We have mobile devices – now what?

Creating a Content Strategy for Mobile Devices in the Classroom – is a comprehensive document by Karen Mahon which starts with the question many schools which have invested in the purchase of mobile devices: “We have the mobile devices, so now what?”

Regardless of whether a school purchases devices or incorporates personally-owned devices in a BYOD environment the document sets out to guide schools in how to go about choosing what to use with the devices, and why, as well as criteria for choosing apps or content for educators.

The document provides a useful summary for educators about the different mobile device platforms and the implications for choosing apps or content to use on the devices.

How are others in different parts of the world putting mobile learning into practice

How educators around the world are implementing mobile learning (and what you can learn from them) – this is a post by Saga Briggs on the informed blog about the practices and experiences of educational establishments in seven different locations around the globe. As well as describing what they have done to put mobile devices to use in their establishments the post also brings together the advice in 13 points, and also links to a presentation by 35 mobile learning experts from around the world on the topic of mobile learning

Creating a Scavenger Hunt for use with Mobile Devices

Create a Mobile Learning Scavenger Hunt  – this is a post describing the use of an app (available on Apple or Android mobile devices) for participants to locate specified information, or undertake certain tasks in a given location. This particular post describes the use at an education event where the tasks set out via the app make use of the features of the mobile device (such as using the camera or audio recording apps) for participants to either work individually or in collaboration with others, and to use the scavenger hunt app to provide the feedback (whether answering questions, locating specific places and unlocking clues when in location, or taking images or recording audio at specified locations). The app used in this event is called Social Scavenger, which is free, but the ideas which are described could be adapted for use using other tools to suit the required learning intentions for a specific class.

The video below gives a flavour of the use of this scavenger hunt app in use at the education event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0ghDN6VH6G0

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BYOD4L

Bring Your Own Device for Learning (BYOD4L) is an online, free, non-registration week-long course provided by several higher education institutions as a way of providing a platform for anyone (whether learner or teacher) to engage in reflection, practical activity, and collaboration on the theme of Bring Your Own Device for Learning.

This online resource is designed for a specific week (from 14 July 2014) with collaborative activity of participants encouraged and supported from anywhere during this period. However the online resources, links to tools, apps and research put together by the organisers and made available online, as well as the shared dialogue and feedback from participants during this week linked from this site, make this a resource which will have usefulness well beyond the week itself and will be of benefit to learners and teachers whether or not they were able to make use of the resource during that specific time period.

Visual AUP poster

Policy for the Visual Learner – this links to a blog post by Richard Wells on the iPad4Schools blog about encouraging responsible use by pupils of mobile technologies by way of a pictorial poster version of a school Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). This sets out in pictorial form the elements for which the learner is responsible and the aspects for which the school or local education authority is responsible. This can be helpful as a starting point to inspire developing a poster for pupils to suit their own educational establishments and to match a school’s own AUP.

Supporting Guided Reading with Mobile Devices

Monica Evon has produced a grid (shared on the te@chthough blog) in which ideas for supporting guided reading are matched to apps on a tablet device. Although these ideas are matched to a specific device and apps available on that operating system (in this case iPads) the ideas can be applied to other devices or operating systems and appropriate apps, programs or online tools. So there are ideas and suggested apps shown for practising vocabulary, listening, reading aloud to someone else, writing, and reading to self. Although each activity and suggestion is only for a specific device and operating system, there are alternative apps, programs or online tools available to achieve the same learning intention – Monica Evon’s post may help prompt ideas to use what is available.

SAMR redefining education

SAMR as a framework for Education 3.0 – is an article by Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D, comparing the transition of the Web from version 1.0 (essentially transmitting information to an audience who passively read it) to 2.0 with the advent of social media and two-way tools for feedback, conversation, collaboration and development of ideas. And the case is then made that now there is a move to web/education 3.0 “based on the belief that content is freely and readily available as is characteristic of Web 3.0. It is self-directed, interest-based learning where problem-solving, innovation and creativity drive education. Education 3.0 is also about the three Cs but a different set – connectors, creators, constructivists.”

With increasingly ubiquitous use of mobile devices by learners then there is a case for education establishments re-thinking how best to grasp this chnage in culture, and this article by Jackie Gerstein provides guidance about how this might transform education, incorporating the SAMR model. The SAMR model sets out the stages in use of technologies in education from Substitution and Augmentation through to Modification and Redifinition. This article is also accompanied by a visual infographic to help readers understand these concepts.

Three Good Interactive Visuals on the SAMR Model for teachers – a post by Med Kharbach on the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning Blog which describes the SAMR model then provides three different online and interactive graphical posters with links at each section of the SAMR model to either explanatory videos or weblinks or to examples of each in a teaching context.

Displaying your mobile device screen through a projector

So you want to display what’s on your mobile device to your class? There are a variety of ways to do this from direct wired VGA connection or with Apple TV (for the iPad) or with apps (such as AirServer app).

7 Ways to show iPad on a projector screen – a post by Tony Vincent on the Learning in Hand blog describing a variety of ways in which to display what’s seen on the iPad on a projector, with each scenario explained and the resources required to make it work. Each situation makes one tool more suitable than another so this post also explains how different situations will be best served. Click here for 8 ways to show your iPad on a projector screen, an updated version of this post by Tony Vincent

How to mirror iPads onto your whiteboard – a post by Tim Bleazard on the City of Bradford ICT support blog describing different ways of displaying what’s on the iPad through a projector. 

Here’s a video by Richard Hirstwood showing how you can connect an iPad to a projector, screen or television with leads or via wireless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2qeXC6aOo

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Here’s a video tutorial on using the Reflector app on an Ipad to mirror what appears on the iPad on a projector: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=4ezxd0Hsavk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4ezxd0Hsavk%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&app=desktop

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Mirror360 – an app which promotes itself as able to mirror everything on the mobile device screen through a desktop computer to a projector