New mobile platform arrives: Android

By Jonathan Nalder of www.mLearnxyz.net

As most geeks would know, the Google-developed mobile OS known as Android had its public unveiling last week. While only available on one handset in the US at the moment, its open-source nature and backing from Google mean that it is destined to become a major new mobile platform alongside the existing Palm OS, Windows Mobile, RIM Blackberry, and iPhone OSX.

We�re not interested in the competition between these OS�s here, but in what new features Android brings to the use of mobile devices for learning. In this case, what Android brings is an acceleration of the mobile access to cloud computing that iPhone OSX began 18 months ago. Because Google itself has no interest in desktop computers, Android devices currently link in directly with online services rather than syncing with a home computer as every other mobile OS has always done.

This means that files, music, video etc are all either accessed online, downloaded directly from the net, or streamed to the handset. What does this mean for education? Well, perhaps its another sign that our many labs stocked with desktop PCs are becoming less and less relevant. Perhaps forward thinking education departments need to start planning a cloud-computing based model for getting out content and services to its students. There�s a few interesting years ahead!

To read more on the Android launch (and a whole heap of interesting, though not-education focused comments) read the engadget article HERE.

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mLearning Developing while Mobile

Most of my mLearning friends are undoubtedly aware, but there is a great tool for developing learning content while mobile. Google Docs are available on mobile browsers. I have found in my adventure drafting my first book on mLearning, that inspiration can happen anywhere, at anytime. I caught myself recently in a restaurant waiting for my order with a thought about something to look into. I grabbed my Blackberry Pearl, opened Google Docs, and added my thoughts to a notes document I created.

Of course, there are many ways you can do this, from the good old notepad, to text messaging yourself or leaving a voicemail to yourself (very guilty of this) or even using mobile blogger to post a message from your phone (as I am doing now). Google Docs has an advantage that you can append an existing document from any device at any time.

I'll post more on this later. My sushi is almost ready.

Message sent via Blackberry wireless messaging.

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