Relates to several other things we've discussed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6241108.stm
Here's what happens when you try to take them away.
Perhaps I'm showing my age, but we managed without mobile phones when I was a kid. Our idea of staying in touch was to make sure we had some coins for a payphone if we needed to make a call. In fact, something deep within my psyche still makes me reluctant to use my last couple of 10p coins in case I need to make a call, despite having had a mobile phone of my own for years.
What is it about modern kids that makes them unable to function unless they're surrounded by phones, iPods, MP3 players and the rest? Are they afraid that if they stop listening to loud music and engaging in endless chatter their brains will start working?
It's obviously a while since you made a call from a UK call box - it's now 40p minimum.
Let's not be too gloomy about young people and communications technology. The young adults that I work with generally have good phone etiquette unlike some senior former colleagues I could mention. Also, most young people use these technologies creatively in a social way. Obviously teachers in school may need to set boundaries but there are aslo educational and social benefits as Don has mentioned.
I shouldn't probably be replying to this, but I can't resist. We just finished our first year of a trial run without cell phones or iPods/Mp3s allowed during the school day this year. Unlike the NY schools referenced by John's post, though, kids could have them on their person for after school events, etc. They just had to be off during the entire school day. Of course kids got wise and some tried to use "silent" mode, but silent isn't so "silent" if it goes off at the wrong time. In the middle of a Romeo and Juliet scene performance, for example, right next to the teacher. 
In any case, if we heard or saw them, we confiscated the phones, charged a pretty deep fine (for a kid to pay, anyway) and after the first two months of school it wasn't so much of an issue.
At the end of the year we gave all of our fine proceeds to a charity our school had been working with for the year.
It wasn't a perfect system, but it has put us on the road to helping each other figure out when use is appropriate and when not. They really don't see an issue with using their phones wherever and whenever. On an off-site field trip in which we used public transportation, one of my students noted the "ban" on cell phones (it's more of a request than a ban, of course) on city buses. He was confounded and couldn't understand why use would be considered rude, so I explained it to him. Then he got it...I think.
In short, I think figuring out the eitiquette is a journey all of us are taking right now, but I think it will work itself out soon.
And Chris, my pet peeves don't usually run with kid behavior so much as with parent behavior. Before this rule, "Susie's" mom would think nothing of calling her in the middle of class to say, "Sorry, honey, I can't pick you up after track practice. Catch a ride with someone." Seriously.
At the end of the year we gave all of our fine proceeds to a charity our school had been working with for the year.
It wasn't a perfect system, but it has put us on the road to helping each other figure out when use is appropriate and when not. They really don't see an issue with using their phones wherever and whenever. On an off-site field trip in which we used public transportation, one of my students noted the "ban" on cell phones (it's more of a request than a ban, of course) on city buses. He was confounded and couldn't understand why use would be considered rude, so I explained it to him. Then he got it...I think.
In short, I think figuring out the eitiquette is a journey all of us are taking right now, but I think it will work itself out soon.
And Chris, my pet peeves don't usually run with kid behavior so much as with parent behavior. Before this rule, "Susie's" mom would think nothing of calling her in the middle of class to say, "Sorry, honey, I can't pick you up after track practice. Catch a ride with someone." Seriously.
I'm sure every public school in the US has a policy against using cell phones in the classroom. But as long as students are allowed to bring their phones into the classroom, they'll find clever ways of using them. And parents insist on allowing phones in the classroom because of Columbine. The vast majority of administrators lack the courage to stand up to the parents, who control school boards, who hire the administrators... (except in New York, where Bloomberg abolished the school board 
).
When I was teaching, I was never able to catch a student in flagrante delicto. Yet I knew they were all doing it all the time (eyes tilted slightly downward, one hand in pocket or purse quickly withdrawn as the teacher approaches). I even had an exam stolen by a kid with a camera phone. Grrr.
).When I was teaching, I was never able to catch a student in flagrante delicto. Yet I knew they were all doing it all the time (eyes tilted slightly downward, one hand in pocket or purse quickly withdrawn as the teacher approaches). I even had an exam stolen by a kid with a camera phone. Grrr.
We use cellphones for students to input a variety of things into their Moodle course...
- reflections on the class
- attendence in large lecture classes
- quizzes after hours or homework
- periodic email messages with vocabulary practice
Impressive. I admit, the first thing I thought when I heard of the ban was, "And teachers were just starting to implement creative use of iPods, etc., FINALLY, into their lesson plans." It was a trade-off, to be sure, and I was a little skeptical. It worked better than I thought it would, though.
And it did beg the question: Just because we have the technological capability, does it mean we should use it?
It sounds as if your school is using it well, so then I would say, yes. But the learning curve is steep, here, for the vast majority.
And it did beg the question: Just because we have the technological capability, does it mean we should use it?
It sounds as if your school is using it well, so then I would say, yes. But the learning curve is steep, here, for the vast majority.
Kept remembering Don's post. From the perspective of North American institutions, it's an excellent example of where creative thinking could lead us. In fact, it might imply that a One Cellphone Per Child, or One Smartphone Per Child project could work, if handled properly.
So, Don, care to elaborate on cellphone use in the Japanese classroom?
Some obvious questions:
So, Don, care to elaborate on cellphone use in the Japanese classroom?
Some obvious questions:
- Do your students still use cellphones?
- Do you find it distracting during class time?
- Have you found the need to limit cellphone use during class?
- Is there any student who feels left out from cellphone use?
- Are there cellphone-savvy tools you use?
- In practice, how do these things work?
- Are there other things you would use cellphones for?
Hi Alexandre!
They used cellphones to take photos of dramatized actions and scary scenery to accompany their stories. Very clever!
Five of us wrote a paper case study on Moodle and mobile phones, but it is 200kb, so if you are interested, email me directly. Cheers! Don
- Do your students still use cellphones?
- Do you find it distracting during class time?
- Have you found the need to limit cellphone use during class?
- Is there any student who feels left out from cellphone use?
- Are there cellphone-savvy tools you use?
- In practice, how do these things work?
- reflections on the class (LectureFeedback Module, not released publicly)
- attendence in large lecture classes (AttendenceSlip Module, not released publicly)
- surveys and quizzes for after-class review or homework (MFM, public release, see Moodle Docs)
- periodic email messages with vocabulary practice (postponed for release)
They used cellphones to take photos of dramatized actions and scary scenery to accompany their stories. Very clever!- Are there other things you would use cellphones for?
Five of us wrote a paper case study on Moodle and mobile phones, but it is 200kb, so if you are interested, email me directly. Cheers! Don
Thanks a lot for those answers, Don! They do help.
To be clear, some of these questions were obvious in the sense that they come up any time we mention cellphones. Some teachers in North America associate cellphones with disruption (in the annoying sense, not "disruptive technology"). You make a good case for "cellphones as collections of tools."
I'm not really in a situation to influence administrators or teachers, right now, but you're giving us good insight into the dynamic enabled by appropriate use of technology. I will ask for the report by email.
The platform issues are interesting for a number of reasons. One of which is that a case can be made for a standardized mobile phone platform for use in educational contexts. A cheesy way to put it: "putting the 'smart' back in 'smartphone'."
Google's Android and Open Handset Alliance could be an excellent basis for this.
Or even Apple's iPhone. Though we may dislike Apple's proprietary system, I personally get pretty excited thinking about Apple going back to the educational component of its core markets through some kind of eMac-class Touch device (an "ePhone," maybe?).
Another possibility could be a cellphone platform (yet another), this time integrating technology produced by (former OLPC CTO) Mary Lou Jepsen's Pixel Qi and by similar edu-friendly projects. As luck would have it, Ivan Krstić (former Security Architect for OLPC) seems to be looking for a new gig or new challenges to take on. His work on the Bitfrost security system for the OLPC could make a lot of sense for an edu-friendly smartphone. Can't you just imagine a dream team made up of OLPC developers, members of the Moodle community, diverse academic institutions, and non-profits?
I'll stop rambling now.
The main point is that the case for educational uses of cellphones can easily be made if people think about the possibilities.
All this also implies that cellphone bans are counterproductive.
To be clear, some of these questions were obvious in the sense that they come up any time we mention cellphones. Some teachers in North America associate cellphones with disruption (in the annoying sense, not "disruptive technology"). You make a good case for "cellphones as collections of tools."
I'm not really in a situation to influence administrators or teachers, right now, but you're giving us good insight into the dynamic enabled by appropriate use of technology. I will ask for the report by email.
The platform issues are interesting for a number of reasons. One of which is that a case can be made for a standardized mobile phone platform for use in educational contexts. A cheesy way to put it: "putting the 'smart' back in 'smartphone'."
Google's Android and Open Handset Alliance could be an excellent basis for this.
Or even Apple's iPhone. Though we may dislike Apple's proprietary system, I personally get pretty excited thinking about Apple going back to the educational component of its core markets through some kind of eMac-class Touch device (an "ePhone," maybe?).
Another possibility could be a cellphone platform (yet another), this time integrating technology produced by (former OLPC CTO) Mary Lou Jepsen's Pixel Qi and by similar edu-friendly projects. As luck would have it, Ivan Krstić (former Security Architect for OLPC) seems to be looking for a new gig or new challenges to take on. His work on the Bitfrost security system for the OLPC could make a lot of sense for an edu-friendly smartphone. Can't you just imagine a dream team made up of OLPC developers, members of the Moodle community, diverse academic institutions, and non-profits?
I'll stop rambling now.
The main point is that the case for educational uses of cellphones can easily be made if people think about the possibilities.
All this also implies that cellphone bans are counterproductive.
How about the Asus EEE PC as a cellphone? A little big to fit in a pocket, but in the same price range, and it has all standardized features--even telephony via Skype. The problem is that general cellphone coverage is 100% while WiFi coverage is much less--20%? However, a 100% Wifi school is very possible.
Ugh!
Wrote an elaborate response about subnotebooks and cellphones but my browser lost it. That'll teach me.
Long story short: I agree with Don. More specifically, subnotebooks and cellphones could be used in tandem, each device category having some advantages in terms of form factor, price, usage price, market penetration, and network coverage. Hadn't seen it that way, even though these things may seem obvious.
What's fun about discussing these issues is that they can help us think about educational technology in relatively new ways.
And I guess I was thinking out loud (or brainstorming with myself) for most of my post so it's probably good that I lost it.
Still, though... I'm looking forward to the day Moodle will auto-save text boxes.
Wrote an elaborate response about subnotebooks and cellphones but my browser lost it. That'll teach me.
Long story short: I agree with Don. More specifically, subnotebooks and cellphones could be used in tandem, each device category having some advantages in terms of form factor, price, usage price, market penetration, and network coverage. Hadn't seen it that way, even though these things may seem obvious.
What's fun about discussing these issues is that they can help us think about educational technology in relatively new ways.
And I guess I was thinking out loud (or brainstorming with myself) for most of my post so it's probably good that I lost it.
Still, though... I'm looking forward to the day Moodle will auto-save text boxes.
Thanks for sending me the paper, Don. A couple of questions and comments:
Pedagogical
Can you describe the template system in a little more detail (the one which was too much work for the instructors to maintain)?
In regard to the high speed of text input by Japanese students, I know that several different scripts are used in Japan. What type is commonly used for text input on phones?
Most of these activities are instructor-driven. What possibilities do you see for making the learning more social? Sure, you could do something like discussion forums, but is there some social learning activity where portability would be a killer feature?
Technical
Do the emails arrive as SMS messsages through a gateway of some kind, or is it a separate email system?
Are the phones typically WiFi-capable, or generally limited to working through the phone network?
I've heard (but have no confirmation) that some email<->SMS gateways will block excessive traffic from one source. Is this likely to be an issue when the system is used on a larger scale?
Economic
What is the typical charge for receiving an email message via phone in Japan (assuming the student doesn't have unlimited service)?
Administrative
You misspelled my name in the bibliography.
Very interesting work. I'll be following future developments closely.
Pedagogical
Can you describe the template system in a little more detail (the one which was too much work for the instructors to maintain)?
In regard to the high speed of text input by Japanese students, I know that several different scripts are used in Japan. What type is commonly used for text input on phones?
Most of these activities are instructor-driven. What possibilities do you see for making the learning more social? Sure, you could do something like discussion forums, but is there some social learning activity where portability would be a killer feature?
Technical
Do the emails arrive as SMS messsages through a gateway of some kind, or is it a separate email system?
Are the phones typically WiFi-capable, or generally limited to working through the phone network?
I've heard (but have no confirmation) that some email<->SMS gateways will block excessive traffic from one source. Is this likely to be an issue when the system is used on a larger scale?
Economic
What is the typical charge for receiving an email message via phone in Japan (assuming the student doesn't have unlimited service)?
Administrative
You misspelled my name in the bibliography.
Very interesting work. I'll be following future developments closely.
Pedagogical
Can you describe the template system in a little more detail (the one which was too much work for the instructors to maintain)?
Sorry, I don't have screenshots for you. There is a little box where the instructor puts standard text and text pulled from a database. The database is the Database Module, where all content must be manually entered. Then there are other screens where the teacher sets the dates, times, and how words are pulled from the database (cycles). Essentially, it is a non-interactive quiz (students scroll down to see the answer). But the teacher has to duplicate the setup done for a quiz in the normal Quiz Module. So a waste of time.
In regard to the high speed of text input by Japanese students, I know that several different scripts are used in Japan. What type is commonly used for text input on phones?
For EFL, students input roman characters. For other purposes, they input all three different Japanese scripts. For example, the cellphones have amazing dictionaries that convert hiragana script into the 2000 Chinese characters quite quickly and guess the context well.
Most of these activities are instructor-driven. What possibilities do you see for making the learning more social? Sure, you could do something like discussion forums, but is there some social learning activity where portability would be a killer feature?
Our conclusion is exactly that. Anything requiring heavy instructor-driven input is demotivating and a waste of time. Social learning applications, student-driven content is the direction. Yes, that would be a killer feature!
Technical
Do the emails arrive as SMS messsages through a gateway of some kind, or is it a separate email system?
I believe it is not SMS, but email.
Are the phones typically WiFi-capable, or generally limited to working through the phone network?
No WiFi. Limited to the phone network. We have three large mobile phone networks (NTT Docomo, Softbank, Au).
I've heard (but have no confirmation) that some email<->SMS gateways will block excessive traffic from one source. Is this likely to be an issue when the system is used on a larger scale?
I doubt traffic is an issue. One student though said his provider cut off messages longer than 500 characters. The plans and limits are constantly changing. Cost structures have so many options and are changing too. Recently, TV recievers are built into all new phones, and they have bigger, high resolution screens.
Economic
What is the typical charge for receiving an email message via phone in Japan (assuming the student doesn't have unlimited service)?
Plans and options make this very difficult to judge. Two years ago, we estimated on the average, students only have to pay one way (either receiving or sending) about US$0.02 for each email message. The packet and time for an equivalent interactive (ie: web) quiz session was about US$0.40. So we decided to try the email rather than the web quiz. However, we know the web fees are dropping dramatically.
Administrative
You misspelled my name in the bibliography.
Oh damn! Would it be too much to ask you to change your name to match the bibliography?
Very interesting work. I'll be following future developments closely.
Actually, we will not be developing this anymore (and I will be writing up a paper on the process of innovation abandonment). Teacher repositories will be our priority--team collaboration on project based learning. However, we funded an upgrade to MFM Quiz & Feedback to version 1.9, which other universities in Japan will use, and perhaps take over. See this discussion:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=92680
Can you describe the template system in a little more detail (the one which was too much work for the instructors to maintain)?
Sorry, I don't have screenshots for you. There is a little box where the instructor puts standard text and text pulled from a database. The database is the Database Module, where all content must be manually entered. Then there are other screens where the teacher sets the dates, times, and how words are pulled from the database (cycles). Essentially, it is a non-interactive quiz (students scroll down to see the answer). But the teacher has to duplicate the setup done for a quiz in the normal Quiz Module. So a waste of time.
In regard to the high speed of text input by Japanese students, I know that several different scripts are used in Japan. What type is commonly used for text input on phones?
For EFL, students input roman characters. For other purposes, they input all three different Japanese scripts. For example, the cellphones have amazing dictionaries that convert hiragana script into the 2000 Chinese characters quite quickly and guess the context well.
Most of these activities are instructor-driven. What possibilities do you see for making the learning more social? Sure, you could do something like discussion forums, but is there some social learning activity where portability would be a killer feature?
Our conclusion is exactly that. Anything requiring heavy instructor-driven input is demotivating and a waste of time. Social learning applications, student-driven content is the direction. Yes, that would be a killer feature!
Technical
Do the emails arrive as SMS messsages through a gateway of some kind, or is it a separate email system?
I believe it is not SMS, but email.
Are the phones typically WiFi-capable, or generally limited to working through the phone network?
No WiFi. Limited to the phone network. We have three large mobile phone networks (NTT Docomo, Softbank, Au).
I've heard (but have no confirmation) that some email<->SMS gateways will block excessive traffic from one source. Is this likely to be an issue when the system is used on a larger scale?
I doubt traffic is an issue. One student though said his provider cut off messages longer than 500 characters. The plans and limits are constantly changing. Cost structures have so many options and are changing too. Recently, TV recievers are built into all new phones, and they have bigger, high resolution screens.
Economic
What is the typical charge for receiving an email message via phone in Japan (assuming the student doesn't have unlimited service)?
Plans and options make this very difficult to judge. Two years ago, we estimated on the average, students only have to pay one way (either receiving or sending) about US$0.02 for each email message. The packet and time for an equivalent interactive (ie: web) quiz session was about US$0.40. So we decided to try the email rather than the web quiz. However, we know the web fees are dropping dramatically.
Administrative
You misspelled my name in the bibliography.
Oh damn! Would it be too much to ask you to change your name to match the bibliography?
Very interesting work. I'll be following future developments closely.
Actually, we will not be developing this anymore (and I will be writing up a paper on the process of innovation abandonment). Teacher repositories will be our priority--team collaboration on project based learning. However, we funded an upgrade to MFM Quiz & Feedback to version 1.9, which other universities in Japan will use, and perhaps take over. See this discussion:
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=92680
To piggyback on Tony's questions and comments on the social aspects of mobile eLearning... I'm increasingly convinced that the "social phone" (cellphone 2.0?) could become a very important tool. Not only do some of our students use cellphones a lot but some of them are finding very interesting uses for mobile technology through or outside of school. And we could integrate some of these. Examples involving cameraphones abound. "Go take a picture of something you find important and share it with the class. Other students ask questions, put comments..." Same with video: like YouTube with less haters. Think of interviews, field trips, scavenger hunts, geocaching, mobile forms of "webquests," etc. All of them could burst open from teacher-driven assignments to something of the enthusiasm surrounding "Web 2.0" and other "user-generated content." Not that everybody should do it or that it's a panacea. But with all the hype surrounding the OLPC and other laptop programs, I can't help but think that the real disruptive technology is the cellphone.
What's funny is that I don't have a cellphone now. I used one for a few months, made few calls on it. But texting and mobile browsing seem to have so much potential, even though they're way too expensive in Canada.
I also received a copy of the article but my reading was much more cursory than Tony's.
Didn't notice that there wasn't a notion to extend the project in the future. The conclusions did go in the direction Don summarized here but I thought there might be a kind of follow-up project.
I enjoyed what I read of the report. It does a good job of describing some possible ways to integrate LMS and mobile. And it gives a good explanation of what Moodle can be, in context.
One thing I noticed was that the report was closer to a peer-reviewed article than the typical "progress report." I appreciate that even more in a context where case studies are framed in a very limited way.
What's funny is that I don't have a cellphone now. I used one for a few months, made few calls on it. But texting and mobile browsing seem to have so much potential, even though they're way too expensive in Canada.
I also received a copy of the article but my reading was much more cursory than Tony's.
Didn't notice that there wasn't a notion to extend the project in the future. The conclusions did go in the direction Don summarized here but I thought there might be a kind of follow-up project.
I enjoyed what I read of the report. It does a good job of describing some possible ways to integrate LMS and mobile. And it gives a good explanation of what Moodle can be, in context.
One thing I noticed was that the report was closer to a peer-reviewed article than the typical "progress report." I appreciate that even more in a context where case studies are framed in a very limited way.
Hate to reply to myself but it's kind of a follow-up and/or some context.
Twitter isn't technically a mobile service but it's grown in large part because of cellphones. I've been using it quite a bit since SXSWi (the interactive section of the South by Southwest festival) and I now realize its power for learning, in every sense of the word.
A friend of mine (American in Taiwan) is currently using Jott.com to send messages to Twitter and elsewhere. It's a free speech recognition system. As I don't have a cellphone, I can't really try it to the fullest right now but I've been dreaming about things like these.
Just think about it. You can take voice notes at any time and send them anywhere. Answer a question, ask a question, report on something which just happened, warn a teammate you can't make it.
Twitter isn't technically a mobile service but it's grown in large part because of cellphones. I've been using it quite a bit since SXSWi (the interactive section of the South by Southwest festival) and I now realize its power for learning, in every sense of the word.
A friend of mine (American in Taiwan) is currently using Jott.com to send messages to Twitter and elsewhere. It's a free speech recognition system. As I don't have a cellphone, I can't really try it to the fullest right now but I've been dreaming about things like these.
Just think about it. You can take voice notes at any time and send them anywhere. Answer a question, ask a question, report on something which just happened, warn a teammate you can't make it.
All of them could burst open from teacher-driven assignments
Yes! A robotics researcher* once said something like "Why should we limit robots to the lies we tell them through keyboards"?
Perhaps we should give our students the same courtesy.
* I want to say Rodney Brooks but I can't find the quote right now.
Yes! A robotics researcher* once said something like "Why should we limit robots to the lies we tell them through keyboards"?
Perhaps we should give our students the same courtesy.
* I want to say Rodney Brooks but I can't find the quote right now.
Neat quote. I'm seeing mentions of Bill Gosper 1965, MIT. (Usually spelled as "Gospar" with this quote.)
http://sixfingeredman.net/quotes/computer.shtml
Can't confirm attribution yet, though.
I understand your quoting this in context to imply that, by starting out from teacher-driven assignments and then letting students break away from them, we may give students the tool to make their own minds on what we discuss with them. If my interpretation is correct, we probably both perceive social constructivism to be a gateway to critical thinking and creativity.
On the other hand, some people (including some students and some administrators) balk at the idea that the courses we administer (!) aren't "the whole truth and anything but the truth."
And this is where my enthusiasm is confronted with tricky realities...
http://sixfingeredman.net/quotes/computer.shtml
Can't confirm attribution yet, though.
I understand your quoting this in context to imply that, by starting out from teacher-driven assignments and then letting students break away from them, we may give students the tool to make their own minds on what we discuss with them. If my interpretation is correct, we probably both perceive social constructivism to be a gateway to critical thinking and creativity.
On the other hand, some people (including some students and some administrators) balk at the idea that the courses we administer (!) aren't "the whole truth and anything but the truth."
And this is where my enthusiasm is confronted with tricky realities...
Thanks. Gosper, definitely.
I guess what I'm driving at is that at some level, all texts are someone else's interpretation (which of course is then filtered through another layer of interpretation by the listener/reader/viewer). The map is not the territory.
That's not to say that an interpretation by someone else can't be highly valuable (particularly when that person is an expert in the field) but it's a long way from absolute TRVTH.
I guess what I'm driving at is that at some level, all texts are someone else's interpretation (which of course is then filtered through another layer of interpretation by the listener/reader/viewer). The map is not the territory.
That's not to say that an interpretation by someone else can't be highly valuable (particularly when that person is an expert in the field) but it's a long way from absolute TRVTH.
What is truth?
It may be present in code (truth tables) but is a bit harder to find in the messy reality experienced in human relations (with or without techology).
There we find truths perhaps separately
It may be present in code (truth tables) but is a bit harder to find in the messy reality experienced in human relations (with or without techology).
There we find truths
Any of this got anything to do with today's date?
I can be whimsical on any day of the year
For other purposes, they input all three different Japanese scripts. For example, the cellphones have amazing dictionaries that convert hiragana script into the 2000 Chinese characters quite quickly and guess the context well.
Interesting. A Chinese friend of mine told me that their cell phones used some sort of (semi ?)phonetic input which then produced a menu of Chinese character choices ranked by likelikhood. Sounds similar.
No WiFi. Limited to the phone network. We have three large mobile phone networks (NTT Docomo, Softbank, Au).
This is a big problem, IMO. We'll never see the costs come down to where they should be as long as the telcos have a de facto monopoly. Wifi is the best way around that, I think....
Interesting. A Chinese friend of mine told me that their cell phones used some sort of (semi ?)phonetic input which then produced a menu of Chinese character choices ranked by likelikhood. Sounds similar.
No WiFi. Limited to the phone network. We have three large mobile phone networks (NTT Docomo, Softbank, Au).
This is a big problem, IMO. We'll never see the costs come down to where they should be as long as the telcos have a de facto monopoly. Wifi is the best way around that, I think....
Back to our discussion on cellphones...
A new module for mobile phones appeared which seems to trump some of the previous work we had done with Moodle for Mobiles.
http://mobilestudy.org/moodle/mobilequiz/
It avoids the internet, instead it uses a Java midlet to convert a quiz from a moodle main site. You grab the midlet initially via internet, then can practice the quiz indefinitely without internet on your cellphone. No results are posted, but that is not necessary in my experience. Students enjoy a convenient training tool while on the train or bus (a Japan-only condition?). Nice idea, but I am not so excited if it evolves into a commercial service (currently not open source). My questions and comments are in this thread.
Questions to myself...
A new module for mobile phones appeared which seems to trump some of the previous work we had done with Moodle for Mobiles.
http://mobilestudy.org/moodle/mobilequiz/
It avoids the internet, instead it uses a Java midlet to convert a quiz from a moodle main site. You grab the midlet initially via internet, then can practice the quiz indefinitely without internet on your cellphone. No results are posted, but that is not necessary in my experience. Students enjoy a convenient training tool while on the train or bus (a Japan-only condition?). Nice idea, but I am not so excited if it evolves into a commercial service (currently not open source). My questions and comments are in this thread.
Questions to myself...
- Why didn't I think of this earlier, before spending so much research time and money?
- Why didn't a programmer suggest this approach as an option? Are Java midlets a new thing?
- What does this say about the social role of the cellphone in the learning ecology? A practice machine?
- Is this a temporary role? One that will evolve shortly into something more dominant?
Don, thanks for the notice!
It looks like MobileStudy.org is integrating quizzes in a variety of platforms, including Facebook. Must mean their code is easy to repurpose.
Don't have an answer to any of your questions but I'm especially interested in the last one, in this thread's context. What can we see as the future of mobile devices in learning situations? Smartphones with ubiquitous Internet? Messaging and voice interfaces to learning tools? OLPC-type peer-to-peer sharing and collaboration? Distraction during lecture?
Did you mean One OpenMoko Per Child?
Anthony,
Have you done anything with OpenMoko yourself? Did you try the Neo1973? I'd love to hear from an edu-aware person who's tried it. Or get my hands on a Neo FreeRunner!
BTW, I do realize that it sounds like I'm advocating for a variety of standards while Don talked about the difficulties of developing for cellphones because of the variety of devices. I still think that a few standardized cellphone platforms could coexist. Also, I naïvely assume that it should be possible to develop some cross-platform tools to run on a finite range of edu-friendly phones. Android, Cocoa Touch, OpenMoko, and Sugar. And leave Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS, Blackberry out of the edu-phone market? I don't know. I just want edu-friendly handhelds.
Did you mean One OpenMoko Per Child?Sure. That too. In fact, I originally got pretty excited about OpenMoko but I didn't keep up with recent developments and I half-assumed it had become vaporware.
Have you done anything with OpenMoko yourself? Did you try the Neo1973? I'd love to hear from an edu-aware person who's tried it. Or get my hands on a Neo FreeRunner!
BTW, I do realize that it sounds like I'm advocating for a variety of standards while Don talked about the difficulties of developing for cellphones because of the variety of devices. I still think that a few standardized cellphone platforms could coexist. Also, I naïvely assume that it should be possible to develop some cross-platform tools to run on a finite range of edu-friendly phones. Android, Cocoa Touch, OpenMoko, and Sugar. And leave Symbian, Windows Mobile, PalmOS, Blackberry out of the edu-phone market? I don't know. I just want edu-friendly handhelds.
This has been an interesting thread but I started musing...
What if we transposed the conversation to 19th Century teachers, and substituted 'talking' for 'cellphone use'?
This photo is from (slightly) before my time, though I did once sit in desks with fold up bench seats very like the ones in that picture
If you wander around Second Life, you will find 'classrooms' with a 'board'/screen and rows of seats (we have to sit down in case our SL legs get tired?), and any university lecture hall shows its lineage back clearly to the classrooms in the photo above.
The difference between what Don describes and situations where cellphones are seen as disruptive is in what the students are doing. I didn't teach for too many years in secondary school but I do remember the challenge of using student talking in class. Sometimes silence was appropriate, other times a tool for control, and the situation that I loved was when the class had that creative hum of students talking about what they were doing.
Cellphones can be a 'disruptive technology' in a good sense that they disrupt our assumptions about information sources in classrooms.
Good thread!
What if we transposed the conversation to 19th Century teachers, and substituted 'talking' for 'cellphone use'?
This photo is from (slightly) before my time, though I did once sit in desks with fold up bench seats very like the ones in that picture
If you wander around Second Life, you will find 'classrooms' with a 'board'/screen and rows of seats (we have to sit down in case our SL legs get tired?), and any university lecture hall shows its lineage back clearly to the classrooms in the photo above.
The difference between what Don describes and situations where cellphones are seen as disruptive is in what the students are doing. I didn't teach for too many years in secondary school but I do remember the challenge of using student talking in class. Sometimes silence was appropriate, other times a tool for control, and the situation that I loved was when the class had that creative hum of students talking about what they were doing.
Cellphones can be a 'disruptive technology' in a good sense that they disrupt our assumptions about information sources in classrooms.
Good thread!
Cellphones can be a 'disruptive technology' in a good sense that they disrupt our assumptions about information sources in classrooms.Indeed! That's what recontextualizes the original topic of this thread from last summer: cellphone bans in schools after cases of abuse. Seems to me, people are quick to blame technology or to see technology as a panacea. Yet, by talking about technology, we're able to talk about learners, teaching strategies, the future of the "classroom"...