$10 million from Google for cool mobile apps

The Android Developer Challenge: Google has offered $10 million to developers for the coolest, most interesting, creative applications that will run on their new mobile operating system.

Android is the google sponsored operating system that they hope will run on all future phones, and with true google flair, they are offering some no-strings-attached funding to encourage developers to get involved.

If you want some of this money, you will need to move fast, though. They have split it into two packages:

Android Developer Challenge I: Happening now. You need to apply before March 3, 2008.

The top 50 entries each get $25K to fund their work, and then they also get the chance to apply for further grants (ten $275K awards and ten $100K awards)

Android Developer Challenge II: This part will only happen once the first android handsets become available - so we are talking the second half of 2008


As always - a breath of fresh air. Lets hope that some of those winning apps are good for learning!

If you want to find out more, visit the android site

Intel pulls out of OLPC !!

The news of the week must surely be that Intel, that giant of processors, has pulled out from the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC).

There is not much information out about why, but it seems like Intel were being pressurised into stopping their own, alternative projects which they were unhappy about. or at least that is how Intel tells it.

Is this significant?

Well, yes, given that Intel dominate the current laptop market, though early versions of XO, the mean, green, OLPC machine were not using an Intel chip anyway, so this may not be a problem in the short term.

Still - it is one step backwards for joint working and co-development.

If you didn't already know, OLPC is the amazing group of people championing super-green, ruggedized, cheap laptops for learning. (See the BBC's technology factfile for the low down)


Geoff2008 (the new improved model)

Tribal's m-learning resources spread across the UK

We are very pleased to announce that all of our mobile learning tools and resources are being made available to all of the MoLeNET winners!

 

32 projects, covering nearly 100 FE colleges across England will be sharing the £6m LSC funding. They are trying out a wide range of different approaches to m-learning. Some are about consolidating lessons already learned, and others about pushing new boundaries.

 

Any learners and tutors across those projects, who want to, will be able to make use of the full suite of Tribal's m-learning tools and resources:

Mobile content: http://www.m-learning.org/products/pocket-pc-learning-resources.htm

Authoring tools: http://www.m-learning.org/products/mylearning-author-for-pocket-pc.htm

mediaBoard: http://www.m-learning.org/products/mediaboard.htm

SMS Quiz:  http://www.m-learning.org/products/sms-quiz-author.htm

 

We wish them all well, as well as the newly formed "Mentors and Champions" - a group of rapidly-becoming-experts, employed by MoLeNET to support and inspire the different projects, and share best practice. Included in their numbers are:

• James Clay (Gloucestershire College)
• Elaine Coates (Learning2Go, Wolverhampton City Council)
• Jill Purcell  (Learning2Go, Wolverhampton City Council)
• Nigel Davies
• Di Dawson
• Bill Lockitt
• Ron Mitchell (Tower Hamlets College)
• Mick Mullane (York Coast College)
• Lillian Soon
• David Sugden
• John Whalley

Good luck mentors!

m-learning authoring: we're in the guardian!

Hey! We got a mention in the guardian!

Tribal CTAD has a long pedigree of supporting adult literacy with new technologies, and its latest authoring environment, MyLearning Author for Pocket PC, aims to make it simple to develop learning content for mobile devices. The software has performed well in recent trials within the FE and adult education sectors.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/link/story/0,,2221069,00.html



We have been beetling away behind the scenes upgrading our authoring tool, in response to very valuable input from key partners across the UK (you know who you are!) and will be releasing a significant upgrade in a couple of days.

If you are a current user, chat to us about upgrading. You will get a range of new features including podcasts, new types of activity, audio integration with most existing content, optional online tracking of progress, as well as some major upgrades to the authoring interface.

If you haven't had a go yet ... you don't know what you are missing! I will post some screen dumps and walkthroughs when we go live.

G

MoLeNET winners go public!

Thanks to the LSN, we have just seen the first, complete list of Colleges and FE Consortia that won slices of the £6m MoLeNET fund.

Congratulations all and good luck with your projects! We look forward to seeing how they turn out

They are:

Aylesbury College	Handheld Pathways – mobile applications for the LLDD provision
Bolton Community College	EISL Project - Extending, Inspiring and Supporting Learning through the use of Mobile Technologies
Boston College	Assessing the impact of m-learning with Work Based Learners undertaking Apprenticeships across Rural Lincolnshire
Bournville College of Further Education	M-learning 4 those who care.
Brockenhurst College	brock.mobi - mLog
Cardinal Newman College	Teaching & Learning : Technology Driven - Quality Driven
Chichester College	Any time, any place, anywhere.
City of Wolverhampton College	Wolverhampton Learning to Go Further!
Cornwall College	Mobile Learning Network across Cornwall
Coulsdon College	Mobile learning for literacy (level 1) students
East Berkshire College	Mobile Learning at East Berkshire College
Eccles College	Mobile IN Salford
Gateshead College	Supporting Science in the Field (SSIF)
Gloucestershire College	Glossy - Mobile Learning in Gloucestershire
Havering Sixth Form College	Using Mobile Technologies in the Classroom, at Home and in the Field to support Minority Teaching Groups (MoLeMINT)
Huddersfield Technical College	m4m Project - m-Learning 4 m-People
Kingston College	KAMPUS: Kingston Access to Mobile Personalisation using Ultra-portable Services
Lewisham College	Wireless Blended Learning for Work Based Learners (WBL 4 WBL)
Lowestoft College	Widening participation Through Mobile Learning
Matthew Boulton College of F&HE	m-strategy in Birmingham (msb)
New College Swindon	Mypodcast Developing innovative approaches to personalised learning.
Norwich City College of Further and Higher Education	Harnessing Technology Towards Personalisation (HTTP)
Oaklands College	The MoLeMentors project
Regent College	Improved Learner engagement for 14-19 year olds in the foundation tier and NEET groups using mobile technology
South Thames College	Mobile Inclusion: using mobile technology to fight gang and gun culture
Stockport College	Learning on the Go (LoG) (inc stockport ALS learners)
Stratford-upon-Avon College	MobTec in Action
Tower Hamlets College	Adding m to the mix
Weston College	Wider Weston
Worcester College of Technology	Herefordshire and Worcestershire Vodcasting and Podcasting Consortium

NokMote - Wii style interface with your Nokia !!

Here at moblearn we love people who challenge the way we use our technology, and challenge our assumptions about interfaces.

The iPhone / iPod Touch did that for me with its web browsing. Tactile zooming. Automatic rotation.

But did you know some of the same magic is available for Nokia N95?

Like the iPhone, it has an accelerometer inside, but until now it wasn't used for much.

Until, that was, a french programmer called Samir got hold of it ... and produced NokMote. Check out the video - and be sure to watch the end bit, where he uses the phone as a remote control. Amazing!

gPhone anyone?

Finally, some tangible news about the gPhone, or "Google phone"!

It turns out there isn’t going to be a physical device at all, but rather a heavy-weight alliance (the open handset alliance ) who are getting together to create an open source platform for mobile devices.

Loads of big names are involved: Google, HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung, T-mobile, Intel….

Notable absences: Nokia and Vodafone

The platform is currently called "Android", and if you have ever tried developing software for phones, you will love all the promises that seem custom-made to make battle-weary J2ME and Symbian developers smile once again:

Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to phone's capabilities

Android is built on the open Linux Kernel

With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect.

which means I really really can use the phone features

There will be a publicly accessible repository, similar to how the Linux kernel is managed.

which means I can un-install those default apps I don't want

To find out more, look at the Official Google Blog: Where's my Gphone?


Great news all round. Now, lets hold our m-breaths to see if it really can offer what it claims, and if those phone manufacturers really do deliver.



ps: thanks to Bob and Juan who got me onto this

iPod touch - does it have a future for learning?

We love our iPod Touch.


We love that it challenges assumptions on user interface, and takes a few steps towards the hallowed ideal of ubiquitous computing where the interface becomes intuitive (and invisible).

We love that we are not locked into a ridiculous phone contract with Orange for 18 months at £30pm, but we still have all the other features of an iPhone

What we really do NOT love is:

- No flash support. Come on apple, you are using the Safari browser, and an OSX base platform. Why block flash from your browser? (there have been rumours for some time that Flash support will be added but nothing firm)

- No 3rd party apps. I know I know, the hot news of the day is that Apple WILL allow third party developers access, but we will need to wait till next year. In the world of m-learning I am impatient, and want to offer my learners something NOW.

- Mac-only content formats, uploaded via mac-only tools (iTunes). Why not be open?

But life moves fast, and here are some of the growing initiatives that are tying to turn the tide of propriety control over mobile devices:

- MediaMonkey offers a far more flexible alternative to iTunes for synching your media files

- OpenMoko are building an open alternative to smart phone operating systems, as are the MobileAndEmbedded team at Ubuntu


We wait with baited breath for an open iPod Touch ...

Give up your beard for charity!

Not at all mobile learning related, but I am donating my beard to charity, and wanted to offer any blog readers the chance to see it on it's way!

If you have a beard to donate (or some loose change for a laugh) visit us on www.justgiving.com/giveupyourbeard

The team at www.m-learning.org work for Tribal, and have been included in a company wide "Give it Up" week, which happens next week.

• We give something up, and raise funds.
• Tribal doubles the contribution.
• The money all gets sent to a couple of charities in Africa, in beautiful Botswana and the magical kingdom of Swaziland.

Go on ... you know you want to!

Handheld learning 07

Tribal is offering a discount code to celebrate the launch of their latest release of authoring tools. Come and visit us on our stand to see them in action.


To get 15% off the entrance price, just make sure you use the code hl07ctad when you register.


Feel free to use it, and to pass it on.


Geoff

Gadget review: Toshiba G900 Protege

The great folks at Toshiba let us get our hands on one of the first production G900's to hit our shores, and we leapt on it eagerly, to see how our resources run on it.

The spec is fantastic, and ought to make it a good choice for learning:

• Wide, high res screen
• Windows Mobile 6
• Thumbprint recognition (and scrolling)
• One of the fastest processors around
• Reasonable camera (2 mega pixel - but with a great lens)
• sleek lines

BUT (and this is a big but), both our devices were increadibly slow.

• Video playback was slow
• All apps were slow
• Browsing the folders was slow
• Email was slow
• Even using the phone was slow.

We don't know why, and I have delayed posting this blog for three weeks while we wait to hear back from Toshiba. They took our concerns very seriously and are checking them out in their labs, but as yet I have no answer.

Is the problem Windows Mobile 6? Might be, but other WM6 devices seem OK. And all our earlier OS devices were running way faster ... even with less than half the processing power of the G900!

I will update when I hear back from Uncle Tosh ...

m-learning on your iPhone !

It looks like the rumours are true, and we will be using the iPhones for mobile learning by the end of the year!

Apple has just announced the iPod Touch, which is just like a slightly thinner iPhone ... but without the phone.

It has the same touch screen, the same apps, the same Touch OS X operating system, WiFi and a Safari browser.

Apple haven't opened the OS up for us developers to write code for it yet, but access to the browser is a great start and the team at www.m-learning.org are champing at the bit to get their hands on one. Amazon in the US is already listing it

We want our MyLearning Authoring tool to export to as many mobile devices as possible, so even though the attached picture is a simulation, as soon as we can get our hands on one we will post some real samples.

(btw: if you like this, check out our previous postings about PSP where our materials are running within the PSP browser just fine!)

G

ps: thanks to James Clay for spotting this release at midnight last night!

See you at Alt-C ?

If you are going to be at ALT-C this year, I will be presenting some of our mobile authoring tools on wednesday afternoon at 13:30.

Details of the talk are on the conference site. I will be showcasing some of the great things that our partners and clients have been doing with our authoring tools. Highlights include:

- The Unite project and specifically some great mobile learning activities in the two UK schools

- The ALPs project with Leeds Met University who used the mediaBoard as an e-portfolio

- Some fantastic resources for 5 yr olds made in a Wolverhampton primary school, part of the Learning2Go group

- Work-based skills audits from the transport, catering and customer service industries



I would love to meet some of the blog readers - see you there?

Geoff

5 year olds need mobile, playful ICT instead of laptops!

Teaching ICT to primary aged children using tools designed for office-based adults isn't the best approach.

This is the result of a study recently completed at Stirling University in Scotland, which found that it was far more helpful to get them started with the technologies that fit more naturally into their lives: digital cameras, video cameras, electronic keyboard, barcode scanners and mobile phones.

The TES ran a great article on the study this week (pg 34?), and although the full version is not available on the university website just yet, it is expected shortly.

The Tribal m-learning team have had similar, very positive experiences with Key Stage One children using our resources. We recently visited a primary school in Wolverhampton, part of the Learning2Go initiative, and were bowled over by the inspirational mix of PDA activities, class-based learning, and paper-based worksheets.

Robin C, the class teacher, had used our MyLearning Autoring tool to build text based activities, using words from the Oxford Reading Tree scheme. He them made paper-based worksheets to extend these activities further. The mix of book, PDA, differentiated worksheets and class-interaction was very engaging. even the most hyperactive of his 5-6 year olds was totally absorbed in their task.

Kids with a 2 minute attention span were sitting, engrossed, for a good half-hour!

Robin, we think you and your class rock! Keep up the inspiration!

How do we keep all our mobile devices charged?

We own and manage a lot of mobile devices. Like between 100 - 1000 depending which ones you count.

Most of them are Windows Mobile, which means they are fairly power hungry, and need regular charging, but with this many devices, how do you safely and securely avoid tripping over cables, and sitting on devices?

Plan 1: is our magical, homemade cupboard. It gets rave reviews by the visitors to our office. If you have ever had to look after multiple devices, you will know why!

Plan 2: A bloke called tony has made a mobile version in a toolbox! I just discovered it on his learninginhand blog.

Another great, lateral thinking plan!


Geoff

Converting phone video to play on your PC

In the mobile learning world we seem to be forever converting media from one format to another. This is often because phone manufacturers are pushing the envelope in compressing media (especially video), but the PC players are a bit slow to keep up.

This is exactly the time to turn to the Open Source community, and today's post is to point out a few excellent sources of free media conversion.

To play back the file without converting it:
Use VLC media player to play just about any media file.

If you just want to convert the damn file:
Try http://media-convert.com who will convert just about any file to just about any other vaguely relevent format. So upload your phone-video, and get it returned as a wmf or mpeg that will play back nicely from your PC

Alternatively, download super which is ... well ... super at converting most files into most other file formats.

If you are a developer:
Our mediaBoard product needs to support just about any format of media from any phone, and convert it into a web-friendly format, and for this we use the excellent, open source FFmpeg component. If you need to convert your media files, they are well worth checking out.

Thanks to these sites, and the developers behind them for helping out countless of our m-learning users over the years!

G

How to compare PocketPc smartphones?

We end up buying an awful lot of smartphones - many of them PocketPC based. (probably almost 3000 over the last couple of years)

it is always a really messy business, haggling with suppliers to get the best price. And it gets extra complicated trying to compare different devices when network providers are rebranding and renaming what are often, essentially, the same phones.

If this sounds familiar to you, there is a shining beacon of hope: the fantastic xda-developers.com.

If you want to figure out your Blue Angel from your Wizard, have a look at the wiki (at wiki.xda-developers.com). They list all the different models, and the many names they have been given.

This is especially useful because the vast majority of these phones are all made by a single Taiwanese manufacturer, HTC.

The forums (at forum.xda-developers.com) are also great for technical support. spectacularly better than any of the network providers we have used in fact. The best one stop shop for tips on how to upgrade the operating system, or unlock your phone, or even fix that nagging problem you are having.



Thanks guys - the mobile learning world appreciates your advice.

Which phones are my students using?

We build applications for all sorts of different phones, and despite the hype, many of the development tools and platforms we use are fairly stable: (MMS, SMS, Flash, Flash Lite, C for PPC etc).

The one technology that we seem to be endlessly tweaking is Java for phones (J2ME), because despite the good-karma that surrounds java's "runs on any device" ethos, the harsh reality is that each phone is different, and J2ME applications need to be tweaked endlessly to deal with new phones.

In fact, we have a huge box full of ex-ebay phones we use for testing.

But how do we know WHICH phones to test on, and which to build for?

It is a bit of a black art, and we rely heavily on our friends (thanks Wolf!) but here are a few useful links:

1. top seller lists are a good start:
http://www.ciao.co.uk/charts.php/ListId/3

2. then, you need to try to get some "install base" lists. This is a lot harder to do, as you need access to some insider knowledge, or very expensive reports. Here is a UK list for jan07:

Nokia	6230i	1,614,900
Samsung	D500	981,660
Motorola	RAZR V3 Black Edition	932,760
Sony Ericsson	K800i	879,900
Nokia	6230	860,470
Sony Ericsson	K750i	792,680
Nokia	6280	781,560
Samsung	D600	774,260
Nokia	3310	769,520
Nokia	1100	744,440

but this still doesn't help you narrow down to your target group. What we do for this group is:

3: We make our own lists. Because we offer free previews of many of our java games, we log all incoming connections against phone types. That way we can spot trends, as well as see new phone-variants we don't support yet and do some preventative development!

here is a sneaky screen dump from one of our games. You can see there are two columns - the red (pre-support) shows the number of downloads we missed out on, and the green (post-support) are the success stories. For total attempts you need to add these together.

6 million pounds to buy m-learning kit in UK

Wow! MoLeNET (www.molenet.org.uk)

Hot off the press - the LSC is making £6million available for FE colleges (and their partners) to buy m-learning devices.

Colleges are being invited to apply for grants of between £100 000 and £500 000 for capital expenses, to contribute to mobile learning projects. Colleges will need to contribute other costs, like training and support to a minimum of 20% of the funding they recieve.

This is great news, as it is a clear indication that the mainstream has recognised the potential benefits in mobile learning, and is trying to spread the love

If you are in FE and based in England, come along to the open day on 9 July

keepin' it mobile

Geoff

Make a movie on your PSP!

Have any of you PSP people found out about Go! Edit yet?

If you are using PSP's for education, you have no reason not to! It is a free to download that lets you edit video on your PSP.

Add it to the Go!Cam video camera that plugs into the top of it, and you have a seriously mobile and creative video editing tool.

You can get all the lowdown on the Go!Edit site, though a better place to start would be to download the instruction manual which has some good screen dumps.

Let us know how you get on (and thanks to our inside sources at Sony UK for the details - you know who you are!)