mLearning - Articles - Zimbio

19 Days Until Ideas are Unleashed Across the Globe

Wed, 30 Oct 2008 12:15:00 GMT

posted by irulsastra
As Global Entrepreneurship Week nears, Nov. 17 – 23, organizations around the world are preparing to celebrate, and the numbers of partners, activities, challenges and more continue to grow.

With more than 75 countries participating in the Week, the United States is in the top three among countries with the most partners and activities. All 50 states have participating organizations.

“We are pleased to see the excitement for the Week continue to rise,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a founding sponsor of the Week. “It’s amazing to watch countries across the globe participating in this first-ever celebration and see their dedication to engaging young people in entrepreneurship.”

Partners continue to sign up everyday with 1,148 partners – and counting – supporting Global Entrepreneurship Week in the United States. Partners include JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, DECA, YPO-WPO and National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

As part of the growing list of partners, more than 270 universities and colleges are engaging students and celebrating entrepreneurship at their schools.

“Learning about entrepreneurship and innovative thinking is critical for students, especially in college,” said Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation. “It’s important that young people recognize the value entrepreneurship provides to their futures, to their communities, and to our economy and society.”

Innovation and entrepreneurship are a crucial part of the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Bureau of the Census, an estimated 23 million U.S. small businesses represent 99 percent of all employer firms and generate up to 80 percent of net new jobs annually.

To date, partners are planning more than 500 activities in the United States and will educate and inspire people at every age. From an “Entrepreneur and the Family Business” event in Boston to an “Entrepreneur Investor Pitch Competition” in Honolulu, it’s projected that thousands of Americans will join millions around the world in participating in activities. To get details about all of the events and activities, visit www.entrepreneurshipweekusa.com.

Global Entrepreneurship Week sponsors have planned several signature events. These include the much-anticipated Race to BE – a Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA event, hosted by Russell Simmons, which will encourage young people to leverage their artistic abilities in three industries – film, music and fashion – into entrepreneurial endeavors in three cities: Los Angeles, Austin and New York.

Unleash It! is a virtual activity that invites anyone to post a challenge or solution. To date, more than 3,240 people have signed on to participate in this signature activity, and 34 challenges have been posted.

With so many partners and activities, there is a strong support group for Global Entrepreneurship Week. It starts with the two founding partners – Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in the United States and Make Your Mark in the United Kingdom.

Three global sponsors – NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young – are finalizing details for their events. They include The New York Stock Exchange’s Mentoring Madness at 10 a.m., Friday, Nov. 21. It will feature Russell Simmons and other successful entrepreneurs discussing how they got their start and what challenges they faced, and advising the next generation of entrepreneurs. Alexis Glick from Fox News will moderate the discussions, and students in the audience will have an opportunity to ask the entrepreneurs questions.

The IBM team is designating Wednesday, Nov. 19, as Global Women Entrepreneurship Day. IBM will host two global Web casts with an outstanding panel of women business leaders and owners. The panel moderator will be Marilyn Johnson, IBM vice president of market development. Each Web cast will last about 75 minutes.

To learn more about what’s happening during Global Entrepreneurship Week in the United States and across the globe, please visit www.unleashingideas.org.

About Global Entrepreneurship Week

With the goal to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity, Global Entrepreneurship Week will encourage youth to think big, to turn their ideas into reality, and to make their mark. From Nov. 17-23, 2008, millions of young people around the world will join a growing movement to generate new ideas and to seek better ways of doing things. Thousands of activities are being planned in more than 75 countries around the world. Global Entrepreneurship Week is: founded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Make Your Mark campaign; sponsored by NYSE Euronext, IBM and Ernst & Young; and, supported by JA Worldwide, Endeavor, Entrepreneurs’ Organization, DECA, YPO-WPO, National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Young Americas Business Trust, YES - European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs. To view a complete list of participating countries and organizations or to learn more, visit www.unleashingideas.org.

Hot Lava Software to Represent Mobile e-Learning Technology at SALT Conference

Sat, 27 Jan 2008 15:26:38 GMT

posted by paulab

Haymarket, VA (January 21, 2008) – Hot Lava Software will represent the Mobile e-Learning market (mlearning) at the 2008 New Learning Technologies Conference (SALT), to be held February 20 – 22, 2008, at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown Hotel, Orlando, Florida.

With more and more organizations incorporating Mobile e-Learning technology into their learning programs, allowing corporate, education and government sectors to manage, facilitate, and/or control the processes needed for learning, education and training are very important. It is necessary to provide the resources that enable learners, in today’s society, to achieve their highest learning potential without the constraints of being interrupted in important everyday activities. This is what Hot Lava Software will bring to the table at this conference.

“The addition of wireless technologies, mobile devices, PDAs, PocketPCs and smartphones has changed the way people work and communicate. Mobile technologies are changing the way we do business, training and learning,” says Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava Software, Inc. “Technology experts are continuing to push the mobile e-learning envelope, by thinking outside the box. We are honored and excited, both, to be a part of this conference, and to share our cutting-edge, mobile e-learning knowledge.”

Some of the key topics presented in the Mobile Computing sessions will be: Mobile e-Learning is Here Today: Real World Case Studies; The Future of Mobile Learning; Mobile Phone Learning; From Hands-On to Hand-Held; and Using Wireless PDAs to Improve Assessment of Learning and Instruction.

Hot Lava Software will also be hosting 2 events, in conjunction with the SALT conference. - The first will be a Mobile e-Learning Hands-on Workshop. The tutorial will focus on all aspects of mobile e-learning from designing to tracking. Participants will use the latest in tools and solutions to design, create, publish and deploy mobile learning to phones and PDAs. – The second will be the Hot Lava Software user’s group meeting, for Hot Lava Software customers, consultants, dealers, resellers and partners. The meeting will focus on new features in Hot Lava’s authoring toolkit, updates from Hot Lava Partners, case studies and two workshops. Both of these events will take place at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown. For more information about this conference, visit: http://www.salt.org. For more information about the Hot Lava Software user’s group meeting, visit: http://www.hotlavasoftware.com.

Contact:

Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava
bobs@hotlavasoftware.com
+1 (703) 754-1218
www.hotlavasoftware.com
***
Carrie Janssen
carrie@salt.org
+1 (540) 347-0055
www.salt.org
***
Paula Bernard, Project and Support Manager, Hot Lava
paulab@hotlavasoftware.com
+1 (479) 427-1100

www.hotlavasoftware.com

Take eLearning to the Next Level

Tue, 9 Apr 2008 02:56:10 GMT

posted by paulab

Looking for a great mobile authoring tool? Looking for a fun, innovative way to make eLearning material accessible for mobile devices? Try Hot Lava Software’s Learning Mobile Author (LMA) and Mobile Delivery and Tracking System (MDTS). With this authoring toolkit you can create content once and publish to PalmOS, WM PocketPC, WAP, HTML and Java. Create tests and polls/surveys and track the results in real time.

This software is specifically designed for mobile devices of all makes and models, including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericssion, HP, HTC, iPhone, Palm, Blackberry and all other major brands of mobile phones, smart phones and PDAs.

The growth of mobile communications networks and the rate of distribution of web enabled mobile phones around the world is virtually unparalleled. Now mobile learning can be distributed to the average mobile phone user, without the need for a fancy gadget, without the need for advanced technical skills and NO plug-in is required!

For a Free Trial TODAY please visit our website at:
http://www.hotlavasoftware.com/

It’s Carnival Time!

Mon, 23 Jan 2007 04:36:14 GMT

posted by mlearning

(photo: cavorite)

This week, the Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted at Xellular Identity, where the week’s best writing on mobile technology is showcased, including my contribution “10 reasons why mobile learning matters“. Later in this post, I’m offering edubloggers the chance to be part of our very own Carnival, as either a host or contributor.

Most Edubloggers will not yet be familiar with the concept of blog “Carnivals” or “Festivals”… but they’re worth understanding, as they can be powerful vehicles for promoting and improving an online community or practice or interest. The Carnival of the Mobilists, for example, is just a little more than a year old, but has snowballed into a community of hundreds of contributors, thousands of contributions, and in this - its second year - now offers sponsored prizes including international travel to for the best host, US$250 to each month’s best contributor, and US$500 for best post of the year.

A blog carnival or festival involves bloggers who share a common interest. Each week, those bloggers contribute their best post of the week to a common location, such as an email address. One blogger, the “host,” accesses the email, sorts out the contributions, selects the best entries, and writes a “carnival post” that links to the contributions - sometimes hosts perform these duties in very creative ways. Contributors who are selected then write an article that links back to the host’s “carnival post”. It is also a tradition for the host to showcase any newcomers to the carnival each week, and to select their “favourite” entry.

In this way, the Carnival serves to promote the best writing of its contributors, and creates an informal, growing community online.

Now: here is the opportunity to create our very own Carnival of the Edublogs. If you write a blog that reflects or reports on innovation or improvement in teaching and learning, please do one or more of the following:

Email carnival.edublogs@gmail.com if you would like to host an upcoming Carnival this year.
Email carnival.edublogs@gmail.com with a link to one of your best recent posts if you would like to contribute to the first ever Carnival of the Edublogs, next month!
Subscribe to the Carnival RSS Feed on the Carnival of the Edublogs blog, so you know when each Carnival is released.
Promote the Carnival! Invite other Edubloggers to host or contribute to, or read, the Carnival of the Edublogs, and write an article on the Carnival on your own blog.

You’ll find more information on the Carnival of the Edublogs at http://carnival.edublogs.org. This invitation is also replicated on the Carnival blog at http://carnival.edublogs.org/2007/01/23/come-to-the-carnival/ .

Update: It seems that Alexander Hayes (”It’s all too bloody interesting and thats why I’m still up at 1.48AM”) and Stephen Downes (”It’s all very interesting and it keeps me up nights as well”) have both just found the Carnival of the Mobilists, too! Will you be coming to help launch the Carnival of the Edublogs, guys?

technorati tags:carnival, festival, edublogs, edubloggers, carnival of the edublogs, clcommunity, networkedlearning, edna, education, teaching, learning, innovation, edutech, mlearning, m-learning, mobile learning, mobilelearning, mobile-learning, educational, students, teachers, university, tafe, vet, vte, training, e-learning, elearning

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The iPhone will NOT start a mLearning revolution!

Thu, 19 Jan 2007 20:29:53 GMT

posted by mobilelearn
A revolution or a revelation?

A lot of eLearning blogs have touted the new iPhone as the beginning of the mLearning revolution.

It is true, the iPhone represents a beautiful and powerful package that could be used for mLearning. From a quality browser, to decent memory & podcasting, the iPhone does bring us closer to the ideal mLearning platform.

The hoopla around the iPhone reminds me, in no small part, to every mLearning conference I've attended over the past five years. From more powerful PDAs, the $100 laptop, the iPod, to SmartPhones, every speaker has always touted the upcoming mLearning revolution.

Generally, these speeches have included disclaimers about the roadblocks to this 'revolution'. Be it battery life, screen size, non standardized devices, or technology adoption, there was always something that prevented the revolution from happening now.

In the past, I have discussed how the mLearning revolution is already happening, only it has, like it's generation's (X) early adopters, rebelled against being labeled.

So what will cause a true mLearning revolution?
In my opinion, the answer doesn't lie in the next groundbreaking device but in our attitude towards learning. We are failing because we are waiting for the next technology or the next breakthrough to help us reach our students better. This is like the proverbial not seeing the forest through the trees.

The change in attitude must come not from waiting or wishing for the next technology breakthrough but in understanding our learner's current situation and adapting to that.

According to a 2006 article in Telecommunications Online, 30 Countries Passed 100% Mobile Phone Penetration in Q1 06. It is staggering to think the population throughout the world that has mLearning devices already in their hands, yet we as eLearning experts are still waiting for the next breakthrough.

It is always tempting to 'think big' with grandiose plans in an ideal world of fully immersive eLearning content being made mobile. While we are 'thinking big', the revolution is marching past us in small steps.

Will you be left behind while you wait for the future?

Challenge:

Try something small- Create Rapid and Cheap Mobile Learning- Text Messaging
Research- 20 Ideas: Getting students to use their mobile phones as learning tools

Education for the iPod Generation