Earlier this year I ditched my Nokia N73 for an iPhone. Anyone who knows me, knows I have ‘issues’ with the iPhone. Probably because I was a power user of my Nokia N73. I had the bluetooth keyboard and Mobile Office suite, which meant I could edit and write documents or blog posts on the go – I even wrote chunks of my 100,000 word novel on my N73. I had a great data plan, my google maps and mail, Opera browser and my slovoed French dictionary. Sorted.
Switching to the iPhone has been both amazing and irritating.
On the upside, the apps are brilliant. Wifi connectivity means I can really exploit learning online. And because my iPhone is with me all day every day, I can learn anywhere I want. Add earphones to create a great language learning device.
But the iPhone has a huge handicap in that that Apple haven’t approved a keyboard input device for it. This hugely limits the device’s capture and learning potential. I can use it to learn passively, but can’t take notes in meetings or conferences, or use it to capture the stuff in my head. I don’t understand how Apple can expect the iPhone or iPod Touch to be taken seriously as an educational device without proper text input.
But input handicaps and a few other gripes aside, here are my Top Ten Tools for Mobile Learning:
1 Tweetie – fantastic for short bite-sized learning and gossip when your head’s frazzled at the airport.
2 Safari – it’s a proper mobile browsing experience.
3 Stanza – oh wow – over 25,000 free books for me to snuggle up in bed with!
4 BYKI French for language learnin – great for vocab but limited for grammar.
5 iXpenseit – a budget tracking app, which is helping me keep track of my spending and teaching me where I go wrong – excellent stuff (note that iXpenseit is limited, and I think there are better apps that have more capability for dealing with multiple bank accounts, your mortgage, loans etc)
6 iPod on iPhone – I’ve got over 5 hours of French and Irish language resources and audio books on my iPod – means I can learn on the go. I’ve also been using the lyrics feature for both listening and reading my Irish language learning.
7 Mail – this is one of the loser aspects of the iPhone – I can get my mail, but Apple’s Mail app is nothing like as useful or powerful as Gmail’s mail app for Symbian. I can’t search my archive, it uses up tonnes of data and is slow.
8 Google search – sometimes I want to know how to cook aubergine without leaving the cooker in the kitchen…google search + iPhone = instant knowledge while stirring a pot.
9 Google maps – bigger screen + good data plan = excellent journey planning and exploration. Also, I’m way more confident about wandering around more because I can’t get ‘lost’.
10 Calculator – I think people often take for granted the hard-working apps like the touchscreen calculator app on the iPhone – but it’s a fantastic tool – and is easy to use and access.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:27 am
Mobile Devices, primarily the iPhone has been a boon for learning in and outside classrooms. Mobl21 is an excellent platform to create, publish and share learning assets on different platforms- desktop as widgets and mobile devices.