In the last fortnight I have been to two events focusing on mobile technologies, one here at the department run by the Forum Oxford people and the Seriously Mobile Summit in London (cue being blown away by Canary Wharf -we’re not in Oxford any more Toto). The former was by telecoms people for telecoms people and after a day in a room with them even someone who has only just mastered predictive text starts thinking the future is mobile phones….yes they will be doing EVERYTHING for us in 10 years time…but that is a whole other story.
What does this all mean for learning? The second event focused on this by way of social software and immersive worlds. What is clear is that getting content on mobile devices is getting easier an easier – to the point where this will be just another way students assume they can access your stuff in a few years time – but will they want to?
Going back the telecoms guys, who stress that the point about mobiles is that they are always with you…what aspects of your learning do you want all the time?
At the moment, I would think it will be forums blogs wikis…the places where the conversation is taking place, much more than the “content” of our courses, but I guess the best way to find out is to ask our students, something we’ll be doing as part of the Isthmus project over the next few months.