Game Based Learning 2009

Experience first-hand some of the latest cutting edge examples of Next Generation learning in action. This highly interactive session will give real insight to some of the exciting technologies used by learner’s right here, right now. Don’t miss out on this session and be very inspired.

Too often the negative aspects of technology are the focus of media attention. At this session, learners are placed centre stage using technology both in school out of school. We will have live examples of real Teachers and real learners who have taken on board Next Generation Learning into practice while retaining excellent teaching.

See across a range of schools from across the country and have a show and tell with a difference. We will have Robots, Recording devices, Blogging, gaming consoles. Hear, see and touch where they have come from, what they are doing now and where next.

You might not like all the messages but we hope you will be inspired, a little bit shaken and maybe even stirred by what you observe.

The session will showcase examples and involve you in new ways. We will even have a competition running throughout that sums up what Next Generation Learning should be like. Be sure to bring your mobile and have your text describe what learning should be like in 160 characters or less.

The 90 minute session will be led by Andy Black of Becta (bio) at 11:30, 13:30, 15:30.

Selected groups of children aged between 6 and 16 will showcase their work to a live audience and panel of judges. The winner (s) will present in the main conference and receive valuable prizes. Compered by Johnny Ball, on behalf of Becta.

Get involved!

More information here

Hosted by Dan Sutch, Futurelab (bio)

Everybody with an interest in 21st Century learning and teaching practice is invited.

It's a game.

The rules are simple. Anybody can present but you're allowed 20 images that you show for 20 seconds each giving you a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds before the next presenter is up. You can't spend 6:40 on one image/slide or 2:20 or any other denomination you can only spend 20 seconds on each image/slide. It's all part of the fun and keeps presentations concise. If the facilitator decides then the presentation may be open for discussion with the audience otherwise it's straight on to the next presenter.

Each presentation is pre-loaded onto a laptop (Powerpoint or Keynote) and then is ready to go. The facilitator will make a brief introduction of the presenter and then the talk begins. Each presentation must be pre-configured to advance every 20 seconds, so it's up to the speaker to keep pace with their slides.

More information about the origins of Pecha Kucha here

"Re-imagining Teaching in the 21st Century" – Facilitated by Prof Stephen Heppell (bio)

Technology vs pedagogy, what will teaching be like in the next 25 years?

Delegates will be asked to engage with a series of scenarios in the form of exploration, debate and discussion.

Featured speakers and panellists include:
- Keri Facer, Research Director, Futurelab (bio)
- Dr David Cavello, Chief Learning Architect, MIT OLPC Project (bio)
- Ewan Macintosh, Digital Commissioner (Scotland & N. Ireland) 4iP, Channel 4 (bio)
- Prof. Mike Sharples, Director LSRI (bio)
- Marc Prensky, writer - panellist
- Laurie O'Donnell, Director of Learning & Technology, LTS - panellist (bio)
- Richard Kimbell, TERU, Goldsmiths College, University of London (bio)

30 minute break for refreshments, networking at 15:45

Chaired by Chris Deering, former President of Sony Computer Entertainment (bio)
Do games consoles and off the shelf games titles have a role in learning?
How game-based learning is challenging all the rules?

Featured speakers and panellists include:

- Derek Robertson, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies & Learning, Learning & Teaching Scotland (bio)

What is it about Scottish teacher’s interest in using commercially available off the shelf games titles in their classroom? What on earth is going on there, shouldn’t they be teaching after all? Are these games being used as a sop to appease truculent learners from the digital age, are they used as a reward for good behaviour? Or, is it the case that computer games have the potential to enable the teacher to develop the richest possible learning contexts that can enable young learners to progress, achieve and be successful in the classroom?

This presentation detail how the games based learning developments in Scottish nursery, primary and secondary schools are helping to articulate what good practice with games is and what impact they can have on the affective and cognitive growth of young learners.

This work is very much embedded in a rationale that argues that schools need to rethink what their relationship with educational technology is. Is it enough for schools to use technologies that have status in the domain of the school, that schools see as worthy and that have become the ‘norm’ in the life of the learner or do we need to consider other technologies…technologies that have a home in the domain of the learner and that might not have been seen by schools to have any educational value or potential?

Sit down with just about any game for the DS, PS3 or Xbox360 and you’ll soon see how inherently complex, challenging and exciting they can be. Wouldn’t is be nice to have these adjectives used by children when describing school? Well, the use of integrated use games devices into the curriculum by Scottish teachers is helping to change pupil attitudes to school, to learning, to themselves and is fast becoming a mainstream mode of practice and valid area of investment for Scottish schools.

Scotland’s got game and people are learning. Now, is that not what we want?

 

- Marco Minoli, Director, Slitherine (bio)

 

- Ren Reynolds (bio)

 

- Dawn Hallybone, ICT Co-ordinator, Oakdale Junior School

 

- David Yarnton, General Manager, Nintendo UK (bio) - panellist

 

- Ray Maguire, Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment UK (bio) - panellist

 

- Tim Chaney, President, Virgin Play SA, Spain (bio) – panellist

 

- Steven Berlin Johnson, Cultural Critic & Writer (bio) – panellist

From Second Life to Endless Ocean, from Habbo Hotel to Bebo and Facebook, learners and teachers have a variety of alternate worlds where they can socialise, collaborate and share information. This session is an opportunity to explore, debate and understand the implications of these systems for teaching and learning.

Featured speakers and panellists include:

- Cindy Rose, Senior Vice President, Walt Disney Internet Group, EMEA (bio)
- Ian Hughes, Metaverse Evangelist, IBM (bio)
- Dave Taylor, Developer, Imperial College, founder of SciLands (bio)
- Kurt Squire, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison (bio)
- Ron Edwards, CEO Ambient Performance (bio)
- Kathy Trinder, Research Fellow, Glasgow Caledonian University (bio) - panellist
- danah boyd, Social Media Scientist, University of California (Berkeley) (bio) - panellist

Chaired by Jill Attewell, Manager of the Learning and Skills Network’s Technology Enhanced Learning Research Centre and Programme Manager of MoLeNET.

MoLeNET is certainly the UK's, and probably the world's, largest and most diverse implementation of mobile learning. The Learning and Skills Council and consortia led by Further Education colleges have together invested well over £7 million in MoLeNET in 2007/08. The 32 projects in 2007/08 involved more than 80 colleges and schools and a total of 136 partner organisations. The projects are supported by the MoLeNET Support and Evaluation Programme led by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN). Come and learn about achievements and lessons learned by some of the projects involved in this world leading initiative.

Featured projects

1. LIFEWISE, Anti-Gun and Knife Crime collaboration, Mobiles not Knives

   An overview of the LIFEWISE Anti Gun and Knife crime project and how the use of mobile devices has supported the project. The challenges of working in collaboration over distances. Share experiences of working with Mobile Technologies and a discussion about the future applications and usage of these devises for personalisation.

   Raja Habib, ILT Manager at South Thames College and Project Manager for the LIFEWISE project

   Alex Purssey, Manager of the Wandsworth City Learning Centre

   Chris Nash, moble learning consultent with a background in education

2. "Adding m to the mix"

   Our project was designed to add mobile learning to the existing rich blend of ILT we have at Tower Hamlets College. The key aim was sustainability. The mobile learning devices were used in a variety of Skills for Life ESOL ‘settings’ and for a variety of purposes. We will demonstrate examples of good practice and lessons learned and how teachers and students used the devices for purposes that we had not planned for.

   Frank Wall, Learning Technologies Co-ordinator, Tower Hamlets College

   John Budis, Skills for Life and ESOL Lecturer/ILT coordinator

3. HTTP - Harnessing Technology Towards Personalisation

   With over 500 learners and staff getting involved in the HTTP mobile learning project - led by City College Norwich and involving learners from across the county – many valuable lessons have been learned and a roadmap for future M-Learning established. M-Champions, Lead Researcher and Project Manager will be on hand to discuss the road forward.

   Harry Greiner, Head of New Media at City College Norwich

4. Shiny Stuff

   The Glossy project put in place an infrastructure at Gloucestershire College that allowed learners using devices which they already own to access learning activities and content through a mobile learning portal in conjunction with the college VLE. The project created a student wireless network that can be accessed by learners’ own devices to access college services, e-resources and the internet. So did it work? Will it work?

   James Clay, ILT & Learning Resources Manager, Gloucestershire College (bio)

5. WBL 4 WBL - Innovation in work based learning

   This project explores the potential of mobile technology to support students in the workplace, through the development of bespoke course specific multimedia courseware, delivering high impact and accessible content to learners, utilising the full potential of mobile devices to enthuse, widen access to learning opportunities and educate.

   Patricia Forrest

6. Mobile learning for literacy (level 1) students

   Coulsdon College introduced HTC Ameos to three classes of level 1 literacy students with a range of needs and including many from disadvantaged backgrounds. The project sought to find out whether mobile learning can improve teaching and learning in literacy lessons, change student attitudes to homework and out of class assignments, improve IT skills or raise level 1 literacy success rates.

   Yolanda Botham, Deputy Principal Curriculum, Coulsdon College.

7. Assessing the impact of m-learning with Work Based Learners undertaking Apprenticeships across Rural Lincolnshire

   Boston College’s project was about increasing the flexibility of provision, improving retention and achievement and increasing the self–esteem of learners, specifically young learners who are typically on minimum wages, by using Smart phones to enable flexible learning and evidence gathering in the workplace for storing as an e-portfolio which is easily accessible to assessors and learners. 

   Brian Lambourne, Information and Learning Technology Manager, Boston College

8. Using Mobile Technologies in the Classroom, at Home and in the Field to Support Minority Teaching Groups (Molemint)

An overview of the experiences of Having Sixth Form College when introducing mobile technologies including Asus EEE PC’s, Apple iPod’s and HTC Advantage PDA’s to minority groups of students (studying Geology, Heath and Social Care and Modern Foreign Languages) to enable evaluation of the devices’ pedagogic benefit and the overall student experience.

Graham Francis, Havering Sixth Form College (bio)

Chaired and facilitated by Mark Robinson, Group Head of Education Product Strategy, Promethean Ltd. (bio)

 

- Richard Crook, Praise Pod (bio)

Praise Pod takes positive behaviour management to a new level.  Utilising multimedia to capture, store and share moments, praise pod has been seen as a 21st Century sticker chart.  However it goes beyond a simple reward system.  Praise Pod builds community cohesion and replaces critical problem-based conversations with smiles and celebrations of achievements.  It unites everyone around a common language of praise and creates deep-rooted changes of beliefs and behaviours.

Imagine as you’re reading this summary you receive a video clip on your mobile phone of your son or daughter direct from school; you press play and listen to a moment of discovery, or of kindness or of determination. 

Imagine as a member of staff arriving at work to find a video ‘thank you’ sent by a parent just to say how much their child has enjoyed your lessons.

The possibilities of praise pod are endless.  The central message is that the more time we spend noticing good things and enquiring about how these positive actions affected others, the less time we will spend mulling over failings.

Pilot schools each saw around 2000 visits to praise pod over a 3-month period.  Since the original pilot schools a cluster model has been developed to allow whole communities to run praise pod; from early years in Children’s Centres, through Primary, Secondary and Adult learning, including family learning and input from trainee teachers at local Universities.

Praise Pod uses ICT as a tool for positive communication. It connects people from different backgrounds and builds bridges.  It is a tool to celebrate the everyday achievements that occur in schools across the UK and present a true picture of young people as citizens and contributors in a time when the demonisation of youth threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Since July 2008 Praise Pod participating schools have been able to upload video clips direct to ITV local programming.  As web-based media continues to develop, young people’s voice and opinions are being sought as ‘Cub Bloggers.’

Praise Pod is a key tool in realising PSHE targets and delivering SEAL beyond the confines of a physical building. It makes a statement in any foyer that achievements are celebrated and through its unique process raises the self esteem of learners, teachers and parents alike. 

Visit Praise Pod in the Promethean Pavilion.

 

- Tony Vincent, Learning in Hand (bio) - For Kids, By Kids: Valuable Tips for Podcasting with Students

Podcasting is now four years old and many educators have been podcasting with students for quite a while. Experienced podcasters are ready to explore ways to improve their audio podcasts. Extremely valuable tips, tricks, ideas, and resources for every phase of podcast production will be shared. From planning to publication, there are effective techniques that can improve the content of the show, the learning process, and the quality of the recording. Participants learn about streamlining the process, involving more students, and developing a compelling format. Above all, participants learn how audience and purpose are the focus of any good podcast. Technical issues like leveling the volume of the final recoding, management issues like developing classroom routines, and creative issues like writing a catchy tag-line are addressed. Free resources for measuring audience, hosting episodes, and promoting the podcast will also be shared. Participants will listen to clips of effective podcasts that model excellence. With what’s learned in this session, educators will be able to help students produce podcasts that both the creators and listeners will want to hear again and again.

 

- Mark van't Hooft (bio) & Thomas McNeal (bio), Kent State University - Students as Content-Creators: The Geo-Historian Project

Wireless mobile technologies have drastically changed the ways in which we communicate and access digital content. Moreover, these portable tools are allowing us to easily capture, edit, upload, and share media such as pictures, video, and audio clips. Even though mobile phones are the most widespread digital technology in the world today, they have not been widely used in education (yet), as many adults are still reluctant to allow access to the devices in formal educational settings. The Geo-Historian project is based on work in the areas of ubiquitous computing and mobile learning that focuses on the use of mobile technologies to break down the barriers between schools and society. The goals of the Geo-Historian project are to investigate mobile phones as educational tools inside and outside of the classroom; reduce the barriers between schools and community resources such as zoos and museums; and above all, to give students the opportunity to create digital resources for their community. The project utilizes wireless mobile technologies to link classrooms with local historical landmarks. Technologies include mobile phones with video capturing capabilities, built-in GPS, and wireless Internet access, and Internet-based media sharing sites such as PocketCaster. Using these technologies allows students to become video historians, creating and sharing a living history of real people and real places. This project is still in its early stages. We have been successful in using mobile phones for content creation and upload to the Internet. We are currently investigating how we can incorporate the use of QR (Quick Response) or two-dimensional bar codes as a way in which to deliver student-created digital content within its physical context and to allow for distribution of this content to a wider audience (co-presenter: Thomas McNeal).

 

- Lilian Soon, xLearn (bio) - How gadgets empower students with learning disabilities

This session highlights how 'gadgets' can really make a difference in aspiration and confidence in learners with learning difficulties. Our fascinating insights come from the LSC-funded Learning for Living and Work (LLW) projects in the Yorkshire and Humber region. Supported by the JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire and Humber (JISC RSC YH), the colleges showcased in this session were able to try out innovative solutions for students with learning difficulties, or social, behavioural and emotional difficulties. Other case studies come from the MoLeNET and Techdis Accessibility project that highlights how mlearning has helped these groups of learners.

While there are many projects exploring mobile learning with mainstream learners or NEETs, this is arguably the first time so many colleges have tried mobile learning on Entry level and Foundation learners. Almost every kind of phone and game device (including the Wii) has been used, with a variety of approaches. Some have employed systems like Red Halo to manage two-way exchanges with learners. Others have used data contracts and mobile blogging to open up a whole new world to the learners, and to those who support them.

The session will cover the following topics:
- Do you buy one type of gadget for all the students because it's easier to support, or do you buy one of everything available? How the latter approach has worked for one college!
- Experiments with using the Wii in education has led to some interesting ideas for using images and video on SD cards and the Picture Gallery functions of the Wii.
- Data contracts on phones provide the best mobile experience but can we get the industry to provide what we want for education?
- Building your own e-portfolios with systems like Red Halo and Web 2.0 technologies
- Media showcase of learners' work and videos showing learners using the various technologies
- A staff development revolution
- Sustainability: why mobile technologies are the way to go

The fantastic outcomes that have been achieved in a short space of time are the result of dedicated tutors, a willingness to experiment with something different from the tried and tested suite of support software and hardware, the support of the RSC YH and the LSN and of course, the LSC for funding the gadgets!

 

- Jacquelyn Ford Morie, PhD, USC-Institute for Creative Technologies (bio) - Case-based training with critical thinking skills on mobile devices

Creating mobile versions of existing PC or Internet-based training modules requires matching functionalities of the original application with capabilities of the target device(s). Since no mobile device can supply full functionality, transferring rich multimedia applications to mobile delivery platforms necessitates certain tradeoffs.    
We set about porting an existing web-based, rich media, database-driven classroom training application to a variety of mobile devices, preserving as much functionality of the existing training application as we could. The training system is based on case method teaching, where a situation is presented that has several areas for discussion causing the students think critically and analyse what might have gone wrong. We found that none of the mobile devices chosen was able to present a satisfactory experience running the original content.

We next created a new form of the application which replicated the experience and learning objectives of the original while allowing it to be used on a widely used mobile device, the Apple iPod Classic. This version of the training application used preloaded media controlled by a simple markup language available in the iPod: Notes. We simplified the formatting while maintaining the most important pedagogical goals of the program. However the iPod platform presented some serious limitations, such as having no direct way to communicate with an online database to report usage information, a key feature of the original training application, which gave instructors additional tools to analyse student responses, individually or as a class.

Therefore, we next created a version of the training program for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. These devices do not include the Notes markup language, however, so we went back to the original web based version, making this implementation much closer to the original.  It runs in the iPhone/iPod Touch's embedded Safari browser, and uses streaming media and a server-side controller. This connectivity retains the uploading of student responses for instructor analysis. 

Finally, we have also developed a version that runs native to the device itself, only needing network connectivity to upload the student’s responses, which can be done asynchronously. All video elements are stored on the device and thus playback is not subject to delays.  Our successful implementation of this design allows us to pursue additional Case-based modules using the Apple platforms, promoting the potential for educational modules to enhance and situate learning within everyday life.

 

- Paul Quinn, Vice Principal, Harefield Academy (bio) - Sony PSP's in a Specialist Sports Academy

The Harefield Academy has used Sony PSPs for a year in two specific areas, PE and A Level ICT. In PE PSPs have been used to interrogate performance for gymnasts. The easy way you can review video images on a frame by frame basis as practice takes place is very powerful, especially compared to the more expensive traditional video cameras, where the functionality is much less familiar and complicated than PSPs. This is particularly enhanced by PSPs large screen and its durability.

The Sports Department also make use of the PSPs to empower students to develop their own “fitness videos” for other learners and have expressed a preference in using the PSP over other methods of recording video.  As well as this, content can be placed on to the PSPs for use by the learners during the lesson. 
In A Level ICT PSPs are used with a free online assessment website at www.yacapaca.com.  Students input their data via the internet wireless browser with ease and find the individual learning tasks PSP facilitate dynamic and engaging. Teachers are then able to collect, view and assess the date collected across the whole class automatically and in real time.

We are also looking at tapping into the fact that many of our students already own these devices and allow them to bring them into their learning in order to copy and access content on the memory sticks in their own device so they can have genuine “anytime, anywhere” learning.
This talk gives some detail as to how the PSPs have been integrated into the school in a number of ways, feedback from staff and learners on its use and suggestions for how to begin to use such technology in other learning institutions.

 

- Sally Drummond, William Angliss Institute, Melbourne, Australia (bio) - Engaging youth in mobile learning

The Turning Point project provided a unique opportunity to engage with youth in mobile learning via a digital mini film festival and to research the transfer of data to ubiquitous mobile devices on the streets of Melbourne. Funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework in 2007 the project researched youth engagement in mobile learning, mobile filmmaking and the transference of data via Bluetooth® technology. As a framework for engaging reluctant learners the festival provided a program of filmmaking and event management. The festival theme was a life altering pivotal moment in ones life. The films which were scripted and acted by the students were to be no more than one minute in length and filmed using a mobile device. The students managed the festival setting up a website to receive entries and with support from the City of Melbourne host the films on the information hubs (iHubs) on the streets of Melbourne. The project researched the essential role mobility plays for the Generation Y filming a short documentary recording youth attitudes to mobile learning and their recommendations for the future of education in Australia. Previous promotion of mobile learning as an effective means for engaging learners glosses over the issue of transferring educational content to a mobile device. As a consequence the project focussed on Bluetooth® researching student interaction with the technology. The iHubs were selected as they are Bluetooth®-enabled using BlueZone® object push technology which streams data to mobile devices. They were installed in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and are used to provide information on facilities in the central business district, promote businesses, provide access to historical information, games and to enable the sharing of information, vouchers and music files via Bluetooth®. While Bluetooth® technology is not new, the use of Bluetooth® in the classroom to transfer files and images is not normal practice, indeed Bluetooth® capability on a computer is a relatively new option. This technology does not require prior contact information such as a mobile number to make contact and share files. The films were easily accessed via a touch-screen which enabled viewers to view and transfer the films via BlueZone® object exchange push (OBEX) protocol. Research data was collected during these trails to inform the project on the specific applications for Bluetooth® and BlueZone® technology to assist institutes, teachers, developers and students to manage educational content on a mobile device. http://getmobile.wikispaces.com/

 

- John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton (bio) - What's New: Images and Ideas from mLearn2008

mLearn is the world\'s leading research conference for the mobile learning community. In 2008 it will take place in Ironbridge Shropshire just before Handheld Learning in London. Over 400 of the world\'s major researchers, developers and practitioners will participate and share their work, featuring new technologies and innovative pedagogies. The main theme will be context, using location, history and personalisation, to enhance learning. Diana Laurillard and Yrjö Engeström are key notes, and the conference is being supported by all the national e-learning agencies and by industry leaders. The conference will roll out a large-scale sustainable personalised context-aware delegate support technology that will enhance the conference and also be deployed at conference dinners at the RAF Museum and the Ironbridge Gorge Enginuity amongst the exhibits. This session will be ideas and images fresh from mLearn, the profound, the emergent, the innovative and perhaps the catchy and whacky.

Chaired by Steve Moore (bio), Policy Unplugged

Schools and universities are not always buildings. Talking is just one simple application on a device that we still call phones. Personalised television is streamed to anything, anytime and anywhere. Instant access to information in your hand is, for many, already a reality. We are connected to everybody else nearly all of the time and enjoy sharing what we’re doing.

In this landscape what are the new learning and teaching environments that emerge? How do they benefit the learner or the teacher? If technology is the solution then what is the problem?

The speakers in this session will, from their own field of expertise, present different perspectives to provide a picture of how they and their organisations are shaping and navigating the landscape that will form topics of discussion for lively debate.

 

- Matt Locke, Commissioning Editor, Channel 4 Education (bio)

 

- Geoff Elwood, CEO, Etech Group (bio)

As the founder and CEO of the company behind one of the world’s leading learning platforms - Studywiz, Geoff Elwood spends much of his time travelling the globe talking to students, educators, government officials, academics and other major providers in the education sector. Often quoted by major press publications around the world, Geoff’s global perspective, limitless energy, drive and passion for technology in education have earned him a reputation as an industry spokesperson.

At a time when wireless internet access is about to change everything, Geoff strongly believes that “the challenge is to create strong partnerships and provide clear leadership to avoid the digital divide, devise safe and acceptable use practices within education, and to address the constraints and controls placed over copyright – who owns what content and where and how.”

In this presentation Geoff will share some of the successful strategies being implemented around the world, including those of the well established 14-19 Kingswood Partnership, talk about the findings of research studies investigating the impact of mobile devices on teaching and learning and inspire you towards striving for your own vision. Passionate about building learning environments that are geared for future technological innovation and convergence of data systems and devices, Geoff will explain how building the right partnerships is the key to success.

Geoff is a master relationship builder and has orchestrated school partnerships in 22 countries, a strategic alliance with Apple Inc (USA), a joint venture with Gould Group for environmental education and integration allegiances with numerous companies including Google and Microsoft. He has established worldwide operations teams in Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA.

 

- Margaret Allen, European Education Market Development, Promethean (bio)

The Gilbert Report states that Personalised Learning is most of all about every learner having a voice and being able to communicate their feelings.  These are high order expectations and rightly so – we should have high expectations of our children, but we must ensure that other aspects of the curriculum and learning environment do not sit apart from this. We need to unlock children’s ability to enable them to make choices which have clear implications and will affect the way in which they learn and develop their thinking. We need to evoke motivation and achievement through ambition, emotion and ownership.

Primary teachers are creative and imaginative in their teaching.  They are skilled communicators who recognise that children are extraordinary in their limitless potential to accept and engage with new concepts. But for some teachers technology still remains something of a mystery, not only in its application but also in the affect it has on children’s learning.

Technology, in all its guises, has had a revolutionary effect on teaching and learning. But it should not be about the technology but about what it can do. By careful planning technology should enable a teacher to motivate and stimulate pupils, holding their attention as well as making it more appealing to teach.

Teaching is about communication more than technology; it should offer a secure catalyst for speaking and listening.  Learner Response systems can engage users at a number of levels, inviting ideas to be negotiated, explored and adapted.  These are the fundamental credentials needed to develop higher order thinking skills. Children learn best by direct experience, activity and discovery and teachers need to provide as much auditory stimuli as possible, such as verbal reinforcement, group activities, and class discussions.  Patterns of classroom interaction will clearly develop over time, but building an engaging and stimulating environment for young children to grow in confidence and become motivated to find out about their world is crucial in any Primary classroom.  Offering a range of activities as well as meeting the day to day learning objectives in a world where “equipment” abounds is vital – I would like to explore how text and pictures can be enhanced by technology in an effort to generate a sound environment for pupils and teachers alike.

 

- John Devonshire, Managing Director, JD Connect, imJack (bio)

As someone who found school a bit of a “turn-off” until I met with teachers and teaching assistants that – a) understood that I was bored, not because I was disruptive by nature, but because I was wholly endowed with an inquisitive temperament having been encourage to ask “why” of my parents to their absolute exhaustion since I could walk and b) because throughout my lifetime I have been drawn to the places and experiences where I can intuitively create, collaborate and communicate – I believe Handheld Learning 2008 could offer a platform for new ideas and opportunities for teachers and students alike to move this agenda forward.

My experience with ICT in schools has often meant the inherent loss of personal freedoms to choose and enquire freely and simply meant I experienced personal and intense frustration for quite a lot of the time throughout my “school days”.

The education environments I attended up until my early teens had the over-riding characteristics of rules and control which left me searching for a direction that was simply not there. My subsequent school successes were enjoyed at a Technology College open to shared learning experiences. In my working life I communicate, collaborate and create as naturally as breathing. The positive environment in which I, and my friends and colleagues exist and work, embraces the adventure of problem solving associated with ideas and positively seeks out and meets the meet challenge of achieving an information and skills balance in which we can survive and thrive in today’s world.

My personal agenda is for our experiences to lead all users of technology to the kinds of success we need to give further substance to new ideas and fresh endeavour. I’m here at Handheld Learning 2008 with a service called imJAck – my name is John (Devonshire) and I look forward to sharing some thoughts with you during the conference and during the session to further stimulate the opportunities possible for children and young people since the advent of ubiquitous and mobile technologies.

I believe collaboration and communications technologies are here to stay, must be mastered more swiftly in order for all those in education to survive and thrive – students and teachers alike – my question will always be why has it taken so long to take off?

 

- Richard Warmsley, Head of Beyond Voice, T-Mobile (bio)

We are currently witnessing a massive change in the way that we socialise and work, driven by the ability to access the internet, through mobiles, at broadband speeds. Richard Warmsley, Head of Beyond Voice – Internet and Entertainment, will be revealing how the fast pace of change in the mobile industry is such that we are already seeing mobile technology start to deliver education in a new and exciting way that will benefit pupils and teachers alike

Richard will be identifying some of the trends that we have been witnessing with mobile usage which will highlight the ability mobiles give us as consumers the freedom to access the information we need from wherever we are.

Should schools be thought of us just as buildings? Mobile technology means they might also start to become the name we give to virtual learning communities, with online learning no longer tied to the home or campus.

Richard brings with him a wealth of experience working with Beyond Voice solutions and will provide an insight into some of the innovative ways that this technology is being deployed within businesses, schools and by consumers themselves.

 

- Sean Kane, Global Head of Mobile, Bebo (bio)

Chaired by Annika Small

 

How can we take the theory of Mobile Learning and make it a reality for learners teachers and their families?
David Whyley - Learning2Go, Wolverhampton (bio)

Learning2Go harnesses enthusiasm for mobile technologies by enabling pupils to use handheld computers in their learning, at any time and anywhere. The project promotes a personalised learning experience, in which the learner is responsible for managing their own mobile handheld computer and helping to shape their own learning.  Learning2Go is the largest mobile learning initiative in the schools sector in the UK. Imagine a scenario where at any time learners could; have access to the internet in the palm of their hand, take videos and still photos, author PowerPoint presentations on the fly, carry a digital library in their pocket and produce dynamic mind maps of their project based work? Welcome to the world of Mobile Learning. Using the latest handheld devices, this once dreamed of seamless integration of technology has been achieved in Wolverhampton. The mobile device has become like a 21st Century Hi -tech pencil case! Get a glimpse of the latest developments as3G mobile web connectivity is added to the mix. These new developments explore the potential of connected mobile devices with some of the most deprived learner groups where mobility is key. A community of learners is linked by an on line environment which promoting a social networking and themed “Hot seat” approach, this harnesses the best of web 2.0 developments while retaining an underlying educational ethos. Learning2Go promotes a practical approach to embedding mobile learning into everyday teaching and learning, thus ensuring its longevity.

 

ACU Connected: Mobile Learning and the iPhone Campus
Dr Kyle Dickson (bio), Dr William Rankin (bio), George Saltsman (bio) & James Langford (bio)
Adams Center for Teaching and Learning, Abilene Christian University, Texas

While a 2007 ECAR study reports that 98 percent of students enter American colleges with cell phones, many faculty have seen mobiles simply as social devices with no redeeming value. Yet as the 2008 Horizon Report predicted, the new generation of web-enabled smart phones challenges this view by providing a mobile-computing platform more powerful, more accessible, and more fully mobile than many other options available to educators. This fall, Abilene Christian University (ACU) introduced a wireless telecommunications programme to support in- and out-of-class teaching and learning, media delivery, and social interactions. Rather than treating mobile devices as mere distractions, we're seeking to leverage their capabilities. We believe that 21st-century education must embrace and extend the role that mobile computing and communication plays in the lives of our students and in the life of the academy. 

The ACU Connected mobile-learning initiative was instituted to begin exploring the implications of the new generation of converged, web-enabled smart phones. Beginning with more than 40 faculty and staff researchers--from administrators to residence hall managers, web programmers to English professors--chosen competitively to explore solutions in strategic mLearning and infrastructure areas, this initiative has sought actively to develop classroom applications, explore educational partnerships, and determine appropriate policy to support 21st-century teaching and learning that leverages the emerging platform represented by the iPhone.

Now moving into its second phase with the distribution of iPhones and iPod touches to almost 1,000 incoming first-year students, ACU has sought to realize the vision of its short film "Connected" http://www.acu.edu/connected that imagines a day-in-the-life of a fully mobile campus. Transforming imagination into reality and putting it to the test of actual use in the academy through the development of new pedagogical models and the creation of a suite of web 2.0 tools (including a mobile portal http://m.acu.edu homework alerts, no-advanced-notice polling, mobile class folders, media-rich flashcards and learning objects, and a podcasting system with iTunes U integration), the ACU Connected initiative seeks to continue pushing the boundaries of mobile learning.

 

The Nintendo DS: entertainment device or powerful educational tool?
Derek P Robertson, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning, Learning and Teaching Scotland (bio)

In early 2006 Derek Robertson sat down to play Dr Kawashima on his shiny new Nintendo DS. An initial Brain Age of 48, and the subsequent revelation that the best score was 20 meant that for the next few weeks, feverish game play occurred until a Brain Age of 20 was achieved and maintained!

Already having an interest in computer games as learning tools Derek began to look at this device with real interest. It was relatively cheap, very easy to use, the software was hugely engaging, it encouraged self-improvement but above all it was great fun. He immediately thought of many of the children he had worked with in schools and how this learning environment within a games device might possibly help develop their mental maths ability as well as their self-esteem. He also thought that the low technology skills threshold required to operate the device meant that teachers might very well embrace this.

It appears he might have been on to something. Leading Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium initiative he began putting the Nintendo DS with Dr Kawashima into schools in an attempt to measure any impact it may have. Two years later, and after an extended study partnered by colleagues from the University of Dundee, it seems that the DS and this game in particular can impact on attainment.

However, it’s not all Brain Training you know. The games for the DS are many and varied and there are quite a few of them that have the capacity to be retro-fitted in to the curriculum. Take Nintendogs for instance. Ever thought a virtual pet could become the contextual hub for cross-curricular learning in a Primary 2 class and that parents, suspicious of the game, would be completely turned around after witnessing the hugely positive impact it had on their children. Or that Phoenix Wright on the DS could set for homework with 100% completion by the pupil?  And with the homework done the teacher could now use the context of the game to develop an understanding of the narrative of the game, the characters within the game, encourage rewriting of the court scene for podcast and even the creation of pupils own games.

Bring your DS and take a closer look at its potential. Is this the kind of device that needs to play a part in the experiences that we offer learners? It’s worth a closer look…

Scotland is once again demonstrating their lead in the effective and progressive use of new technology to improve learning and teaching. This session will showcase and explore some of the countries exemplar initiatives that are using mobile and ubiquitous technologies and the outcomes that have been achieved.

 

- Anna Rossvoll, Aberdeenshire Council (bio): Nintendogs in P.2

If you visited some early years departments in schools in Aberdeenshire earlier in the year then you might have found children looking after, nurturing, walking and training their dogs. You may be wondering what on earth they are thinking of up there having dogs in the classroom but don’t worry, there’s no health and safety issues here, no need to sweep up the dog hairs or to even open a can of Pedigree Chum for these dogs are not real. They are virtual dogs appearing in the game Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS, and they have been used to create a rich, dynamic and inclusive educational context for the hungry learners involved in this games-based-learning initiative. In this presentation you will hear how innovative teachers have used this hugely successful commercially available games title to drive a rich and motivational learning experience that so enthused the children and some parents to the extent that they donated £1000 to the school to buy more Nintendogs.

 

- Jim Scott, Perth High School (bio): The Winning Game

In 2003 England won the Rugby World Cup. The then manager attributed some of his team’s success to the ‘winning mentality’ that was instilled in his players through the ‘winning theory’ espoused by their motivational coach, Yehuda Shinar. This theory has been developed and applied to underpin the design criteria of a new computer game that aims to help the player/learner develop the skills and self-awareness to help them focus on self-improvement and success - be it during sport or learning. At LTS it was felt that much of the underlying themes within the Winning Theory had natural links to the rationale of Assessment is for Learning, hence our interest in the idea. Perth HS worked with the TPLD, the game designers, and the Scottish Institute for Sport Foundation to help modify its design and to assist in determining how it can be applied and made sense of in the Secondary school. This presentation will focus on how the game was integrated into the life of the school and how the pupils developed a mentor programme to help develop a culture of self-improvement and success via the learning that occurred in the game.

 

- John Low, LTS (bio): Learning Anywhere Anytime in West Lothian

The presentation will explore the vision, successes and challenges faced by West Lothian Education in implementing an appropriate local area network infrastructure to support the demands of a modern curriculum and pedagogy.

West Lothian is a Scottish local Authority, located to the west of the City of Edinburgh, serving 160,000 citizens.  The Education service provides pre-school, primary and secondary education to over 25,000 young people.

In West Lothian we recognise that our learners live in an environment where technology is an essential part of their daily lives and routines and our objective is to create a structure where our young people are encouraged to use these tools and associated skills in flexible learning environments, within and out with our schools.   We are working towards a curriculum and pedagogy, which supports the individual needs, aptitudes and talents of every learner and which engages them in the highest quality learning activities. By welcoming current and emerging technologies into our schools in a personalised and flexible way, we will support this transformation in Learning and Teaching by providing an environment where every pupil and teacher can use Information and Communication Devices (ICD) to communicate, collaborate, research, share and expand knowledge.

To achieve this West Lothian Education is implementing an appropriate local area network infrastructure that will support the future demands of a modern curriculum.  We think some of the key creative solutions to achieve this are:
•    Design and implementation, within each school building, of effective network connectivity to facilitate access to personal and shared learning content and web tools for owner provided ICD’s and West Lothian devices.
•    Effective dialogue with professional colleagues to develop pedagogical approaches to wide spread ICD ownership and use by learners.
•    Partnership working with parents to develop understanding of ICT supported pedagogy and to develop family Internet literacy and safety.
•    Support for and a route to purchase of ICD’s for parents/students/staff who require it.

 

Round table sessions:

 

- Mark Pentleton, East Ayrshire Council (bio): From Radio Lingua to the classroom - Podcast expertise applied to a local authority podcasting strategy

This session provides an insight into educational podcasting and the various forms it can take. Mark Pentleton launched his first podcast in April 2005, shortly after the concept of podcasting was born. This was in the pre-Garageband era, and RSS feeds were coded by hand. The PiEcast was a magazine-style show aimed at bringing together the community of the PiE languages and ICT project and combined interviews with participants in the various activities of the project with 

learning materials created in conjunction with language assistants. In many ways the PiEcast was before its time, in that the distribution of the podcast even before iTunes offered podcast access proved challenging.

Following the success of the PiEcast, Mark launched a project that aimed to teach something traditionally seen as ‘boring’ in a completely new way. The ground-breaking Verbcast was a ground-breaking series which taught French verbs, combining audio learning materials with relaxation and visualisation techniques. Initially launched with a focus group of students, the Verbcast featured a four-week programme of daily podcast episodes and used text-messaging to test the participating students on the content of each day’s lesson. The Verbcast was then released publically and has since been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times by French students and teachers across the world.

The advantages of using podcasting as a tool for learners became very apparent through the experience of the PiEcast and the Verbcast. Learners could take learning materials with them wherever they went; the availability and decreasing cost of media players meant that many hours of learning content could be carried on handheld devices; learners found it easy to engage with content created specifically for them, and they could use this content privately, without those around them knowing they were learning.

The experience of developing materials for learners has led Mark to set up his own company, Radio Lingua, providing language-learning materials by podcast. Since the launch of Coffee Break Spanish in October 2006, the company has developed materials in a range of levels, languages and styles on a semi-commercial basis, primarily aimed at adult learners. All basic audio materials are freely available, and the production of these materials is funded by the sale of lesson guides and additional materials. Radio Lingua podcasts have since been downloaded over 30 million times by learners across the world.

This session will provide an insight into the experiences - both positive and negative - of podcasting in education. Mark will discuss the techniques, equipment, and strategies involved in podcasting from a basic to professional level.

 

- Ian Stuart, Islay HS (bio): A year on... what makes a handheld learning project sustainable?

Islay High School (IHS) has radically changed its curriculum, bringing in vocational courses and teaching to multi age classes. To support these changes IHS has developed the use Ultra Mobile PC’s (UMPC) for curricular delivery in every area of the school.

Every pupil has a UMPC which they use in all classes and take home with them to do homework. That homework may well be ‘Make a film about....’ or ‘watch this video before the next class’ or ‘Interview your parents about..............’

To find out move have a look at islayian.blogspot.com and learning

 

- Margaret Cassidy, Stirling Council (bio): Endless Ocean for the Wii leading to endless learning in the classroom

Spot The Difference :

Classroom 1 : Wet Interval – pupils playing games on CBeebies website, chatting, squabbling and messing about.

Classroom 2 : Wet Interval – children writing up their log-books, using the Internet to do research on dolphins, involved in co-operative games ……

The Difference – ENDLESS OCEAN , of course!

Endless Ocean is ‘More of an experience than a game of any sort’.

The Presentation:  will demonstrate how the pupils have engaged with Endless Ocean, and how the teacher has used this as a motivation for literacy, maths, citizenship and science within the class.

The Pitch:  a Wii with Endless Ocean was placed in a classroom and the children have been using EO alongside their Citizenship Topic - Creating a new Civilisation (The Wii People under the Sea)

The Deal : the children have previously been involved in a Rich Task and continue to be responsible for their own learning. These tasks are   grounded in reality, providing rich opportunities for pupils to develop skills for life long learning. They are encouraged to be inventive and creative, to have independent thought and, through these, develop into confident learners.

 

- Tess Watson, East Lothian Council (bio): The Sony PSP in the primary classroom

Imagine a device that would allow the learner to play dynamic games, access the web wirelessly, take photos and video-conference.  A device that would enable the learner to the show or play the images, audio, video, and animations that they make in class and then take it home in their pocket! Well the Sony PSP does this…and more. At LTS we were keen to explore how this device could be used and integrated into the every day life of the classroom and how it might impact on teaching and learning. Thirty Sony PSPs were put into P.7 at Campie PS in East Lothian and a programme for its integration was established. This presentation discusses the teacher and pupil experience and how this handheld device, the software and the necessary change in pedagogy impacted on the teaching and learning.

 

- Ollie Bray, Musselburgh GS (bio): A young leader's perspective - making games based learning work in the secondary school

It is often argued that making games based learning happen in a secondary school is more of a challenge than it is in the primary setting. What with subject areas generally being seen as discrete and timetabling making it more difficult to spend the necessary time to get into a game which could then enable the ensuing educational enquiry to begin and flourish. However, at Musselburgh Grammar School this challenge has been met. This presentation will focus on how the management team and teachers at Musselburgh Grammar School have taken games based learning forward in an innovative yet strategic manner. Come along to hear how games such as Guitar Hero, Big Brain Academy and Buzz the Schools’ Quiz are helping to challenge and extend learners of all attitudes and abilities. Games based learning can happen successfully in the secondary setting; this presentation will show you how you can make it work it for you.

 

Plenary and close.

9.30 a.m. - Welcome and Introduction- Steve Moss (bio)

9.45 a.m. - Extending Learning Relationships & Environments - Deb Polson (bio)

Deb Polson is an academic and independent designer. She holds an academic position at Queensland University of Technology,

Deb’s presentation will focus on:

• Innovative ICT projects currently being used by students in schools, at home and in the community
• Stories of use from teacher, student, and other stakeholder perspectives
• Lessons learnt so far: a design perspective
• Surprising and inspiring opportunities

10.15 a.m. - Mobile Media in Vocational Education Paul Doherty (bio)

Paul will showcase a programme which he has facilitated for senior secondary teachers in the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle) and media tools such as the “Flip Video” so they can develop flexible, anywhere anytime access to course resources and content for students who are following vocational education pathways in school to work transition programs. Teachers are creating short video clips of required competencies in machinery and electrical tools operation and embedding them in Moodle and a central Digital Learning Bank.  Assessment of student’s competencies and required skills, particularly for those in remote locations, can be facilitated by their use of a flip video or mobile phone video capture of tasks completed during their “on the job” placements and submitted to their teacher via Moodle.

Australia is in the middle of a mining boom that has highlighted the fact that there is a significant skills shortage in many of the traditional trades and engineering pathways. Schools are responding by setting up Trades Schools and Trade Training Centres and are offering school based apprenticeships and school to work transition programs. Students participating in these programs often miss “normal” classes at school because of “on the job training” on one or two days during the week.

11.00 a.m. - Refreshment break

11.30 a.m. - Empowering Social Inclusion - Malcolm Reeve (bio)

Malcolm Reeve is Chief Executive of Chelmsford New Model Special School which is one of the largest special schools in the country and is a sample school in the Essex Wave 4 Building Schools for the Future project. 

Malcolm’s presentation will explore the opportunities for social inclusion created by personalised handheld or portable devices.

• What does social inclusion mean for children and young people with disabilities?
• How portable or hand-held devices can assist independence and inclusion
• Two pupils’ stories

12.00 - Handheld Learning in Wild Places - Mark Standley (bio)

Mark Standley is Principal of Highland Tech High, an innovative Charter School in Anchorage, Alaska. Mark has led thinking in the use of portable and mobile technologies for investigative science activities outside the school environment.

This presentation highlights successful techniques to excite students (ages 12-18) about science through storytelling and technology.  The session will discuss the benefits of handheld technology in field-based and inquiry –based learning as modelled by Alaska, Hawaii, and UK students.  Participants will receive an understanding of the importance of handheld learning in remote locations, the individual perspectives of the participants, and the impact it may have on their willingness to choose science as a career path.  This project is funded in part by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and includes the curriculum "Alaska Scientists of the Future"

12.30 p.m. - Effective use of new technologies in the Leeds BSF programme - Joyce Ness (bio) & Cathy Morgan (bio)

Joyce Ness spent 14 years as a senior lecturer for e-learning in Further Education. She moved to JISC as an e-learning advisor for the Yorkshire and Humber Regional support centre before joining RM Education to work on the South Yorkshire E-Learning Programme.

Cathy Morgan recently joined RM Education from Ofsted where she was HMI and the specialist subject advisor for ICT.

Celebrate our success! This presentation will highlight some of the excellent outcomes from the ‘innovative use of new technologies’ project in Leeds. Equipment such as Play Station Portable games consoles and minibook computers have been used in a variety of ways to engage our senior leaders and our students to improve the quality of their work.

1.00 p.m. - Lunch

Presented and chaired by Dr Mike Short, Vice President R&D, Telefonica O2 Europe (bio)

At O2, we are committed to delivering new experiences through technologies that help inspire and connect people, and we believe this extends to people who want to learn.

This interactive workshop explores the role mobile learning can play in education, and how it helps inspire a generation of learners. You can see first hand in live demonstrations of some of the solutions available today, and you'll have the opportunity to question leading figures in Education, who will share their experiences of deploying ‘mobile learning’, and the benefits pupils and teachers are realising. You will hear from:

- Dr David Whyley – Learning2Go, Wolverhampton (bio):
Experience the benefits of Mobile Learning in the classroom today, including an interactive demonstration with teachers and pupils.

- Kirsty Tonks - Shireland Collegiate Academy (bio):
Explore the vision of Handheld learning and the role it plays in teaching and learning today.

- Sandra Taylor - Ashton Under Lyne Sixth Form College (bio):
Understand how the challenges associated with developing and deploying a handheld learning solution were easily overcome.

- Richard Barkey - CEO Imparta (bio):
Recognise the wider benefits of Handheld Learning in business, including an interactive demonstration of how Imparta have helped O2 to deliver a learning solution on XDA devices for their teams working away from the office.

To close the session, all speakers will participate in an interactive Q&A session.

We hope that this will be an enjoyable and rewarding workshop, providing you with an overview and some guidance in engaging Handheld learning in your school environment.

- Christopher Murray, University of Leeds (bio) - 'Writing on Your Wall' Using Facebook as a Tool for Transition

As part of the JISC-funded ELP2 Project the University of Leeds, School of Medicine piloted the use of the social networking site, Facebook, as a tool to assist student transition. Every year a number of students on the BSc Clinical Sciences foundation and first year apply to the medical degree at the University of Leeds. Students from the first year of the Clinical Sciences course enter the 2nd year of the medicine course, where groups are already established and students are familiar with the department’s procedures and expectations. To ease this transition the school set up a social group on Facebook entitled ‘Welcome to Leeds University’.

All of those transferring to Leeds from Bradford were invited to join the group in July 2007. In addition a message was sent to all existing Leeds University first and second year students with the link to the group and an invitation to join and contribute to the online discussions and to answer any questions which arose.

Material such as book lists and links to accommodation guides were also made available through the group. Through the use of online questionnaires and three focused interviews with students several themes began to emerge relating to the use of the social network in general, in education and its role in transition:

Important factors include • Connectivity with appropriate students/people • Access to relevant information • Relevance and purpose • The emergence of ‘Learning by Lurking’ as a legitimate activity for students.

Students were however split on the desirability of using such social networking tools in education. With some feeling the need to protect this space for social purposes only. There were also issues of etiquette and differences in the electronic formats used when communicating with different groups of people.

Using an amalgamation from student responses to survey and interview questions this paper will represent an ethnographical view of one fictional student participating in the transition group and will explore their everyday use of social networking and investigate the features and barriers which impact on their use of such tools in an educational environment.

 

- Michael Kasloff, Senior Product Manager, Wireless Generation (bio) - Real-time Diagnostics and Decision Making - mCLASS®:Reading 3DT in the U.K.

For the past eight years, Wireless Generation has worked with schools and districts across the United States to make differentiated instruction possible through the use of the mCLASS® platform. mCLASS solutions leverage handheld technology to transform formative assessment results into actionable data that educators can use to target and individualize instruction, and the mCLASS reporting platform offers guidance and support to scaffold teacher thinking. To date, more than 150,000 educators have been able to collect, analyze, and make use of formative assessment data in a way that helps them differentiate instruction for more than two million students. Wireless Generation recently completed a pilot of its mCLASS®:Reading 3D™ solution in the UK, in part to see if the values and benefits of the software and reporting platform resonated outside of the United States. The results showcase how handheld technology in the hands of educators can transform instruction and improve teaching and learning around the globe. During this session, learn about the details of the UK study, hear feedback from educators who participated in the pilot, and engage in a discussion with Wireless Generation's Senior Product Manager about how emerging handheld technologies intensify the teaching and learning experience in a way that benefits both educators and students.

 

- Jon Trinder, PhD Student, University of Glasgow (bio) - Mobiles in and out of the real world

Ultimately mobile devices will be powerful enough to act as good clients for virtual worlds such as second life. In the meantime there is potential for providing interaction between devices or applications used within SL and devices in the physical world.

For example it is already possible to send sms messages between real world and SL but there is an almost limitless potential for the type of communication and activity that can occur.

The idea here is for a participatory breakout session for anyone in producing such \"devices\" within or external to SL with the intention of instigating collaboration between participants to produce a useful set of applications.

Aimed at developers who may want to produce the tools (whether they have platform knowledge or not) users and educators who have an idea for an activity and want to specify the tools they need. In some cases application may already exist and the audience can hopefully enlighten each other.

 

- Adesina IIuyemi (bio) - Handheld learning for health professionals: Understanding different contexts to inform design and development

The use of handheld computers also known as personal digital assistants and mobile phones for learning has been on the ascendance in health industry for some time now. For example, in the US, up to 70% of medical residents now use these devices to assess medical knowledge within and beyond the hospital buildings. Also, the figure for medical students, medical practitioners, dentists, nurses and other health practitioners is not far fetched. Handheld computers provides a means of  accessing medical decision support guidelines, electronic health record, drug directories and other relevant health information at the point of care either at the bedside in the clinic or at patients’ homes within the community. Accessing these clinical or educational materials through handheld computers should be regarded as “medical handheld learning”. As it provides opportunity to support educational needs of ever busy health professionals and students regardless of their healthcare setting. 

The rapid advance in handheld computing innovations has made mobile computers to enable access to enterprise systems. With a consequence that health workers can have access to organisational knowledge base anywhere and anytime.  Potential benefits to the health professionals include improvement in their medical knowledge and improved clinical competency. The benefits to health organisations have been proposed to be improved quality healthcare delivery, cost savings due to better drug prescriptions and overall efficiency in the health system among others.

Following this near global trend is the use of handheld computers by health workers in developing countries. The relative low-cost of these devices in comparison to desktops computers makes an economic sense in these resource constrained environments. Handheld computers have demonstrated their usefulness to support heath workers with medical knowledge and information with resultant impact on HIV/AIDS management in some cases from developing countries.  That is, handheld computers also have potentials to contribute to the health workers’ learning and education in this environment.

Therefore, the aim of this workshop is to bring to the fore of handheld learning community agenda the potential benefits of handheld computers for the education of health workers in both developed and developing countries. This will hope to sensitise the handheld learning community to the issues of design and development of medical software and hardware for health workers’ education.

 

- Alan Beecham, Education Bradford, Where next (bio) - About projects made possible using new technologies. Does the journey from Constructivism to Connectivism imply moving from Pedagogy to Heutagogy?

This presentation will draw on nearly four years of experience of facilitating and direct involvement in mobile learning projects in Bradford. We have now placed approximately 1200 devices throughout the authority. We have used at least 12 different devices with students ranging from Y2 to Y13, using both wireless and SIM card connectivity. In this presentation I will try and answer the question posed in the title by illustrating the generic definitions of the words used with examples of projects completed within Bradford and reflect upon how the students’ experiences and reactions are beginning to cause a shift in the thinking about how we educate students.

Of the many projects that have been completed I will concentrate on those that have made most innovative use of the technologies eg geotagging and other ‘out of school’ projects but will also include examples of how the new technologies have been used to reinvigorate more traditional activities eg revision and annotation of Shakespearen text.

 

- Jan Lepeltak, NHL University, Netherlands (bio) - VEENQUEST: handheld learning in a Frisian nature

The Veenquest adventure game was developed by NHL-University in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, for children between 9 and 14 years old. In National Park De Alde Feanen in the northern province of Fryslân in the Netherlands, children use a personal digital assistant (PDA ) with a Global positional system (GPS ) to play the game They experience this unique environment through the story that develops on the PDA-screen and the various tasks and assignments they have to carry out.The game can be played by school classes as well as by families visiting the park. The Veenquest concept is meant to stimulate children and adolescents to visit locations where they would not usually go on their own, such as museums or historical sites. They do not use a map or pen and paper but they explore an area with a PDA in their hand, using GPS . Veenquest is an example of handheld or mobile learning that does not require children to sit in front of a computer screen for hours. It stimulates them to explore the environment with the assistance of the latest technology. Since the spring 2008, Veenquest is in use at the visitors centre of the National Park. The game was developed by Keur ICT and the National Institute for Environmental Education, in cooperation with National Park De Alde Feanen, under the guidance of NHL-University’s Institute for Education and Communication. Presented by Jan Lepeltak (NHL) and George Plakké (Keur-ICT).

 

- Lt. Alex Smith, HMS Collingwood - PlayStation Portables in the Armed Forces

 

- Gareth Frith, University of Leeds (bio) - Mobile Learning and Assessment for University Work based Practice - a case study

ALPS Mobile Assessment and Learning Using Mobile Devices to provide the assessment and learning environment for the inter-professional assessment of Higher education students in Work Based Practice. The Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is focussed on ensuring that Health and Social Care students are competent and confident to work in healthcare settings. Up to 900 students from the Universities of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds Metropolitan and York St John are using mobile devices to support their assessment and learning whilst undertaking work based practice. This could extend to all health and social care students at these institutions but is equally applicable to other professions where work based practice is part of the curriculum. The paper will discuss the outcomes of this innovative project namely:

• The various aspects of learning, assessment (formative and summative) and reflective learning using e-portfolios and mobile devices
• The experience of procuring a large mobile learning pilot project including choice of device, network, e-learning environment and mobile support environment
• The challenges of developing a mobile assessment environment (linked to mobile learning) and deploying it to a large group of 900 students and staff
• The successes in mapping the generic skills and competencies of Teamworking, Communications Skills and Ethical practice and assessing these using a mobile device in a work place environment.
• Building a secure environment for using mobile devices for work based learning and assessment. This will address issues such as how to preserve the confidentiality of student’s results collected on the Mobile Device; how to preserve patient confidentiality when using mobile devices in a hospital, how to send assessments to students and collect student outcomes from the mobile device.
• How we plan to embed mobile learning in to the mainstream of Higher Education provision for students to use in work based learning. This will cover our plans for embedding including device ownership, network provision, building and packaging mobile assessment and learning objects and connection to University Teaching and Learning systems.
• Developing Reusable Learning and Assessment Objects which can be used from a Mobile Device.
• How to extend our experiences from Health and Social Care to other HEI and educational sectors.

This will be a joint presentation between the ALPS programme (lead by the University of Leeds) and our business partners (MyKnowledgeMap Ltd) and ecommnet Ltd) who have provided some of the mobile and e-learning guidance and technology.

 

- Margarat Wallace, Manager, Epict (bio) - Developing Teachers for the 21st Century Empowering Educators

How do we ensure that teachers are prepared for the ‘next generation’ of learning?
Without ‘buy-in’ from educators do we risk ‘new school white elephants’?
The role of CPD - instilling confidence, increasing familiarity, offering recognition.
Presentation of some of the portfolios submitted by teachers towards the Games module of the EPICT Licence.

 

- Dov Bruker, CEO, Fourier Systems (bio) - The Five Faces of Mobile Classroom Computing

A teaching environment where every learner is constantly connected has the potential to radically change the role of the teacher and the manner in which they teach.

This interactive session will explore how teaching may change, whether the profession is able to change and how much change is really necessary.

- Mark Richardson, Teacher, Thomas Hardye School, Dorset (bio) - 30 mins.
Discussing with the help of students how the Films for Learning project and website (built by Microsoft) has developed as well as the challenges and opportunities hand held technologies (DV Cameras, Mobiles and Laptops) creates for learning.

- Robert Heath, Senior Lecturer, Wolverhampton University (bio) - 30 mins.
Presenting work done with trainee teachers using handheld technology to gather evidence for their eportfolios.

- Helen Shreeve, Editor, BBC News School Report (bio) - 30 mins.
Discussing the mobile technologies BBC News are using with teachers and pupils for the School Report project.

ICT Register Showcase facilitated by Tony Parkin, Head of ICT Development, SSAT bio)

Schools in this breakout session were invited to apply for an opportunity to showcase their handheld learning practices through the ICT Register, a unique programme operated by the Specialist Schools & Academies Trust [and supported by Becta] capturing and sharing ICT and eLearning expertise in cutting edge primary, secondary and special schools, academies and learning centres around the world.

Each session by a school or learning centre will last 15 mins - 12 mins for the presentation and 3 mins for questions. This will be strictly observed but delegates will be able to speak to the presenters in panel discussion.

 

Using Mediascapes to promote PLTS framework - Foulstone City Learning Centre

Presented by Stephen Quayle (bio)

Foulstone City Learning Centre is working in partnership with the LA learning services team, teachers from 80 primary schools and 14 secondary schools and the curators of 2 local stately homes to create a series of "mediascapes" that will be used by groups of 30 pupils at a time from KS2, KS3 and KS4 during half-day visits to the stately homes. The aim of the project is to harness innovative handheld technology to address the PLTS (Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills) framework agenda and also to promote outdoor learning and physical activity.

 

Bluetooth phones and resource swapping - Birkdale High School

Presented by Asif Anwar

At Birkdale students have been sharing and developing resources and work by using bluetooth facility on mobile phones to send this information to each other.  Students develop learning materials, bullying and anti - crime posters, interactive quizzes, video footage of bullying adverts(etc..) and information, then bluetooth to each other and other  students to save on paper and to get students more engaged with mobile technologies.  Most phones have flash players and many students use flash and make innovative presentations to send to each other.

 

The Mobile Classroom and PIC Learning Project - Radstock Primary School

Presented by Philip Griffin

The PIC Learning Project involves integrating Handheld Devices (Nokia N800 Internet Tablets) Desktop computers and the Uniservity Learning Platform. Activities include The Shadow Forest- a Choose Your Own Adventure story written and photographed mainly on N800's, and developing the ICTopus website for the sharing of good practice.

 

Using Play Station Portable as a Learning Device -Birmingham East City Learning Centre

Presented by Richard Healey

Birmingham East CLC has been using PSPs for the last 12 months with a number of schools across all age ranges and including a special school for deaf students. As well as using the PSP in schools we have developed their use for out of school activities, at home, and abroad including America and the Arctic. The intention of the workshop is to share our experiences including best practice and key issues for those who are seeking to implement the use of mobile devices in the classroom.

 

School Report Panel Discussion facilitated by Tony Parkin bio)

The presenters discuss with their audience the learning outcomes from their handheld projects, answer questions raised, and explore the true potential for future developments.

All delegates are invited to create or bring a 10 minute presentation or propose a discussion topic. Delegates attending the session are given a number that if called will either allocate them a table which they can use to facilitate a discussion with other delegates or the opportunity to present to the room as a whole for further discussion

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Presented by David Major, ICT Adviser, Redcar & Cleveland (bio)

This presentation concerns the implementation of Handheld Projects within Redcar and Cleveland over the past three years and focus upon experiences of several Primary Schools but one in particular - St. Mary’s which was destroyed by a fire in November 2007. This project was conceived to help ensure continuity of education for the school’s children. The project provided 32 miniBooks to pupils in years 5 and 6.

While St. Mary’s was rebuilt, teaching and learning took place in the local church hall.  With no access to an ICT suite and no space for secure storage of PCs  the school needed near one-to-one access to small handheld devices to support curriculum delivery.  Staff and pupils were among the first in the country to receive, and to begin to use miniBooks.  As such they were at the forefront of applying this technology to learning. We shall focus upon how staff became involved a very different pedagogical approach and compare how this experience differed from schools using handheld devices including phones in other schools.

The original intention was that the children could use their Learning Platform accounts to store and access work and resources through the miniBooks.  However, connectivity was a real problem in the temporary accommodation, and is only now being implemented in the project.  However, despite this the machines are having an impressive impact upon teaching and learning. The most important of these is the personalisation offered by access to ICT whenever needed, and on a one-to-one basis.  There is no more waiting for laptops to be booked or pupils passively watching their partner do on-screen activities.

The staff and children using them love the miniBooks.  Children report that they find the size fantastic and that the keyboard is actually easier to use than the “big one in the suite”. The speed and accuracy of pupils’ typing is also improved.  Children love the idea of being to access ‘their’ own machine at any time they need it to support their learning, which is bringing about improved motivation to learn. 

The organisation of the miniBook’s user interface into ‘work’, ‘learn’ and ‘play’ areas is liked by the children and they have enjoyed the activities and using the art packages. With pupils having the opportunity to explore how applications in these areas work, teachers have become less concerned with teaching how to use, for example, PowerPoint and more focused on how to develop this as a teaching activity.  This has been a fundamental change, and provides less-able children with the freedom to explore the applications and to adapt to the different environment, which they find motivating. OpenOffice has been a revelation. The pupils are finding it good to have the challenge of working with this suite of software and the children are finding very few obstacles to creating their tasks. 

The school is extending the project as the Head now sees the benefits of having a device for each child and has been impressed by the impact in the classroom.
Moving forward, the children are excited about the potential of exploring on-line content like RM’s Living Library and Espresso through the miniBooks., For the pupils in year five who have enjoyed access to the devices there is also real potential to assess the longer-term educational impact the project has had as they move towards the end of key stage two in a year’s time.
During the session we shall refer to other Handheld Projects within the authority and show how with determination and support of the e-learning foundation schools continue to address the difficulties imposed by lack of equality of provision and finding the right device with appropriate connectivity within a limited budget.

Mark van't Hooft (bio), Kent State University, USA

Mark A.M. Kramer (bio), Vienna, Austria
Mobile learning foresight: Examining learning now and in the near future

The purpose of this breakout presentation is to examine the present state of education and learning and provide an empirically sound forecast of possible learning scenarios within the time frame of 2015. The background research conducted for this presentation is based upon a doctoral study, which is currently examining the theoretical and practical foundations supporting the emergence, adoption and proliferation of mobile learning scenarios, and examines how the emergence of a technology enhanced, pervasive learning culture is inevitable.

The intended audience of this research will be individual learners, educational practitioners and policy makers, to equip these stakeholders with the insight and intelligence to prepare them for an emerging future of how we learn and pursue education in a world in which handheld/mobile technologies and services are ever present.

 

Adele Botha (bio), Meraka Institute, South Africa
Digital literacy for 21st century digital learners

A majority of our students today are growing up with unrestricted access to technology and information. This ubiquitous communication and information accessibility has brought not only new opportunities but also new responsibilities to educators and learners. In the absence of culturally imbedded practices to guide and facilitate the use of this new open access to information technology, we need consciously facilitate the setting up of guidelines and equip our learners to use the technology appropriately and safely. Mobile technology, especially mobile phones, as personal and accessible technology, is often the access of choice to the information age. This presentation documents and reflects on an intervention with Grade 8 students at Cornwall Hill College, as part of the MobilED initiative, to develop "Digital Citizenship” and “Mobiquette” or acceptable mobile use.

It was found that although the students were very proficient users of the technology, they were naive users. . Insights gained from the initiative are articulated and we reflect on the implications on mobile learning initiatives in general and in developing context specifically. The concept of “Digital Citizenship” is discussed and mechanisms are suggested in order to prepare learners with “digital life skills” so that they may safely and confidently become full members of the knowledge society.

 

David Cameron (bio), Charles Sturt University, Australia
Handheld media in the classroom: Transforming practice through drama

This presentation will consider ways in which handheld devices such as mobile phones and portable media players may be used to update and enhance learning and teaching practice in the drama-in-education field. It also explores how in institutional environments, where handheld devices are often frowned upon or prescriptively hidden away, drama may provide a means to engage with important issues relating to their social and educational uses.

For more than 50 years drama-in-education has developed as a means of engaging students in a range of curriculum areas, with a range of well-tested drama conventions evolving to provide teachers and practitioners with starting points for creating context-specific activities. Many of these conventions are built around the use of media devices, or cultural rituals surrounding media forms. Digital technology has seen a rapid transformation in consumer electronics and everyday applications of computing networks, and this presentation updates those drama forms to include the latest versions of handheld media devices popular among young people, and suggests ways in which they may be introduced to the classroom through drama conventions.

Drama-in-education has also developed a number of role conventions that allow for difficult or controversial topics and issues to be raised and discussed in safe, meaningful ways. Drama can be a powerful force for generating and implementing changes in attitudes, policy and behaviours. The blending of handheld technology forms and dramatic conventions has broad significance to the education setting, as it may provide a path for educators to initiate discussions in a non-threatening context about mobile media technology itself and related issues such as privacy, identity creation and maintenance, and social behaviours.

Yishay Mor (bio), London Knowledge Lab
Planet: bringing learning design knowledge to the forefront

15 years ago, few learners had either mobile telephony or internet access as a reliable learning resource. Today most have both, in one 150gr device in their back pocket. The accelerated progress of technology means not just that learning is changing, but that change is changing. We – learners, teachers, researchers – have to respond to developments at a dizzying pace.

The first consequence we need to acknowledge is that the division of roles is being blurred. Teachers need to invest in continuous learning, learners can often take the role of teaching, and all are de-facto researchers: exploring and experimenting with new opportunities daily.

The second, more complex and perhaps more vital recognition is that we are all learning designers. We design learning environment for ourselves and for others by choosing the tools and their configuration, we design our curriculum, choosing which new skills and practices to acquire – and which to defer. We design learning experiences by carefully assembling tasks, tools, activities and social interactions.

These observations call for a renewed attention to learning as a design science. Herbert Simon defined: "everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into desired ones" (Simon, 1969, p 129). Hence, design science is, in a nutshell, the science of making a better world. Design science needs a language of its own. A set of "scientific instruments", modes of capturing and sharing knowledge, and methods of establishing validity. Mor & Winters argue that design patterns and pattern languages hold a promise in this respect, and propose a workshop model for participatory development of pattern languages in education (Mor & Winters, 2007; 2008).

The Pattern Language Network project is developing a methodology, and a set of on-line tools to support it, for pattern-based design research in education. These are being used by communities of practitioners, developers and researchers to capture and share their expertise and examples of good practice as reusable design knowledge.

 

Dr Cathy Lewin (bio), Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University
Transforming pedagogical practices with digital learning companions

This paper reports on the introduction of a digital learning companion (DLC) for each pupil in Year 8 class in a Welsh secondary school. The aim is to transform teaching and learning, and engage with parents and carers. The DLC is being used at school and at home by the student and family members to extend levels of engagement with learning in a mixed socio-economic context where there are some significant pockets of deprivation.

The DLC is becoming another ‘tool’ used by students and their teachers to embed ICT use into the curriculum and to facilitate personalized learning. Staff consider it is essential to move away from the notion of utilizing ICT specific spaces to develop ICT skills to ubiquitous access to support learning.  Given that the device is extremely portable and is equipped with audio and video recording facilities it will enable extensive and innovative use outside of the classroom in a variety of locations e.g. on the sports field, during field trips or educational visits. The integration of the DLC with a learning platform will also ensure that innovative approaches to remote online learning are developed thus enabling the learner to develop greater autonomy.

Students selected a low-cost mobile device from a choice of four. They subsequently presented the outcomes of their evaluation to their peers and parents. The initiative is being funded through parental loans with the support of the e-learning foundation. Students have co-constructed the rules of use and suggested new approaches to teaching and learning with their teachers and other school staff. The intention is to change cultures and perceptions, shifting responsibility from teacher to learner, supporting a degree of risk through mutual trust.

A professional learning community has been established with six members of staff, and members are engaging in action research on the effectiveness and impact. To support the development of pedagogic change, participants in the research sites are playing an active role in the research by carrying out small-scale, focused activities that complement data collection and analysis carried out by the research team. Teachers are gaining CPD through ‘involvement-in-research’ and the research team are able to capture and make explicit practitioners’ knowledge.

This paper will present early findings from the initial stages of the project. It will highlight challenges and solutions, and explore pupil and staff perceptions of the process and initial outcomes, using a socio-cultural lens.

 

Rhodri Thomas (bio), Mobile Learner Support, Open University
Mobile Digiquest: Developing rich media reflective practitioners

Mobile technologies, well-established as business tools, have now become more educationally-appropriate through integration of improved multimedia functionality. User-generated content and related activities have encouraged a transition from academic content creation to greater student collaboration across a range of platforms, which are increasingly mobile. With a greater awareness of 'citizen journalism' approaches, our students are becoming more familiar with using mobile technology in recounting their experiences.

Our own staff surveys have indicated that these techniques are not commonplace internally, and while the greater majority of staff use their camera phones, few feel confident in transferring their rich media elsewhere. Within a wider framework of institutional knowledge-sharing, the OU's Digilab and educational professional development have included opportunities to explore m-learning further.

Supported by device loans and emulation tools, the Digilab has provided a range of self-exploratory facilities which have been leveraged by increasing numbers of guided sessions and hands-on Digiquest activities. Other project work in the university has explored capturing local environments and language in residential schools, and a framework for remote fieldwork. Through offering sessions using commonly available technologies, including participants' camera phones, MMS and online mobile-blogging tools, our activities have demonstrated the ease with which rich media can enhance group work and reflection.

Building on case studies from other institutions and related research in the field we have constructed two main themes:

* Location-based approach, making use of existing physical trails around the campus, integrating with GPS/geocaching activity;
* Scenario-based approach, working within a teaching and learning context, capturing practice through use of participant role-play.

A number of considerations have arisen for further exploration. Technically, it is difficult to filter content and transcode/modify media sent by MMS so that all participants can access the same material.

In creating the activities it was essential to take a more guided peer-learning approach, pairing, where possible, a more adept participant with novice users. The activity worked better when blended with a purpose e.g. creating practice-based course activities. Participants were able to reflect and extend their experiences after the face-to-face session through the mobile-blog.

In this presentation we aim to outline the steps taken in providing these staff development opportunities and our future expectations of providing a return path for user-generated mobile rich media.

 

Carl Smith (bio), Developer, Reusable Learning Objects CETL at London Metropolitan University
Engineering suitable content for context sensitive education and vocational training (CONTSENS)

The CONTSENS project investigates the use of wireless technologies for context sensitive education and training. The 2 year project involves a European-wide consortium headed by Ericsson Education Ireland, with Giunti Labs, ECLO, Plovdiv University, London Metropolitan University and Corvinno, and is funded by the EU Leonardo Life Long Learning Program.

Context sensitive education and training refers to training material which is directly relevant to the training situation. Location based education and training refers to material which is directly relevant to the location in which the students find themselves.

Using established technologies such as GPS and SCORM, and developing for newer technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), QR (Quick response) Codes and Mobile Positioning, training content can be developed for both context sensitive and location based delivery.

The project is developing a series of mobile learning applications that will be tested and evaluated by typical learners. The first will train urban planners by exploring their knowledge and understanding of urban education in a meaningful context. An urban area close to London Metropolitan University, from 1850 to the present day, will be used to explore how schools are signifiers of both urban change and continuity of educational policy and practice.

The learning content being developed for the mobile devices will be directly relevant to the context of the training need and the location of the learner. It will provide evidence of how the organisation and re/structuring of urban space worked alongside educational discourses and policies to support participation in civic urban life and educate generations of working class children. The intention is to examine the community from the past, in order to engage, understand and inform the present, as urban space and society becomes made and remade.

The project will use a complex interplay between mobile learning technologies, iconic physical infrastructures and educational discourses to visualise urban education through various collective images and representations. The intention is to create a digital ‘technoscape’ (Appadurai 1996, Urry 2006) to represent urban land, archaeological space, and subjects using a combination of social and cultural scripts.
The second application involves Art Gallery and Museum Education and will focus on the production of materials for training Archaeologists. In the presentation we will demonstrate the learning designs used to construct the first and second applications and some of the latest developments in mobile networks that have had a real time impact on our research.

Ben Dalton (bio), Benjamin Halsall (bio), Megan L. Smith (bio), Leeds Metropolitan University
Our City, Our Music: using mScapes to map new narratives

Hewlett-Packard's mScape platform allows people to package up audio, images and movies along with geographical information to make interactive maps [Stenton 2007]. When downloaded to a location-aware device these media-maps trigger content based upon specific locations, story elements or more interactive game play. Our City, Our Music has been selected by b.TWEEN08 to develop a location-based album using the mScape platform. This paper presents our project as a case study for the educational potential, creative and social possibilities of this locative media technology.

Media Maps:
As the technology for accurately detecting location to within a few meters outdoors has become more accessible, inexpensive and more effective, the field of augmented reality and location-aware gaming has begun to explore the pedagogical and entertainment value in placing interactive media into urban and natural spaces [Facer 2004]. However it is recent toolkits like HP's mScape system that allow a much wider audience of educators, students and the general public to become creators and consumers.

Case study:
The first location-based album will be realised in Leeds, where emerging musicians will be selected to represent their city, while emerging cinematographers will be paired with mentors to produce the mScape content.  All content will be recorded live in specific locations around Leeds.  These videos combined with audio interviews will form a narrative guide on the platform and become the basis of an invisible archived festival across the city.

The project will engage a wide audience fostering community creativity, explore local identity and history, while forming an alternative city guide.

This project aims to make the technical side of GPS disappear into the background, while highlighting emerging talent and encouraging discovery within the city.

Future directions:
The opportunities for learning are - in content production and alternative experience of journey. The scope for educational applications of media-maps is broader. The ability to place complex story elements and media artifacts into the 'real world' to be discovered by learners in a simple way opens up a range educational experiences:

"Stories can explore the complexities, contradictions and conflicts that many school environments have traditionally discouraged. [Schaafsma 1996]"

The tools of construction for mScapes and similar mapping environments enable a level of usability that permits non-technical learners to tell their own location-specific stories whether it be historical, personal biography, fiction, tourism, artistic or whatever the future of mapped narratives may include.

 

Suzaan Le Roux (bio) , Cape Peninsula University, South Africa
Implications of utilising mobile handheld devices in teaching undergraduate programming learners in a developing country

A global assessment of the use of mobile learning (m-learning) in higher education has brought into sharp focus the ever increasing use of handheld devices in higher education across the world including developing countries like South Africa.  Despite its increasing popularity, relatively little research has been conducted in computer programming subjects at higher education institutions.  As the capabilities of mobile handheld devices increase, its value as a potential teaching and learning aid is increasing exponentially, especially in subjects such as programming.  It is therefore imperative to identify different ways in which these devices could be introduced into computer programming subjects to contribute and add value toward the enhancement of the learning environment.

The lack of resources in education is a major concern in developing countries.  Computers often need to be shared by many learners and it is believed that technologies that facilitate resource sharing in these countries are likely to have a significant impact on education (Jaimes, Kinshuk & Sow, 2003).

This research chronicles the results of the investigation into the integration and use of mobile handheld devices as teaching tools in an undergraduate computer programming subject at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa.  This research also explores the wide reaching implications of utilising mobile handheld devices and the possible advantageous alternatives it can provide to traditional classroom-based instruction in teaching predominantly previously disadvantaged computer programming learners in a developing country.  The relevance of mobile handheld devices in teaching programming, its perceived benefits and the potential barriers to its use are discussed.

In this study the experimental group consisted of 55 programming learners who have been provided with personal digital assistants (PDAs) preloaded with the Basic4PPC application for use at university and home.  This enabled and encouraged learners to design and develop mobile applications in the Visual Basic programming language anytime, anywhere without the necessity of a computer.  Learners reported their experiences through interviews and a survey.

This pioneering pilot group will serve as a point of departure as this new field of research is developed and accelerated to the benefit of all future learners in this and related fields of study.

 

Jane Lunsford (bio), Researcher and Lead Instructional Designer, Open University
Mobile media and devices to support students at the UKOU

The talk will consider two research projects designed to investigate how the support provided to around 200,000 students at The Open University (UKOU) might be improved and extended with the use of mobile media and devices, to suit a diversity of study needs.  It will then show how these research projects have led to enhancements in the support offered by Student Services.

One project involved a team of associate lecturers (tutors) developing a variety of low cost mobile-accessible learning materials for their students, using open source software.  These materials were individually designed by the tutors to use technologies that were appropriate for each particular course and its community of students, thus ensuring that students received the right support in the right format for their needs.  Associate lecturers with quite basic technical skills were able to produce engaging materials using unfamiliar media, although it generally took them more time than they had at first envisaged to become sufficiently skilled in the new techniques.  The implementation of standardised online tools through the OU’s new virtual learning environment will greatly simplify this process.

A second project was based on a student cohort on a psychology module, and offered SMS texting as a regular source of information and advice.  Students could ‘opt in’ to receive text messages that were linked to key points within the course structure, ranging from reminders about tutorials and assignments, to suggestions about making effective use of course resources.  Student responses to this initiative have been very positive, and we are investigating sustainable methods for delivering texting based support as part of our blended provision.

As a result of these projects and other work, we have provided information to students and tutors about ways to effectively use mobile devices for learning, and to show how to use and record audio.  Further material has been developed to inform other tutors about how and when to use such technologies in their teaching.  Lastly, additional mobile assets are now available to all students, for example a downloadable mobile statistics package has recently been made available to test the viability of further developments in other skills areas.

 

Susan Jacobson (bio), PhD, Temple University, USA
Exploring the Expressive Qualities of the Mobile Phone in Journalism Education

The explosive growth of the mobile phone and other mobile communication technologies worldwide, particularly among young people, is well documented. At the same time, young people are turning away from newspapers as a source of their news, and news organizations are incorporating mobile media produced by citizen non-journalists to cover breaking events. This presentation shares the results of a project that asked journalism students and others to cover Election Day 2006, 2007 and 2008 using mobile phone technology, where voice recordings, cameraphone images and text were posted to a central blog. The goals of this ongoing project include developing a platform for future journalists to experiment with the form of mobile media, and to investigate how a collaborative mobile project might be used to create journalistic content. The results so far indicate that many students use the new mobile medium in a style similar to traditional journalism products, although some experiment beyond the norms. The talk includes an analysis of how the technology worked, where it fell short, and what we learned for future educational projects.

A look at the development tools available that help developers create great Web Applications that look and run well on both iPod Touch and iPhone, and a demonstration of building a 'code free' application in under five minutes that can be deployed as either a MacOS Dashboard Widget or a Web Application that runs well and uses functionality on iPod Touch and iPhone.

Presented by Stuart Anderson, Senior Systems Engineer, Apple UK (bio)