Meet Derek Wyatt – the mobile MP

I have just finished an enjoyable few hours with Derek Wyatt MP – a true champion for new technologies as well as the first MP to have his own iPhone app!

He blogs. He flickrs. He tweets. He podcasts. Radio5Live named him as the “fastest emailing MP”. His website has overtaken the local paper as a source of up-to-date local news. He even streams all his speeches and interviews. But more than that, he has been working on many of the “back end” policies and campaigns that keep our online-world turning.

Wow. And I thought I worked hard.

It turns out he is a great fan of our work – both in the mobile world, and more generally with our e-learning and technology tools and he gave us some great advice about taking what we do in the UK out onto the world stage.

But what about his iPhone app, I hear you ask?

It is not yet live, but when it is it will give his constituents (Sittingbourne & Sheppey in Kent) mobile access to local news, as well as yet another way of getting hold of their MP

Stylish

We have a tradition in our office of “Knowledge Shares” – a public soapbox for anybody who has something to share to teach the rest of us, and Derek gamely volunteered a very entertaining 30 minutes of thoughts, advice and gossip ranging from learning technologies, to the 500 emails he gets a day, to some juicy stories that stay within our walls in Cambridge!

A true comedy moment happened when we inadvertently served scotch eggs and pork pies for lunch – it turns out he was outed in the news as a closet lover of pies and eggs.

A great day. Finished when he needed to rush back to Westminster for an un-expected vote in parliament. This is the first time we have met and I hope not the last.

I’ve hacked you – now pay me!

All this week, Dutch iPhone users have been seeing this message on their beloved devices

your iPhone has been hacked because it’s really insecure! Please visit xxxx/iHacked and secure your iPhone right now

Together with a request for $4.95 for help securing their phone.

What’s going on?

It turns out that an enterprising Dutch teenager (PureInfinity92) managed to hack a large number of Jailbroken iPhones, flagging up a couple of well known security breaches. He used a combination of port scanning and OS fingerprinting to find iPhones in T-Mobile's 3G IP range and exploit a known security risk in those that were jailbroken (OpenSSH is installed with the same root access and password on all devices!)

Unfortunately for his entrepreneurship, he was quickly outed, and his paypal account blocked. He has apologised to all, offered refunds to those who paid up, and made his security advice available for free

In fairness to the guy, his original message did say:

If you don't pay, it's fine by me. But remember, the way I got access to your iPhone can be used by thousands of others. And they can send text messages from your number (like I did..), use it to call (or record your calls), and actually whatever they want, even use it for their hacking activities! I can assure you, I have no intention of harming you or whatever, but, some hackers do! It's just my advise to secure your phone (: Have a nice day!"

Find out more from the original Dutch posting (translated by Google)

So – why use Jailbreak at all?

One of the biggest problems with using iPhones, and iPod Touches as learning tools is the “closed shop”, when it comes to sharing, and distributing Apps. Teachers cannot easily share content they have made.

Developers need to pay, and be approved by Apple. All applications need to go via Apple(iTunes), and be approved by Apple. Added to that, many countries (like most of Africa!) are not even allowed to download apps from iTunes. This is a MAJOR restriction on educators looking to make and share applications.

Jailbreak is the widely used, though not-quite-legal technique of unlocking your iPhone so that applications can be directly uploaded without going via iTunes and the AppStore. Unfortunately though, it is (by definition) not as secure as the Apple’s proprietary approach, which is why PureInfinity92 managed to hack as many phones as he did.

 

Our m-learning.org team do certainly not recommend jailbreaking your iphone, though we are very against the current restrictions on regular teachers making and sharing Apps and look forward to the time that Apple opens access to their Apps up a little more (like all the other mobile App stores!)

Flash on my iPhone? It’s showdown time!

• For several years Adobe has been promoting Flash as a great technology for mobile devices (and it is).
• For several years Apple have been making amazing mobile devices (and they are).

… and, for some bizarre reason, the two have been bickering all along, and never quite making friends.

The latest move in the ongoing showdown is this slightly aggressive message iPhone and iPod Touch users get if they visit a website requiring flash: 

Apple restricts use of technologies required by product like Flash Player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod Touch 

This is Adobe’s second move in the past few months to push the blame back onto Apple. They also announced that the next version of Flash Professional will allow developers to build iPhone apps from their Flash projects.

This is great news, as it will open up App development to the vast army of skilled Flash developers and coders out there. And the announcement was made via this hilarious “myth buster” movie

 

But – the bickering is hardly over, and iPhones will still not be “running Flash”. There remains no support for websites containing Flash. If you want that, you had better stick with your:

• WindowsMobile
• Android
• Blackberry
• Palm Pre

etc etc etc devices!

What is this Android thing?

You may have heard the word Android being mentioned recently around the mobile phone world, well here is a quick post on what the fuss is all about.

Android is a new-ish Operating System (OS) that has been developed by around 50 big names across the device and software industry (the Open Handset Alliance) to try is to offer a low-cost, fully-featured, open-source OS. Then hand that over to the cell phone manufacturers so that they can concentrate more on designing desirable hardware, rather than divide their efforts on the OS and hardware.

Android’s roots are based in the open source Linux platform, but it has been optimised for the smaller mobile platform. It has also been done very nicely too!

Who is involved in Android?

Some of the companies involved are Google, HTC, T-Mobile, Motorola, Samsung, Garmin, Vodafone, eBay, Toshiba, Dell, LG, Sony Ericsson, ARM, Acer, plus a massive following of Open Source development. So you can see it has some weight and momentum behind it. Google are probably at the forefront of these and provide a big driving force behind it. So, you may also hear the term Google phone, they are effectively one and the same - just differences on what applications are pre-installed. (Though it is a little more than that in reality.)

What does Google get out of all that? More mobile searches, which may be one of its biggest sources of growth in the coming years, plus a chance to drive the direction the mobile world operates, rather than relying on others to do it.

Is Android for just phones?

At the moment Android is available off the shelf, on top end phones from HTC, Motorola, LG, and Samsung. Mobile carriers such as T-Mobile, Sprint, and Vodafone are also rebranding the phones as their own too, so the same phone may have more than one name!

But Android is not just for phones, Acer are just about to launch the Aspire D250 net book, which will dual boot Windows XP and Android. You will note that names like Toshiba and Dell are in the Android club. While they are rumoured to be releasing android phones soon, is this the start of a new mass produced laptop environment.

Why do I care about a new OS?

An OS is the environment that you use every day to do the stuff you want to do on your computer/phone, so it can help/hinder you, and even drive you to frustration when it gets it wrong. I hear Vista users mumbling away at this point. An OS can make or break your relationship with a bit of IT kit.

Well from my own usage I would say that the Android experience is a refreshing change. Things are natural to do and things just seem to work.

Android is also going to be appearing on a lot of phones over the coming months, so it is coming to a phone shop near you soon!

What can I do with an Android phone?

Answer: how long is a piece of string...? Well, not quite, but the top end phones are now becoming very adaptable bits of technology, and Android phones are helping to lead the way. Let’s list a few things that can be done. Phone, Email, SMS, MMS, Browsing, IM, Calendar, Contacts, MP3 player, Calculator, Camera(Stills and movies), Slideshow player, Voice recorder, Memos, Office type applications, SatNav, Weather checking, Google maps, Compass, Social networking, games, and of course learning all sorts of things. This is just a list of the stock or mainstream free applications. If that doesn’t appeal then there are around 10,000 applications in the Android Market that can very easily be installed. They range from classic and whacky games, an interactive map of the stars (very cool!), dictionaries in various languages, GPS tracking, office utilities, social networking to fuel prices. You hear the advertisement “There is an app for that...” - Well on Android there certainly is, arguably even more than the iPhone (that should provoke a response from the iPhone fans).

You can see the most popular apps online here. This is just small sample available to the devices and installing them from the phone is very easy, even for the Technophobe. You just search for key words, scroll up and down the different application tap and install on the one you want.

Is this Nirvana?

It is not all perfect yet as there are still some gripes. Yes the phones are generally costly at the moment (similar to iPhone) as the phones being released are all top end. But I think the prices will come down as the number of handsets increase and it becomes more main-stream and it gets used on lower spec devices. Some things are not as quick (split second timing) to do as an iPhone equivalent, but newer versions are just getting quicker and with Android you can easily upgrade the OS – something you can’t easily do on an iPhone.

But it is a huge and very interesting leap forward forward for mobile phones and will certainly help shape the mobile world in the year or two.

But I still want an iPhone!

Yes, the iPhone is a very nice and trendy phone with great functionality. Android is right there beside it as it can do everything an iPhone can do and more. Some things it does better and some things not as well. One thing you cannot do is ignore Android.

Android is here to stay and with predictions that 75 million android phones will be sold in 2012 it is only going to get bigger.

Go into a mobile phone store and ask to play around with an Android phone, you will be surprised what can be done on a phone nowadays. Then let your creative mind think about the possibilities in using it for learning!

Quick guide to low cost ICT devices for 3rd world

For several years, those nice people at infoDev / World Bank have been keeping a (slowly aging) list of excellent, low cost technology cheap and robust enough to be used in the developing world.

 

Great list – but almost impossible to keep uptodate. Especially when it comes to Mobile. Growth of mobile phones, and connectivity via mobile networks has massively leapfrogged the non-mobile alternatives in most of the developing world, with no sign of slowing down.

 

And the list doesn’t really include ANY phones

 

Well – today is our moment to put that right. infoDev has decided that the only way to keep it fresh is to “crowdsource”, asking all of us to contribute devices we think need inclusion.

 

If you know of a mobile device worthy of inclusion, please fill out their handy survey, below, which will send your suggestions straight to the team at infoDev to include in their new list.

 

Thanks, infoDev for collecting this info – and don’t forget the mobiles!

 

Form also available directly at  http://bit.ly/ict_device_survey

elearningdebate – but what are we learning?

I spent several very fun hours at the Oxford Union last night, enjoying a (non)debate on the whether e-learning is up for the challenge of preparing learners for tomorrow.

The good and the great of e-learning were there. Entertaining arguments were put forth both for and against. It was very enjoyable, and a great brand-positioning event for the sponsors.

But the frustrating thing is that there WAS no REAL debate! Both sides seemed in total agreement that:

• right now, there is some great e-learning, and some rubbish e-learning
• we should all strive to make it better / more inclusive / richer / more collaborative
• the term “e-learning” is sometimes shackled unfairly to the driest-end of the page-turning (“paper behind glass”) spectrum, when really we all know that it should embrace all digital modes and media
• e-learning is never the sole solution for all students. But it is a growing part of the solution for many students (including some who would never have studied without it!)

 

So – ermmm – not too much of a debate then!

 

Maybe I missed something. The twitter universe seems more positive. it just felt to me that much of the argument ended up around semantics and word definitions. Both sides effectively willing us to vote for them if we wanted e-learning to get better. In the end the NOs got more votes than the AYEs, but only by all asking us all to vote on the same thing!

That said – the speakers were fantastic fun, with some great quotes, we all enjoyed it.

 

The saddest bit for me was that there was hardly ANY mention of mobile learning, and mobile connectivity. It seems that for most of the speakers “e-learning” is still stuck on a big-screen multimedia PC connected to the web with a high speed cable.

Doh! get with it guys!

 

The real benefit of Learning with Technology is all about reach. Getting to learners where they are, when they need it, on their own terms. if you can’t do that with your e-learning you are missing the best bits of the experience!

 

thanks again to all involved

m-learning for trade unions

The TUC is encouraging members of all their unions to take learning into their own hands … and onto their own phones!

If you don’t know unionlearn, they are the TUC’s learning champions, encouraging

all trade union members to become learning activists. Not only that – but they have started championing mobile learning!

 

Excellent stuff. When learner champions like unionlearn start embracing mobile learning it is a clear sign that mobile really works!

 

Have a look at their home page – it links directly to on overview of what m-learning is all about, as well as inviting any trade union members to register for a free mobile learning seminar.

Congratulations, unionlearn.

 

Our team at www.m-learning.org are very pleased to be working with TUC and unionlearn on this exciting initiative.