Hi @ all!
I am a student from Graz, Austria, currently working on my thesis about Mobile Learning.
Motivation
One of the major topics in mobile application development is the "context" of the user. Context means the "state" the user is currently in. The contextual aspect which is of main interest is location information, allowing for location based services (LBS).
Currently there are several ways to gather location information - most prominent of course GPS (global positioning system).
As there is hardly any mobile device (Notebook, PDA, Smartphone) which offers GPS support natively, there are efforts made, providing context information via so called "tags".
These tags are nothing else than URLs, encoded and provided as image information. Compatible readers can decode such tags simply by shooting them with e.g. the built-in camera of a mobile phone. The data is processed and the user is directed to the encoded URL.
Introducing: Semacode
The most famous project involved in such a LBS solution is Semacode (http://www.semacode.org).
Semacode is a very promising technology, especially with applications like the Semapedia project (http://www.semapedia.org/) backing it up.
As I am working on possible usage scenarios for a "Mobile Moodle", I developed a module, allowing the creation of Semacode Tags integrated in Moodle.
What you can do with it
Using a LBS technique like Semacode, you can provide context based Moodling to mobile users. Just imagine a scenario where pupils or students are accessing Moodle from a mobile device. Via tags distributed in the environment (outdoor, museum, exhibition,...) additional information about the object they are currently standing in front of can be provided, or even better, location based activities can be offered. E.g. the pupil has to answer a question, or fulfill a task ("take a photograph of xy", "do xy and post the result to forum z",...).
I am convinced we are still at the very beginning of real usage of mobile learning, but I am sure there are more and more scenarios and ideas coming up, as the community begins to realize what we CAN do with it.
Installation instructions:
- Download the provided archive
- copy language files to appropriate language folders
- copy module to /mod/ directory
- call the administration page to trigger installation
Features:
- seamless integration of Semacode Tagger SDK
- easily create and maintain Tags
- create "external" links to other websites
- create "internal" links, directly leading to a Moodle course or activity
Requirements:
- developed and tested on a Moodle 1.6 installation, might also work on other versions
- currently only mySQL is supported
- JAVA runtime is required for Semacode Tagger SDK
ToDo:
- Postgres support
- Testing
As this is my first contribution to the Moodle Community, I would really appreciate your feedback and comments.