Below is an excerpt of Derek’s blog post:

Emantras has a well polished Learning Management System called Mobl21.  The key advantage of this system versus many of the free platforms available is the ability to assign students work in section, units or packages.  These partitioned groups of resources are then downloaded by students in groups on the devices of their choice (Mobl21 supports iOS and Android) and the content is available when students are both on and offline.  This solution is perfect for students going on holiday, as they will have access to school work while they are away.  As the students complete a network, the system sends it back for assessment and/or grading.  While there is much more to say about the Mobl21 platform, a brief outline of the features, functions and benefits is in the presentation I have shared with this post.

So what does this platform offer by way of educational benefit?  I think one could argue that providing students greater autonomy in their learning by mobilizing the platform could have significant benefit for students who take advantage of it.  In terms of students who are not highly motivated, this is a tool that can be used by educational support staff in conjunction with your classroom to ‘catch’ a student up.  The quiz, flashcard and multimedia functionality allow for mini lessons, tutorials and socially connected feedback with the teacher.  In this way, Mobl21 offers a ‘classroom outside the classroom’ setup when the regular classroom is unavailable.

Read the full post here

Below is an edited version of the article:

Mobile phones are ubiquitous among students, both in college and K-12. And while some schools shun the use of cell phones, others are embracing them as a powerful tool. Marketing, learning, and mobile access are just some of the ways academia is taking advantage of what mobile has to offer.

EXPANDING UNIVERSITY APPS AND MOBILE WEB: Universities around the world have learned the value of mobile devices, publishing iPhone and Android apps, mobile-optimized sites, and more, that have allowed students and visitors to find campus news, maps, and other helpful resources right in their phones.

NOMADIC LEARNING: The beauty of learning everywhere is that students can learn outside of the classroom, not having to worry about the world going on without them while they’re locked up inside. Podcasted classes, real-time scavenger hunts, and mobile games are all great examples of learning on-the-go that can be created by traditional educators, and employed by otherwise traditional students.

AUGMENTED REALITY LEARNING SCENARIOS: Mobile phones make it possible to learn anywhere, but with augmented reality learning scenarios, students can really learn anywhere and even any time. Going beyond convenience, through augmented reality mobile technology on GPS-enabled handheld devices, students can find information from different locations outdoors, like on a playground or school field.

MOBILE APPS FOR EDUCATION: Although overall mobile apps have a long way to go in classroom education, they are making great progress. Apps that allow students to explore constellations, for example, offer a great way to interact in the classroom.

TWITTER FEEDBACK IN CLASS: Through Twitter, lecture halls full of hundreds of students can all participate at the same time, tweeting comments, questions, and more using their laptops and cell phones. TAs and professors can respond to the real-time feed, and the entire classroom can watch as it goes by. Students enjoy being able to overcome the shyness barrier, and the entire classroom benefits from increased participation.

MOBILE LIBRARY ACCESS: For years, the only way to access academic libraries was to physically make your way down there and get familiar with the stacks. With the Internet, that’s changed, allowing students and researchers to log in from any computer and enjoy many of the resources that libraries have to offer. But with mobile devices, the game is further changed, allowing for the use of eBooks in academic reading, mobile library database access, and simple library notifications.

MOBILE PHONE PAYMENTS: Anyone who’s tried to get lunch during the afternoon rush on a college campus can tell you that things get a little crazy, especially when it comes to paying for food. With mobile devices, schools have the opportunity to streamline the process, using phones to buy food and beverages through secure transactions.

MOBILE MARKETING: To be a good marketer, you’ve got to go where your target market is, and for colleges, their target market is on cell phones. Research from Ball State University indicates that 97% of all U.S. college students own a cell phone. The University of Louisville and other colleges have capitalized on this opportunity, using QR codes, SMS marketing, and the aforementioned mobile apps to connect with prospective students.

MOBILE POP QUIZZES: Student response systems, which allow teachers to get digital answers from students in their class, usually cost about $1,200 for each classroom. But by using existing student cell phones, that price tag is quickly slashed to just $50 a year. In addition to quizzes, teachers are able to use cell phones for testing, homework assignments, and more, encouraging students to educationally engage with their phones instead of using them as a distraction.

Read the full article here

EXCERPT: Classroom teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, special educators, and others interested in reaching today’s students are gathering in Phoenix, Arizona April 11-13 for Mobile Learning Experience 2012.

Mobile Learning Experience 2012 has already received registrations from all over the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It’s very powerful to network with those in attendance. In fact, even if there was no program the conference would still be incredible because of the passion those in attendance bring.

Read the full post here.

Let’s look at some of the mobile learning cases implemented in schools.

School: Southern University of New Orleans

Devices: Multiple, iOS devices, and PSPs.  Students also recorded learning diaries with their cameras or cellphones.

Objective: SUNO created the Department of Mobile Learning which was set up not only to help learners stay connected to the university, but to help SUNO compete in a university atmosphere were mobile education is experiencing “massification”.

How mobile learning was used: The Department of Mobile Learning at SUNO’s goal can itself be used as good definition of mobile learning.  Its goal is to “reach, recruit, retain and provide students with quality education attainable regardless of location, have uninterrupted access to technology, curriculum and activities that were meaningful to their lives and provide immediate feedback to maximize their achievements”.

The final opinion: SUNO was able to reinvent itself as a hybrid campus with strong distance and mobile learning programs.

Read More here: http://www.anthonyteacher.com/anthony/mobile-learning-case-study-2-disconnected

School: Howard School of Academics and Technology

Devices & Technology: Apple iPod Touches & Mobl21

Objective: To increase student achievement and engagement.

How Mobile Learning was used: To deliver English Grade 9 content in the form of study guides, quizzes, flash cards, video and audio content.

The final opinion: “I have created study guides for students to use to prepare for the English 9, End of Course state exam,” said Ms. Wilbur, “putting some ‘wow’ into what might otherwise be a difficult and boring task for the students.”

Read More here: http://www.mobl21.com/blog/13/mobl21-puts-some-%E2%80%98wow%E2%80%99-into-boring-study-tasks/

Mobl21 extends the learning environment for students via mobile devices, which they are always carrying around like iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, Androids & Blackberrys.

The Mobl21 system can be used for any subject, at any grade level.

For more information contact sales@mobl21.com

Designing good, usable content for mobile learning can seen to relate to the interaction design research (e.g. Jones & Marsden, 2006), which offers general principles for human-computer interaction on mobile devices. These have been supplemented by more specific findings from mobile learning projects (Naismith and Corlett, 2006).

These general principles are:

• create quick and simple interactions,
• prepare flexible material, that can be accessed across contexts,
• consider special affordances of mobile devices that might add to the learner experience (for example, the use of audio; or employing anonymity of the user),
• use mobile technology not just to ‘deliver’ learning, but to facilitate it,
• make use of the features in the mobile devices for voice communication, note-taking, photography, and time management.

It must be kept in mind that the learning content, (and not the mobile technology itself) must be the core focus of any mobile learning initiative.

• Once the learning objective is defined look at various ways of delivering content that will work towards that objective.
• Fragment the content into slivers of information, which can be consumed in 10 minute periods.
• See how audio, video and animation can be used to support the subject material
• Check for free app that provide interactive activities, which would reinforce the learning
• Locate and list veritable blogs and discussion groups which allow email entries for queries

Mobile learning opens subtle channels of communication, which can encourage students who don’t actively participate in classes to respond and express themselves. By exploring and testing new forms of content and exercises, you’ll come across ways to engage your learners both inside and outside the classroom.

According to Doug, modern mobile phones are like pocket computers which can connect young people to a world of information and learning. But not all teachers want to see mobile devices used in the classroom. Some point to a “digital divide” between the have and the have-nots. But the real divide is the “digital use divide”, otherwise known as the “participation gap”. Banning is a form of censorship, a futile attempt at maintaining a status quo. One only has to take the example of pocket calculators to see how banning a useful, transformational technology can be initially resisted before becoming ubiquitous (and extremely helpful) in schools.

You can read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/oct/26/mobile-devices-classroom?newsfeed=true

Also published is a method on how to get the mobile learning ball rolling in schools and colleges, and ideas to teach with mobile devices in classrooms.

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.”

Steve Jobs (2007)

Apple founder Steve Jobs was the man on stage to announce the arrival of the iPhone and with it, he also ushered in the industry of smartphone apps. iTunes alone now sells over 500,000 apps. Schools have already started implementing mobile learning pilots using iPhones and educational apps, to extend student’s learning environment and engage them on the devices “that are just cool to use”.

Duke University began to use mobile devices to access symposiums, class material, and school news through iTunes. The program, called iTunesU was started by Apple in 2007, and enabled faculty and students to create and carry course material with them on their iPods, another Apple product. iTunesU is now used by several institutes including MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley offering access to courses, faculty lectures, interviews and more.

And then came the iPad.

Suddenly across US and the rest of the world, universities and schools began to see the iPad as the device that would take classroom education into the digital era.

According to CIO Today, over 2,300 K-12 school districts have implemented iPad programs, including schools in the New York City, Chicago, Arlington, Va, and Manatee County, Fla. More than 600 K-12 schools have launched one-to-one iPad programs in which at minimum, schools are providing an entire classroom of students with their own iPads to use throughout their academic school day.

While the Macintosh was always a popular school computer choice, the iPad became a game changer. Educators in particular, feel that tablets will change education because they dovetail with the goals and purposes of education in the digital age. In the third quarter of 2011, iPad sales to the K-12 market surpassed all of Apple’s educational Mac desktop and laptop computer sales combined.

“Last quarter, we sold more iPads in K-12 than we did Macs. To do that in just five quarters is absolutely shocking. We never would have predicted this.”  Tim Cook (2011)

What Steve Jobs did for Apple is synonymous with what Steve Jobs did for mobile learning. He charmed, pushed, cajoled, and bullied the way so that other products and ideas could follow. Today mobile learning has moved from the crossroads to the implementation stage, and those of us in this field of educational technology have a big “Thank you” to say to the man whose destiny helped put a learning device in the hands of every student.

SOURCES:

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/alan-kay-steve-jobs-ipad-iphone,10209.html

http://dynastii.com/best-steve-jobs-quote-read-them-enjoy-them-and-admire-him

http://www.apple.com/iphone/built-in-apps/app-store.html