Create Mobile Websites with Wirenode

I’ve previously written about Winksite, a service that allows users to create free mobile websites using a CMS-like interface (simply switching on or off various tools and editing options).  Now there’s a new free mobile web site hosting and authoring service called Wirenode, which (instead of a CMS-like, “Web 1.0” interface) uses a Web 2.0/AJAX interface to create mobile websites and integrate Web 2.0 services including Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS, image galleries, or other “widgets”.  The integration also works back into Web 2.0, with a Wirenode widget available for Facebook and Mobile Facebook.  Awesome!

Unlike Winksite, which is almost completely textual in both content and presentation, Wirenode incorporates media and interactivity, which may even be uploaded by the user, and there’s even an analytics tool for users who like to see how many visitors/students are checking out their mobile site.

It’s a terrific tool to help teachers or students create and present information in a mobile format, and a must-see for other educators interested in utilising mobile devices for enhancing and supporting teaching and learning.

(via Learning Elearning)

Tags: wirenode, m-learning, mlearning, mobilelearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobile, website, site, web, mobileweb, 2.0, web2.0, mobile2.0

Create free quizzes for cellphones/ Facebook/ Moodle

Here’s today’s awesome m-learning find: a website where anyone can create a multiple choice quiz which is compatible with the vast majority of current mobile phones (it runs as a Java application, which most of today’s cellphones support).

The site is called Mobile Study, and the finished multiple choice quizzes can be downloaded to a mobile phone from a computer, by visiting a URL with a mobile phone browser, via an SMS message (a small allocation of free messages is provided for each account), or even by using a QR Code (which you should be able to do if you’ve been following my thread on 2D Barcodes!).  If you or your students prefer Social Web applications to mobile ones, it’s also worth noting that quizzes can be made for Facebook, and if a walled garden is your course approach of choice, yes, quizzes can even be imported into Moodle.

Given that there are a large number of ACT Innovative E-Learning Projects that have, as a component, various formative assessment needs, this site should prove to be extremely useful!

You can try out some of the sample quizzes here – they can be done online to give you an idea of how the quizzes provide feedback, or you can install the sample quizzes to your mobile phone for the full m-learning experience.

Happy quizzing!

(via Ignatia Webs)

Tags: quiz, quizzes, assessment, jar, java, jad, mlearning, m-learning, mobilelearning, mobile, learning, mobile-learning, education, mobile study, mobilestudy, mobile-study, qr code, qrcode, 2dbarcode, 2d barcode, qr-code, 2d-barcode

CeBIT Australia: Homegrown Pocket Projectors!

I went to check out CeBIT Australia yesterday to spy out the latest innovations in educational mobile technology. There was lots of the usual – IT service providers, the word “solutions,” and booth-babes aplenty – but a few terrific new m-learning gizmos as well.

Having heard lots about their development overseas, I was particularly rapt to check out some pico-projectors in the metal… and what’s even cooler is that these ones are Aussie designed and made, with a release due later this year. The Digismart (from Digislide in South Australia) is a tiny “pocket projector” that displays a fluid, monitor-sized image on a screen a short distance away. The image below does it no justice, as it’s hard to see how small it is – the entire device is smaller than my hand print, and is certainly small enough for the technology to be integrated with mobile devices such as phones or media players in the future:

We had a go with projecting a Pixar short film on a screen, and while the brightly-lit exhibition hall made things challenging, DigiSlide are anticipating that the release model will be over three times brighter than the engineering sample on display.

I anticipate that picoprojectors like the DigiSmart will become very useful tools in the kit of mobile teachers and learners of the future, for sharing information and ideas on the go and for making teaching and learning more mobile and more rich.

Other innovators interested in DigiSlide’s technologies can check out their website at http://www.digislide.com.au

Tags: digislide, digismart, pico, projector, projectors, pico-projectors, picoprojectors, mini, pocket, mobile, led, australian, cebit, 2008

Reflections: Are You an "iJustine" or an "eJustine"?

One of my favourite tech bloggers, iJustine (Justine Ezarik) posted a YouTube vid of her having a conversation with her alter-ego, “eJustine” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S1BnyY3RWc):

For those of you unable (or unwilling) to view the video, the scene is of iJustine coming across eJustine, who’s busily updating her Facebook, sending e-cards, and “maintaining her social network”. iJustine uses her iPhone to hook up with some friends who are going to eat out together and then head to a concert, while eJustine declines the invite as she has to keep up with her online “friends”.

Which Justine are you? eJustine, who’s digitally immersed and values her online and virtual relationships and channels as much – or perhaps even more – than her real-life ones? Or iJustine, who uses technology as an enabler – a tool to enrich her real life with authentic experiences and in-person relationships?

It’s particularly revealing that iJustine utilises her cellphone as her preferred technology platform: a digital tool that makes her mobile, and enables her to connect, communicate, reflect and share while she goes about her (real) life, rather than chaining her down away from the world.

And all of this goes to the heart of why I’m so interested in mobile learning.

Tags: ijustine, ejustine, mobile, cellphone, ezarik, education, technology, mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning

Students share their experiences of m-learning

I’ve been following Dean Shareski’s blog posts on mobile learning this year. Dean’s ongoing experiences with learners using mobile phones as learning tools continue to demonstrate what’s possible when it comes to using the advanced capabilities of cellphones in learning contexts.

In Dean’s latest installment, he suggested that classroom teacher Carla Dolman be invited to do a session on her use of cellphones at the recent TLT conference. She brought along some of her students to help her, and between them they fielded the Big Questions so often asked by educators at any session on mobile learning:

“Did it change your learning? Were you tempted to use it to text or call in off task ways? Was it just a novelty? How did students who didn’t have a cellphone feel? Are you still using it for learning?”

Dean relates that not only did the students handle these tough questions, but they were even able to facilitate a hands-on learning experience, demonstrating to these educators how they shared files via Bluetooth. A favourite quote from the New Zealand film “Whale Rider” comes to mind, the scene where the tribal chieftain, Koro, addresses his granddaughter Paikea: “Wise leader, forgive me. I am only a fledgling new to flight”.

Dean’s hoping to create an online version of the students’ presentation, to share their insights with a wider, online audience. I’m anticipating it keenly. For the meantime, you can view this video of Carla and some of her students talking about their experiences with mobile learning in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhAH6nncCKw

Tags: mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, edtech, edutech, educational, technology, cellphone, cellphones, mobile, phone, phones, classroom, education, school, learning, teaching