Mobility+Learning


 * Mobility Learning **

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This was the best of the workshops I attended. It was an Apple presentation that didn’t sell the Apple as much as it did the tools that will soon become available on all platforms. The session started with the recently-made public statement by the departing Microsoft chairman that the computer world is changing, and that Microsoft is not paying attention. Paul Facteau then proceeded to demonstrate technologies currently—or very soon—available for use with ipad, ipod, iphone, and itouch devices. E-publishing and audio/video handling applications were demonstrated which appeared to make the interactions between the devices seamless. Upgrades to the current equipment and software were shown, but are not yet available to the public (release set for the next few months). Some cables and dongles were shown that can connect devices in ways that make any i-thing more versatile. Mention was made that, what is needed for the devices to become more capable is support for the application developers. In other words, if enough people buy the apps, the developers will be encouraged to create more. What to watch for is the anticipated entrance of non-apple, cloud-enabled devices from manufacturers other than Apple Computer. Some resources mentioned included the California initiative (begun to address serious budgetary deficits) of putting all textbooks for the State of California in E-pub or electronic format. My take-away from this workshop was that the technology is not quite ready for prime-time, but it won’t be long before it is.