Handheld Learning 2008 Proceedings and Events for 2009

One more from the folks at Handheld Learning:

Online Proceedings now ready!

Dear Colleague

This years Handheld Learning Conference was the biggest and most successful yet with more than 1,700 attendees, 1,000 conference delegates and 600 attendees at the Handheld Learning Awards.

We sincerely hope that you’ll consider participating next year when we reconvene for Handheld Learning 2009 and return to The Brewery, London from Oct 5th – 7th.

This years event sold out very quickly and we already have many surprises in store for Handheld Learning 2009 so please guarantee your place by pre-registering here. Pre-registration is free and you will be the first to know when we open registration and call for papers.

 

 

 

For those delegates who have a deeper interest in the game based learning themes presented at this years Handheld Learning we have a special one day international symposium on March 20th, 2009 called Game Based Learning 2009 that will also be held at The Brewery. Our keynote speakers and call for papers will be made shortly but spaces will be limited so please register your interest here.

Thank you once again and we look forward to seeing you soon!

All the best,

The Handheld Learning Team (meet us)
The Advisory Group (meet us)

We have reworked the conference website as a free to access online resource of digital proceedings. Here you will now find video recordings of the main room sessions and keynotes, a huge gallery of photographs, presentation slides, papers along with links to delegate discussions and reflections about the event that are ongoing. You will find everything under the Conference menu. To visit click here.

Naturally we welcome your continued participation in the event and if you’re not already a member of the Handheld Learning Community we invite you to register here and share your thoughts and reflections with the rest of the membership.

 

Handheld Learning, Day 3, Lord David Putnam

This was the closing keynote of the conference. I really didn’t take a lot of notes because I knew somebody was streaming the talk to the web and I was too tired to take a lot of notes. A few good snippets though:

Europe and US suffer from student disengagement, resulting in physical and emotional truancy.

Digital technology: collaborative, networked, and embedded in communities.

Ability to contribute to and change the learning environment is key to learning.

Right now we are losing! Kids need to be engaged, not just in learning, but also in learning/tech design development. Their concerns need to be heard and considered. We also need to find out what kids do when they are not in school and how that can be used to enhance education.

The future is a race between education and catastrophe.

There is more work to be done on assessment, not on the curriculum. Throwing away the curriculum is like a person without a spine. You can’t walk without it…

Handheld Learning, Day 3, Research Strand

 An overview of the research strand I moderated this morning. We saw and heard about a lot of interesting and innovative projects related to mobile learning.

Mobile Matters

Mark Kramer, Vienna, Austria
Mobile learning foresight: Examining learning now and in the near future.

This presentation mostly focused on the idea that when we look at technology and education, we need to look at broad impacts, and look for example at health and/or social impacts. With regards to learning, technologies allow us to be discursive, flexible, ubiquitous, convenient, everywhere, and adaptive.

Adele Botha, Meraka Institute, South Africa,
Digital literacy for 21st century digital learners

Adele talked about the diversity of her country (including education), and how unrestricted access to technology and information are creating new opportunities but also responsibilities. She sees students who are proficient with technology but tend to be naive. In addition, adults are buying into rules that teenagers make with regards to new technology use. Now more than before, the more virtual you get, the more teens are interacting with and through technology.

The message of this presentation really is that we need to teach kids how to survive in the virtual world [I think this is true anywhere]. Adele compared being in the virtual world to traveling to a different country, and teaching to a guide, not a police officer or immigration official. In both, there are places to go, things to see and do, local customs (think netiquette), what can you take, exchange rates and money, and things to look out for.

Sometimes the two worlds overlap and you get cultural developments, which she dubbed the Silent Revolution, with examples such as the “please call me” culture, the umbrella lady, the mobile tree, and the use of multiple phones and sim cards.

David Cameron, Charles Sturt University, Australia,
Handheld media in the classroom: Transforming practice through drama

A session devoted to the use of drama as a vehicle to engage students in discussions about mobile use (e.g. mobiquette and cyber bullying). David showed a couple of examples, including Mantle of the Expert (simulations, scenarios, what-if situations, with a comparison of drama to video games); an archaeology training unit; and a set-up on Bebo that can be used as a scenario to talk about appropriate use of phones and SMS

The focus here was on engaging students in discussions about technology using technology.

 

Designing Learning Experiences

Yishay Mor, London Knowledge Lab,
Planet: bringing learning design knowledge to the forefront

Three observations:

1. Acceleration of change
2. Design divide: in design knowledge (need to find ways to share)
3. The void between prophet (too high) and explorer (too low) presentations

Yishay argued for the need to return to design science (Simon, 1969). A detailed description of what design science is and how the Planet project uses stories to create design patterns for problem solving can be found in the presentation slides.

Cathy Lewin, Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University
Transforming pedagogical practices with digital learning companions

Cathy Lewin discussed a mobile project at Holywell High School (Wales), an example of a project that puts more technology in schools to enable teachers to do more. The positives here are the headteacher’s vision that the desktop model is not the right one and that there is a need to design effective learning environments, and the involvement of students in choosing the device to be used (Asus eee PC). The project has just started so there were no real results to report, other than the usual list of challenges.

Rhodri Thomas & Keren Mills, Mobile Learner Support, Open University
Mobile Digiquest: Developing rich media reflective practitioners

A presentation that described the digital initiatives at the Open University’s Digilab with rich media on mobile devices and associated professional development, both f2f and online (blended). The presenters stressed the impotance of mobile collaboration tools.

Carl Smith, Developer, Reusable Learning Objects CETL at London Metropolitan University,
Engineering suitable content for context sensitive education and vocational training (CONTSENS)

An overview of projects that allow users to do real research with mobile technology and control data (scroll, zoom, decompose), to let users do stuff, not just look at data on a device. Carl showed lots of cool examples of what is possible today given the increases in scanning, mapping, and capturing our world; reconstructing the world; pattern recognition; and object embedding.

Teaching and Learning

Megan Smith, Leeds Metropolitan University
Our City, Our Music: using mScapes to map new narratives

mScapes is the use of audio/video/text combined with GPS to create and consume content. Our City, Our Music is an initiative that will yield a location-based music album by June 2009. Other successful examples include adventure games, historical guides, and walking tours. Current technology has its limitations; content needs to be preloaded, and the platform is not designed for interactions between multiple devices. Future technology to be added includes RFID, bluetooth, and infra-red.

Suzaan Le Roux, Cape Peninsula University, South Africa,
Implications of utilising mobile handheld devices in teaching undergraduate programming learners in a developing country

According to the abstract:

This research chronicles the results of the investigation into the integration and use of mobile handheld devices as teaching tools in an undergraduate computer programming subject at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa.  This research also explores the wide reaching implications of utilising mobile handheld devices and the possible advantageous alternatives it can provide to traditional classroom-based instruction in teaching predominantly previously disadvantaged computer programming learners in a developing country.  The relevance of mobile handheld devices in teaching programming, its perceived benefits and the potential barriers to its use are discussed.

In this study the experimental group consisted of 55 programming learners who have been provided with personal digital assistants (PDAs) preloaded with the Basic4PPC application for use at university and home.  This enabled and encouraged learners to design and develop mobile applications in the Visual Basic programming language anytime, anywhere without the necessity of a computer.  Learners reported their experiences through interviews and a survey.

The study found that students want access, and that mobile devices enable access, mobility, and the opportunity to learn at your own pace. Issues included screen size, fragility of devices, stylus input, and the perception that the mobile was not a phone. There was some novelty effect, and long-term research is needed to validate current findings.

Jane Lunsford, Researcher and Lead Instructional Designer, Open University
Mobile media and devices to support students at the UKOU

Didn’t get any notes here. From the abstract:

The talk will consider two research projects designed to investigate how the support provided to around 200,000 students at The Open University (UKOU) might be improved and extended with the use of mobile media and devices, to suit a diversity of study needs.  It will then show how these research projects have led to enhancements in the support offered by Student Services.

Susan Jacobson, PhD, Temple University, USA,
Exploring the expressive qualities of the mobile phone in journalism education

Interesting talk about changes in journalism in the US, a class in experimental journalism at Temple, and how mobiles can play a part in news coverage. The examples provided here included the coverage of elections using an election day moblog, combining the use of utterli and a livejournal blog.

Mobiles are being used by journalism students for traditional news stories, live interviews, prerecorded sound bites, and personal reflections (esp. the latter tends to happen more).

Tools experimented with include a standard blog, google maps, a custom db; and now Ning, which seems to work.  

Handheld Learning, Day 2, Emerging Technologies Session

 

Here’s a brief description of the presentations in this afternoon’s Emerging Technology session at Handheld Learning 2008 that I participated in.

Richard Crook: Praise Pod
Child Mental Health Specialist: NHS Rotherham

This presentation was about promoting a culture of praise for a 21st century learning community. Seems somewhat familiar to Character Counts in the US. It’s about ICT connecting communities, including parents, local businesses, faith groups, and community organizations. It works by sending families videos of kids doing something good at school, or they can be played on whiteboards in class, etc. Richard showed some nice video examples of how this actually works.

Tony Vincent: For Kids, By Kids: Valuable Tips for Podcasting with Students

Tony’s stuff originated with Willowdale’s Radio WillowWeb in Omaha, Nebraska. The key to podcasting is that the audio/video is a series of files automatically cataloged on the web and downloadable (by subscription).

Podcasts are pretty professional, kids seem to enjoy it. Tony had us listen to a couple of examples of audio podcasts, including Radio WillowWeb and Our City Podcast.

Four phases of podcasting: Pre-production, creation, post-production, publication.

You always need to think about copyright and privacy.

Resources: Slogan4u (slogans), soundsnap.com (the YouTube of sound effects)

My presentation on the GeoHistorian project

Link to video (as soon as I post it…)

Lilian Soon: Xlearn project (gadgets empowering students with disabilities) with awesome ppt slides!

Using PDAs for taking pictures and video, and interviewing each other. Advantages: convergence of digital capabilities in one device. Kids learn quickly so they can help each other.

Hull College uses mobiles in combination with headcams, to do stuff with electrical engineering (handsfree technology!).

Joseph Priestley College: use of RedHalo to collect evidence and then create mindmaps to link the evidence together. Also using PSPs for deaf learners to make and watch signing videos.

Mobile phones and QR codes for simple quizzes and flash cards, and as a media player. Also using the calendar and notes functions and Bluetooth exchange of files.

Oaklands College: Students are also using phones for blogging (voice, video, pictures).

Use of Wii and DS: pictures and video on SD card (Wii), health and safety exercises, puzzle function, making a Mii. Use of cut and paste function on DS. Use of PictoChat on DS.

Use a flash card to play video, mp3, pictures (like a hack for the DS).

URLs: http://tinyurl/hhlxlearn

Jacquelyn Ford Morie (USC Institute for Creative Technology): Case-Based Learning with Critical Thinking Skills on Mobile Devices

Training for US military: flexible operating environments and not enough time for training create a need for embedded 24/7 training independent of human instructors, mobile devices, etc.

Use of mobile devices: can maximize  “lost moments” for training, besides the 24/7 mobile access.

AXL Net: Army Excellence in Leadership:

• Web-based training system
• Case-based methodology
• Designed to develop critical thinking and analysis skills

The FORCE: one-click downloads to mobile platform (iPod). Video/text combination (looks like a conditional branching type of set-up).

Paul Quinn: Using the PSP for athletes

Harefield Academy in London for Watford FC “scholars”, elite gymnasts, table tennis players, swimmers…

Use of PSP (10 in pilot, about 30-40 kids have them too). Use of camera for Sports Video Project (are also using http://yacapaca.com for assessment on the PSP). Students can video tape themselves, do frame by frame analysis (immediately), and get lesson information (ppt jpegs).

Mobiles are interfaced with desktops and network for further work on videos etc.

Other resource: http://www.ictgcse.com

Sally Drummond: New Practices in Flexible Learning

Australian Turning Point Project (mobile film making): http://flexiblelearning.net.au

Digital Mini Film Fest for Youth: one minute films shot on mobile phones, displayed on iHubs (kiosks with touch screens and Bluetooth) on the streets of Melbourne (sharing via Bluetooth).

Initial tech and interaction research done on minimum tech requirements as well as use of Bluetooth.

John Traxler: mLearn 2008 look-back

Background: mLearn, IADIS, WMTE conferences, IJMBL journal, and IAmLearn association.

Theory: does our work extend or enhance existing theories of learning or e-learning? Does our work tell anything general or transferable?

Evidence: can we demonstrate something transferable and trustworthy? Are we looking for proof-of-concept, outcomes, or scale and sustainability? How do we evaluate and disseminate? There is a gap between the smaller projects and what large funders (i.e. government) would like to see. We have more technologies and systems and more case studies.

Technology: rapidity, diversity, power. How do we cope with this? What’s the bigger picture? (Mike Short). Social impact of longer-term predictions (Mark Prensky).

mLearn 2009: Florida

mLearn 2010: Malta

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning, Day 2, Laurie O’Donnell

Streaming video files are here and here

Putting philosophy into practice (speech was more of a discussion than a presentation)

Philosophy A v. B

Interesting example of what success in education means: Finland: how safe do you feel on the streets, how healthy are your people, longevity, how many people do you send to jail? It goes way beyond improving test scores or training productive workers. You want citizens, community activists, good parents….

Technology is a catalyst for change, it does NOT drive change. People make changes to make the world better.

How do you pay for scalability and sustainability?

Question on assessment: Assessment person who answered -> we need to provide learners the environment to learn, we can’t just teach them to learn. Assessment bodies are fairly powerless when it comes to developing assessments as they mainly apply the policy that comes from higher up.

• Implementation with a little help from
• Politicians (committed to long-term development)
• Civil servants (who see the big picture and can manage risk)
• Secure funding (not based on projects)
• Great people who are doing the right things for the right reasons
• Resilience
• Hard work and a whole lotta luck

And of course students …

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning 2008, Day 2, danah boyd

Presentation streamed to qik

Learning in a networked world: we see

1. new technology as the devil incarnate
2. new technology as a panacea

Reality is much more nuanced. Why should we use technology in the classroom and run the risk of failure? Education is about teaching young children to think, but sometimes we get lazy because of standards and testing [true?? Not sure I completely agree here. I think sometimes teachers' hands are tied].

New technologies are not good or bad on their own, but how they are being used [but technology is not neutral!!]. We need to figure out how to incorporate it effectively into the educational system.

Technology is fundamentally rupturing many aspects of everyday life: networking. It is part of everyday life (a la Wade Roush)

Educators have two immediate responsibilities:

1. know what technologies are out there, who uses them, how they are being used, esp. unexpected uses.
2. teach  how to use technology to understand the world around us. Need to understand how technology is rupturing our lives as we know them.

Learn from young people about the technology.

Social network sites: place where people go online to participate in their social network online (v. social networking = f2f).
1. profile (i.e. a decorated IP address, a digital being online. Putting forth your best foot, and thinking about your audience. Writing profile for yourself and your friends. Originates in bedroom culture: decorate your room to show off who you are).
2. Friends: three clusters: 30-40 friends; couple 100 people (broader peer group); collectors (as many as possible -> mostly adults). Friends are a person’s audience. Friending is socially awkward.
3. Comments/wall/testimonials: space of conversation in complement to other communication tools. Need to look at it as a form of public social rooming, not as just text. It’s social upkeep.

Vast majority of time spent is completely social, keeping up relationships, having fun. Place to hang out online, esp. when considering kids are often constrained to home (parent restrictions, overscheduling kids, a la USA Today article).

Properties and dynamics of sites need to be understood to see if they are appropriate for use, as well as work with kids as to whether they should be using these sites:

1. Persistence: digital trace. What you put online stays there. You have to deal with this.
2. Replicability: making something private public; can lead to cyber bullying (are you dealing with an original or an altered copy? What are complications, repercussions)
3. Scalability: potential for … Avg. blog is read by 6 people. Unexpected scalability and visibility.
4. Searchability: young people are searchable by the people who hold power over them.

Dynamics of four properties:

• Invisible audiences and how you deal with this.
• Collapsed contexts of time and space online
• Convergence of public and private (public is what parents control, private is what youth controls).
• How are public and private being decoupled from space and time

Importance to teach kids this stuff. Kids learn the coping strategies and social techniques. Adults should help guide this learning process.

Need to understand the properties of the technologies, what they do, and what the implications are of putting them in a classroom situation. You could rupture all sorts of social structures.

Some tools are easier to implement than others (e.g. Ning).

All the social networking stuff is starting to go mobile. Within two years they should all be mobile (like search went mobile): result: more social technology.

What are the mobile properties we care about. They have all of the social media properties with an added notion of (de)locatability. You can be anywhere and be connected (as opposed to having to be in front of a computer). So how do you educate for that?

Learning outside of the classroom (access to info anywhere).

E.g. Wikipedia: most transparent information available (discussion and history). Good teaching tool because you can’t take information for granted. Wikipedia can be used as a tool to show how information is created, what the biases are.

Need to teach a literacy of the world, teach about the structures around us and how to think critically. Goes beyond traditional and media literacy.

www.danah.org

www.zephoria.org

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning, Day 2, Steven Johnson

Mark Kramer streamed a broadcast of this presentation to qik.

Everything bad is good for you. Increase of complexity in many media formats: TV shows, Internet. However, cultural authorities are providing a much different message. George Will: This is progress: more sophisticated delivery of stupidity.” (video games, computer games, movies on computer…adults are decreasingly distinguishable from children)

Increasing complexity in pop culture: The Sleeper Curve. Nobody realized this trend was happening.

Content, participation, interfaces.

1. Content

SimCity, Civilization are good examples of this: sim games have many interacting parts, multiple resources, multiple variables you can set. They can teach understanding of how complex systems work: ecology, economic, political. Looking at the fansites, to see what players do and ask, shows this: questions about labor, religion, foreign policy, etc.

To show progress, compare how to play PacMan (simple) to Zelda (content is not interesting, but the kind of thinking you have to do to get through the game; you have to figure out what you need to do on the fly; system thinking -> also needed for our lives; v. reading a traditional novel).

TV show Lost (v. Gilligan’s Island) and the Wire. Complicated show with many characters [I'm surprised he didn’t mention "24"]. Thinking on multiple levels at the same time. Lost’s mysteries: ontological, formal, mathematical, historical, geographical, biographical. Most shows have lived in the biographical sphere. All the other layers have been dropped on this show. We’re now adapted to this kind of entertainment, 25 years ago it wouldn’t have worked. It’s been built more like a video game, with outside of show participation (fan sites). Berlin showed an example of a fan-created map of underground layer in season 2 with annotated visual analysis to explain the map. The map is a conceptual safety net for viewers, it’s a game walk-through for a television show. TV has gotten so complicated that we need stuff like this map.

2. Participation

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: buffyology, Wikipedia entry on Buffy, fan fiction -> extension of the Buffy universe. Buffy meetups (buffy.meetup.com) -> technologies about what you can do on the screen and as an interface with the real world.

3. Interface

People who shape the interfaces that we use are becoming more and more important (goes beyond usability). Because of games we are getting better and better at interpreting complex interfaces. Interfaces are getting so complex that it seems like they may be interfering with the actual game (WoW interface example). Ability to see what is relevant and what isn’t, and being able to adapt to new interfaces. What is more important: those kinds of skills or the ability to do algebra? We’re testing algebra, but not these other skills

[so the big question is: how can we tie these skills to education, not just learning, but education??]

Interface innovations are at the core of many changes: blogger, myspace, youtube. Need to understand these to understand society and to be able to make new interfaces. Compare hypertext interfaces of 1995 (text, blue text, images) to interfaces today such as YouTube. (compare to radio to TV transformation, which is less significant in Johnson’s view; took 35 years to happen). Changes on the web happen much faster.

What does the Sleeper Curve mean for education?

• We say we live in a short attention span culture, but it’s really not. Think about the time involved in reading a book v. playing a game, v. following a complex show. There is actually a lot of patience out there, if people are engaged in stuff that is designed in a way that will capture people
• Spore: recreate the history of life. Complex system, participation, amazing series of interfaces. Interface follows the history of video gaming. Why not use Spore for education? Response: because school teaches you to become tolerant of doing very boring stuff….

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning, Day 2, Early Stuff and Andrew Pinder

Day two of Handheld Learning started with a breakfast meeting in which I saw presentations about three handheld implementations in the UK:

Mobile Learning – Trends & Vision Dave Whyley, Headteacher & E-Learning Consultant, Wolverhampton Local Authority

Plans and Aspirations for Handheld Learning Alissa Ozouf, Teaching and Learning Consultant – Primary ICT, Luton Local Authority

Handheld Learning at Thomlinson School Jari Mielonen, CEO, SANAKO Corporation

The main points I took away from this session were:

• the importance of reliable, wireless connectivity;
• the importance of getting administrators and teachers to think differently about using technology, to get from the computer lab model to a more flexible, mobile model.

At the conference itself, Andrew Pinder opened the keynotes. He stated that Becta is about bringing about change, because we know it works (with regards to technology and educational outcomes). If you use technology appropriately and effectively and it’s in the hands of the right people you can improve student achievement both in k-12 and higher ed (increases retention at the latter level). Therefore, he called for technology to be used more widely.

Today’s learners are demanding more technology be used in education. Schools are often the only place where they don’t use technology effectively. Many students have better technology at home. 95% of new jobs require the use of technology, and the number of unschooled jobs is dwindling fast. Need to use technology to teach kids! (this situation is very similar to that in the U.S.).

He also said it’s importance to convince teachers that tech works, that they shouldn’t be afraid of it, and convince learners and parents to demand it from schools: Next Generation Learning Campaign. Home access is part of that. So no more: “no homework with tech because kids don’t have access.” About 1 million learners have no access to the Internet in the UK. Spend 350 mil pounds to deal with this problem.

Home access to internet through some kind of voucher system, access does not have to be through a PC, a screen is all that is needed, e.g. maybe a mobile phone. Becta is asking for help and ideas for packages that will work. The focus should be on proper education outcomes.

The plan is to go from 15-20% of schools using tech effectively to 80% over the next couple of years. There is a place for mobile technology as a component of that.

Question: What about collaboration with other countries?

Pinder: we’re trying to gather knowledge from around the world, and we want to work with people around the world. Worldwide conference before BETT, 70 countries so far.

Question: what outcomes will you measure? Also, aren’t you talking about last generation teaching v. next generation learning?

Yes, it’s a teacher problem. It’s an issue of not always having reliable technology and of teachers giving up control to students. There is also a need to improve the infrastructure, as teachers get nervous about this stuff because they won’t know if the technology is going to work. Most young people use some technology very effectively [for what?] but they don’t know how to use it in an educational context. They need help to separate the wheat from the chaff. Parents: 10-15% support kids in their technology needs, but there is a big learning gap. What should parents expect from the education system in order to be able to support kids effectively at home?

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning, Day 1 (Next Generation Learning Session)

I’m currently at Handheld Learning 2008 in the Brewery in London. So far it’s been good, waiting for the first session to start here shortly); I’ve already talked to a lot of people, some I know well and some I hadn’t (this just goes to show that there is more to a conference than sessions alone. The networking is very important as well).

Presented by Andy Black from Becta and Next Generation Learning, this session is a collection of presentations about “how to use technology well to make learning a more exciting, rewarding, and successful experience for people of all ages and abilities. I’m live blogging this session, so apologies in advance for any typos etc….

Andy: Seven presentations to make you think about learning. It’s not about mobile learning, it’s about the learning that’s mobile.

Andrew Davis from Clunbury CE (Aided) School Shropshire

Started off by showing a brief video made by students about learning with technology. It’s a rural school, so ICT is very important to connect to the rest to the world. Discussed the use of Nintendo DS’s in school and how he asked the kids how they could the DS’s:

• to develop math skills
• cooking skills
• communication
• memory skills
• link the DS’s together

Or, in Davis’s words: engagement, fun, collaborative learning, competition, instant feedback, assessment. This was followed by some examples of use in math, used when appropriate.

Blogging to communicate with the outside world, literacy practice and feedback for writing (other students, parents; three stars and a wish).

Nicholas Hughes: Robots in KS2 (Nightingale Primary School)

Talked about the use of robots in education, and programming them. Started by experimenting and recording what they found out. Students worked together to talk and question (overcame language barriers for one student). After three weeks students started using GoRobo to control the robot and make it do things (“can you make him wave? Can you make him dance”). Showed a video to sum up the overall project.

Engagement and getting students to think and to question what they do and how they did it. Kids learned about control technology and had fun while doing it.

Gavin Hawkins (Wolverhampton LA): SynchronEyes at Stow Heath Junior School)

PDAs in schools since 2002. Involved in Learning2Go. Project grew to 200+, with 24/7 access to kids. The latter is important, and an underlying philosophy of the project. Providing content and applications, connectivity. Showed video of a day in the life of learners using mobiles in Wolverhampton (saw this video at NECC as well), with a range of examples, esp. for visual learning, including mindmapping, drawing concepts. Showed examples inside and outside of the classroom, including homework.

It’s the seamless use of the technology that really stands out here, as well as the integration into an existing school-tech infrastructure. Hooking up the handhelds to a whiteboard used as an example (using Dotpocket and My Mobiler). Then worked with Smart to develop software to show multiple handhelds, enable communication between device, laptop, and desktop, collaboration, distribute and collect files, and assessment: SynchronEyes. Number of handhelds you can use at once depends on the strength of your wifi.

Willington CE Primary School Co. Durham (Alison Richardson and Victoria Suddes)

Use of ICT and electronic assessment.

• Electronic flying start assessment with linked evidence (children’s work, informal observations, formal observations, and photographs.
• electronic portfolio
• missed the third step here

Use of permanent laptops for student work, sent to network, assessed, sent back to child. Child then improves work based on comments. Works better electronically than on paper. Then showed examples of doing this, e.g. track changes in Word, Publisher, PowerPoint…

Use of stranded sheets for science, ICT, and narrative writing (they basically look like rubrics, linked to evidence, “literally just a click away”), i.e. combined into an electronic portfolio. Showed example of a claymation on the foodchain, used as evidence of learning. Are now working on making the assessment system avaible outside of school.

Matt Buxton, Djanogly City Academy, Nottingham

Plan for ICT in a “fit for purpose” curriculum with innovative ICT embedded into the planning. (anytime, anywhere, ubiquitous, independent, personalized (buzzwords, anyone?). Curriculum model is underpinned by embedded and innovative ICT. Design tasks that lend themselves to real world learning, based on a model from Queensland, New Basics: recognition of difference, supportive classroom environment, connectedness, and intellectual quality.

Connectedness: students engaging with real, practical, or hypothetical problems which connect to the world beyond the classroom (i.e. mobility too!!): learning gateway, computers for students (tablets, Q1s), wireless (wifi and wimax).

Examples of learning: oral histories, British national identity documentaries, International trade montages, etc.

Bristol – Hand e Learning  (Henbury Secondary School)

1:1 handhelds, 24/7 (both hw and www access), using Q1

Parents involved through e-Learning Foundation grants

Teacher training before students receive tech.

Video example of student interview: student talked about interactivity with teacher using the handheld, as well as using it when appropriate.

What did we do?

• Connectivity (wireless, monitoring and filtering of connections)
• Leadership
• Pedagogical support
• Parent financial contributions

Trying to minimize the things that can go wrong for a teacher, i.e. go simple.

Showed examples of activities: contextualizing literature – guided research; Image Blast, understanding poetry before reading; Video stars – building confidence and skills; Talk Wall – asynchronous tool to ask questions and get student answers that can be organized and turned into a text file.

 

Andy finished up by discussing how powerful all of the different tools presented can be. However, all of it should be supported by good teaching.

Image Credit: My camera

Handheld Learning 2008, Tips for a Great Conference

Dear Delegate,

We are looking forward to welcoming you next week to Handheld Learning 2008. This years conference is the biggest yet with a phenomenal line-up of speakers and participants.

To help you get the best out of the 3 days we are sending you this newsletter containing some useful tips.

Download and view the conference programme

The programme provides you with details of what’s happening where and who’s speaking along with their biographies. Further details of the talks can be found online
.
As we are not running a seat reservation system for breakouts this year we recommend that if you’d like to attend a particular session you get there in good time to take your seat.

Download the programme here

Bring your Nintendo DS with you!

Those delegates who registered early will have received their Nintendo DS or will be collecting it from the venue on Monday 13th. Please bring it to the conference fully charged as we hope that you will use it during the conference sessions to interact with fellow delegates using the built in Pictochat system.

For more information about using Pictochat please go here

Also please bring your Brain Training game so you can play with other delegates during the breaks and social meetings!

Bring your mobile phone and twitter!

Interact with fellow delegates using your mobile phone and Twitter. For more information about using Twitter at the conference please visit here

Use your mobile phone to ask questions

During the conference sessions in the main room (Port Tun) we will be using a system provided by Txttools to allow questions to be sent to the session chairs via SMS. Simply precede your message with HHL and then send your question to 88020.

Messages are sent at standard network rates.

Review the delegate list and make connections

A partial delegate list can be seen here

Collect your delegate materials on Monday 13th October

Beat the crush and collect your delegate materials at the venue on Monday 13th October. Doors open at 11:00 am and there is lots to do including:

Exhibition
Next Generation Learning Showcase
Learners Y Factor with Johnny Ball
Pecha Kucha for 21st Century Learners

The Pecha Kucha session is hosted by Dan Sutch from Futurelab and your participation is invited. Please contact Dan here to get your slot.

A cash bar selling refreshments and sandwiches will be available throughout the day.

For delegates arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday, doors open at 08:30 for collection of delegate materials and check-in.

Directions to the venue may be found here

Hear Lord Puttnam’s Closing Keynote

Lord David Puttnam will be delivering the closing keynote, which is not to be missed, at 16:15 on Wednesday 15th.

Our legendary prize draw follows where amazing prizes will be won including Vye laptops, RM minibooks, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3, Nokia Internet Tablets, games from Slitherine and much more!

Come to the Handheld Learning Awards Party!

Celebrate with your fellow innovators and join in the fun.

The awards party is free to attend and starts with a drinks reception at 19:00 with awards at 20:30. There will be live music and videogame tournaments with great opportunities to network and socialise until 23:00. Light snacks will be served during the evening.

More information about the party may be found here

We trust that you will find these tips useful and we wish you a safe and pleasant journey to the conference.

See you next week!

The Handheld Learning Team (meet us)
The Advisory Group (meet us)