16_Cochrane.pdf

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Mobilising learning: A primer for utilising wireless palm devices

to facilitate a collaborative learning environment

Thomas Cochrane

Learning Technologies

Unitec New Zealand

Abstract

This paper outlines the potential for establishing the use of Palm PDAs as core ICTs

(Information and Communication Technologies) within tertiary education courses. The

potential of Palm devices integrated with a campus wireless network can facilitate the use of

elearning tools to enhance tutor-student and student-student communication, collaboration,

reflection and critique. Student productivity will be enhanced by the provision of a ubiquitous

computing environment. The paper outlines how this will be achieved at Unitec.

Keywords

mobile devices, wireless

Introduction

Facilitating teaching and learning

Many Unitec courses tend to approach education from a constructivist, student-centred pedagogical

perspective. An example of such a pedagogical approach is Diana LaurillardÓs (2001) conversational model

of tertiary education that focuses on building communication between tutors and students and student to

student. Technology can be successfully used to facilitate this approach to education. The explosion of

elearning tools aimed at facilitating reflective communication is evidence of this, e.g. email, instant

messaging, RSS (Really Simple Syndication, or Rich site Summary), Blogs, access to courseware and

discussion boards, student web home pages, etc. (Farmer, 2004; Glogoff, 2005; Kaplan-Leiserson, 2004).

PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants Ï including Palm and PocketPC devices) have traditionally been seen as

a way of carrying information in a more convenient format, with longer battery life than a laptop computer

and less weight than a bag full of reference books. However, while some specific tertiary disciplines rely

heavily on large databases of knowledge (medicine, law, etc.) that can be accessed conveniently on location

using a PDA, most courses have more modest demands on student recall. What appears to be generic to all

tertiary courses is the development of student communication, collaboration, reflection and critical thinking

skills. These skills can be developed with the aid of elearning tools that can be accessed via PDAs. These

tools include all of those mentioned above: Email, instant messaging, RSS, Blogs, access to courseware and

discussion boards and student web homepages.

In conjunction with PDAs or laptops, wireless connectivity promotes the establishment of a virtual

collaborative learning community producing a higher level of communication between tutors and students

and between students themselves from anywhere on campus or any wireless hotspot. There are currently

59 Telecom WiFi hotspots listed in Auckland (Telecom NZ, 2005), including Starbucks cafes, hotels, and

most shopping Malls. The term commonly used to describe this freeing of learning from specific classrooms

or computer labs is m-learning.

Advantages that PDA devices have in facilitating collaborative m-learning environments include:

Portability - can take the computer to different sites and move around within a location

Social Interactivity - can exchange data and collaborate with other people face to face

Context Sensitivity - can gather data unique to the current location, environment, and time, including both

real and simulated data

Connectivity - can connect handhelds to data collection devices, other handhelds, and to a common

network that creates a true shared environment

Individuality - can provide unique scaffolding that is customized to the individual's path of investigation

(Squire et al, 2002, p. 7)

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ascilite 2005: Balance, Fidelity, Mobility: maintaining the momentum?

Why Palm/PDAs?

While laptop computers can also meet the advantages listed above, for courses that do not require high level

processing power and applications, todayÓs PDAs provide all the processing power and communication

applications that students need, at a lower cost, greater portability and longer battery life than a laptop

computer. A PDA is not made redundant by a laptop or desktop computer, but is designed to complement

them.

Students will not engage with elearning and collaborative communication tools if they do not have easy

access to computers. Several departments on campus do not have dedicated computer facilities for student

access, but could potentially provide ICT access for their students at a much lower cost and greater flexibility

in the learning environment by integrating the use of wireless PDAs into their course delivery (GoKnow,

2004; Norris & Soloway, 2005).

The choice of PDA platform (PocketPC or Palm OS) is dependent on the key requirements of the end users.

Medical courses and professionals in New Zealand tend to use PocketPC devices, but beyond this there is

currently not much market penetration of PDAs in tertiary education in New Zealand. The Palm OS devices

support a wider range of software, tend to be more reliable (crash less), and integrate better in a

cross-platform environment (Macintosh and Windows) than PocketPC devices (Martin, 2005; palmOne,

2005). For disciplines where there is not a platform preference set, the author favours the Palm platform.

The wireless networking capability of todayÓs PDAs is a key aspect of their mobility on campus but increases

the cost of the PDA. The cost of wireless Palm devices sits affordably within the course-related costs funding

that tertiary students receive ($1000NZ per year). A practical pricing point for students to purchase their own

PDA is around $500Î$600NZ. This leaves them with money for other course related costs as well.

International students do not receive this funding, and will need to finance the cost of the PDA. Wireless

PDA devices currently available in this price range include the Palm Zire72 (with additional WiFi SD card),

Palm Tungsten E2 (with additional WiFi SD card), or Palm Tungsten T3 (no longer current). The new Palm

Lifedrive (with integrated Bluetooth, WiFi, and 4GB HD) is outside this pricing, but bulk-buying deals may

bring the price down to $600NZ.

Renaissance (the NZ importers for Palm) has supplied Unitec with a set of 18 LifeDrives for the purposes of

initial feasibility trials.

Figure 1: Uses of PDAs

(Source: GoKnow, 2005)

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Some recent research has promoted the potential use of cell-phones as the technology of choice for

mobilising student learning (Attewell, 2004; Prensky, 2005). However only the most expensive cell phones

integrate the feature set available in dedicated PDA devices, and the cost to the student of text messaging,

and data plans on 2G or 3G networks is currently prohibitive (at least in New Zealand). Eventually the cell

phone and PDA will merge at an affordable price point and 3G or 4G networking will drop in price, but this

is still in the future.

Collaborative learning tools for Palm

PDAs can be used for much more than mobile calendars or document editing. Virtually all the popular types

of collaborative learning tools that are available for desktop computers are also available for PDAs (see table

below for some example applications). It is these collaborative tools that can be utilised by virtually any

course to facilitate development of reflection, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

There is a range of applications available for Palm devices, from open-source freeware, to shareware and

commercial products. Palm devices are usually supplied with a complementary suite of useful applications

(*). These are also available for purchase from the Palm website for models not bundled with them. There is

a huge range of software available for trial and purchasing from http://www.palmgear.com and similar

websites. Below is a brief overview of example applications that the author recommends.

Table 1: Example collaborative learning applications for Palm

TOOL

Freeware

Shareware

Commercial

RSS

QuickNews ($21.38NZ)

Web Pro* (via JavaScript)

Blog

Plogit

U*Blog

Mo:Blog

Vagablog

HTML

PHTML ($14NZ)

Torpedo ($35NZ)

Versamail* ($43NZ)

Snappermail ($56NZ)

Instant Messaging

AIM v1

Agile Messenger

Chatopus ($21NZ)

VeriChat ($35NZ per year)

AIM v 3.2 ($29NZ)

Web Browsing

Palmscape ($43NZ)

Web Pro*

Xiino ($43NZ)

Wiki

AcroWiki ($21NZ)

Remote Access

PalmVNC

AstroView

Veta Universal ($14NZ)

Clicker ($29NZ)

File Transfer

LFTP

TuSSH

EzFTP

TG ssh

VFSFTP ($21NZ)

DragÓnÓtooth ($14NZ)

WiFile Pro ($43NZ)

Mind Mapping

Inspiration ($43NZ)

Learning object development for Palm

Interactive multimedia learning objects can be created for delivery on PDAs. The latest generation of PDAs

are capable of resolutions, colours and brightness to display video and animation effectively. The main

multimedia authoring formats for PDAÓs are:

i. Flash

ii. QuickTime

iii. WAP (Wireless Application Protocol).

Flash has made its way from web-based applications to mobile devices including PocketPC and Symbian OS

cell phones (Hess & Hancock, 2005). Flash now comes with templates for mobile devices, and the Flash

Platform (latest version of Flash from Macromedia) is targeted at the burgeoning mobile market (Lynch,

2005). The beauty of Flash is its scalability and ubiquity. However, currently there is no Flash Player

available for Palm OS devices (except for selected Sony Clie Palm devices).

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ascilite 2005: Balance, Fidelity, Mobility: maintaining the momentum?

QuickTime provides the scalability required to create multimedia learning objects for mobile devices, and

supports a wider range of media formats than Flash. QuickTime movies can be viewed using the Kinoma

Player for Palm, which also supports interactive QuickTime ÒmoviesÓ. These miniaturised QuickTime movies

can include video, hypertext, VR scenes and audio (amongst others). There are two main QuickTime

authoring applications for Palm: Kinoma Producer, and iShell Mobile.

Simpler card-based authoring applications are also available for Palm. One example is ÒStudycardÓ.

WAP provides another approach to authoring learning objects capable of being used on the Palm platform.

WAP uses a subset of HTML, called WML (Wireless Markup Language). An example of a WAP based

authoring application for Macintosh OSX is iWapper. Current PDAs are also capable of running the game

engines that were used on desktop computers a few years ago. The advent of educational gaming provides

another area to explore with PDAs.

Table 2: Example multimedia applications for Palm devices

APPLICATION

Freeware

Shareware

Commercial

Audio

AeroPlayer

RealOne*

Kinoma

TCPMP

MMPlayer ($26NZ)

AeroPlayer ($36NZ)

RealOne

Kinoma ($34NZ)

Video

RealOne

Kinoma

TCPMP

MMPlayer

AeroPlayer

RealOne

Kinoma

Interactive Video

Kinoma

Document Reading

Adobe Reader*

CSpotRun

Documents to Go*

($43NZ)

Document Editing

Documents to Go*

Adobe Reader*

Input Utilities

FatFinger ($24NZ)

Thumboard ($21NZ)

Why wireless?

As already mentioned, the potential of mobile devices is enhanced with wireless technology. The wireless

revolution is already here (Alexander, 2004) and is being driven by wireless consumer devices, burgeoning

wireless hotspots and the falling costs of wireless access point hardware. Smaller tertiary institutions with

relatively low investment in wired networks have embraced wireless technology for several years. However,

the larger tertiary education institutions in New Zealand have been slow in implementing campus wide

wireless networking. There are many advantages of wireless networks even for institutions with

well-established wired networks. Boerner has written a good summary of relevant issues of wireless

networks for tertiary institutions.

Wireless LANs should be seriously considered when upgrading campus networks. The technology has

matured and provides a positive set of advantages, including: cross-vendor interoperability, practical

interference-free communication over reasonable distances, and minimal security that can be augmented

by several emerging technologies. Access Point devices have advanced to allow scalable connection with

the wired campus infrastructure, and students and faculty can roam the campus and maintain their

network connection. Above all, retrofitting older buildings with networking using wireless technologies

lowers the overall cost of ownership and facilitates faster installation, simplicity, and flexibility; and,

except for connecting Access Points, physical wires no longer need to be run through walls or between

floors.

(Boerner, 2002)

Sotillo (2003, p. 5) describes the pedagogical impact of ubiquitous wireless computing:

In summary, the advantages of wireless computing in education are ubiquity, portability, and flexibility

for collaborative learning projects. Computer power everywhere and all the time means the abilityÏand

the challengeÏto integrate computers into every aspect of teaching, learning, and research. This

represents a Copernican revolution in instruction, with the professor as guide and mentor rather than

Ðfount of knowledgeÑ or ultimate classroom authority.

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151

Wireless productivity/connectivity

There are four main wireless technologies currently available for PDAs:

Infrared (IR)

ii.

Bluetooth

iii.

WiFi (802.11 È)

iv.

3G.

The main differences between these technologies, is an increasing order of magnitude of operational distance

and data rates. Short-range connectivity is termed PAN (Personal Area Network), medium distance

connectivity is W-LAN (Wireless Local Area Network, usually equated with WiFi), and longer-range

connectivity is termed WAN (Wide Area Network). IR and Bluetooth are conceived as inter-device

connectivity options, while WiFi provides access to a wireless W-LAN that can be bridged to the wired

LAN. 3G-network capability provides WAN access, at a price premium.

Figure 2: The wireless matrix

(Source: palmOne, 2002, p. 2)

Infrared connectivity is short range, and requires line of sight, is limited to 100kbps, but is good for quickly

ÒbeamingÓ documents and applications between devices, providing one to one sharing of data (there are one

to many ÒbeamingÓ applications around, but they are short distance). Infrared also allows a PDA to become a

universal remote control for any IR capable device that supports the protocol.

Bluetooth operates in the 2.4Ghz frequency range, the same as WiFi, microwave ovens, and many mobile

telephone handsets. It is limited to between 10 and 100m (depending on the strength of the transceiver, and

any interfering materials), and a data rate of 1Mbps (the Bluetooth 2 specification now used in Apple

Macintosh PowerBooks supports 2Î3Mbps). Bluetooth connectivity also provides network and WAN access

by pairing a Bluetooth cell-phone with a Bluetooth PDA. The Cell-phone can then act as a modem for the

PDA. The cell phone can either provide dialup Internet access, by dialing into an ISP (limited to 9600 bps,

but surprisingly useable for text and IM), or using a faster data protocol such as GPRS or CDMA that can

provide data rates equivalent to a 56kps modem through to 1Î2Mbps for 3G enabled cell phone networks. Of

course the call duration has to be paid for, if using dialup access, and the data used if accessing via a faster

data plan.

WiFi is the popular name for the 802.11 wireless Ethernet standard. WiFi is basically an extension and bridge

to your wired network. Anything that can be done on a wired network can be done on the WiFi network

(unless IT departments limit the functionality of the WiFi network). This allows the PDA device to

piggyback onto the network. There are currently three types of WiFi, b = 11Mbps, g = 54Mbps (backwards

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