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A research paper on how low-tech SMS can be highly effective for certain learning tasks such as teaching social English. And now, there's Whatsapp and other social-messaging platforms that can be an intermediate level between simple text messages that work on any basic phone, to sophisticated native apps that must be programmed for a specific operating system. "As SMS is technologically and functionally very simple, it can be considered to be a relatively primitive  technology. However, viewing it from another angle, we see that SMS ranks very highly in terms of user  convenience. Successful uptake of mobile learning strategy is more likely in the situation when "learning activities can integrate into our lives in an unobtrusive fashion". SMS can deliver information in this unobtrusive fashion more readily than other strategies. SMS, thus, can be regarded as a practical and realistic mLearning technology for use in natural settings at present."

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.

I've been thinking. If the highest level of e-learning is augmentation of existing teaching and learning capabilities, then why not investigate cloud supercomputers - the logical extrapolation of today's cloud computing. Imagine the learning possibilities if students could easily run simulations using real-world data to investigate real-world phenomena or even social ones, to see what would happen if you tweaked certain environmental / historical conditions. Then teachers could use the various simulated outcomes as a starting point for discussion purposes - e.g. if everyone on earth had a car, what would happen to the earth's temperatures in the next few years? and then ask further questions from there using fundamental principles. Less time spent on tedious models, and more time spent observing systems interactions, may help make the next generation of It sounds like a very high-level concept, but I think a practical example is when I used the speech-to-text convertor feature of an English dictionary app on my iPhone to help a boy learn how to pronounce words correctly. It turned a boring dictionary into a fun interactive game for him, and he learnt a few new words along the way. Just some food for thought this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

To CeLebs who are embarking a new journey in learning how to improve our writing skills, here's a website that has heap loads of tips and handles for your reference and info.

This one in Facebook is funny, to "Tweet" or to "Twitter" http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/ - thanks Benji

What is web 3.0? Heard of semantic web? Are you somewhat ready?