Innovative Practice with Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Thanks to Lis Parcell for this -

I attended a pilot of this workshop at University of Wolverhampton and thought it was excellent. It didn’t require participants to have any great technical knowledge or a very flashy mobile phone. However you will get more out of the workshop if you have your mobile with you, as it is used during the event for feedback and activities. It’s probably the first event I’ve been to where mobile phones ringing were actually part of the event and not a distraction! We were given a quick overview of some of the benefits of using mobile and wireless devices such as PDAs and wireless keyboards in teaching and learning, and also to assist with admin. For example some universities use students’ mobile phones to send information about timetable changes, and this proves very popular. One of the most useful bits of the day was the group work, where we were given scenarios and had to decide where (if) mobile/wireless devices could help the learners in that situation. The end result had to be summarised in one short text message – quite a challenge! The case studies were also very good, the ones I went to were all Wolverhampton-based, but each event in the series will feature different case studies from the host university. The case studies are all given by staff who have actually piloted the technology with their learners, and they are good at showing how this relatively innovative technology can work ‘on the ground’ as well as some of the pitfalls you might encounter. All in all I would recommend this workshop for e-learning staff, those responsible for providing technical support for e-learning, staff developers, or lecturers who are thinking of going down the mobile and wireless route. And what’s more, it’s free!