The Mobile Garage

Lincoln College: Providing Serious Technological Literacy Skills

Lincoln College, in Normal, IL, has been piloting the No-Cost version of Blackboard Mobile Learn for ANGEL for the past eight weeks. Students can access their class materials from Sprint-powered Android, BlackBerry and Palm devices, as well as via WiFi on iOS devices.  

I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Foster, Instructional Technologist/Designer at Lincoln College. Tim is an outspoken proponent of mobile learning. Last year he joined EDUCAUSE; additionally he has been tracking Horizon Reports for 3 years and watching mobile continually increase in importance. Listening to leaders across the country, and watching the students arriving with smartphones, he realized how big mobile was. Tim is an adjunct professor, and when he asks a question, the phones come out. "My students are getting some serious technological literacy skills, in a big way. With education it’s more than convenience, it’s teaching them to be a lifelong learner. I tell my kids, “If you have a question, look it up”."    

The EDUCAUSE Mobile Computing Sprint

We really enjoyed reading the blog post by Tim Flood, Senior Technology Consultant and Program Manager, Stanford Mobile Program, just published as part of EDUCAUSE's 5-Day Mobile Computing Sprint. In his article, "Who is driving the influx of new technologies?," Tim provides expert advice to university technologists when it comes to deploying (and embracing) vendor technologies to transform business processes. A brief excerpt:

"Be agile of mind, light of step. In an age when the technology will change before your carefully written strategic ink is dry, the last thing your institution needs from you is another exhaustive study of technological options. A great example is mobile technology. I am perplexed as I frequently read of the ‘need for an institutional mobile strategy’ and of consulting firms’ claims that they can help you build yours. The truth is we all have very limited experience in mobile technology to begin with! But what is our knee-jerk reaction to new things? Let’s study them! We can be so hopelessly … academic. Meanwhile, new technologies gush forth from the wellspring every day. And what’s more, these new technologies, particularly mobile, require active learning through rapid prototyping, experimenting, changing, and yes, failing. We can be so … serious. Let’s have a little fun again! We can be agile of mind, light of step, and strategic all at once!"
 
Read the full article
 
Hear more from Tim next Wednesday, May 4th when he joins Blackboard Mobile to talk about iStanford past, present and future. Learn more.

Living in a Mobile World: A Student Perspective

On March 24th we hosted the "Living in a Mobile World: A Student Perspective" with Campus Technology. The event featured a panel of students from VCU, LMU and Northwestern who talked about their role in their school’s mobile strategy and app, as well as how having a mobile campus has affected life:

“The role of these applications in my life and in the lives of students here on campus is very very beneficial. It impacts us in a way of convenience, efficiency, and we have a better use of our resources.”

--Adele McClure, Student Body President, VCU

The Mobile Revolution in Education

This month, Kayvon Beykpour, Vice President, Blackboard Mobile, sat down with E.Learning Update, a UK-based e-magazine, to talk about mobile's role in education. The publication is part of the Imaginative Minds Group, a UK based organization that focuses on raising "standards of teaching and learning using critical and creative thinking."

Check out the article below.

Taking Education Mobile

Southern Denmark University Goes Mobile!

Southern Denmark University is the first university in Denmark to go Mobile!  They have made mobile learning a priority for their students, so that courses are accessible from anywhere, on a mobile device.  By allowing students to learn and collaborate outside of the classroom, they are adding more flexibility to the lives of their students and professors.  Check out this short video (in English).

 

Stanford Mobile: Marketing on the Move

We just finished a project with Stanford to help them market their ever-expanding mobile app, iStanford. Check out these bus ads, featuring Stanford student leaders, that will start appearing inside the community's Marguerite shuttles later this year.

Mobile in the UK

Recent article in Guardian. Click below to check out the 2 page article.

Masters of the Web p1

Masters of the Web p2



Going Native

We talk a lot about our native philosophy, and wanted to take a minute to show some of the benefits of native in action. 
 
Texas Tech's mobile app, TTU Mobile, leverages iPhone functionality, things like the device's GPS in its campus maps as well as integrating directly with the phone's address book. Modules within Mobile Central apps are also built to integrate with each other allowing, for example, a student browsing the course catalog to move seamlessly from the Courses module to Maps to see in what building a class is located, or to the Directory to get more information about or contact the instructor.
 

With Great Mobile Power Comes Great Mobile Responsibility

Millennials do everything from their phones, and want to access their courses too! Students at Pasadena City College discuss how anytime, anywhere access would encourage them to participate more in their classes.

   

EDUCAUSE Quarterly Highlights Loyola Mobile

You may remember reading our post about Loyola University of Chicago’s (LUC) mobile app back in December. They were recently featured in the latest Mobile-focused issue of the EDUCAUSE Quarterly. This editorial, co-authored by Susan Malisch, Vice President / CIO, and Bruce Montes, Director, Academic Technology Services, gives an objective and honest look at LUC’s approach to mobile and the evolution of the current Loyola Mobile app.
 
Three great lessons from this article:

WINNING!

WINNING: It’s a popular phrase right now, and for good reason. Who doesn’t like to emerge victorious from a little friendly competition? We’re glued to the Oscars and the Superbowl in February, the NCAA Basketball tournament in March, the Emmy’s in September, and the World Series in October. Within Blackboard, we relish our evening trivia nights and chili cook-offs. There are certainly many opportunities for us, and for others, to win something on any given day. However, we noticed a bit of a winning “dry spell” in the summertime that we’ve decided to remedy.