Week 19

Activity 5
So this week the focus is mobile technologies. Have to say that when I first started reading into this I was dubious. I already mentioned in the last post, I don't really use any. My students are unlikely to use any either. I then found this piece which In used for the tutorial...

......In 2007, students were given T-Mobile MDA Varios for mobile learning and assessments during work placements. Tutors were able to upload assessments to the device for students to fill in while they were taking part in work placements. Each assessment could be customised to individuals, so that they were relevant to course and learning style. Using T-Mobile’s Web’n’walk service, students could also use the mobile to access learning resources from a central virtual learning repository and reflect on their work experience on a blog built into the assessment programme. Assessors used the system to log in to a secure area, connected to the university’s virtual learning environment teaching and business systems, to record and store the student’s assessment. This is possibly the next step on from using eportfolio's in NVQ assessments. In H808 I had looked at Health and Social Care students using eportfolio's as part of assessment. This still needed Internet access, not always easily available in care homes etc, as well as a lap top. Using a mobile phone would make the assessment far more accessible to students and assessors as wella as examining boards.
Success will depend upon mobile phones fitting the purpose, care being taken not to overwhelm students/tutors and meeting the needs of the student. Awareness of the devices limitations is desirable. Students need to know how to use the mobile and access the support on offer.....can’t be assumed. However as more students are likely to own a mobile over any other technology they are likely to have more awareness of how to use it. Many schools and Colleges/Uni’s already use SMS (short message service) for sending information e.g. exam results to students.
Armatas, Holt and Rice (ascilite 2005)
Williams (2007) http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2192952/apls-mobile-learning

I can see now how mobile phone alerts to my students would be really beneficial. OU could send them to let students know TMA hand in dates, tutorial reminders etc. The majority of my students have mobile phones so would probably welcome these alerts.
I discussed this in a recent Elluminate session with my tutor and one other student attending. This session worked well for me....probably due to the small number of people which made it more relaxed. Tried to paste the above info on mobile technologies to the white board but it was having none of it. Obviously I was doing something wrong but there was no time to fathom it out....still have no idea how to paste to the damn board lol!! Any way I managed to paste the URL into Chat so everyone was able to access the site. The sound had problems this time too....feedback if more than one microphone on at a time and I pretty sure when the others were speaking their voices got higher almost like they were inhaling helium!!