As a follow-up to the EdLab seminar on Mobile Devices in the Workplace, there were requests to provide some resources on mobile learning.

If there is anything in particular you are looking for, feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly and I will be glad to assist.

References
A list of references for your use, generated from my dissertation.

Mobile articles
A del.icio.us site that a colleague and I post mobile-related news articles to.

Takeaways

Two key takeaways from the seminar (that are independent of your topic):

1 - Know your audience
This can help with anything from designing relevant solutions to gathering useful feedback. If you know your audience, your chances of succeeding at a task exponentially increase.

2 - Focus on improving a process
Many times, there is an idea that technology will improve a process. For example, "let's get everybody iPhone's and they'll learn better!" The focus should be on identifying a process deficiency and how this can be improved. Technology is often an answer to help improve a process. So, focus on improving the process first and the rest will come.

Slides
Also, the presentation slides:

Nabeel

Microsoft has recently created a new program called Photosynth that takes images, analyzes them and constructs a 3-D space of the associated pictures.

Photosynth was demonstrated at TED in March. You can also try the Tech Preview (sorry Mac users, it only works on Windows; I had to use IE as Firefox gave me an error). Try it out and post your thoughts. It's very interesting.

This technology is beginning to change the way in which we visualize images and space as well as creating a new social network of users.

Note: All of the photos used were publicly available in Flickr.

This human computation video talk showcases some ways in which technology is being used in gathering information from humans. The technology is powerful yet the idea is relatively simple. It uses a simple and very interesting game to get work done accurately and quickly and a whole slew of other cool things. (The main topic starts around the 6m45s mark)

Given the idea of using human computation for solving complex computer problems, how can we apply this to our work with libraries? Can we create a game that challenges users on identifying a particular book, article or area of study? Maybe there is something similar we can create to have users tag or create other knowledge for us at the library that leverages human computation.

Your thoughts are encouraged.

Two articles in the NY Times Art section described a progressive movement by some museums to provide value to and learn from their audience through audio tours and social tagging.

The audio tours article talks about ways in which museums have used their on-the-go visitors to enhance their access to information. Translating this to the library, imagine browsing the stacks and being able to pick up an audio device with preloaded resources describing the contents of each floor. That would definitely add some excitement to the stacks, but would it add value to the TC community? Something to ponder.

The social tagging article talks about ways in which museums have been making efforts to digitize their collections. The interesting aspect is that some have allowed the public to "tag" the art. The results have given museums a better understanding of public perception of their art.

For those worried about the dull, impersonal nature of eLearning and online activities in general, OddCast has devised a system where you can custom create conversational avatars. They have a long list of business clients.

Would it be of benefit to have a kiosk in the library equipped with this technology that could better serve our patrons and increase "knowledge transfer" (as OddCast describes it)?

OddCast Home

Check out this sub-5 min video about what Web 2.0 is. This is one of the better pieces of work I've seen that educates the viewer about an important and relevant topic in a captivating way. It has numerous honors on YouTube.

The Media Design Center actively produces video clips similar in nature to this. How can we benchmark against this video and create the best practices to producing compelling video to the level that yearns for you to tell your friend to see the video? I don't know that I can answer that question, but figuring it out will prove extremely beneficial for the TC Channel. Maybe the creator, Michael Wesch, of Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University can assist.