learning.  This can include any ideas, resources, activities, lesson plans using mobile devices, etc.  

[Beth Berube]

When looking at mobile learning, I do think there are many benefits and drawbacks of technology in the classroom.  However, I am on the side that believes mobile learning, or technology within the classroom, to be the way to go in education.  There are so many benefits that we could have with mobile learning such as adaptive learning, connection to other people, places, and information, and being able to push education further.  Although I do agree with many of the problems, such as cost, theft, use for educational purposes, etc., but I think that there is going to have to be a way for us to work around these challenges, and I think that is our next challenge as educators.  How are we going to grow and change to work with the ability of mobile learning and grow our educational practices to benefit our students?  This question is now part of our profession!

[Rachael Hilliker]

In the mobile learning technology session I really liked the idea of Yodio as well as Ipadio.  I like that they have an easy approach to incorporating audio to presentations and/or photos.  My thoughts on the applications for this would be if you are trying to do an Adobe Connect or netmeeting and having connection or audio problems (because that never happens right?).  Also, I think it opens up the possibilities for students to communicate internationally with other students.  What I mean is, I remember many years ago when I was in elementary school we were "pen pals"with a classroom in Australia somewhere.  We would write a class letter to them about what we were doing in our lessons and then we would each write a letter to our class pen pal.  Using either one of these sites to either create audio photos (yodio) or creating podcasts to send via Ipadio would be a modern day application of an "adopt a classroom" internationally.  I can also see these sites helping actual online schools (there seems to be many online elementary and high schools popping up in Michigan lately) and this would enhance the teaching/learning experience on both ends.  Sometimes with online classrooms it's tough to really convey ideas only through emails, forum posts, presentations without audio.  I think that using these two sites could facilitate better communication between instructors and students as well as among students themselves.

[Kimberly Anglin]

I have a Smart Phone and I use it for my personal email, school email, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Google+, music, internet, and much, much more.  I have a four year old son who loves to use my phone to play games.  He's been using it since he was three.  It may sound silly, but I think it's important for him to learn how to use electronics such as a touch screen Smart Phone (and my laptop).  In order to help him learn, I set up a whole "game page" for him.  I downloaded a bunch of educational games that I have traded out for others over time.  He knows how to turn on my phone, turn to his game page, choose which game he wants to play, and play it (among other things).  Any way, my tip is that there are many educational apps you can download on your mobile device.  My son is learning his site words, basic math facts, and letter sounds right now.  Who would have thought that one day a phone would help children learn how to read?

[Bradley J. Gagnon]

Games are so important.  I remember the nokia n-gage, the first phone/gaming device.  it was a failure, but ahead of its time.

[Agbeko Agbenyiga]

I use my iPhone with my 10 year old.  As a fourth grader she is moving up in math fairly quickly.  downloaded Rocket Math to my phone.  It is a wonderful tool to facilitate the learning of new math skills.  It measures her success and increases the level of challange based on her success.  It has come in very handy with learning fractions.  I must admit that it has also kept learning math fun and decreased the frustrations with learning math.  I never thought that my phone would become a teaching tool for learning math.

[Carly Bradford]

Proloquo2Go is an Apple app for iPads and iPhones. The app costs $189.99 and was designed for students who lave limited to no verbal communication skills. The application is for augmentative and alternative communication and allows students to communicate through a variety of natural female and male text-to-speech voices and even includes varying accents from some regions around the world. The app has word prediction and has over 7,000 word vocabulary. The student/user taps on the picture or icon to make requests or statements. The graphics vary from real pictures to pictures that are similar to PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). For more information about the application go to: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=3...

[Bradley J. Gagnon]

ISTE - SIGML is a professional organization that is devoted to Mobile Learning. It uses the acronym "SIGML" or Special Interest Group in Mobile Learning.  URL:

http://www.iste.org/connect/special-interest-groups/sig-directory/s...

[Darren Hood]

Awesome resource, Bradley. I'm gonna Tweet this one.

Thanks for sharing!

~Darren

[Darren Hood]

I recently reviewed a mobile learning tips post about the importance of prototyping. For those that aren't familiar with prototyping, it involves construction of a proposed design that allows test subjects or colleagues to review the design and confirm how well the concept will work. Testing the prototype can also help to identify additional ways to optimize the course/resource design and modify as deemed necessary.

Prototyping can be easily accomplished. You can create a paper prototype (by just drawing on a piece of paper) or you can obtain high-fidelity (i.e., realistic looking) graphics for use in software applications like Visio (Windows) or Omnigraffle (Mac). There are also several free applications on the Internet (e.g., Cacoo — https://cacoo.com) that will allow you to design screen elements and forward the URL to others for testing and evaluation.

You can view the article that discusses the benefits of prototyping here.

I hope this helps someone.

[Toni Davis]

Kim,

I too utilize my blackberry as a learning device for a 3rd grade student that I tutor in reading.  We actually play Word Mole, which is a game that is automatically included with my phone.  I didn't have to download an app or set anything up.  My 6th grade daughter showed me the app on my phone.  I didn't even know that it was there.  The game allows the 3rd grader to create words.  I read to her out loud and she in turn is excited to use my blackberry to create a word or similar word based on our reading.  It actually excites her more than my reading. :)

[Agbeko Agbenyiga]

I was a blackberry user until about 3 months ago.  With my blackberry, I primarily used it for calling and texting.  I did not add any features for further use.  However, over the past few months this has changed.  With my iPhone, I have begun to use my device in a number of new ways.  For example, I have set the features up in French.  This makes it easier for me to communicate with my international population in francophone West Africa.  It has also made it easier for me to communicate and review information through my RSS feeders that I have set-up.  The other aspect is my ability to keep up with CNN and BBC as I like following these two media outlets.

[Agbeko Agbenyiga]

I was a blackberry user until about 3 months ago.  With my blackberry, I primarily used it for calling and texting.  I did not add any features for further use.  However, over the past few months this has changed.  With my iPhone, I have begun to use my device in a number of new ways.  For example, I have set the features up in French.  This makes it easier for me to communicate with my international population in francophone West Africa.  It has also made it easier for me to communicate and review information through my RSS feeders that I have set-up.  The other aspect is my ability to keep up with CNN and BBC as I like following these two media outlets.