Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase investigates the ways we interact with technology — a quest that has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. Along the way, he’s made some unexpected discoveries: about the ways illiterate people use their mobile phones, the new roles the mobile can play in global commerce, and the deep emotional bonds we share with our phones.

TEDBlog: Our cell phones, ourselves: Jan Chipchase on TED.com

Loved these 15 minutes with Nokia researcher, Jan Chipchase. I’ve got some loose thoughts and reactions to this, loosely joined – recommend you watch it if you haven’t already! If you have, what did you make of it? I’d be interested to hear from those who attended Mlearn2007 in Melbourne or the Handheld Learning conference whether you have some points to add here? Chipchase starts off with an idea about what we carry on our person and why. He uses this process to outline our behaviours.

He discusses this in relation to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which helps illustrate our behaviour as we go about our daily lives, interacting, connecting and generally surviving. Chipchase also notes the three things we carry most on us 9and how maslow’s hierarchy of needs might be applied to these): 1) keys (for shelter), 2) money (to buy food) and 3) mobile phone (excellent recovery device, and I’d add connecting device).

Chipchase then discusses then phenomenon of ‘the street’: a place where innovation occurs in true fashion and out of necessity. Jan asks: as designers, what lessons can we learn from the street?

• what does the street say about trust and confidence in (financial) interactions (that we could apply to online and other services)?
• how might we better design such services?
• should we be thinking about Personal Area Network (PAN) designs, clothing and integrated wearable technologies, seeing as we are emotionally connected to tools like our mobile phones?
• even our homes are being identified not by house numbers but by our mobile phone numbers (Jan gives an example of a Ugandan front door inscribed with mobile phone numbers as an identifying feature) – what does this say about our identity? (Alex, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!).

Then Chipchase wraps up with some thoughts and ideas related to these lessons (or questions) from ‘the street’:

• we must consider the speed at which ideas go around
• if we are to embrace ‘big’ ideas we must embrace everyone (and 300 billion is getting there!)
• small and speedy (like mobile phones) highlights the immediacy of objects – we can capitalise on this if we think creatively
• design – no matter what we intend of a design or object, the street will take it and innovate it further beyond our thinking – how do we create room for this in our designs?
• with another 300 billion people connected in the future we really must learn how to listen, because these people will want to be part of the conversation!

I like ‘the street’ phenomenon: it conjures up metaphors like ’streetwise’, ’street ready’, ‘taking it to the street’, and so. I like the thought too (and practice) of a mobile phone being an ATM! I also liked the notion of illiteracy being managed by some via the ‘art of delegation’. An interesting and useful concept worth exploring further in this rapid-changing world that demands more from us in less time than we’d like: think rapid protoyping, accelerated learning approaches, etc, etc!

In all, I reckon it’s the edge at which we live that pushes us to innovate. If we’re too comfortable what’s the urge? How do we then create the discomfort or disruption to continue to feed that urge in positive ways? Move to Nepal perhaps?

Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea: pushing something like FLNW2 in Thailand, for example, is a big move towards this type of disruption, just as working in the Western desert is (having just had my buddies from Jigalong visit Canberra recently), or “the Bronx”, or with prisoners, or in fact with anyone and anything that disrupts our status quo thinking about the world! That’s a big call for most – how about you?

Alan’s picked up on the Semapedia links too…thanks Alan for driving further questions on this.

Actually, Alan promoted me to delve a little further into Wikipedia at the local level and I dug out the WikiProject Canberra! It’s a veritable rabbit warren that Wikipedia thing! )

[Image: WikiProject Canberra]

And indeed, how DO we explore Semapedia’s possibilities in our learning contexts? I’m still discovering what my own mobile phone is capable of doing! I’m sure it could probably get my washing done if I had the right application installed! )

What this (and Alan) has raised for me, is not just how these things might be possible in our educational contexts, but has me asking whether or not we are achieving real transferability of skills and ‘wonder’ about the use of technologies to enhance learning and teaching, in our professional development activities.

Technologies, I think, will continue to be misconstrued as a ‘fad’ or subsist at the edges unless we truly invest in and commit to using such tools, in line with (or by re-aligning) our strategic directions (within institutes and other stakeholder bodies), so as to build capability that directly impacts and shows benefits to (and for) our learners (and other stakeholders like industry groups). And also acknowledges that ICTs are a necessary life-skill/acquisition/experience that we should seek to develop in learners for the contemporary, networked world we live in.

I’d add this question to your question Alan; ‘how can we change our current paradigms to open up opportunities to explore such “cool tools” for greater use in educational contexts?’ What will it take for us to do so?

Hope to be able to talk more during your visit to the ACT, Alan, in line with your presentation on “being there”!

technorati tags:mobile, alan_levine, semapedia, wikipedia, situated_learning, strategy, educational_context, WikiProject_Canberra, ACT, tagging

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This from the del.icio.us wikieducator tag via sparkered.

A QR code generated from Wikipedia for use in physical spaces, equals Semapedia.

I tried it out using the kaywa reader and now have the Wikipedia entry to liminality on my phone as I write.

It works like this:

Image: Semapedia

Imagine some of the applications, if you will:

• quick lookup of definitions (those that apply to one’s workplace perhaps)
• find out more about an artist, locale, music band, suburb…
• orientation information within an institute or business or…

At present this is set up for Wikipedia and other ‘Wikisites’. If opened up to Wikiversity, Wikieducator, etc the possibilities are motivating!

technorati tags:QRcode, semacode, semapedia, wiki, wikipedia, mobile, mobile_resources, wikieducator

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Mobile learning (m-learning) content developers are advised to consult and use the general VET e-standards found on this website in combination with these specific m-learning recommendations.
* Mobile audio
* Mobile video
* Wireless data connectivity
* Mobile content
Further background information and support is also available.

m-learning – Recommended Standards – E-standards for Training

The m-learning standards project Leonard, John and I have been involved in, is now finalised with the launch of the standards Report, teacher’s Guide and other resources on the E-standards website.

The process has been an interesting one, especially given the rapid growth in the area of mobile technologies and their use in teaching and learning. As we compiled the Report and the Guide there were already new tools, models and reports coming out! It highlights that standards are usually preceded by practice, because innovation and experimentation waits for no one!

As is stated in the Guide itself:

Henry Lichstein (2002) claimed that standards follow practice, not lead it. So, you are encouraged to use the m-learning standards and this Guide to assist you in decision making around m-learning but don’t let them constrain you in experimenting and trialling new ideas and strategies in teaching with technology. Your new practices may well inform the standards of the future (pp.4-5).

And a big thank you to the reference group for keeping us on our toes, keeping things real and mostly keeping the project on track with what is really important, that is, teaching and learning!

Han demos image manipulation using hand gestures directly on the screen.

One comment I picked up from his talk here was about the $100 laptop – that perhaps we should be looking beyond the current trend and form in which our computing takes and begin to look at future possibilities in terms of accessibility and usability in human-computer interaction (HCI).

Image: http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ – MIT Media Laboratory

The design of the laptop, Han would say, still restricts us to using physical and material components like a stylus or keyboard. Han’s point is that we can remove the interface altogether so no ‘handbook’ is required and intuition reigns. Han speaks from a priviledged position though, although an egalitarian one – we need to start somewhere don’t we? I wonder what Iqbal Quadir would think of this, along with the new iPhone? )

I recommend viewing Han’s TED Talk – what do you think about this as a future for human-computer interaction in terms of greater access and usability for HCI, especially in less-priviledged parts of the world?

Also, for me, I certainly see how this parallels designing learning spaces and blending approaches (physically and otherwise) to enhance learning and engage learners and teachers alike. Rather than shutting in the world of computing – and our learning – it places technology squarely within our everyday lives so that we can celebrate our modernity (to poach a phrase from Alain de Botton’s TV series)!

technorati tags:human-computer, intuitive, interaction, HCI, TEDtalks, mobile, laptop, $100laptop, interface

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