Simple things … do make mobile work better.
Sometimes the most obvious things seem to go unnoticed. As a proponent of mobile learning and technology, I was looking at my new blog software (WordPress) in an attempt to better understand how I might use it for this blog. I now use WordPress for MobileDot. Coincidentally, I also recently attended the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison WI. One of the presenters was extolling the virtues of WordPress and it numerous PHP plug-ins. Being a ASP.Net programming I tend to forget what a rich library of routines are available in PHP and also how WordPress makes extensive use of PHP as plug-ins. I decided to do a search of top WordPress plug-ins thinking that there might be something I could use in my instance of WordPad. There,,,, in the list of top plug-ins was a plug-in to display a blog on a mobile device. I installed the plug-in and redisplayed my blog on my cell phone. It works…. I looked at the code and found that similar to my MLEX product, the blog page detected the mobile device and used different CSS files to create a style compatible to mobile devices. Talking about overlooking the obvious. Lines and Lines of blog posts on my MLEX program and I missed the obvious. Blogging on a mobile device. If you interested in a blog that can be viewed on a mobile device, check out the plug in I chose at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition/ or a complete list of WordPress plug in’s at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=mobile.
Another Obvious I missed/forgot
During my panel discussion at the Distance and Teaching Conference, Richard Culatta gave a wonderful presentation on emerging mobile media and instructional design. His Prezi presentation was very concise and eye-opening for me (not just Prezi but the content). As he commented on the social learning and the advantages of mobile devices in social learning, it dawned on me. I had taken out the discussion forums in a couple of my Blackboard courses. They were not being used by students…. No big deal, they were sending me emails… but wait. How are emails to me going to support social learning? Is there great power in social learning…. Absolutely…. Moral of story, social learning is even more important than mobile learning and should be highlighted and not hidden. Discussion and blogs are going back into BlackBoard.
MLEX on the move
Changes and announcements on MLEX coming soon. Subscribe to mobiledot.ning.com for more…
on August 15, 2009 at 11:01 am
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