Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

My colleague Malcolm Moss in the UK sent me a link this morning to an fascinating concept video on the future of digital magazines. As we become increasingly familiar with the functionality of the touch-screen on the iPhone and familiar with devices like the Kindle, this video provides some interesting perspectives on where the development of where the whole concept of layout and design might head with these devices in the future.

The basic concept being explored is how we can take the established behaviours exhibited by those who simply pick up a magazine to browse and cater for them in an e-book world. The illustrations of how this thinking is evolving and what the solutions in the future are well worth viewing in this video clip.

The 2009 Horizon Report (NZ and Australian edition) was released today at the National Broadband Network Symposium at Griffith University.

Again this year I’ve had the privilege of contributing to the development of this report – and again, I feel the value for me has been in the rigor of the thinking and exchanges that took place in deciding what things should be included and what should be left out (and why etc).

This year’s report has the usual list of technologies to watch out for, and the possible impact on education – plus it has some interesting sections on future trends and critical challenges.

The technologies to watch as decided by this year’s panel of contributors are:

One year or less to adoption

• Mobile internet devices
• private clouds

Two to three years

• Open content
• Virtual, augmented and alternate realities

Four to five years

• Location-based learning
• Smart objects and devices

This year’s report provides some excellent background on each of these technologies, and has a list of examples (with links) for you to go and explore further if there are things there you’re not familiar with, or if you simply want to learn more.

The rigor of the debate about what to include and what to leave out inevitably led to a lot of discussion around the complexity of inter-related issues and concerns that come to play with the adoption of technology and trying to anticipate its impact on learning. In this year’s report I’m particularly interested in the summary of the ‘critical challenges’ that emerged from the group’s work – as I believe these are (or should be) of more interest to the future planners in our education system, school leaders etc, than simply trying to second-guess what technologies will emerge.

Here are the challenges that are identified:

1. Practices for evaluating student work will evolve in response to the changing nature of learning and student preferences for receiving feedback.
2. Ageing learning environments do not easily allow for embracing the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), or enable the sorts of learning support systems being promoted by modern theorists.
3. There is a growing need for formal instruction in key new skills, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy.
4. There is a growing recognition that new technologies must be adopted and used as an everyday part of classroom activities, but effecting this change is difficult.

These issues are expanded on in brief in the report – and are worth exploring further in staffrooms and professional development meetings as we prepare to enter the second decade of the 21st century!

Download PDF of the report here

I was alerted to this article in this morning’s NZHerald by Toni Twiss (via Twitter) who is quoted in it. Toni has a passion for using mobile technologies for learning, and has done some excellent research in this area.

The article describes two “m-learning” programmes at Orakei Primary School in Auckland, one called Mobile Maori Learning that provides podcast lessons for playback via mobile phone, and the other called Mobile Learning for Boys that includes an online digital reading clinic to focus on improving reading comprehension, spelling and writing skills of students.

It’s encouraging to see these sorts of initiatives developing in our schools, with the exploratory use of emerging technologies to address authentic learning needs.

As I read the way the article was reported, however, I couldn’t help feel that there’s still an over-emphasis on the technology, and not enough on the pedagogical rationale for using it (which I’m sure is there!). The impression can easily emerge that the secret is in the use of the technology, not in the careful structuring and pedagogical intent of the activity that it is being used for.

In my role I see lots of technologies being used in all sorts of creative and inventive ways to support teaching and learning in classrooms – some of which is contributing in genuinely new and creative opportunities for learning, and some which is simply substituting new technology with old (eg some instances of interactive whiteboards replacing OHPs). The difference is not the technology – but the pedagogical intent.

I frequently hear that use of technology supports personalised learning (as quoted in this article) – a view that I have lots of agreement with, but only as a potential use, not inherent in the technology itself. It’s not that the use of technology such as cell phones is only now enabling personalised approaches to learning, that’s always been the case – I recall the ultimate personalised learning approach when I was at school – those boxed up SRA kits. The key to success is not in the technology, but in the learning design – as it is with any other form of classroom programme or activity.

The Herald article, with its emphasis on the technology (presumably because that’s what will attract our attention?) undersells what I’m sure is a great deal of thought and effort that has gone into the learning design of these applications.

We need to encourage the media to provide this emphasis, or at the very least, ensure that this emphasis is given in our reports to our own communities and made explicit when we are working with students.

“Technology in and of itself cannot make school practice innovative, and will not produce educational change, but technology, in the hands of pedagogically skilled educators it can enable innovative practice and facilitate educational change.”

I spent time yesterday afternoon speaking with teachers who are a members of the Te Hikoi Hau ICT PD cluster in Christchurch, and referred again to the slide above which I’ve used in several presentations over recent years. It emphasises the general trend that can be seen when you look at what is common about the sorts of technologies that are being appropriated in education – with the move from analogue to digital to connected to ubiquity – the concept of “any time, any place, any device”.

The concept of each student having their own device has appealed to me for some time now, although early attempts at a 1-1 programme haven’t fully delivered on the promise. Seems to me that we’re seeing now a convergence in developments in the “cloud“, improvements in the capability of wireless, and the availability of low-cost netbooks and other web-enabled mobile devices – all working together to provide the essential elements for making a 1-1 programme more likely to succeed.

A key thing in the take up here is the cost of the devices. Traditional laptops have been prohibitively expensive for the individual student, but the emerging breed of netbooks is changing that. An article I read last night demonstrates this – titled Apple loses students to netbooks and Windows it is a report of a small survey conducted recently by consumer-electronics e-commerce website Retrevo. The survey reveals that student choice of netbook/laptop in the US as they prepare to return to school this year will be largely based on cost. With netbooks costing less than $US200 and an Apple laptop closer to $US1000 there’s no contest.

In the article Apple’s Tim Cook is quoted as saying “When I look at what is being sold in the netbook space today, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens… not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly. It’s not a space as it exists today that we’re interested in.” While he may have a point in technical terms, I believe he’s missing the point about what is driving this – that is, the ability to use the device anywhere, at any time. And with the increasing number of web services becoming available there’s no shortage of applications to access once you’re connected which means the size of storage etc in the device itself isn’t as much an issue.

The issue of cost is also raising it’s head in one of the US’s longest running 1-1 laptop programmes. A recent article titled Maine Laptop Expansion Moves Forward reports on the impact of the economic crisis on the state of Maine’s ongoing programme of providing each student with a MacBook. In response to the economic challenges presented by the state program, Sharon Betts, the educational technology coordinator for the Maine School Administrative District #52, along with several other ed-tech coordinators from schools across the state, has created a grassroots consortium to identify cost-effective alternatives to the state-led laptop program. The group has decided to go with a more affordable alternative: 10-inch ASUS netbooks that support either a Windows or Linux operating system.

So – it looks like in the drive towards ubiquity, cost will be the significant factor affecting choice of device. It’s certainly difficult to argue from a total cost of ownership point of view.

Ever since I got my iPod Touch I’ve been fascinated by the range of apps available from the Apple Store – including those that are useful to me as a learner such as the dictionary.

This morning I was sent a link to a list of 100 Best iPhone Apps for Serious Self-Learners which contains a lengthy list of iPhone Apps (many of which will work for my iPod Touch as well) that have been organised under subject headings to make it easier to find the ones that might be of interest.

I’m impressed with the list – most are unfamiliar to me, but the extent of what is available is a clear indication that mobile technologies need to be considered seriously in terms of their role in learning.

As an aside, I also read with interest the news about the development of big-screen e-Readers to help save the daily press. Apparently these new gadgets, with screens roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper, could present much of the editorial and advertising content of traditional periodicals in generally the same format as they appear in print. Apparently there are several companies, including some of the big news corporations, that are working on this. The article even refers seems likely to rumor and speculation by Apple observers suggesting that Apple may introduce a multipurpose tablet computer later this year. Such a device, with a screen that is said to be about three or four times as large as the iPod’s, would have an LCD screen capable of showing rich color and video, and people could use it to browse the Web.

Certainly an area of development worth keeping an eye on.

Just as Sesame Street helped transform television into a revolutionary tool for learning among young children four decades ago, advances in mobile technologies are showing enormous untapped educational potential for today’s generation.

This report released last month by a research centre based at the Sesame Workshop claims that children’s lives have been caught up in a tide of mobile digital technologies—games, cellphones, and smartphones— and that, if carefully managed, these could significantly boost their learning.

“It is no longer a question of whether we should use these devices to support learning, but how and when,” to use them,” writes Michael H. Levine, the executive director of the New York City-based Joan Ganz Cooney Center, at Sesame Workshop.

This The 52-page “Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning” draws on interviews with a cross-section of research, policy, and industry experts to illustrate how mobile technologies such as cell phones, iPod devices, and portable gaming platforms might be more widely used for learning. More than half of the world’s population now owns a cell phone and children under 12 constitute one of the fastest growing segments of mobile technology users in the U.S. Examining over 25 handheld learning products and research projects in the U.S. and abroad, the report highlights early evidence and examples of how mobile devices may help re-define teaching and learning in the decade ahead.

The rise in use of mobile technologies is identified as one of CORE’s ten trends, and the release of the iPhone last week in NZ and around the world certainly attracted a huge amount of publicity (With the New York TImes reporting over a million new iPhones sold in the US in one weekend!). But behind the hype there are indications of where the future of ICT and online communications are headed. Someone who definitely sees it this way is Chris Deering, former Chairman and President of Sony Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and now Chairman of Handheld Learning who considers his bet’s on the new Apple iPhone in an article titled The New Apple Core. In it he makes a number of predictions, beginning with; “the terms TV and PC will sound as outdated as “8 Track” tape decks within 2-3 years. Everything will be capable of delivery over Internet Protocol (IP). Live sports to big screens and everything else.”
Read the rest yourself..

I was encouraged by the announcement today that Vodafone is going to support the Apple iPhone in New Zealand! I have watched enviously as my friend Jedd plays with his when he visits our office, but have resisted the urge to splurge until I could see the network provision sorted. According to the Herald article, it is unclear whether the phone will be available in its current version, or the next-generation ‘3G’ model, rumoured to be nearing release in the United States (I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for news of this when I’m over there next week:-)

Thinking of the impact the iPhone may have in NZ when it is released, I was interested to read Jane’s latest post regarding what is available educationally for the iPhone and iTouch at the moment. She has listed her Top Web Apps for the iPod Touch and the iPhone – which reveals a growing list of applications (including optimized sites) for the iPod Touch and the iPhone that are useful for learning, performance support or productivity purposes. There’s everything here from Facebook to BBC programmes – and my favourite, an iPhone version of NetVibes – my RSS aggregator of choice.

The future’s looking rosy for Mobile technologies Mind you – I have to wonder when the following message was sent via a list I belong to (a serious question on an academic research list):

Can researchers point out how to stop students/pupils using hand-held devices in the classroom ? Recent THES article on texting while there’s a lecturer speaking point to this being perceived as “mildly rude” – Even on a one-to-one situation nobody seems to have any problems with ring-tones, etc. Is there a pro-educator device, like the mosquito, that we can switch on to block cell phones/blackberries/iphones ?

I often enjoy listening to the “Sunday Group” interviews on National Radio on Sunday mornings – and this morning was no exception. Chris Laidlaw’s Sunday Group this morning consisted of Paul Reynolds, a well known technology commentator; Tom Chignall, head of regulatory affairs for Vodafone; Jo Tinall, director of the digital broadcasting strategy for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage; and Ernie Newman, CEO of the Telecommunications Association of NZ (TUANZ).

Their topic was the state of telecommunications in NZ, and Chris began by referring to a recent news report that states that there are now more mobile phones in New Zealand than there are people (they’ll soon be competing with sheep!) – and asks:

- what is happening with telecommunications in NZ?
- are we getting good service?
- where is broadband going?
- what will happen to landlines?

The group then set about sharing their opinions and ideas – among them was a comment by Paul Reynolds which I particularly align with in which he said

it’s not about technology, it’s about a cultural change that we can drive and change!

Paul was referring to developments in the area of digital content, referring to the National Digital Content Strategy’s distinction between 3 types of content; authoritative, creative/commercial, and informal. It is this last are that is driving a lot of the current use of telecommunications, and is seeing a shift from individuals being regarded as “consumers” to “users” in the discourse around telecommunications use.

A great discussion – and if you missed it, a podcast of the interview can be downloaded here.

There’s been a lot of hype about mobile technologies becoming the “next big thing” for some time now, but a lot of it yet to be realised. this morning I was speaking with Nick, a friend who works at CPIT, who was explaining how he and some colleagues there are looking at introducing the use of mobile technologies into an assessment process as part of a course they run. His logic is that while many of the students he works with in the vocational courses he runs don’t have ready access to a computer, they all have mobile phones.

This aligns with an article I read yesterday from Orange which reads:

The mobile web shows every sign of the ???next big thing???. Web-enabled mobile handsets now out number desktop and laptop PCs. Analysts predict that well over a billion people will use them to connect to the web by 2008

This is certainly something that those planning for the future of schools and universities need to be taking into account. Just how might we plan to accommodate students who are wandering around with fully web-enabled devices in their pockets and on their wrists etc. (apart from banning them, of course)

Before we go closing down computer labs we need to realise that this isn’t going to happen immediately. The Orange report goes on to say

However, only about 10 percent of web-enabled handsets host full-featured non-WAP browsers and as yet few people are using them or are even aware they exist, and for good reason. If you ever try to surf the web with a mobile browser you run across a lot of poorly rendering content.

The article has a link to a white paper produced by Orange that outlines a solution to a part of this problem – a simple server script that adapts web pages based on what kind of client is requesting it.

The Orange project is one initiative that is aligned with the series of Mobile Web Best Practices developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These are recommendations that provide a starting point to educate web content providers on giving their sites a baseline of mobile accessibility. Ultimately the W3C will address more difficult questions such as how to serve content to devices with much different sets of characteristics and features.

While the papers are targeted at a technical/developer audience – I found them a very useful read to gain an appreciation of what is envisaged – the graphical illustrations etc were very helpful in this regard.

Watch this space!