#mHealth a #diabetes #mobile project in DRCongo, Cambodia and the Philippines

Most of us want to make some kind of difference, making the world a better place. Josefien Van Olmen is one of these wonderful researchers at ITM that gets it done. A few months back she asked me to get involved in a diabetes project which would involve basic cell-phones. We all got our heads together (doctors, social scientists and technologists) and set up a really cool and easy to build and implement diabetes project. For those interested a quick overview of how it was set up:

Josefien drew up the medical side of things, taken into account national differences, regional challenges, medical ethics, etcetera. She is a very intelligent expert researcher and she drives her people hard but with an incredible warmth of heart. Will not link to any medical framework here, as this is part of Josefien’s work, but feel free to contact her if you want to learn more about it: Josefien’s LinkedIn page can be found here.

Needs going into the project:

• Getting in touch with diabetes people (diabetes 1 and 2) who are living in remote areas or who have a hard time getting to their health clinics/health care workers/diabetes educators.
• Keep the diabetes project at low cost,
• Make use of the personal cell phones the diabetes patients have (cheap cell phones, mostly java enabled) to make them feel comfortable with the technology of the program.
• Make it generic so other organizations in the country (or elsewhere) would be able to reproduce it for their own purposes,
• Get people empowered to use their cell phone for practical life changing/enhancing topics.
• Make the program strong and durable by providing patient records
• Keep the program easy to use, so health care workers as well as users will be kept motivated to use it even in difficult times.
• Allow the content and communications to be written or performed in different languages (French, Khmer, …).
• Keep control of the program and the health messages.
• Easily build health messages to send around in bulk.

Solution:

• First of all working closely with the diabetes managers in the countries: they know their patients, the challenges for their specific regions. Getting a participative project going from the start.
• Finding a low cost (free and open source!) solution that works with basic cell phones, offers the option to build your own reports/forms, and allows all the communication that is happening between the patients, the health care workers and the diabetes managers to be put into long lasting and transparent patient records => one solution the Frontline SMS medic solution.
• Testing the program: the most difficult part was finding the right modem to get frontline sms to work properly (we used a Huawei gsm modem in the end, after trying quite some other types of gsm modems).
• Getting a frontlinesms expert in to fine tune to the program’s needs. Limbanazo Kapindula was/is the man of the moment. He just finished a mHealth project in Malawi (blogpost and his presentation on the project can be found here).

Some resources
If you are interested in testing out the frontlinesms medic for your own purposes, feel free to download the frontlineSMS medic program here or check out this video and start your own project yourself or with your team.



This diabetes program is now being set up right now and will be ready for roll-out in the very near future. Josefien, you sure know how to make a difference. I know how important it is to get connected to my fellow diabetics and health care workers, thank you for your great work and the opportunity to work with you!

4 calls for #papers on #mLearning and #eLearning

Happy New Year to all of you! Slowly getting up to speed for a wonderful 2012: working on a new online feature (thanks to Stephen Downes)… which takes more time than expected, but hoping to get it launched in the next couple of weeks. This year I am also looking forward to finalizing my thesis (thanks to Athabasca University), co-launching the mobile curriculum framework (a free framework for institutes willing to get cracking with a mLearning curriculum, with thanks to Adele Botha, Jaqueline Bachelor and John Traxler), getting some research papers and chapters out (thanks to my typing hands), enjoying all your company (online and f-2-f), and organizing the MobiMOOC2012 in September with an adjusted format. All of which I will share as work progresses.

But to start the year: the new call for papers!

EDEN Annual Conference
Deadline for submissions: 10 February 2012
Conference dates: 6 - 9 June
Location: Porto, Portugal, Europe.
The EDEN Annual Conference will approach the key questions of learning methodology and technology focusing on the 'Open learning generations', the contexts of socially significant target groups: junior and senior e-learners. We will explore their learning cultures, technology use patterns and discuss new approaches in the schools, universities, lifelong - informal - adult learning settings that respond to them.

The 2012 European Year of Active Ageing and the Solidarity Between Generations serves as framework for raising awareness, generating innovative approaches and disseminating good practice.

• Open learning for and amongst diverse generations
• Innovative pedagogical models have been significant in empowering learners and their communities as co-producers in networked lifelong learning. The spread of educational resources as digital content which accommodate different learning pathways, widening participation and shared learning experience between generations will contribute to closing the technology gap.
• Online and Social

The 2012 EDEN Annual Conference will be supported and accompanied intensively by social networking, online and virtual presence and involvement possibilities. That will be implemented through the EDEN Members Portal: the NAP area on the web.

Call for Contributions
We invite all interested professionals to take part and discover the conference themes by submitting their experience.
There will be opportunities for submitting and presenting papers, workshops, posters and demonstrations. At the Porto conference, virtual presentations, as a new form will be introduced. The conference allows openness in choosing the topics and in applying interactive formats and ways of presentations.
To learn more about the scope of the event and consult the themes, please visit the respective conference pages.
For details visit the Conference web-site and the Call for Contributions links.

Paper Submissions - 10 February, 2012
Registration Open - Mid February
Notification of Authors - 31 March

Keynote Speakers
· Laszlo Andor, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (invited)
· Nuno Crato, Minister of Education, Portugal
· Bob Fryer, Chair of Board, Campaign for Learning, UK
· David White, Honorary Director General, European Commission, DG EAC
· Dale J. Stephens, Educational futurist, 2011 Thiel Fellow '20 Under 20', USA
· Lesley Wilson, Secretary General of the European University Association (invited)
Ingeborg Bo, Norwegian Associaton of Distance Education, EDEN Past-president


mLearn conference 2012
Conference dates: 19 – 21 June 2012
Location: San Jose, California, US.
Deadline for submissions: 30 Januari 2012
mLearnCon is interested in sessions offering insights to facilitate management decision processes regarding the adoption and deployment of mobile learning technologies, including:
· Potentials, opportunities, and limitations of mobile learning
· Platform and operating system considerations
· Design and development considerations
· Implementation and management strategies
· Engagement, tracking, and assessment strategies
· Case studies, demonstrations, and best practices
· Other topics of interest to learning professionals exploring mobile learning
Visit the conference website for more information.


Conference: 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning mLearn 2012 - Mobile Learning in Context
Conference date: 16-18 October 2012
Place: Helsinki, Finland
Deadline for submissions: 30 May 2012
Conference website: www.mlearn.org/mlearn2012
Follow updates at: http://www.facebook.com/mlearn2012

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
* Mobile learning in and across formal and informal settings
* Ubiquitous and ambient learning and technology
* Theories, models and ethics for mobile and contextual learning
* Open and distance education with mobile devices
* Mobile language learning
* Interaction design and usability for mobile learning
* Interoperability and standards for mobile learning
* Challenges for mobile learning in developing countries
* Mobile learning strategies in schools, higher institutions, industry, and organizations
* Adaptive, virtual or collaborative environments for mobile learning
* Augmented reality for learning
* Innovative approaches to learning of current and emerging mobile technologies
* Toys and smart objects for learning
* Mobile learning across cultures
The conference programme will highlight keynote talks, symposia/workshops, plenary sessions, parallel presentations, roundtables and debates, special Focus Sessions, poster sessions, technology and product/service demonstrations.


Call for papers for Journal Technology and Investment
ISSN Online: 2150-4067
www.scirp.org/journal/ti

Technology and Investment (TI) is an international journal (Open Access) dedicated to the latest advancement of technology and investment. The goal of this journal is to provide a platform for scientists and academicians all over the world to promote, share, and discuss various new issues and developments in different areas of technology and investment related problems.

Topics:
www.scirp.org/Journal/AimScope.aspx?JournalID=104
+ Banking and Investment
+ Business and Technology Risk Analysis and Management
+ Business Climate for Investments
+ Business Cycles and Investment, etc
+ Business Developments
+ Business Economics
+ Business Management
+ Capital Management
+ Economics of Agricultural Technology
+ Economics of Investments
+ Economic Theory of Investment
+ Energy Technology Economics
+ Entrepreneurship and Innovation
+ Evaluation of Technologies
+ Finance
+ Financial Evaluation Models and Techniques
+ Financial Evaluation Techniques
+ Financial Strategies of Investments
+ Industry Studies
+ Influx of Investments on Technological Development
+ Information Economics
+ International Investments
+ Investments and Economic Development
+ Investments and Environment (Climate Change)
+ Investments in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Countries
+ Investments in Developing Countries
+ Investment Strategies
+ Investments under Uncertainty
+ Labor Risks Prevention
+ Legal Environment for Investments
+ Management Engineering
+ Managerial Economics
+ Market Analysis
+ Prediction of Future Technology
+ Regional Directions of Investments
+ Resources Management and Labor Issues
+ Service Industry Economics
+ Technology Economics
+ Technology Innovation
+ Technology Product Development
+ Transition Economies and Foreign Investments
+ US Economy and Foreign Investments

Authors' Guidelines:
www.scirp.org/Journal/ForAuthors.aspx?JournalID=104
+ All manuscripts must be prepared in English.
+ Review paper is warmly welcome.
+ Submit your paper via online submission system papersubmission.
www.papersubmission.scirp.org/admin/initLoginAction.action?journalID=10
+ To expedite the review process, please format your reference as the guideline,
+ Please visit journal homepage for more information.