#Moodle #Mobile, the follow up action is called Moodbile

It has been quite a year for mobile devices! So many initiatives, so many actions.
Mid March 2010 some of us volunteers got together and started to work on Moodle for iPhone. After the initial excitement, different people realized that if we wanted to get Moodle mobile, a lot needed to be addressed, including cleaning up the existing code, adding php-recoding, starting native apps....

If all goes well, moodle will be made fully mobile, thanks to the group around Maria Jose Casany, Marc Alier (Ludo) and Jordi Piguillem who are connected to Universitat Polytécnica de Catalunya and the Grual Research group at Universidad de Salamanca (Spain). They have been working on Moodbile, which is a code project that will result in a GNU General Public License.

Many people were active and a lot of progress has been made. As Moodle is a community, feel free to join in anyway you can if you are interested: testing releases, adding your expertise...
Here you will find the latest activities on the Moodbile site.

Call 4 #papers: #mobile #mLearning IADIS conference in Avila Spain

Stretch your fingers, speed up your word-processor and get typing for the extended deadline: 26 January 2011 to submit a paper/poster/panel... for the IADIS mobile learning conference that will take place on 10 - 12 March 2011.
The IADIS Mobile Learning 2011 International Conference seeks to provide a forum for the discussion and presentation of mobile learning research. In particular, but not exclusively, we aim to explore the theme of mobile learning under the following:
Topics
• Pedagogical approaches and theories for mobile lifelong learning. For instance, situated, contextual and authentic mobile lifelong learning
• Social software for mobile learning
• Gaming, simulations and augmented reality for mobile learning
• Mobile learning in formal educational institutions
• Mobile learning in informal setting
• Tools, technologies, and platforms for mobile learning
• User studies of mobile learning
• Research methodologies and evaluation of mobile learning
• Ethical issues regarding mobile learning

Conference special theme: Mobile Lifelong Learning (mL3)

Lifelong learning (L3) has been defined as “All learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competencies within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective” (European Commission, 2002 p. 7). L3 qualifies a society as a context in which there are learning possibilities for those who want to learn (Fischer, 2001) and implies a shift from “provider-driven ‘education’ toward individualised learning” UNESCO (1999). Lifelong learning is: often self-directed, interest and needs driven; it occurs predominantly in informal and too-rich environments; and frequently implies a collaborative activity (Fischer & Sugimoto 2006) among learners transiting through learning events in life.

Early research in the design of mobile technologies for lifelong learning (Sharples, 2000) pointed to highly portable, individual, unobtrusive, available anywhere, adaptable to the learner's development, persistent, useful for everyday needs, and intuitive personal tools. Technological advancements have delivered mobile devices and applications which meet and surpassed early requirements and which have position mobile technologies as an essential part of the new ecology for lifelong learning.

References:
European Commission (2002). European Report on Quality Indicators of Lifelong Learning. Brussels: European Commission.
Fischer, G. (2001) Lifelong Learning and its support with new media. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Discipline “Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science”, Section Editor: W. Kintsch, Contribution No 41.
Fischer G. & Sugimoto M. (2006) Supporting self-directed learners and learning communities with sociotechnical environments. International Journal of Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL) 1, 31–64.
Sharples, M. (2000) The design of personal mobile technologies for lifelong learning. Computers & Education 34, 177 – 193.
UNESCO Institute for Education (1999) Glossary of Adult Learning in Europe. UNESCO


The Conference will be composed of several types of contributions:

• Full Papers – These include mainly accomplished research results and have 8 pages at the maximum (5,000 words).
• Short Papers – These are mostly composed of work in progress reports or fresh developments and have 4 pages at maximum (2,500 words).
• Reflection Papers – These might review recent research literature pertaining to a particular problem or approach, indicate what the findings suggest, and/or provide a suggestion - with rationale and justification - for a different approach or perspective on that problem. Reflection papers might also analyze general trends or discuss important issues in topics related to Mobile Learning. These have 4 pages at maximum (2,500 words).
• Posters / Demonstrations – These have one page at the maximum (625 words) besides the poster itself (or demonstration) that will be exposed at the conference.
• Tutorials – Tutorials can be proposed by scholars or company representatives. A proposal of maximum 250 words is expected.
• Panels – Discussions on selected topics will be held. A proposal of maximum 250 words is expected.
• Invited Talks – These will be made of contributions from well-known scholars and company representatives. An abstract will be included in the conference proceedings.
• Doctoral Consortium - The Doctoral Consortium will discuss on going work of PhD students in an informal and formative atmosphere. Contributions to the consortium should take the form of either: a critical literature review of the research topic providing the rationale for the relevance and interest of the research topic; or a short paper discussing the research question(s), research objectives, research methodology and work done so far. Doctoral Consortium Contributions should have a maximum 2,500 words (4 pages).
• Corporate Showcases & Exhibitions – The former enables companies to present recent developments and applications, inform a large and qualified audience of your future directions and showcase company’s noteworthy products and services. There will be a time slot for companies to make their presentation in a room. The latter enables companies the opportunity to display its latest offerings of hardware, software, tools, services and books, through an exhibit booth.

For further details please contact the publicity chair - secretariat@mlearning-conf.org.
This is a blind peer-reviewed conference.

#Situated learning via #mobile #augmented learning for our #educational future

Learning within context was a difficult task in the past (travel, content design...). But with the ever growing (and simplifying) augmented mobile learning, it becomes a very feasible way of getting learners up to speed with the latest knowledge.

Situated learning was first proposed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger as a model of learning in a Community of practice. At its simplest, situated learning is learning that takes place in the same context in which it is applied. Lave and Wenger assert that situated learning "is not an educational form, much less a pedagogical strategy"(Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press p. 40). And I am in to that concept!

Let's be honest, if you read this definition, as a teacher, trainer or educationalist, you just want to read up on it. In case you doubt whether this could be of interest to your learners, doubt no more, just take a look at this simple situated simulation video proposed by Gunnar Liestoel (Norwegian 'oe') and his companions. Before looking at the video, know that it is rather easy to make a situated learning mobile lesson if you use wikitude (I had the pleasure of meeting Gunnar at mLearn2010, this is the blogpost on it). If you want to read up on Sitsim, look here for the project description:

Prodigies do not wait for educational change, they live it

Most of us eLearners and knowledge managers know that change is here to stay. In fact although social media has started a social revolution, the change was not that revolutionary in its core for as humans we have always wanted to connect with others. Networking and being known by our peers is what drives us since the beginning of time. Monkeys know it, flocks of any kind know it, we know it.

Big names, small actions
A lot of discussions have been started on the fact that education as it is now, does not cover what is needed for the adult workers of the future (or contemporary workers, for it is happening). Seth Godin (renowned author, famous marketer and visionair) said that traditional education is heading for a meltdown, simply because it does not teach learners what they need to know to get started in professional live in this blogpost of his. The renowned author, and educationalist Ken Robinson focuses on the economical and cultural changes that effect education and which we – throughout the world – need to take into account. Look at this great 11 minute animation on one of his educational reform speeches.

Small names, big actions
In the meanwhile the learners themselves are just paving their way, some of them even put together their own master and phd. You do not need to tell prodigies where they need to go and they do not wait for our educational institutes to change, they just go for it and learn/teach.

My favorite young teacher is a musician called Stromae . He is a Belgian/Rwandan artist who makes fabulous music that is picked-up worldwide AND who gives free music classes which he publishes on the Net so everyone can learn. When he started out, he posted all his music for free. Yes, he is a believer in openness. No big stories there, just big actions. Here is one of his lessons on how he made a song (which later turned out to be the hit song that got him a great record deal), the lesson is in French, but the beats are universal, by the way this musical lesson got over 400.000 hits, so how is that for a free online learning module and even if you do not understand French, have a quick look he really gets his audience enthusiastic about the lesson as well:

CIDER session: supporting online Teachers: Moving Pedagogical Know-How into Virtual Classrooms

Technology does not necessarily result in better teaching. There are many instances where one can wonder why trainers and teachers even use technology. A virtual classroom for instance does not immediately translate to a more open, pedagogically sound teaching, on more then one occasion virtual classrooms have resulted in ex-cathedra lessons, where the only benefit for the learner is that you do not get caught sleeping.

In fact, I truly belief that a bad teacher does not become better with technology, in fact they make it worse, for bad teachers give eLearning a bad name ... in public! But can we, instructional designers and educationalists tamper with the autonomy of teachers by suggesting them how they can improve their overall pedagogical approach?

If this interests you, look at this presentation. It is an exploration of an action research project focusing on Master of Education professors working in conjunction with an instructional designer. Conversation analysis explored how participants with varied face-to-face teaching experiences - but limited or no online experience - transitioned to becoming effective teachers in virtual classrooms. Results indicate the need for professors to examine their own pedagogical constructs and concepts of learning communities and power relationships. This session will also include discussion on ways in which instructional designers can support professors' transition to online learning.

This session features a presentation and discussion with Wendy Kraglund-Gauthier, St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia.

When: Wednesday, January 5, 2011, 11am-12pm Mountain Time (Canada) *Local times for the CIDER sessions are provided on our website.

Where: Online via Elluminate at:
https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.8B71B60F2931D029AC3837DC06B70D

Pre-Configuration:
Please make sure your Mac or PC is equipped with a microphone and speakers, so that we can use the Voice over IP functionality built into the web conferencing software. Please note that it is extremely important that you get your system set up prior to the start of the event. Information on installing the necessary software and configuring your PC is available at http://www.elluminate.com/support/ in the "First Time Users" section.

Brandon Hall award for best in mLearning: gold medal!

What a wonderful feeling to get noticed by peers when developing a technology enhanced learning project! It was an honour to get gold (yes, gold! so happy!) in the best of mLearning category. When the Brandon Hall team was calling out all the winners, we sure got excited when they called out our names!

This was a team effort and everyone pitched in, but all of the content was redesigned for mobile by the team in Peru, so please let me mention some of the key people involved: Beto Castillo Llaque, Luis Fucay,Carlos Kiyan, Maria Zolfo, Lut Lynen and all of our colleagues.

For those interested in the project, underneath the ppt of the project.

Mobile Moodle and mLearning project for mLearncon in San Diego

View more presentations from ignatia.

#dl10 All of our voices on Thornton May's speech on the New Know

The new Know: innovation powered by analytics is the book he wrote, must be great fun to read.

Thornton May If you can see him speak, do it. If you want to learn how to become a great and highly demand keynote speaker…. Definitely go and listen to him!!! He pushes the boundaries of keynote speaking and puts relevant stuff in as well. He wears a bow tie, is gray haired, wears a classic suite, but is indeed engaging. An American speaker.

He describes himself as a futurist. He looks at …. The future, and he is an enormously engaging speaker, filled with humor.

MP3 this is the mp3 of much of his talk, it is fun
He is an empirical futurist.
He could not sell water to a man on fire, he says.

Because we live in a web2.0 life, we are all in this together, so this will not be a lecture, we will share. Because what happens to many people at technology lectures (sleeping learner slide).

He rebuilds his keynote into an interactive workspace. By asking 7 questions to the whole of the audience.

First question: which historical moment is closely resembles the situation we find ourselves in today:
Change behavior, the energy of the room went up after getting this question.

“Ever since the times of Socrates, no hiding in the back of the class.” He runs up and down the room, pushes his energy on the responders he chooses to give answers to the questions he poses, and gets the room animated.

What patterns can be seen in all of the responses, or do you perceive in all the responses? The humans drove these revolutions, and society. It eventually effected everyone, but the revolutions mentioned did not happen overnight.

Everyone struggles between now and next, learning and tech learning… we need to come together. He mentions the Darwinian inflection point. Or the Swedish say we are in a liminal point.

The trend here is: there are tribes, and they think insight the tribe. Thornton says, I am a mental models guy. These models must be monitored, in many cases upgraded. They are important.
He asks to put two axes, a stakeholder analysis. (nice bit on who matters). As an educator you must know the blockers, and what to do with them (they cannot be moved – easily). They are inert,

Are we of “one mind” (shows a Borg cube).

He lists what the CEO’s thinks about. Competition, revenues, changing landscape, franchises execution, risk.


Three ways you think the world is going to be different from the world we live in today.
New way of working, learning, and more sensitive of device needs for learners.
Multi channel citizenship!
The tribe is growing, media are speeding up, so we should move to earth learning.

The one monster pattern is… that change is happening.

Thornton May was a student of Al Toffler. Change is changed. Catching up is a major anxiety maker.... every five years in the meso-information age, knowledge reboot. Every 5 years, new behaviors, new change, .... we are accelerating because the pace of change is accelerating.

The highest challenge is to see the disconnects in this change, desynchronization. We - as educators - should look into this, and counter it. DARPA (not sure of name), pixel to tutor ratio (? also not sure). We are moving towards a transparent environment for learning.

Cumulative impact: every molecule on this planet will be IP addressable in 15 years.

Information overload is a feature, what is the real walk-away finding? There is nothing we cannot know !!!

#dl10 keynote Wednesday 3 November 2010 John Seely Brown on The Power of Pull

John Seely Brown a gray-bearded man with glasses and wearing a blue shirt and blazer. He just wrote another book called "The power of pull". together with John Hagel III and Lang Davison.

Learning demand and the art of life.
The old institutions are not hacking it too well, something has to give. So we need to know where we are coming from, to understand where we should be going.

He starts with a historical view starting with Alfred Chandler who spoke on Push economy. One fundamental idea: look for scalable efficiency. => the more you do something, the better you get at it. This method was more or less authority guided.

The scalable efficiency curve drives us to keep on going, to move forward at an increasing pace.

Today we are undergoing a fundamental change, leading us to the new face of learning.

S-curve: something is introduced (slow evolution), something is picked up (fast evolution), something is adopted and continuous (slow evolution). But currently, there are new things popping up continuously, restarting an S-curve every-time, increasing the needed adoption speed.
this results in the need to relearn, again and again, in every professional domain.

This fact is undermining current education, for the world is ever changing. This constant change, the half age of any given skill is now reduced to 4 to 5 years.

The big shift: how do we move from stocks of knowledge (knowledge assets), to a world that is ever changing => participation becomes central, which redefines learning and creation. We move from stocks to flows (participating in knowledge flows).

How do you immerse yourself in the context to find the patterns that matter?

It is the big shift, the move from Push to Pull.

So we are at a crisis of Imagination: what can these technologies do, that we did not do before?
Next to this shift, we have an explosion of data at the moment. Every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of age up until 2003.

this challenges our thoughts on how we learn. We need to create a resilient mindset. The importance of the tacit becomes more important (that of which we have only a limited notion, needs to be materialized to make it knowledge that can be taught).

So how do we create a new mindset, that does not run from change, but embraces it (remark from myself: is not this counter human, will we be able to counter Roger's curve?).

Talks about a fortuitous encounter: Maui has never produced champion surfers, all of the prize surfers come from Hawaii. But Dusti Paine, from Maui, wanted to become a hardcore, professional surfer. Dusti searched for peer surfers, to create competition and collaboration to learn from each other, to become the best. It worked, and he became a world champion surfer. What makes this story incredible, is that ALL 5 are now world champion surfers. They looked at all possible surfing video's and tried and learned. Then they recorded themselves, deconstructed each others moves frame by frame... They also move to all the hot-spots, they put up 'bakens' where all surfers can come and share their experiences and moves.
This strengthening by collaboration and competition is true for social media use. Which is also being prepared to fail, time and time again. And today peers learn from each other at an ever increasing pace. And... we all become part of it. It becomes our world.

This is the passionate pursuit of the extreme performance with a deep questing disposition. This is what we all need to acquire or grow.

We must learn to learn from others, to collectively indwell in actions, and to reflect upon it afterward with all the others. Marinating together in a problem space with joint action.
We must learn to step beyond the cognitive, we must transcend cognition (remark from me, well... it is possible when patterns are embedded in the mind by repetition, which allows them to know without consciously knowing. But can we - as adults - embed patterns? or can this only be done with young minds?).

Self-organization is taking place with learners from gaming communities. People gather information from an amazing amount of sites and media, then process it into useful knowledge.

We must learn to open up for serendipity, to get out of our own comfort zone. How much will you expose yourself to, considering stuff you never saw before. We must learn to spend time out of our comfort zones (yes, this would be like following any multi learner course (e.g. PLENK).

Ends with two simple observations: the Red Queen effect (we go faster and faster, but still we fall back more and more. So we need to harness network effects, to dig deeply into learning). Secondly, we must achieve scalable capability building for firms, for institutes. We must learn from others as they learn from us (at best :-) . We must accelerate bootstrapping in a learning ecosystem.

#dl10 The benefits of using voting boxes for increased learning

Some months ago, we - at ITM - started to use voting boxes (or clickers, or some call them audience response systems). The impact of using these boxes got many teachers and trainers interested, so now we are beginning to use them for all sorts of applications.

Below you can find a ppt on the benefits of using voting boxes. This presentation is given at the Devlearn conference in San Francisco, during the mobile learning jam sessions.

Give your learners the extra cognitive boost - box them

View more presentations from ignatia.

Yes #dl10, DevLearn 2010 has started and this is where I will present

Devlearn2010 is a blast for anyone interested in eLearning in the broad sense. Technology Enhanced learning is all the rave at this yearly conference which is organized by the eLearning Guild. I will attend, speak and of course meet many of my TELearning friends.

The pre-conference activities already started today and they will continue tomorrow. During Devlearn I will give some presentations as well, but for the full program of all the wonderful speakers click here.

To start of I will give a presentation on the benefits of voting boxes (= audience response system, or clickers) in education and training which is organized on Wednesday 3 November 2010 from 11 am until 11.40 (will publish the presentation in the next day). This is part of the mobile Jam sessions organized by the wonderful Judy Brown.

The great mobile guru Judy Brown also invited me to attend the mobile learning panel of mLearning pioneers which will take place on Wednesday 3 November 2010 at 1 pm until 1.40 pm. This panel discussion features many mobile explorers: Mobile Learning from the Pioneers: Judy Brown, Inge de Waard (me), Robert Gadd, Neil Lasher, Ellen Wagner.

Paul Clothier will be the moderator and lead for the panel discussion on the iPad for learning: hype or the future on 4th November at 10.45 am together with great co-speakers: the amazing David Metcalf (he will be presenting a brand new app), Matt Dunleavy, Neil Lasher and Ellen Wagner.

I will be meeting up with Jan Van Belle, Clark Quinn, Brent Schlenker,and many many others like you. So, if you are there, come up to me and say hello, if I do not wear glasses come up really close :-)