Mobile Apps for Learning

Our project for using Mobile Apps for Learning / Education is continuing and we are making some progress.
I started the project a few weeks (months?) ago with the idea of looking at existing Apps that are out there and to see how they would be useful.
The project then developed to focus on three areas

1. to look at existing Apps that learners could download to their own devices 
2. to look at getting devices e.g. iPod Touchs or iPads, downloading Apps to them and lending them to learners
3. to look at developing a College App

For 1. I researched what was available and came up with a short list which I asked various staff, e-Learning and teaching staff to try out to see whether they are suitable.

For 2. The new iPod Touch was a breakthrough as I am convinced that you need to have a camera to collect evidence so that you can edit and share it - collaborative learning.  We have two iPod Touchs with Apps installed to test by users.  Also a capital bid submitted for some iPads but I'm not sure if this will lead to anything.

For 3. We asked students whether they would like a College App - the overall response was yes.  They wanted the usual components  - alerts, notifications, news, maps, images etc. and also to be able to access the library resources and their VLE courses.  We use Blackboard as our VLE so our e-Learning Manager and e-Learning Technologist researched and investigated the Blackboard Mobile option.  This would give us some general College specific sub-Apps plus access to Blackboard Courses.

To find out from students what they think about these developments, we created a display in the LRC two weeks ago.

(many thanks to our LRC Assistant Apprentice who has been brilliant in creating a fantastic display from my ideas and random scribbles!).

The idea was that we wanted to know which general Apps students liked, what they thought should be included in a College App and also to give them information about what a Blackboard App would look like.

This is the display 

Students can write on the display in the Like and Dislike grids.
We also produced some cards for students to fill in.

I asked approx 80 students in one morning to give their views on the display and fill in cards.
Most were really positive and interested.  The cards have been available since so I'm hoping that they will give us a good indication of what students would like including in an App.
The plan is that we will have something available for September.