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."
This website is good. They describe their beliefs on selling their thinking process to creating an experience for learners. Their process is 1)Discovery, 2)Interpretation,3)Ideation,4)Experimentation
5)Evolution... illustrated in their case studies before they chunk out their product. Perhaps our department have the same manner of process before we come out our products. Perhaps this could be a less vague idea for our audience in term of showing what we do less descriptive but more case studies.
One quick glance and OMG ! For once, Apple iTune U is behind CeL NIE in this initiative. mVideo is all what Apple is talking about now. Anyway, not about to get dizzy in cloud nine, will dig deeper into Apple's New Education Initiative (iTune U) to see any ideas better than mVideo.
While it’s certainly true that HTML5 has the potential to change the web for the better, the reality is that t
hese kinds of major changes can be difficult to grasp and embrace. I’m personally in the process of gaining a better understanding of the subtleties of HTML5′s various new features, so I thought I would discuss some things associated with HTML5 that appear to be somewhat confusing, and maybe this will help us all understand certain aspects of the language a little better, enabling us to use the new features in the most practical and appropriate manner possible.
Apple loosened its iOS terms of service to allow the usage of third-party development tools. Though Flash content is still not supported within the iOS browser, the Packager for iPhone can now be used to create standalone apps. Adobe also confirmed that it will work hard to keep the product updated. This change of heart by Apple has brought joy to Flash developers everywhere as their Packager-created apps are now reportedly being approved by Apple
Harry Walker is the principal of Sandy Plains Elementary School in Baltimore County, Maryland. Fourth and fifth graders at the school are piloting one-to-one computing with iPod touches. In addition, Harry is a doctoral student at John Hopkins University. He's investigating the impact of iPod touch on student achievement.
One of his challenges is wading through the huge number apps available. He's crafted a rubric to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of an app in terms of how it may impact student achievement. His criteria include curriculum connection, authenticity, feedback, differentiation, user friendliness, and student motivation.
Leaving purely technical considerations aside (in some cases the final result is better than in others), the general quality of those magazines is without doubt extremely high and the integration between classic and multimedia content makes their reading experience very pleasant and engaging. But there is a basic limitation that could play a significant role in preventing their widespread diffusion, thereby making them not competitive in terms of economic return. The problem is not the limited number of iPads in circulation, as some may think, but the difficulty – or the inability – to download single issues of a certain magazines on your device because of their excessive size, which usually is around 400 MB.
the general quality of those magazines is without doubt extremely high and the integration between classic and multimedia content makes their reading experience very pleasant and engaging. But there is a basic limitation that could play a significant role in preventing their widespread diffusion, thereby making them not competitive in terms of economic return. The problem is not the limited number of iPads in circulation, as some may think, but the difficulty – or the inability – to download single issues of a certain magazines on your device because of their excessive size, which usually is around 400 MB.
each download may take a period ranging from twenty to seventy minutes if you are connected to a wi-fi hotspot. If you use a 3G connection, instead, the download is inhibited and a message warns you that, due to the excessive size of the file, you must be connected to a wi-fi to continue to the download. Apart from the frustration generated by waiting too long for the completion of the download (especially if you consider that there are an infinite number of alternative sources of information available in a few seconds, for free, just surfing the web), when the user doesn’t have access to a wi-fi network, he is likely to quit the purchase altogether
This limit, which negatively affects sales volumes and profitability of editorial projects aimed at iPad users, will bring developers to rethink radically the structure of such contents and limit their size. Otherwise, a significant proportion of those users who have once experienced the frustration of the download will not want to repeat the purchase a second time.
Something it's not about how rich or engaging the contents are but how the ease of being able to reach for it is. ( infrastructure)
Afterall would you bother buying a magazine from your local newsagent if you had to stand there and wait in a queue for 30 minutes or more.
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.
Visually very impressive presentation. I was drawn to the use of words e.g. browser-based game (versus web-based games) since I was vetting some poster text on apps and was not altogether familiar with the right terms to use. Thank you Sally
I've checked it out. Actually, it's not Google code, but simply an open-source native app stored in Google Projects, an open-source code repository. Nevertheless, it's a good mind-mapping software. Only thing is that it doesn't use Google Drive and I'm not sure if it can be integrated easily into Google Sites (due to Google Sites having issues with iframe elements).
I tried, cool! The map mind can be embedded in google site. Interface of mind map is easy to use, allow embed youtube link, images, and audio, attachment and links. Free for 3 mindmap and allow collaboration, invite is similar to Google for edit/read rights. There is also have icon, chat, comments and collaborative editing. Yeu Ann, we can include that as guide in student portfolio.
Great! I'll try out the free account for the Mindomo next week. So I take it that you guys want to use this as the recommended mind-map app for our students?
BTW just FYI: http://www.mindomo.com/terms_of_use.htm.
Expert Software Applications Srl does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your Service account.
We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service, and as otherwise provided in these Terms.
From time to time, [Contents publicized by the user] can be used by Mindomo at its own discretion.
Explore the use of the tool first and note its affordances and its limitations for now.
If there is more than one option, we should support what is available and give users a choice.
This article presents 30 important usability issues, terms, rules and principles which are usually forgotten, ignored or misunderstood when we are doing web design
1. Know Your Audience
If you don't know who your audience is, how will you ever connect with them? Most brands have an understanding of their audience's demographics - age, gender, HHI, ethnicity. But you have to go beyond these statistics to get a better understanding of their interests, needs, mindsets, and behaviors to truly make a connection and become an important part of their lives.
In addition to the standard methods of audience discovery - industry research, focus groups, and brand surveys - you can also use social media data to build audience personas. Social monitoring software, Facebook Custom Audience, social referrals to your website, and question-and-answer sites are just a few of the sources you can use to learn more about your audience.
2. Provide Value
Your content must provide some type of value to your audience. That value could be education, increased productivity, entertainment, or cost savings. To the consumer, it shouldn't seem like marketing, even though we know it is by nature. It's providing long-term awareness and brand recall. It's making sure your brand is right there with the consumer at each step along their path to purchase so that when it comes time to make a decision, you're the first brand that comes to mind.
4. Look Beyond Facebook and Twitter
Creating content doesn't automatically mean users will come consume it and engage with your brand as a result. You must draw attention to the content through owned, earned, and paid methods across a variety of channels, not just the big ones.
Ask yourself how else you can maximize the value of each piece of content and each campaign: Can you make the content more visible and sharable on your website? What other social channels does your audience use besides Facebook and Twitter? Can you use sites that accept submissions of specific content, like Visual.ly for infographics or Online-Sweepstakes.com for contests? How much are you able to pay to distribute your content on sites such as Outbrain or Taboola? Are you using Google+ to link to content on your website? (If the answer is no, I urge you to start today. Google+, while lacking in the engagement department, has a major impact on organic ranking.)
People share things not only because those things look good, but because those things make them look good.
7. Measure Success
Before creating a single piece of content or posting one Facebook message, determine the objective of your content and what metrics you will use to measure performance.
hile the specific metrics in each bucket will vary based on your strategy, objectives, and resources, some common ones are:
Awareness - impressions, reach, mentions
Consumption - clicks, visits, referrals
Engagement - likes, shares, +1s, time on site
Actions - leads/sales, PDF downloads, newsletter sign-ups, site navigation
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!
In terms of technology, the report predicts greater use of open source technologies, mobile and smart devices, e-books, Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS).
"Open source is making a real impact in the public sector with many universities, schools and colleges moving their LMS to an open source one. They don't see the point in being tied to a costly bespoke platform supported by one supplier.
hopes to see greater collaboration amongst the eLearning industry after attending the launch of the report at the European eLearning Summit in Sheffield.
That article is 3.5 years old. It does not take into account clips shared under CC licence or the terms of fair use. If educators stuck only to the recommendations, they would make little progress.