During the pre-conference workshops for Handheld Learning 2007 on Wednesday, I attended the session by Dan Sutch and Lyndsay Grant from FutureLab on their innovative pilot projects with handheld devices. One project they discussed, called MobiMissions, was based around students creating mini-games on their mobile phones, which they then shared via a website with other students in the same geographical area. Students played the games created by their peers when they arrived in the area for a given challenge (as detected by GPS), or when they socialised with other students involved in the project.
In reviewing their own pilot project, FutureLab acknowledged that the project had been too small (only 15 students) and too short (only 5 weeks) for students to publish truly absorbing, geographically-specific challenges with a good chance that other students would engage at a more than superficial level.
In the post-seminar Q&A, I made the point that the small size of the project had also prevented the students from exploring “The Long Tail” of their interests in creating challenges. In a larger version of the mobiMissions project (say, a nationwide version), students could make games based around more niche interests they have - the music of a particular underground band, or machinima, or manga . . . . someone out there, a student in another part of the country, would share their interest and would engage with the game in the manner intended by the author.
All of which has got me thinking about the “Long Tail” in Education. So what is the Long Tail? Why is it important to our students? And what are the possible implications for educators?
Last weekend I attended the NAACE Conference in London, and attended Doug Dickinson’s “RUWeb2” presentation. He played a snippet from the following video, which challenges educators to rethink their views on education in a world of Web 2.0, mobile technologies, and rapid content creation and sharing:
What are readers’ thoughts? I agree whole-heartedly with the intentions of the challenge. Wikis, blogs, podcasts and online collaboration and networking tools have massive potential to transform 21st century education in a positive, empowering way.
Over the last few weeks, gadget-lovers in the US have been going crazy for Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market, the iPhone. Estimates indicate that about 700,000 of the devices were sold in the first weekend of sales in the States at up to $599 each. Expect the hype around the iPhone in this country to build dramatically prior to its launch in Europe before Christmas. The iPhone will be the “must have” gadget for Christmas 2007. Parents of teenagers need to either prepare their wallets, or their resolve, for the direct hit that the iPhone is likely to make upon their lives.
For those who haven’t seen details of the iPhone, here are some links you might find useful:
Early reviews of the iPhone in the US have been largely positive, and 85% of those who’ve bought one would recommend it to a friend. While there are some obvious deficiencies to the device as it currently stands - no video camera, no Flash support, no support for third-party applications, no cut and paste (!), plus of course the expense - I believe that the iPhone may give us clues to the educational possibilities of the next generation of handheld devices.
During the Autumn and Spring Terms, Paul Porter from Wolverhampton Local Authority and I have been visiting primary and secondary schools in the city to train teaching staff and students to create podcasts for publication on the Learning2Go Blog and Podcast. We’ve really enjoyed working with students during these sessions and have been very impressed by their enthusiasm and creativity in putting together great broadcasts.
I think we’ve also learned a lot ourselves about what makes a successful podcast. I therefore thought it might be useful to collect together in one place some ideas about what works and what doesn’t. I’m not going to focus here on the technological side of podcasting; instead, I want to consider some principles for planning and recording a good school podcast. Of course, all this is just a matter of opinion, but our experience so far indicates that certain ideas do work well.
I’ve included audio snippets from the Learning2Go podcasts to illustrate some of the ideas. To hear the full podcasts, visit learning2goblog.org.
One of the more time-consuming projects we’ve been involved in recently is the development of new websites for two of our partner primary schools. A website design service was offered to the CLC contacts and was rapidly snapped up by both Green Acres Primary School and Bushbury Hill Primary School. The site for Bushbury Hill is now complete at www.bushburyhillprimary.org.uk; the site for Green Acres is nearing completion.
I’ve been developing websites for education for some time now, but these new sites are the first I’ve worked on where I’ve paid full attention to one of the “hot topics” of web design at the moment - web accessibility.
So what is web accessibility? Web accessibility means that “people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web” (http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php). Visitors with disabilities have as much right to access the information on the Internet as anybody else. It is therefore the responsibility of web-designers to create webpages that are accessible to these visitors.
Accessible websites are well-structured. They have a clear distinction between the navigational zones of the design and content. Links are clear. The organisation of pages and the relationships between them is immediately obvious. It is easy to find your way to the homepage of the site.
I hope that all of my previous sites meet these criteria. However, some of the key elements of a truly accessible site may not be immediately obvious to non-disabled visitors surfing the web using the traditional medium of a PC/Mac, web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) and mouse.
How do different groups of disabled visitors navigate around the Web?
Visitors with sight difficulties may surf the Web with screen-reading software that reads webpages to them using a synthesized voice.
Visitors with motor difficulties may be unable to use a mouse to point-and click.
How do we make sites accessible to these visitors? Read more
Disclaimer: The opinions presented here are those of the author alone. They in no way represent the opinions of Wolverhampton CLC, Wolverhampton Local Authority or Wolverhampton City Council.
Over the last few weeks, gadget-lovers in the US have been going crazy for Apple’s entry into the mobile phone market, the iPhone. Estimates indicate that 
During the Autumn and Spring Terms, Paul Porter from Wolverhampton Local Authority and I have been visiting primary and secondary schools in the city to train teaching staff and students to create podcasts for publication on the