Purdue University has a page in its wiki repository that details foursquare, including its history, how it relates to other applications, and its real world application. The real world application section includes lesson plans from geography, economics, technology, and music.
From MOE news digest:
Republic Poly offers 3 -year diploma in mobile software development (Ng Jng Yng, Today, 4/11, p26)Diploma in Mobile Software Development is among the new courses to be rolled out by RP next year (Ong Jue Qi, ZB, 4/11, p14) Republic Polytechnic to offer 3 new diplomas (CNA Online, 4/11) Reports noted that Republic Polytechnic (RP) was looking to tap into the fast-growing mobile application market by offering a new diploma from next year. The three-year Diploma in Mobile Software would enable students to learn about the design and development of mobile applications used in smartphones. Reports highlighted that the students would be taught marketing strategies to sell the applications they had developed. The course would take in 40 students. Reports added that RP hoped to increase its academic intake in the next academic year. RP would be launching two other new diplomas, the Diploma in Consumer Behaviour and Research and the Diploma in Sports Coaching. RP would also be giving out 200 scholarships for the first time in the next academic year and each scholarship was worth $2,500 per academic year. ZB carried comments from P/RP that with more new courses and the new scholarships, RP was confident that it would attract outstanding Singaporean students to study at the polytechnic. CNA Online noted that RP said the new diplomas targeted students with an interest in the growing sports, marketing and mobile industries.
LessonNote, an iPad-based observation tool
"Lesson Study Alliance and Project IMPULS are developing an application for iPad, the LessonNote, to help practitioners of lesson study improve the quality of their post-lesson discussions by improving the quality of observational data collected during the lesson. It has been tested in research lessons in both the U.S. and Japan. The first version of this application will soon be available for free from the iTunes store."
Why Develop for Android?Android is an open-source platform based on the Linux kernel, and is installed on thousands of devices from a wide range of manufacturers. Android exposes your application to all sorts of hardware that you’ll find in modern mobile devices — digital compasses, video cameras, GPS, orientation sensors, and more.
Android is an open-source platform based on the Linux kernel, and is installed on thousands of devices from a wide range of manufacturers.
Android’s free development tools make it possible for you to start writing software at little or no cost.
Publishing to Android Market incurs a one-off registration fee (US $25 at the time of writing) and, unlike Apple’s App Store which famously reviews each submission, makes your application available for customers to download and buy after a quick review process
Here are a few other advantages Android offers you as a developer:The Android SDK is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, so you don’t need to pay for new hardware to start writing applications.An SDK built on Java. If you’re familiar with the Java programming language, you’re already halfway there.By distributing your application on Android Market, it’s available to hundreds of thousands of users instantly. You’re not just limited to one store, because there are alternatives, too. For instance, you can release your application on your own blog. Amazon have recently been rumoured to be preparing their own Android app store also.As well as the technical SDK documentation, new resources are being published for Android developers as the platform gains popularity among both users and developers.
This article also includes a step by step walkthrough development for android app using Android SDK. With so little offering courses on Android development currently, it could prove to be a good read. ;)
The iPad has a bigger screen, and so it has a bigger resolution. With the iPhone 4, however, Apple did something different: they increased the resolution without changing the physical size of the screen. This makes for a higher pixel density, pixels are smaller and more tightly packed. In one square inch of the iPhone 4’s screen there are around 106 thousand pixels (at 326 PPI, or Pixels per Inch), while the older models have only about 26 thousand (at 163 PPI) in an inch – 4 times less! This makes graphics on the screen seem like continuous lines, because your eye can’t see the individual pixels. Apple calls this technology the “Retina Display” because they claim the human eye (the retina) can’t physically see the pixels at this resolution.
Using Two Images
The official way of adding high-resolution support to your application is by having two versions of each image, one in “regular” resolution and one in double resolution. Whenever your application is viewed on the Retina Display, the larger image will be loaded automatically. This method allows for full and precise control of how your application will look in each case, and is very easy to apply to your existing applications.
The full size image file should be named however you want, such as “Button.png”. Use this image name in your code and Interface Builder wherever you want to reference the image. The double-size image should be twice the size of its matching smaller image and named exactly the same with “@2x” appended to the name. In our example, we would name it “Button@2x.png”.
Unfortunately, this technique will not work on the iPad; a pixel-doubled application will not load the higher resolution resource. This will probably be addressed in the future iOS 4 update which is scheduled to come to iPad this fall.
The success of web applications and websites depends in how effective the User Interface design is. Designing a good user interface however is a very challenging task. Above anything else, the designer has to focus his attention towards giving the end-user a great experience with the system. Whether the designer is working on a website, a mobile application, or a game interface it is always a must that the convenience of the user is given paramount importance.
In this article, we are sharing with you some user interface designs that not only allow easy navigation or use of the end-users but also ones that can encourage them to use the system. These designs can be used as an inspiration in your efforts to make your projects more user-friendly. Here you can find UI designs for audio and video applications, mobile systems, game apps, web interfaces and etc.
Finally a good application for html5 webapp development which is user friendly!
Testing this out to see if it able to build a html5 mobile game or application.
Google App Engine lets you run web applications on Google's infrastructure. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow. With App Engine, there are no servers to maintain: You just upload your application, and it's ready to serve your users.
A very interesting area that our future ET programmer could take a look at... perhaps we can find a way to integrate e-portfolio learning with mobile geolocation / other data types using this Google App Engine. Oh yes, it's free too.
"Designing meaningful and engaging lessons (for any form of delivery, including eLearning) is a task that every good instructional designer seeks to master. Teaching lower-school students is a privilege that quickly makes you realize that the approach you take when conveying an idea is just as important as the idea itself. An approach that I have found most successful is threefold:
Be clear and concise
Use visuals
Excite the imagination.
Since migrating over to the "adult learning" spectrum, I've found this strategy to be just as applicable."
A growing list of schools are turning to the "serendipity engine" to help students find cross-discipline collaborators for passion projects.
finding a cross-disciplinary collaboration is tougher--most of us are more likely to head to a meetup or networking event to fish for someone outside of our skill set. That’s fine, but it’s not a very efficient way to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Interesting! What if we could do something similar - a website where collaborators can gather from all over the world to work on e-learning strategies and applications?
My instructor from Penn State U shared his thought on the podcast. "I was very intrigued by his reference to Alan Kay when he talked about how the tools shape us via our interactions with them. Kay was (and is) most definitely one of the most visionary and original thinkers when it comes to technology and its applications. To be sure, this point about how the tools shape us is a very good one to emphasize. Tools are not innocuous things and metacognitive awareness can help both teachers and learners think about how their perceptions of ideas, concepts, etc are influenced by the tools they use to express their understandings of these things that they encounter."
P/S Apologies for the poor editing by Rachel (first time using Audacity)
mobile application design that developers should keep in mind:
Users will not tolerate mobile apps that are perceived as slow to open or operate.
Speed is even more important for apps than it is for websites on a computer.
Users are often accessing these apps when they have only a few minutes of downtime, and so speed is paramount.
Apps do not allow multi-tasking the way that browsers on a computer do, so users require instant gratification.
Simplicity of functionality and organization are key to good mobile app design.
Mobile apps should be linear in design-this is distinct from a typical website approach that offers multiple paths and options. Apps present you with menus, you do what you need to do, and you move out.
Mobile app users do not want to be overwhelmed by too many choices and distractions when they are trying to access a feature. People want fewer choices in mobile, because if you put too many choices in mobile, users will give up.
Nice read on mobile userability on the whole page. Advises and consideration into the UX experience before even jumping into development. one of the key to quality experience for our app users.
NIE is mentioned in this article talking about mobile technology in schools. And the platform chosen was Windows....
The National Institute of Education of Singapore is assisting teachers with the development of customized curriculum in English, Science and Chinese that leverages the benefits of mobile, Internet-connected, learning devices and provides students with new learning opportunities that are not possible with paper and pencil.
We co-design technology enabled lessons with the teachers and provide professional development to teachers that enable them to enact lessons using smartphones. It is critical to empower teachers to orchestrate the transformed classroom to support students' personalized learning," says Professor Looi Chee Kit of the National Institute of Education.
All smartphones are equipped with MyDesk, a next-generation mobile learning platform tailored to leverage the capabilities of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. MyDesk enables each student to access his or her assignments, relevant websites that contain podcasts, textual material and video clips and educational applications, such as concept mapping, drawing and animating, to practice both self-directed and collaborative learning.
According to an algorithm, the 4 ingredients required are congruency, emotive strength, network involvement, and something called "paired meme synergy"
Interesting! Think this algorithm may be highly applicable to creating enticing and engaging e-learning apps (especially those that have a social sharing element)...
Consider this as an ID resource for our internal training?
MERLOT is a free and open online community of resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, collection of peer reviewed higher education, online learning materials, catalogued by registered members and a set of faculty development support services.
MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily incorporated into faculty designed courses.
MERLOT's activities are based on the creative collaboration and support of its Individual Members,
Institutional Partners, Corporate Partners and Editorial Boards.
Integral to MERLOT's continuing development of faculty development support services are its:
* Building and sustaining online academic communities
* Online teaching and learning initiatives
* Building, organizing, reviewing, and developing applications of online teaching-learning materials
Well,
that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising announcement,
Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for
today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby,
and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is
the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can
share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of
the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you
extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic
shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the
rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the
end as well.
There
isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for
the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being
able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic
shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the
light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master
the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected
a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3
18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked,
so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to
save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that
unlike the Olympus PEN,
this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto
focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of
course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is
revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in
brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio
sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you
can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may
notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our
lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10
certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the
filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in
September.
Update: commenter
aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
HTML5, which updates the HTML specification to accommodate modern Web applications, has gained a lot of adherents in vendors
like Microsoft, Google, and Apple. But the specification is plain not ready yet for deployment to websites, an official with
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees HTML5, stressed this week
The problem we're facing right now is there is already a lot of excitement for HTML5, but it's a little too early to deploy it because we're running into interoperability issues," including differences between
video on devices
HTML5 is viewed as a "game changer." Companies now can deploy HTML5 in their applications or in intranets
where a rendering engine can be controlled, said Le Hegaret. But it is a different story on the "open Web," where interoperability
is an issue
HTML5 specification itself features support for video and Canvas 2D. But other technologies such as CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets) and MathML are considered part of the "open Web platform" along with HTML5
Apple has positioned HTML5 as a replacement for Adobe's Flash rich Internet technology. But Flash and similar technologies, such as Microsoft Silverlight, still have a place
We're not going to retire Flash anytime soon," Le Hegaret said. It will take years before all Web clients support HTML5,
he said. He cited Microsoft's IE6 browser as an example of popular client not supporting the standard. "IE6 is still being
used on the Web today, and it is 10 years old."
Kartini Ishak on 20 Jul 11Purdue University has a page in its wiki repository that details foursquare, including its history, how it relates to other applications, and its real world application. The real world application section includes lesson plans from geography, economics, technology, and music.
