m-learning Forum - Newsletter

16 April 2002 - Issue 3

 

1. Next event Friday 26 April 2002 in Helsinki, Finland

Our next event is entitled “Finland as a laboratory of mobile technologies”. We look forward to seeing some of you in Helsinki next week. There are still some places left for those that have not booked yet. You can find the latest programme at http://www.pjb.co.uk/
m-learning/helsinki.htm We are very pleased that the event is being hosted by TietoEnator (www.tietoenator.com) and the Pori unit, Tampere University of Technology, Finland (http://www.pori.tut.fi). It will take place at TietoEnator who are located about 30 minutes from Helsinki Airport.

Cost for Forum members is 65 Euro + VAT at 17.5% and for non-members is 150 Euro + VAT at 17.5%. Details of hotels will be sent to you when you register. We can now take credit-card bookings by telephone and via email – with online registration coming very soon. (We can also invoice you for another 20 Euro + VAT at 17.5% ) Please send an email to our administrator Zoe Ashton at zoe@pjb.co.uk if you wish to register.

You will see from the draft programme that we have some very interesting keynote speakers. Additionally, in line with the key purpose the Forum – human networking – we will be having a “Knowledge Market” where participates will have the opportunity to show any products/services to others. The exact format will be decided once we have a clearer idea of the facilities that will be available to us. Please let Zoe zoe@pjb.co.uk know if you want to “offer” something to the knowledge market.

2. m-learning News-clip service

From 19 April we are planning to start our regular news-clips services – pulling together from other sources - news items that are directly relevant or could be of relevance to m-learning. Initially this will be available to everyone on our mailing list, but eventually we will restrict this just to m-learning forum members.

3. “European Workshop on Mobile And Contextual Learning”, Birmingham, UK 20-21 June 2002

The deadline for the final call for papers for this Workshop is 26 April 2002. If you wish to make a presentation please submit details by this date. Details on web at http://www.eee.bham.ac.uk/mlearn/CallForPapers.htm. We look forward to meeting you at this event that is being organised by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with the m-learning Forum. Further details are available at: www.eee.bham.ac.uk/mlearn. Registration is being handled directly by the University of Birmingham (details on their web site) But m-learning Forum do get a special discounted rate of 240 pounds sterling with accommodation if you book before 17 May 2002.

4. MOBIlearn project

We have just heard that this new project is likely to start in July 2002. pjb Associates will be a sub-contractor to the project with the main responsibility for liaison between the project and the m-learning Forum.

The project, which is being partially funded the European Union under the IST Programme, explores new ways to use mobile environments to meet the needs of learners, working by themselves and with others as new state-of-the-art mobile devices become available. A new m-learning architecture will support creation, brokerage, delivery and tracking of learning and information contents, using ambient intelligence, location-dependence, personalization, multimedia, instant messaging (text, video) and distributed databases. Field trials cover “blended learning” (as part of formal courses); “adventurous, location-dependent learning” (during visits to museums); and “learning to interpret information sources and advice” (acquiring medical information for everyday needs). The high connectivity and functionality may lead to new group behaviours, akin to the SMS phenomenon. It is hoped that the new economic benefits created by this project will be substantial at European level, and will be realised quickly because of the involvement of key actors. These include public bodies, mobile operators, software and learning technologies production companies, mobile devices manufacturers, publishers and content providers, and participants in standards initiatives.

More information will be made available to m-learning Forum members once the project has started. But anyone requiring further information now should contact the Project co-ordinator Giorgio Da Bormida g.dabormida@giuntilabs.com of Interactive Labs S.r.l. & Giunti Ricerca S.r.l.

5. Reaching homeless young people: the mLearning project

Another existing European funded IST project is the mLearning project (http://www.ultralab.ac.uk/projects/m-learning/) which was presented by Jill Attewell of the UK – based Learning and Skills Development Agency (www.lsda.org.uk) at the m-learning Forum’s first meeting last September in London.

The project is aiming to use mobile technologies to engage young people who have dropped out of formal education and entice them back into learning.

The content partner Cambridge-based CTAD (www.ctad.co.uk) is building learning modules that draw the learner into a virtual identity, communicating with them via their mobile phone (SMS, VoiceXML) and asking them to do various tasks. Early attempts were to convert a range of existing PC based learning materials to run on PocketPCs. According to Geoff Stead at CTAD (email: geoffs@ctad.co.uk) these have had some enthusiastic responses. He is prepared to make them available to m-learning Forum members in the future to try them out.

The project found that early work did not exploit the range of technologies available as they focused too much on one particular technology (PocketPC). However, their current work is now developing cross-technology themes. User trials will be starting in July this year with various youth and homeless groups across the UK. Students sign up for a fixed time (few days), and become involved in role play combining SMS, VoiceXML (phone calls), mobile internet (WAP or WWW) and PDAs.

6. From e-learning to m-learning

This is yet another project funded by the European Union, but this time the Leonardo da Vinci II Programme, which aims to map the evolution from the wired virtual learning environment of today, to the wireless learning environment of tomorrow.

Further details are found at http://learning.ericsson.net/leonardo/index.html

A particularly useful part of the project is the production of a book “The future of learning: From eLearning to mLearning” by Desmond Keegan. It can be found on the web at: http://learning.ericsson.net/leonardo/book.html

The conclusions claim that:

“Recent statistics show that China is the country with the most mobile phones at 170.000.000 in mid-2001, closely followed by the United States and Japan. Ericsson statistics for mid 2001 give market penetration as:

Taiwan 95%

Austria 85%

Finland 81%

Iceland 90%

Israel 90%

Luxembourg 88%

With statistics being even higher for younger age groups.

The mixing of distance learning with mobile telephony to produce mLearning will provide the future of learning.”

7. University of Westminster Innovation Labs – Office Space

This may be of interest to someone. Office space is now available at the University of Westminster's Innovation Studios in Harrow, near London, UK Designed with digital media and technology companies in mind, prices start at £260 per month + VAT, including high-bandwidth internet access. For further details, visit: http://www.nmk.co.uk/officespace.cfm

8. Membership fees for the Forum

In order to cover the cost of administration of the Forum we have decided the following membership fees for the first year. Membership can be individuals, organisations or a unit or a department within an organisation.

Normal membership will be 475 Euro + VAT at 17.5% per year

Non-profit making organisations 290 Euro + VAT at 17.5% per year

You will be able to pay in Euro, Pounds Sterling or US Dollars with the exchange rate based on the Euro. VAT will be charged where appropriate (This will be mainly for UK organisations but the situation may change.)

Once we have set-up online registration and payment by credit/debit card we will charge another 20 Euro + VAT at 17.5% if you require an invoice to be sent to you.

Membership will be for one contact address with one main contact person.

Membership will last for one year till the end of the month in which you join.

9. Benefits of membership to the Forum

Each member will get a discount on Forum events for up to two people per event. In addition members will also get discounts on events organised in collaboration with other organisations.

Members will also receive a regular newsletter and a news-clips service.

Additional benefits will also be arranged in the near future.

If you require further information contact Zoe at: - zoe@pjb.co.uk

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Last updated 30 April 2004