NON EDUCATIONAL

Augmented reality

Handheld Augmented Reality. Graz University of technology. PDF PDF A standard, off-the-shelf mobile phone constitutes a cost-effective and lightweight hardware platform for Augmented Reality (AR). A mobile phone provides a simple, well-known user interface, and is fully equipped with a camera (and often with a touch-screen too) for providing a video see-through Magic Lens metaphor of interaction. In our Handheld AR framework, all interactive processing is done exclusively on the mobile phone without relying on a server infrastructure. This makes our approach highly scalable to the number of users and number of devices. Because of the low cost and suitable ergonomic properties of the handheld platform, massive multi-user AR applications become possible for the first time.

Dream Catcher - Future Lab. Dream Catcher aims to capture young children’s dreams by recording their creative play and imaginary worlds, opening up powerful channels of shared communication and learning with parents, other children, and early years professionals. Dream Catcher was submitted to Futurelab’s informal learning call for ideas in 2008. The original vision was to enable children to share their inner worlds with family and friends, creating a collaborative and fun learning environment. Dream Catcher is a small PSP-style device disguised as a watch. When a child moves the hands round to a number, Mrs Dream Catcher will tell them the time and then ask the child to show them what they are doing/thinking/playing now. At the press of a button, the child records (using video, audio, or photography) their Dream Blog, ie their play, ideas, songs, dreams and stories. They can ask questions, make an observation, invent new games, or simply wonder out loud. The child can choose to show their family and friends what they have recorded, triggering opportunities for reflection and discussion. Or, the child could ‘Beam their Dream’ wirelessly to another watch-wearer, be it a grand/parent, child-minder, or friend, who can share in their children’s play virtually. Parents will be able to download, catalogue and preserve those magic moments in their children’s lives. They will observe how, and what, their children are learning from other areas of life, such as at nursery or pre-school. Children will feel a sense of confidence and well-being at having their own stories experienced in a meaningful way. See the video

Create a scape - FutureLab. A mediascape is composed of sounds, images and video placed outside in your local area. To see the images and video, and hear the sounds you need a handheld computer (PDA) and a pair of headphones. An optional GPS unit can automatically trigger the images, video and sounds in the right places.
To create a mediascape, you start with a digital map of your local area. Using special, free software, you can attach digital sounds, pictures and video to places that you choose on the map (see below).
By going outside into the area the map covers, you can experience the mediascape. Using the handheld computer and headphones, you can hear the sounds and see the pictures and video in the places the author of the mediascape has put them. All sorts of exciting things can happen as you explore the mediascape.

Communication

SMS

Economy

Mobile Money for the unbanked. The GSMA Development Fund has initiated the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme to accelerate the availability of mobile money services to the unbanked and those living on less than US$2 per day. Bringing together mobile operators in developing countries, banks, microfinance institutions, governments, development organisations and the private sector, MMU has the goal of reaching 20 million previously unbanked people with mobile financial services by 2012. A US$5 million Fund is available over a period of two years to support commercially viable and sustainable mobile operator led projects that accelerate the speed at which mobile money services for the mass market in developing countries are deployed. The focus of the Fund is upon: Supporting commercially viable projects Providing a quick response and straight forward grant process Ensuring that mobile services are targeted at base of the pyramid customers Knowledge sharing

M-Pesa - Safaricom. M-PESA is a Safaricom service allowing you to transfer money using a mobile phone. Kenya is the first country in the world to use this service, which is offered in partnership between Safaricom and Vodafone. M-PESA is available to all Safaricom subscribers (Prepay and Postpay), even if you do not have a bank account. Registration is FREE and available at any M-PESA Agent countrywide. The M-PESA application is installed on your SIM card and works on all makes of handsets. It was used by 2,3 millions of people in 2008.

Selling Airtime as Currency in Swaziland, Africa

Pedal phones

Mobile revolution Africa

Mobile phones in Africa

Kenia

Cameroon

KIWANJA.NET. Since 2003, kiwanja.net has been helping empower local, national and international non-profit organisations to make better use of information and communications technology in their work. Specialising in the application of mobile technology, it provides a wide range of ICT-related services drawing on over 22 years experience of its founder, Ken Banks. Non-profits in over forty countries have so far benefited from a range of kiwanja initiatives, including FrontlineSMS and nGOmobile.

Mobile database. Interested in mobile? The mobile applications database contains details of projects from around
the world which make social and environmental use of mobile technology in fields such as human
health, economic empowerment, conservation, education, human rights and poverty alleviation.
You can carry out a specific search, browse the entire database, or submit details for any related article, project or report. If it’s mobile photos you’re after, check out the Mobile Gallery.

Project: “mobility”.The mobility project will focus on two key areas: the development of mobile-based programming tools, and the development of an online mobile phone programming curriculum.

Programming tools. Today, the bulk of mobile applications development takes place in a desktop PC environment, with mobile devices used (if at all) for end-user testing or compatibility checking. Desktop PC’s are used for a number of reasons - they are readily available in the developed world (where most development currently takes place), their keyboard and full screen makes them ideal development environments, device emulators are available to allow developers to ‘mimic’ mobile target devices, and the majority of programming tools are written to run on desktop computers. However, access to personal computers is a challenge to many people in many developing countries, making the current methods of mobile applications development inappropriate.

In collaboration with industry partners, the project will examine the developer landscape and determine a roadmap outlining the creation of native developer tools for mobile phones, removing the need for PC’s. Taking mobile applications development away from the limited reach of desktop computers and onto the ubiquitous mobile phone carries huge potential.
Curriculum
Expanding on the work of Nathan Eagle at EPROM, the project will determine the needs and structure of an online mobile programming curriculum, one which will quite likely be based on MIT’s Courseware model. The key objective will be to develop easily accessible and implementable teaching aids, allowing educational establishments throughout the developing world to integrate mobile phone programming courses into their core curriculum. These learning tools will cover existing PC-based environments, such as Java and Python, but more crucially include the new tools that mobility hopes to develop for use on the phones themselves.

The Application Laboratory is an initiative of the Grameen Foundation. We work to promote innovation in the provision of services and information using mobile phones and other ICTs (Information and Communication Tehcnologies) to alleviate poverty in the developing world.
The Issue
Poor and rural populations often lack access to important information and knowledge that would enable them to improve their lives and livelihoods.
The AppLab Solution
By leveraging the power of information and communications technologies, AppLab seeks to overcome the barriers to accessing information that contribute to the poverty cycle.
How AppLab Works
AppLab uses mobile technologies to both disseminate and gather relevant and actionable information. We develop mobile phone applications and services that allow people to access information on important topics like health and agriculture, among others. For example, through a simple text message a farmer can receive tips on treating crop diseases, learn local market prices, or get advice on preventing malaria.
Our applications can also be used for collecting information. For example, surveys conducted by mobile phones can be used to collect information on access to health services or the types of crops being grown in a specific region. This information can provide a detailed understanding of the challenges poor communities face and equip service providers with the knowledge they need to better serve the poor.

Village phone. Grameen Foundation. Based on the pioneering work of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh, Village Phone extends the benefits of affordable telecommunications access in a sustainable, profitable and empowering way. Microfinance clients borrow the money needed to purchase a “Village Phone business” - literally, a business in a box. These grassroots entrepreneurs, or Village Phone Operators (VPOs), run their businesses in rural villages where little to no telecommunications services previously existed and rent the use of the phone to their community on a per-call basis. The VPOs provide affordable rates to their customers while earning enough to repay their loans. The additional profits that they earn allow them to make investments in their children’s health, nutrition and education, and in other business ventures. Our goal is to help create a global Village Phone movement that allows the world’s rural poor access to reliable and affordable telecommunications. With that in mind, the Grameen Technology Center has approached this endeavor with a multi-tiered strategy, working with a variety of organizations around the world. We have had extensive experience partnering with multi-national corporations, telecommunications operators, and microfinance institutions, as well as a range of other organizations. Village Phone projects currently underway in: Uganda Rwanda Cameroon.

EDUCATIONAL

ERICCSON From e-learning to m-learning. 2000-2002. This project sets in place the first stage in the creation of a global provision of training on the wireless internet. It sets in place the first building block for the next generation of learning: the move from distance learning (d-Learning) and electronic learning (e-Learning) to mobile learning (m-Learning).

Supported by EU Leonardo da Vinci program. E-learning is the state of the art for education and training but this project asks what is the next generation? The future is wireless. This project proposes that the next generation is the provision of education and training on wireless devices: Personal Digital Devices (PDAs), Mobile Phones and Smartphones. The project sets out to provide systems and courses for mobile learning and to trial them with real students. Documents: The book. PDF

ERICCSON (funded by EU Leonardo da Vinci project). The impact of new technologies on distance learning students. 2006-2008. This is a reference material project on the impact of new technology on distance learning students. The extant literature of the impact of technology on learning is fragile and inconclusive. This was the view of the World Bank in March 2005 (Impact of ICTs on learning and achievement). In the UK in January 2004 Cox et al (A review of the research literature relating to ICT and achievement) reach the same conclusion. In the USA in 2005 similar findings come from the University of California at Santa Barbara. A detailed search of the literature shows that what research there is is nearly all on the impact of technology on children in schools. There is little or nothing on adult education, on lifelong learning or on distance learning. This is the focus of this new proposal. The research situation is unacceptable in an area that is costing European governments millions of euros annually. One of the major manifestations of the use of technology in education is distance education. In distance education the use of technology is essential. It is not a supplement. Today distance education is a rich and complex sector containing five major fields of education and training provision which are detailed here for the first time are: Distance education - the provision of education and training at a distance by Open Universities, distance education institutions and distance education departments of conventional institutions E-learning - e-learning is the provision of education and training via the WWW for students who study mainly as individuals using LMSs (or VLEs) like SumTotal and Blackboard Synchronous e-learning systems - these are the provision of education and training on the WWW to students who study mainly in groups using LMSs like Centra or Horizon Wimba The use of the WWW for the provision of education and training on university and college campuses as a supplement to lectures and ILT given on campus or, alternatively, as a substitute for lectures when the courseware is provided on the WWW in the institution in place of lectures Mobile learning - the provision of education and training on PDAs (including palmtops and handhelds), smartphones and mobile phones. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide a set of findings that help instructors understand the implications of various technologies for their students, and to provide research-based principles for how instructors can best use technology in their teaching. The methodology to be employed is based on the identifying and implementing educational practices supported by rigorous evidence of the US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences of December 2003, probably the most recent and most authoritative educational research methodology. Book of the project. 2008. PDF

ERICCSON (funded by EU Socrates project). The role of mobile learning in Europe.Mobile learning is the provision of education and training on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smartphones and mobile phones.

M-learning Project. PDF European Commission’s IST foundings, 2001-2004. Project coordinator is Learning and Skills Developing Agency - LSDA.
The project has concerned 16-24 years-old population of learners with bas results, and used PDA-phones or smartphones. Evaluations have been directed to establish the ‘attractiveness’ of learning after experiencing mobile learning. “In 2001, when the m-learning project commenced, few people knew about the concept of mobile learning or, indeed, could envisage the potential of mobile devices for learning.The m-learning project – funded by the European Commission, the project partners and (in England) the Learning and Skills Council – was considered highly innovative and unusual. … Key findings from the learner research and systems trials phase of the project are included in this publication. These findings indicate that mobile devices can be used successfully to involve some of the hardest to reach and most disadvantaged young adults in learning.” Conclusions include the following considerations: “Mobile learning is unique in that it allows truly anywhere, anytime,personalised learning.”

See:

Attewell, J. (2005). Mobile technologies and learning: a technology update and m-learning project summary. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency. PDF

For some examples of the learning materials developed by the project, including quiz games, see the project web site. Most of the developed materials are addressed to PDA-phones, but some simple quiz activities can be executed vis SMS, hence through the simplest phones. An example of the mixed approach (basic and high-performance phones, the case of language learning can be cited: “The course structure includes 100 concepts and for each concept textual and test dialogues have been created. The learner can send the answer by simply replying to the SMS message with a further message. The system tracks the answers received from learners, verifies the results and sends them a new SMS containing test results and suggestions for improvement…or the voice courses the potential of VoiceXML was investigated but IVR (Interactive Voice Response) was used instead as this allowed learners to interact with the learning management system. Learners in this phase used their own mobile phones as well as the more sophisticated devices provided by the project.“

Partners within the m-learning project consortium contributed to the first international mobile learning conference – MLEARN 2002. From 2003 the conference has been co-organized by MOBIlearn project. After 2004 conference, LSDA has published a book of proceedings:

Attewell, J. & Savill-Smith, C. (eds) (2005). Mobile learning anytime everywhere. A book of papers from mlearn2004.  London: Learning and skills development agency. PDF

Two of the m-learning partners (LSDA and Tribal) have created a project for developing educational resources for portable devices

MOBIlearn Project. 2002-2004. MOBIlearn Consortium: Context-aware m-learninginformation.
MOBIlearn is a worldwide European-led research and development project exploring context-sensitive approaches to informal, problem-based and workplace learning by using key advances in mobile technologies. The MOBIlearn project consortium involves 24 partners from Europe, Israel, Switzerland, USA and Australia. Coordinator: Giunti ricerca. Amongst the partners: Nokia, University of Birmingham, Open University, Stanford University. Their competencies are integrated and extended by a Special Interest Group which includes 250 of the world’s leading organisations, active in Information Technology. The project addresses most of the key objectives of the Multimedia content and tools area of FP5 IST programme and it is strategically positioned to provide relevant research outcomes for the FP6.

MOTILL. 2009. Mobile Technologies for Lifelong Learning. The MOTILL project investigates how these technologies may impact on the diffusion of a social model where learning and knowledge are accessible to all, regardless of social and economic background, age, sex, religion, ethnicity or disability.
There is a need to make explicit connections between learners’ (and potential learners’) everyday uses of mobile devices and the use of these devices to exploit learning opportunities, whether for formal qualifications or for informal learning. The widespread use of mobile technologies in all EU countries offers an opportunity to develop policies aimed at participation and social inclusion. The use of mobile devices transcends age, social status, economic level, gender and ethnic origins. Although the education community has highlighted that mobile learning could be a suitable means to support Lifelong Learning (LLL), national policies have not yet taken any significant steps to integrate LLL and mobile technologies. The MOTILL project aims to promote this type of integration. Partners:  Italian National Research Council - Institute for Educational Technology of Palermo - Italy (coordinator), The Open University (UK) - Institute of Educational Technology; Trinity college of Dublin (Ireland) - Department of Computer Science & Education; Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary) - Department of Information Systems

Other Projects

Mobile learning: South African examples

MoLeNET. MoLeNET is certainly the UK’s, and probably the world’s, largest and most diverse implementation of mobile learning. 115 colleges and 29 schools are, or have been, involved in MoLeNET.
Approximately 10,000 learners were involved in 2007/08 and around 20,000 learners will have been involved by the end of the 2008/09 academic year together with more than 4,000 staff. The Learning and Skills Council and consortia led by Further Education colleges have together invested over £12 million in MoLeNET. The first phase included 32 projects, involving 136 partner organisations. The second phase of MoLeNET includes 30 new projects, some involving organisations from phase 1 and some introducing mobile learning for the first time. All projects are supported by the MoLeNET Support and Evaluation Programme led by LSN.

Learning with mobile technologies. We are conducting several projects with teachers using technologies such as laptop computers, PDAs and mobile phones.

The purpose of the research is to investigate and disseminate  the creative uses of these devices, emerging teaching and learning methods, professional development needs.

Mobiles in secondary schools (funded by Becta). PDF

Personal and collaborative blogging using mobile devices (funded by Nokia Global Universities Foundation): Peggy Shao and Elizabeth Hartnell-Young are using set of Nokia N80 mobile phones with university and school students to explore individual and group blogs and narratives created using mobile phones.

Hartnell-Young, E. & Simner, J. (2007). Beyond school control: Year 6 students appropriate mobile technologies as curriculum tools. ALT-C. Nottingham, September.

Hartnell-Young, E., & Vetere, F. (2006). My grandfather is dead: narratives of culture and curriculum. mLearn conference, Banff, Canada. October.

Hartnell-Young, E. (2006). Teachers’ Roles and Professional Learning in Communities of Practice supported by Technology in Schools. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. 14, 3. pp. 461-480. http://go.editlib.org/j/JTATE/v/14/n/3

Hartnell-Young, E., & Vetere, F. (2005). Lifeblog: a new concept in mobile learning? IEEE Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education. Tokushima, Japan, November.

mlearning (Australia)

The New Technologies, New Pedagogies project investigates and creates new teaching and learning strategies using mobile technologies. Participants in the project explore the use of mobile devices as cognitive tools, and create pedagogies for the use of smart phones and iPods that go beyond the standard convenience and communication functions. This site offers a range of pedagogies and resources for the use of mobile technologies in higher education. Team Pedagogies Resources

Handler - University of Birmingham. Sharples, M. Disruptive devices: personal technologies and education PDF

UniWAP - University of Helsinki; Promoting mlearning by the UniWap Project within higher education PDF

FUTURE LAB

Savannah - Futurelab. Savannah is a strategy-based adventure game where a virtual space is mapped directly onto a real space. Children ‘play’ at being lions in a savannah, navigating the augmented environments with a mobile handheld device. By using aspects of game play, Savannah challenges children to explore and survive in the augmented space. To do this they must successfully adopt strategies used by lions.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Nokia/Stanford University mobile learning research

MathEd. Our project has two main foci:
Stimulating inquiry-based mathematics and science learning
Taking the lab to the real world - increased access to math and science experiments in students’ everyday lives.
Considering mobile devices for education, the immediate implication is that:
Students are not restricted to learn at a specific site; and
Students can be engaged in activities that require mobility.
These benefits are significant because they directly effect the teaching and learning experiences.
However, using mobile devices have additional benefits with powerful implications on the educational infrastructure and on the supporting environment. They are:
Assessment
Differentiated instructions
Scaffolding - teaching the right prerequisites just when they are needed just to those students who do not already have them
Engagement
Accessibility
Cost saving
Repetition - very important for certain subjects
Community - community of learning and teaching support - pass around stories
Home-school connection to engage the parents

Stanford Mobile Empowerment Developers Network. Promoting and developing mobile empowerment applications and games for 6.7 billion people on earth. In this mission, we focus on early literacy, numeracy, health, human rights, and self-empowerment strategy learning content development and best-practice sharing. Please help make education fun for learners of all ages.

Project POMI. POMI (Progarmmable Open Mobile Internet) -An Interdisciplinary Research Through Cleanslate Project. We are rapidly moving into a new age of widely-deployed, inexpensive, Internet-enabled mobile computing and communication devices. This has the potential to give rise to a whole new generation of services, applications, and modes of behavior to benefit society based on openness in ubiquitous wireless and mobile computing. But this requires re-thinking the computing and communication infrastructure–from the servers in the computing cloud, to the desktop, to the individual handheld devices, to the network that interconnects them all. This Expedition aims to promote innovation and competition by breaking down barriers and constructing bridges for enabling the creation of a truly programmable and open mobile internet (POMI). Expanding on the ubiquitous computing model in which users have unencumbered access to distributed computational and storage resources, this timely experimental systems Expedition will create a virtual data system to enable users to take ownership of their data; a three-tiered computational infrastructure to ease the entry of new Web services; an open network to promote network innovation and make wireless capacity available across heterogeneous and abundant radio networks within a vicinity; and open-source software to promote existing efforts in opening the cell phone and other such handhelds. An at-scale prototype system of infrastructure, devices and applications will be deployed across the Stanford campus–perhaps the most comprehensive experimental deployment of mobile technology for research ever performed by a university. Outreach includes the development and distribution of POMI kits to students at small and underrepresented universities, K-12 schools, and undergraduates at Stanford to engage in creative and inspired discovery through mobile-based education and exploration.

Slides

Video

Project Pocket school. Pocket School: Exploring Mobile Technology As A Sustainable Education Option For Underserved Children. This project involves the assessment, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of mobile learning technology to provide underserved indigenous children in Latin America with equitable access to basic education and literacy exposure in health and environmental safety. The primary framework for the design and implementation addresses situation specificity, cultural sensitivity, practical usability, theoretical applicability, economical scalability, and viable sustainability. Creative contents and mobile applications are being created through Stanford Mobile Empowerment Developers Network.

Dunia Moja Project. The Dunia Moja Project — “one world” in Swahili — is a pilot project offering classes via cellphone. Once conducted by mail, distance-learning programs now offer Web-based courses and materials. But in many parts of Africa and other parts of the developing world, students have better access to cell phones than to computers and Internet connections. “We’re experimenting with a new model for distance learning that incorporate both local and global perspectives,” said Shelley Goldman, Stanford professor of education. “We’re looking at how mobile technologies can be used to give people access to information and education.” Stanford said both Ericsson and Sony Ericsson collaborated to provide mobile smart phones equipped with video cameras, audio recorders, and Internet capability, as well as technical and other support for the pilot version of the course.This pilot project on international environmental issues is a collaboration among faculty and students at Stanford and three universities in Africa - the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania and Makerere University in Uganda. The project offers students the opportunity to learn from leading experts in environmental sciences from several countries and to debate issues through Internet and mobile technology interactions.

The project is structured so students can learn first-hand from faculty and each other about environmental issues concerning Africa and the world. Although the environmental challenges facing our world are deeply globally intertwined, our communities experience these challenges and often design solutions for them in specific local contexts. This project will allow students to share their local experiences, and to understand their global connections.
As part of an initiative by the Stanford University International Outreach Program (IOP), the pilot project investigates global environmental issues and their impact on the African continent and in the United States while bringing local perspectives and viewpoints to bear on the course topics. Faculty and students from the four participating institutions will share course materials, exchange information, contribute course content and have an opportunity to help design collaborative activities.
The project will use mobile technologies to increase communications and access to course materials, to allow study and assignment completion from the “field”, and to experiment with using various media to share local environmental research with the global project cooperative.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FOUNDATION

Project BridgeIt. In September 2007, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and the Tanzania Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) launched Bridgeit Tanzania, in close partnership with the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Pearson Foundation and Vodacom Foundation. Bridgeit’s goal is to significantly increase the quality of teacher instruction and achievement among primary school boys and girls in math, science, and life skills through the innovative use of cell phone and digital technology. The Bridgeit project in Tanzania is a replication of a successful project in the Philippines known as text2teach. Locally, the Bridgeit Tanzania project is known as Elimu kwa Teknolojia (or ET), which means “Education through Technology.” This two-year project is supported through a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is working in the following seven regions: Lindi, Mtwara, Pwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Dodoma and Kilimanjaro.
Bridgeit Tanzania brings together a dynamic public-private sector alliance that leverages technical assistance and in-kind support from key partners. In close collaboration with these partners, the project adapts and creates mathematics, science and life skills videos and establishes the necessary technological infrastructure for teachers to access the content in their classrooms. Bridgeit also trains teachers and provides them with comprehensive teacher’s guides and learner-centered lesson plans in order to enhance student-teacher interactions, ensure student participation, and guide the teachers on how to effectively use and integrate the videos.

Project Text2teach. The Philippines “text-2-teach” - program is based on the global Bridgeit program as developed through a unique multi-sector collaboration between Nokia, International Youth Foundation (IYF), Pearson and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Bridgeit puts advanced digital communications in the service of education; with a particular focus on positively impacting underserved youth and their communities.
The program has so far benefited more than 120,000 5th and 6th grade Science, Math and English students in more than 200 schools. 920 teachers have been trained to use the system including the locally produced video and Teacher’s Guide material.
Teachers can access a library of over 100 KnowledgeBox® and 270 locally produced science, math and English videos. All lessons follow the national curriculum and have been created to meet the local education guidelines and standards. Teachers have been provided 480 lesson plans to support these video packages.
Lessons can be ordered from the library using text messaging (SMS) and then delivered to the ordering school via satellite, and downloaded to a Digital Video Recorder connected to a TV set in the classroom. The Department of Education collects statistics from each DVR on the useage of various lessons.

MELFA - Mobile Learning for Africa. The overall goal with the MELFA pilot project (2007-2009) is to enable illiterate and semi-literate Xhosa speaking building workers to receive complementary literacy and skills training via a mobile device and thereby assisting them in their personal growth and in performing their jobs better.
Innovative interactive technologies, including Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Text-To-Speech (TTS), speech translation, 3-D graphical illustration and M-learning are applied in the developing of a running prototype. The results from user tests and conclusions will eventually be used to indicate the prominence for further development and marketing.
Melfa is spun off from another project MELFO Mobile E Learning For Dyslexic.

MILLEE. Mobile and immersive learning for literacy in emerging economies (India).

MERAKA INSTITUTE.

WAAG.

Frequency 1550. Waag developed a ‘mobile learning game’ pilot together with IVKO, part of the Montessori comprehensive school in Amsterdam. It’s a citygame using mobile phones and GPS-technology for students in the age of 12-14 (so called HAVO+MAVO basic curriculum). It is a research pilot examining whether it’s possible to provide a technology supported educational location-based experience. In the Frequency 1550 mobile game, students are transported to the medieval Amsterdam of 1550 via a medium that’s familiar to this agegroup: the mobile phone. The pilot took place in 2005 from 7 to 9 February and was supported by KPN Mobile’s UMTS network. At its UMTS launching event KPN put out this press release, but it’s in Dutch only.

JISC Supporting education and research. The JISC TechDis Service is delighted to be working across the education sector throughout the UK, and with agencies such as the Learning and Skills Network (LSN) following their highly successful MoLeNet projects, to explore the accessibility benefits and barriers of mobile learning on Upwardly Mobile , and in the companion publication GoMobile! The experience and expertise of a number of highly-respected practitioners and technologists from HE, FE, and the Independent Specialist Colleges has combined to produce this DVD-ROM. We believe this exciting and stimulating resource will encourage innovation, creativity and a holistic approach to m-learning across the educational sectors, and are gratified to be able to add it to our ever-growing collection of m-learning resources.

WORLD BANK

Companies & products

M-learning toolkit.  See the Literacy skills pack as an example. “mobile learning toolkit for teachers. The toolkit includes authoring tools which teachers use on a PC to create learning materials which are then accessed via learners’ mobile phones or transferred onto learners’ palmtop computers. Tools include: - An SMS (text message) quiz authoring tool this tool allows teachers to set up an automated response system for a multiple choice quiz. The quiz can be presented to the learners in any way e.g. a paper handout, a poster, a website or on a whiteboard or in a PowerPoint presentation. When the learners send the answers to the questions by SMS they receive almost instant feedback. - A mediaBoard authoring tool this tool allows teachers to create interactive learning tasks and projects for groups of learners. Each mediaBoard a teacher creates is rather like an Internet message board but consists of a visual image. Learners can attach audio, text and images to areas of the image, sending these by e-mail, or by multi-media message (MMS) from a palmtop computer or a mobile phone. - A Pocket PC authoring tool this tool allows teachers to author multiple choice quizzes, including pictures and text, for delivery via any device supporting the PocketPC operating system. They can also author simple Pairs or Snap card games and small pages of text.” See:

Attewell, J. (2005). From Research and Development to Mobile Learning: Tools for Education and Training Providers and their Learners. Mlearn conference 2005, Cape Town.

Examples of applications from the toolkit: basic numbers skills literacy skills pack

WapEduc. Depuis Juin 2006, les élèves de collège et de lycée peuvent réviser leurs cours sur leur téléphone portable et bénéficier de conseils pédagogiques. WapEduc , l’Ecole Nomade,  est en ligne sur tous les mobiles depuis trois ans: plusieurs milliers d’élèves ont pris l’habitude de réviser leurs cours sur leur mobile en situation nomade et de s’informer (bus, attente chez le médecin, chez soi sans Internet). Nous travaillons à ce projet depuis 2003, date à laquelle nous avons obtenu le soutien du Rectorat de l’Académie de Montpellier ainsi qu’une distinction en tant que lauréat du E-Learning Awards (parmi 600 projets européens). Interview to Philippe Steger

mobile ESL Athabasca. This is a course of lessons and practice on the system of English. It is divided into eighty-six sections. Each section covers an area of basic grammar and contains a number of exercises. The exercises are not all the same length. Some exercises have only five questions, but others have up to nine questions. This is because some areas of grammar are more important than others. This course tests your knowledge of English grammar and, more importantly, it gives you practice in using your knowledge to make correct and appropriate sentences. When you do the exercises, you will see that grammar is not just a game. Grammar has meaning - if you change some of the grammar in a sentence, you also change its meaning.

Math4mobile. The Math4Mobile project examines the opportunities of ubiquitous and personal technologies for educational purposes, specifically of using the mobile phone for teaching and learning mathematics. There are 5 Java (J2ME) applications that are designed to help you learn intuitivelly about mathematical concepts in different fields using your mobile phone. You can download the application for free or try them online using the Live Demo page.