Tom’s Two Cents

A note to those who cares about Instructional Technology and improving real, live classrooms: I would love your feedback.

In their article Creating a Framework for Research On Systemic Technology Innovations, Fishman et al. describe a “usability cube” and state that its purpose is to “predict the difficulty any particular innovation faces in the adoption process (p. 52).”  This is an ambitious claim that caught my attention.

The three axes represented by the cube are capability, culture, and policy and management. Fishman et al. state, “The distance between the innovation and the origin represents the gap that exists between the capacity required to successfully use the innovation and the current capacity of the district (p. 51).” The authors claim that improving usability is a case of closing the gap. Kudos to Fishman et al. for stating the obvious – and for doing it in 3D! This may be a nice visual for some, but I question its usefulness. What have the authors told me with a cube graphic that they couldn’t have told me with three bullet points? Of course technology innovations need to address capability, culture, and policy of the target school and school district. That is basic market research. Who would design and implement a product without carefully considering the target user and the systems that affect that user’s environment? The real question we should be asking is how do we do this?

I can only conclude that this article is aimed at academic researchers who are so caught up in their own grant-funded worlds that they have lost sight of the needs that they set out to address. And yet the challenges of obtaining buy-in from faculty, administrators, and even students are not always obvious. It might be valuable to invite a marketing specialist to write about successful strategies that have been used to introduce an innovation into a school district. It would be equally useful to hear from administrators and teachers who have worked with researchers, and who could point out best practices and identify potential pitfalls. The more I think of Fishman’s usability cube, the more I can visualize the cylinders that represent institutional and departmental silos that prevent real usability and actual transfer from academic research to classroom implementation.

Dear INST 4010 students,

Since the class wiki is currently down, I am posting the link to your grades here (thanks to Google Spreadsheets!). Please check your scores and let me know if you have any questions. You’ve been a great class. Thanks!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pAKi8sK_-oyjQi3a99yraSA

I recently came across a couple of Android apps with huge potential. Here is a quick review:

Parallel Kingdom

Parallel Kingdom is a location-based Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game (MMORPG) developed for Android. Parallel Kingdom uses real world prompts as its basis for the virtual world, giving users the ability to attack, dance, hug or team up with anyone around then.

Parallel Kingdom allows you to mine resources, build buildings, craft items, trade goods, meet new people, found kingdoms, lead wars, and explore the real virtual world around you. Here is a video review done by AndroidApps.com:

http://www.parallelkingdom.com/

City Audioguides

This one looks very interesting, but it appears that the project was dropped. If anyone has information about this project, please let me know. Here is some information on it:

By using the Android framework positioning tools and other technologies the developers City Audioguides are aiming to improve your travel experiences by delivering relevant audio content information for historical venues, museum, and any other location of interest.

“Turning streets into museums and creating an environment where it’s easy to learn and share and to get the most out of our travels. This project is based on the belief that access to culture should be freely available to everyone.”

“Bringing museum-like audioguides to a larger scope.”

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pounamu/

My name is Tom and I am an Android app addict. I currently have over 150 apps installed on my G1 phone. So here are my top 20. I haven’t included any games in my list, since that is more a matter of personal preference. I also find that the more games I install on my G1, the less I end up using my own phone. My kids use it the rest of the time. So here are my top 20 apps in no particular order. Sorry I don’t have links. You’ll can search for them in the Android Market.

• Picasa (a great tool for uploading and viewing Picasa photos)
• JET CET PDF (the only PDF viewer currently available)
• iSkoot (Skype client. Check the fine print though — it does uses you cell phone’s minutes)
• GPS Tracker (post your current position to hidden or public URL — even has a Facebook plugin)
• fBook (Facebook app)
• Android File Manager (good app to have)
• Twidroid (currently the best twitter client for the G1)
• Orienteer (displays compass and GPS coordinates — a must for geocaching)
• Power Manager (shows battery life — must have)
• Yellowbook V2 (search for a business and it presents you with Google maps and phone numbers)
• Video Player (best video player, IMHO)
• ShopSavvy (barcode scanner app that allows you to compare prices and read reviews)
• Compare Everywhere (other barcode scanner app)
• DoggCatcher (Podcast app — still very beta, but very cool in that it allows you to update podcasts over wifi. So iPod Touch, why can’t you do this?)
• TunesRemote (controls your iTunes via your wifi network)
• textonphone (access 1000’s of free books — search and download books to your phone’s local library)
• Shazam (analyzes and (somehow) recognizes songs being played on radio, TV, anywhere you can get a 10 second sample)
• Ringdroid (make your own ringtone by clipping out a snippet from any MP3)
• Voxofon Call Router (VOIP client)
• Toggle Settings (a great app for dimming the screen and turning off the ringer, etc). Keeping the screen brightness down is a great way to save your battery.

If you have other favorite Android apps, I would like to hear about them.

I’m reblogging and expanding on a comment I left on Jon Mott’s blog post about the demise of Lively, Google’s Second Life clone. He and I and lots of others are interested in the idea of using collections of social web apps to form Personal Learning Environments in “the cloud.” Institutions are showing interest, but with obvious concerns about lack of control. While Jon’s post focused on the need for caution with cloud apps that can be temporary in nature, I think his words of caution can be applied more generally to any app that doesn’t come with clearly marked exits. Usually, these exits come in the form of standards-based content export capabilities. Look for them. Like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, robust import/export is the sign of a good app.

Now let’s look at this from a marketing perspective. If you are Blackboard, why would you ever allow anyone to export anything useful?  If a customers are packing up their content that means they might be leaving. That’s like a crab trap with a big hole at the other end. That is unacceptable.

If you are Blackboard, you talk about IMS Common Cartridge compliance. But don’t do anything to make it actually happen. Take your time talking about it. Heck, you can even join the IMS Global Learning Consortium. That looks good. But don’t write any code until you absolutely have to. And when you are finally forced to implement CC, don’t give users an exit that works too well. They might use it.

Anyway, here is my comment from Jon’s blog:

Seriously, people have been painting themselves into corners ever since the invention of… um… paint. Whether you are talking about cloud-based apps or a Blackboard server nestled safely in your institution’s server farm, you can still wind up stuck… either locked out or locked in. While parts of the cloud will likely blow away, new ones will likely take their place.

The real question is “Can you get in or out of where you currently are, and can you take your data with you?” Frankly, I would rather take my chances on being locked out of a few cloud apps than locked into a single, proprietary LMS. Interestingly, I’m working with a group on an IMS CC-Blackboard converter that should get around the import/export problem despite Bb’s foot-dragging. Guess where it will live? In the cloud… with all those risky, new-fangled apps.

I am helping with Bobbe’s INST 5205/6205 class presentations. For those of you in the class, please fill out this survey for each group (except your own). I will post anonymous results here, so check back tomorrow. Thanks!

Update: Here is the anonymous feedback. You all did very well.

The OpenEd Tech Summit meetings held in Barcelona yesterday and today are over. As I head back to my frozen home in Logan, Utah, I will think more about what made this gathering so memorable. Perhaps it was the small meeting size, or the excellent choice in participants. There were many opportunities to network and “feed my Facebook.” Eva did a fantastic job coordinating every detail. I especially loved the walking tours of the older parts of Barcelona.

The collaborative work on the future of eLearning was enjoyable and engaging. Our group took a bold step in collaborative, community driven accreditation by giving Debby Knotts a certificate in Multidisciplinary Transnational PowerPoint Management Within Collaborative Working and Learning Teams (Typist). Paul Kirshner and my other colleagues in Group D made a point of asking for another OpenEd Tech Summit in 2009. All I can add is an impatient, “Are we almost there?”

Thanks to all who participate in this seminar! I hope it was helpful.

Some great ideas and links were shared today as we discussed the components that make up Web2.0. Here are the presentation slides. Also, here is a link to my class website (wiki) for preservice elementary school teachers: http://lab-inst.usu.edu/groups/inst4010/. Another great place to learn more about Web2.0 in learning is David Wiley’s Blogs, Wikis, and New Media for Learning OpenCourseWare course.

And here are links to some of the most interesting sites that were shared:

http://chinswing.com/ (A versatile audio sharing site — love it!)

http://livemocha.com (A social language learning site — where was this when I was a French teacher?!)

http://zamzar.com/ (Online file conversion tool — very cool)

http://www.edu20.org/ (An interesting Learning Management System, or LMS)

http://www.toondoo.com/ (Reminds me of ComicLife on the mac)

http://edublogs.org (A blogging platform just for educators. Sue Watter’s blog is particularly good)

http://teachertube.com (Similar to YouTube, but focused on education)

http://merlot.org (A peer reviewed learning content repository)

An example of embedding/reusing content:

We also talked a bit about OpenCourseWare. Here are a few examples, and links to learn more:

http://ocw.mit.edu (MIT’s OCW)

http://ocw.nd.edu (Notre Dame’s OCW)

http://ocw.usu.edu (Utah State’s OCW)

Start an OCW Interested in starting an OpenCourseWare at your institution? Start Here!

eduCommons A Free OpenCourseWare Management System

I was concerned about how I would move all my addresses and phone numbers from my Blackberry Pearl to my new T-mobile G1, but it went really smoothly thanks to a very nice vCard to CSV Converter I found online. I was able to export my addresses from both Outlook and Apple’s Address Book app to vCard format. From there, I used the converter to make CSV files that would be Gmail compatible (so as not to lose any data). Then from the Contacts section of Gmail, I used the Import link to import all these CSV files. Gmail did a great job of merging all my duplicate contacts, since it had already stored email addresses for many of them. The creepy thing about this is that now Google has all my contact info. The cool thing is that now I can access it from any computer or phone (so I won’t have to do this again if I stick with Android phones). So please Google, remember not to be evil.

It’s been a week now, so I am prepared to offer my opinion on T-mobile’s G1 Android phone. Overall, I am still glad I bought the G1. The HTC phone hardware gets a B, while the Android operating system gets closer to an A. Here are a few thoughts:

Battery life. As expected, the battery life on the G1 is pretty poor. After a couple hours of heavy use, only 25% of the battery remained. After talking to some of my friends the battery life seems comparable to the iPhone. Hopefully I will be able to drop a better battery into it as they improve.

Android Market Apps (with some bugs). The G1 comes with just a few Google-based applications plus calculator, camera, etc — but new apps are appearing on the Android Market every day. I don’t have time to go into all of the ones I’ve installed right now (I think I’ve installed a couple dozen at this point), but I like what I see so far. Many still have some bugs, but I was expecting that. Updates seem to be coming out regularly, and most of the popular apps are quite stable. All of them are free as of right now, so I guess you get what you pay for The top 3 apps on my wishlist are a flickr image uploader, a geocaching app that tracks caches offline, and a turn-by-turn navigation app. My top suggestion for the Android team is to allow a way to exit apps. But I’m sure someone will put out an application killer app soon.

That’s it for now. At some point I’ll review my favorite 3 apps, including one that could be the start of a really fun location-based game.