This is a part of a series on mobile devices available for learning.

Category:

These basic devices are intended for reading ebooks and not much more. (We’ve included the more sophisticated devices from the same manufacturers in our post on tablets.)

Credit: Corey Harris

Manufacturers and models:

• Amazon (Kindle, Kindle Touch)
• Barnes & Noble (NOOK Simple Touch, NOOK Color)
• Sony (Reader)

Pricing:

$79-199

Strengths:

• Enhanced features for reading, including variable display, dictionary support, search, notetaking, etc.
• Low cost
• Long battery life
• Single use (minimizes distraction)
• Wireless not required

Weaknesses:

• Single use

Killer applications:

• Ebooks

Things to consider and some opinions:

• These devices are designed for reading ebooks. If you want a device that does more, consider a tablet.
• While the use of these devices is limited, they are good at what they do. Not having access to a ton of other apps can also help students focus on reading. Having a few of these devices in a classroom or making them available for checkout from the library is a great way to encourage reading and provide some extra features like vocabulary support, searching, and variable display options.

The P2PU School of Ed is happy to announce a new round of free, open-licensed professional learning groups for educators that will start March 5. These courses are available for sign-up now:

Student Grant Writing – A group for high school teachers and students interested in writing a grant to fund a local school project

Empower Your Personal Learning — Taking control of your personal learning is an important 21st century skill — for students and for educators. In this group, we’ll explore new ways to empower your own professional learning and how to get started.

Writing and Inquiry in the Digital Age — Join a National Writing Project study group seminar as we explore these questions together and share our work and inquiries with the NWP Digital Is community.

Effective Use of Multimedia and Graphics — Participants will explore and apply techniques and strategies to foster deeper learning using multimedia and graphics.

Global Classroom Collaborations – Elementary — Elementary teachers from around the world will discuss, design, and establish collaborations between their classrooms.

Global Classroom Collaborations – Secondary — Secondary teachers from around the world will discuss, design, and establish collaborations between their classrooms.

School of Ed is about hands-on learning driven by each educator’s particular needs and classroom situations. It’s about connecting, collaborating, and creating, not just reading or studying. You can sign up for occasional updates on the School of Ed here.

This is a part of a series on mobile devices available for learning.

Category:

These are very small touch screen devices — smaller than a tablet but not a cell phone!
(These devices have the capability to install a variety of apps. There are many other devices that support audio and video playback, but not other interactive uses.)

Manufacturers and models:
These devices used to be more plentiful with Palm and Windows mobile handhelds, but now there are just a few.

• Apple (iPod touch)
• Samsung (Galaxy Player)

Pricing:

$200+

Strengths:

• Ultra mobile
• Low cost

Weaknesses:

• Limited uses
• No built-in keyboard
• Consumption-oriented

Killer applications:

• Multimedia viewing
• Ebooks

Things to consider and some opinions:

Think about your curriculum goals before deciding on any devices.

• While these devices are no substitute for a laptop, there is still a lot you can do with them. (Remember all the great things teachers and students did with Palm handhelds?) Having a few of these low cost, highly mobile devices can be a boon for differentiation.
• These devices come with different operating systems (Android, iOS) and have different applications available. If you start by thinking about what you want to accomplish with the devices and then look for a device that has applications that support that purpose, you’ll be ahead of the game.

In today’s world, one of the biggest challenges is keeping up with the fire hose of information and being able to access what you want when you want it.

Most of us take notes as a way to track information (and those who don’t might if it were easy). Some do this in a systematized, sometimes online way, while others have a flurry of sticky notes, scrawls in margins, and napkin scraps surrounding them.

Credit: Garrett Coakley

I personally tend to more of organized, file-folder methods. I’ve used various notetaking schemes over time – spiral notebooks (before computers), Palm handhelds, wikis, etc. Now I use Evernote, and I can say without qualification that it is the best notetaking tool I’ve ever used.

At its most basic, Evernote is a word processor. Beyond that, it is much more. I’m still learning all the things you can do with it. Here are some of my favorite features:

• Evernote is web-based and can sync to nearly every device. I have it on my desktop, laptop, mobile, and tablet. That means I can access, record, or edit info wherever I am.
  
• The foldering and tagging capabilities of Evernote mean that you can easily organize and then find info when you need it.
• You can forward email to your Evernote account. That one feature has greatly simplified my life. Instead of keeping folders of old emails that I might someday need (but probably will have difficulty finding), I just forward it to Evernote, categorize and tag it, and forget it…until I need it again later.
• You can clip a web page right to Evernote, making it a great way to grab articles for later reading.
• Evernote supports many file types. That means you can include pictures, web pages, maps, and even audio and video in a note.
• It’s free! (There are some extra features available through a $45/year premium package, well worth it in my mind, but many will find the free version does everything they need.)

Here are some of the things I use Evernote for:

Work/School Uses

• Meeting notes
• Project information
• Tech tips (especially the “how to” things I am likely to need again someday but will probably forget how to do)
• Conference info
• Lesson ideas

Obviously, there are many student uses for this as well.

Personal Uses

• Shopping lists
• Recipes
• Lists (of everything, books to read, movies to watch, gift ideas, prescriptions, etc.)
• Writing ideas
• Priorities
• Model and serial #s
• Ideas

Another great thing about Evernote is that it’s very easy to get started using it. If you could use some organization in your life, give it a try, and before you know it, you might be singing the praises of Evernote.

This is a part of a series on mobile devices available for learning.

Category: Tablets

These computing devices have touch screens and are typically operated through touch rather than a keyboard. They come in a variety of sizes but are generally smaller than a laptop but larger than a mobile phone.

Credit: Sucello Leilões Virtuais

Manufacturers and models:

• Apple (iPad)
• Amazon (Kindle Fire)
• Barnes & Noble (Nook Tablet)
• Samsung (Galaxy)
• Sony
• ASUS

Pricing: $199 – $800+

Strengths:

• Intuitive ease of use
• Well-suited to reading and multimedia viewing
• Very mobile
  

Weaknesses:

• No built-in keyboard
• Consumption-oriented
• Generally not robust enough for advanced multimedia creation, such as video editing
• Frequent changes in models and technology

Killer applications:

• Ebooks
• Multimedia viewing
• Google Apps (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation)
• Anything Web 2.0
• Robust curriculum content

Things to consider and some opinions:

• Reliable wireless is essential.
• Consider the form factor.
  The form factor of a touch-based tablet with no keyboard may work for some applications (e.g. reading, multimedia viewing) better than others (e.g. extended writing). In some schools, younger students have been found to like tablets better than older students. The most important things are to think about your curriculum goals (see below) and get a few devices to test with students and teachers. See what they like and what meets their needs.
• Think about your curriculum goals before deciding on any devices.
  These devices come with different operating systems (Android, iOS, etc.) and have different applications available. If you start by thinking about what you want to accomplish with the devices and then look for a device that has applications that support that purpose, you’ll be ahead of the game.

Sometimes the old version of something is better than the new one.

I felt this way about Windows Movie Maker — an easy to use, flexible, and free movie editing program that used to come preinstalled on Windows machines. With Vista and Windows 7 though, Microsoft is pushing Windows Live Movie Maker. In my experience, it doesn’t have some of the features of the old Movie Maker. Maybe there are advantages as well, but I haven’t found them.

Anyway, I just found out though that you can easily install the old v 2.6 Windows Movie Maker on a Windows 7 machine. (Don’t know why I didn’t try to do this before.:) Here’s the link. Enjoy.

I love Twitter. It is one of my favorite tools for professional and personal learning.

As I talk with various people about Twitter, I am often asked about hashtags. What are they? How do you use them? So I’m writing this post to talk about that. (Thanks, Harry, for the prompt!)

Hashtags are those words with pound signs that you often see in a tweet, such as #oer, #sschat, or #whyiwrite.

There are several ways that hashtags can be used when you’re tweeting:

• To designate an event
  Many conferences and other events have a hashtag you can use (or attendees just informally make up one — anyone can make up a hashtag). That way everyone attending the event can follow what everyone else is saying and doing.
  
  
• To identify a topic
  Topics of common interest of discussion are often indicated by a hashtag. Those of us interested in open educational resources, for example, use the tag #oer. That makes it easy to find information on that topic, even beyond the circle of people you follow.
  
• To participate in a twitter chat
  Yes, there are real-time chats on Twitter, indicated by hashtags. One of the largest for education is #edchat, which is held on Tuesdays at 12pm EST and 7pm EST. A bunch of people get on Twitter together and chat about a specified topic, using the chat hashtag. It can be fast and furious! There are many, many interest-specific chats on Twitter, and they’re a great way to learn and to find new people to follow.
• As “punctuation” or to show sentiment
  Hashtags are sometimes used to express an emotion or to add something beyond regular words.
  

There are a few ways you can search for hashtags. The simplest is to just click the hotlinked tag in Twitter. (This is a relatively new feature.) You can also use the search box in Twitter to find tweets with a certain hashtag.

If you use a Twitter client (an application to manage your social media activity, generally used by “power users”), like TweetDeck or HootSuite, you can also configure them to follow hashtags you are interested in.

Another handy web-based tool is TweetChat, which makes it easier to follow and participate in chats on Twitter.

One nice thing about hashtags is that they’re really flexible. Anyone can make up or use one. So if you’re on Twitter, try clicking on the next hashtag you see that’s of interest and see where it takes you, or use one of your own to add to your tweet content.

This is a part of a series on mobile devices available for learning.

Category: Mini-laptops, aka netbooks

These are smaller, lightweight laptops that are typically configured with minimal memory and priced very economically.

Credit: Intel Free Press

Manufacturers and models:
Most of the major laptop manufacturers also make mini-laptops.

• Acer
• ASUS
• Dell
• HP
• Lenovo
• Chromebooks

Pricing:

The prices for these devices depends on how you configure them. They can be as cheap as $200 or as expensive as $1,000 or more. Devices suitable for mobile learning can easily be found in the $300 price range.

Strengths:

• Low cost
• Built-in keyboard
• High degree of flexibility in terms of use
• Full computing capabilities
• Relative stability of devices (especially compared with other mobile platforms)

Weaknesses:

• Generally not robust enough for advanced multimedia creation, such as video editing
• Less mobile than some alternatives
• Smaller screens can be a problem with some applications

Killer applications:

• Google Apps (word processing, spreadsheets, presentation)
• Anything Web 2.0
• Robust curriculum content
• Learning management systems (a place to serve as a “home base” for all your instructional resources and to track student use and achievement)
  • Wikis (basic)
  • Moodle (advanced)

Things to consider and some opinions:

• Configure to keep the cost low.
  We believe in less expensive hardware to allow the broadest access possible. While purchasers are often tempted to load up these devices with lots of memory, large hard drives, full operating systems, and costly software, none of this is really necessary. The whole point of “netbooks” is to use free or inexpensive web-based software and storage solutions.
• Good wireless is essential.
• Think about battery life and power requirements.
  Get a device that can make it through the school day without charging.
• Get good cases and let students take the devices home to maximize their effectiveness.
• Think about your curriculum goals before deciding on any devices.
  Mini-laptops are one of the most flexible types of mobile devices. They are particularly appropriate for writing and for older middle school and high school students.
• Preload the devices with as much content as possible.
  When students have access to content and a reason to use them for school, they are more likely to use them productively. (This means professional development for teachers as well.)

I’ve been using my Kindle Fire for about a month now.

I got it as a personal device, but was immediately struck by its potential as a tool for mobile learning.

With the popularity of Apple iPads in schools these days, the comparisons are inevitable. The Kindle Fire runs Android, while the iPad runs iOS, but functionally, they’re pretty similar. The iPad has a camera, which the Fire doesn’t (which isn’t necessarily a disadvantage for schools, but stay tune for the next version). The iPad is somewhat larger (7.3″ x 9.5″; 1024 x 768) than the Fire (7.5″ x 4.7″; 1024 x 600). The iPad can be configured with 16 GB to 64 GB of memory;  the Fire has 8GB. (Again, stay tuned.) They both have beautiful, brilliant screens.

Currently, there is more software available for iOS than for Android (and particularly the Fire), but there hasn’t been much that I really wanted that I couldn’t get on the Fire. One minor annoyance with the Fire is that the Android Marketplace apps aren’t readily available (without rooting the device). Amazon has seemed to have begun to seen the error of its ways on this, and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

To me, a very big issue is PRICE. At $199 list, the Fire is well under half the cost of the cheapest iPad. Relative to education:

• Somewhere around $200 is the “sweet spot” for school pricing where one-to-one starts to make sense.
• I would generally rather see more devices in more kids’ hands; lower cost facilitates this.

For any of these tablet devices though, the question remains: Are they well suited to mobile learning?

Some have said that tablets are primarily media consumption devices and don’t inspire the kind of deeper creation that we want kids doing.

My responses to this are several. First, it’s hard for me not to think about all the great work, including writing and other work, that I’ve seen kids do in the past on Palm and Windows Mobile handhelds. And these handhelds of yesteryear are vastly inferior in every way to the new tablets. It’s one of the things that excites me most about these devices.

Secondly, there are a lot of great creation tools available for tablets. You can write using them with Office-type tools. (Google Docs is a favorite of mine.) You can collaborate and communicate with others. You can create graphic organizers, outlines, and notes. You can make presentations and even record audio and video. True that these devices aren’t well suited to editing and creating full multimedia presentations; that’s really a job for a more powerful laptop or desktop computer.

Finally, there are aspects of learning that do involve consumption — what we need is more differentiated, interactive consumption. Think about a textbook that is customized for each student’s needs and interests and includes opportunities for interactive practice and collaboration with others. That is the potential of tablets.

Now, if you are evaluating tablets against laptops for a one-to-one project, I personally would go with laptops in many, if not most, cases (especially for secondary students). There is little question that even a low end laptop has more capabilities than a Kindle Fire.

However, in a typical classroom, which is not one-to-one and which includes a variety of computing devices, including some laptop and desktop computers, I think the Kindle Fire is a cost effective tool that can greatly improve learning for many students.

The array of mobile devices that are available for learning has exploded in the past year.

This is the beginning of a series of devices for mobile learning that will cover the types of devices available, different manufacturers and models, prices, strengths and weaknesses, and more, including our own opinions of things to consider. We’ll be looking at the following:

• Mini-laptops (netbooks)
• Tablets
• Handheld multimedia players
• Ebook readers
• Cell phones

We hope you enjoy this series and the updates we post as things move ahead.