Portable Learning

In an earlier post I mentioned that I would like to work on ways to make learning activities portable. I’ve been experimenting with how to do this and I’ve learned a few things. Most of the examples of portable activities that I have seen are simply jpeg images loaded onto a handheld device. These images can be created in a variety of ways (MS Paint, software, PowerPoint, photos), but in the end are saved as jpegs. In the case of a portable quiz, the first image will be the instructions (01);  the second image will be the first question (02); the third image will be the first answer (03). The second question (04) will follow and the second answer (05) and so on. In the case of both a quiz and a PowerPoint presentation, the images must be numbered with at least two digits so that the mobile device can put them in the correct order. Understanding this, opens up all kinds of creative possibilities.

The images are then made available to the students through the web, in a course management system, or sent to the students through email. If they have iPods or iPhones, they will sync the images the same way they sync photos. This means saving the images in the folder (usually a picture folder) that syncs to the iPod. Getting the images to cell phones is something that is more challenging. Both Joe Dale  and Dave Foord have given me some helpful advice and encouragement. Dave Foord feels that the reason getting the images to phones is a bit “tricky” is that it’s ”not something that can be achieved with a ‘1 size fits all’ solution especially as all phones are different and all institution systems allow people to do different things in different ways.” His advice is to rely ”on the learners being able to upload files…, so all we need to do is get the files into a folder, and make this available somewhere” and he wisely advises that it is a good idea ”to talk to the learners and find out what they would find easiest.”

As you make these types of portable activities, just keep in mind that because the images are jpeg, the quiz questions can only be multiple choice or have one answer (correct or incorrect, true or false, a one word answer such as a vocabulary response to a photo, or a fill in the blank answer.) Critical reasoning and analytical skills could be accessed by asking the students to provide reasons along with their answers.  Also, PowerPoint presentations can only be presented in a linear fashion, and as a result animations and non-linear aspects are, unfortunately, lost.

In my opinion, activities that are somewhat large are better as portable activities than smaller ones since a larger activity makes the time taken to download it and then transfer it to a portable device more worthwhile.  

Using MS Paint to make cards is easy. I learned how to use MSPaint to do this from a video made by Lilian Soon. I read about it on Joe Dale’s Blog and he learned about if from David Foord. Here it is! Thank you to all of you.

After talking to my students, I made 92 cards on Prepositions of Location  and made them available. (They need to be removed from the zipped folder.) One very enthusiastic student downloaded them and synced them to his iPod immediately.  When he appeared in class the next day showing off his portable flash cards, there was a beautiful buzz in the classroom and since then (just last week) another student has accessed the cards.  At the request of the students, I have also turned some PowerPoint presentations on grammar into jpegs and made those available. It’s been kind of exciting! To turn a PowerPoint presentation into jpeg slides, simply choose “Save As” and save it as a jepg. You will end up with a folder containing one jpeg for each slide in the presentation.

For me, the easiest way to create quizzes for portable devices is to use a software program called StudyMate. You have to purchase the software, but it allows you to make an activity available to students in a variety of ways. They can either work with it as a link from their computer, or they can download a version of the activity and snyc it to their iPods or put it on their phones. One of the books that the students in our program use for reading and vocabulary development is Contact USA. In the teacher’s book there are a lot of multiple choice questions that cover the vocabulary. Using StudyMate, I turned these questions (with a few revisions) into 100 cards for review. There are three versions of the review: flash cards for use on a computer, a game that requires two participants, and cards that can be used on a Portable Device. If you’d like to see these, the first two can be found at Cards and Game for the Computer  and the portable cards are at Cards for a Portable Device. Since almost all of these questions were taken from the teacher’s book, I was concerned about copyright and contacted  the publisher. I was told that it would be fine for me to make this activity available.

One more way to create quizzes is iQuiz Maker. It is very easy to create quizzes on iQuizmaker; it’s free; and there are some nice flashy templates available for Mac users. To get it, go to iQuizMaker with iPod. Create the quiz and make it available to your students in the way that is easiest for all of you. Students will need to download the file and then put it in their iPod Games folder which is in their iTunes folder. The quiz will automatically sync to their iPods just like it does for any new music download. I have made a very small (ten questions) experimental quiz pack with iQuiz maker that you are welcome to take a look at. To view it, you will first need to download iQuizMaker.

Of course, you can use your camera to take pictures and use those as images. For beginning vocabulary building, you could make the first image a picture and then use MS Paint for the second image, which would be the word. 

There are other ways to make portable learning activities and I am sure that as handheld devices become more sophisticated, teachers will have increasingly more options available. At this point, I’m happy to know that at least some of my students are carrying a little bit of their writing class with them when they ride the bus.

Resources

Dale, Joe. Create mobile phone quizzes in MS Paint. Accessed January 19, 2009, from                          http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2009/01/create-mobile-phone-quizzes-in-ms-paint.html.

dgrice. PowerPoint to iPod. Accessed January 19, 2009, from http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=fe1efe93b16e8d353499.

Foord, David.  Using ’Paint” to create simple quizes for a phone. Accessed February 11, 2009, from http://davefoord.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/using-paint-to-create-simple-quizes-for-a-phone/.

Martin, Kelly. CTA-articulated-bus. Retrieved February 15, 2009, from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CTA-articulated-bus.jpg.

Soon, Lilian. Creating quizzes for the phone. Retrieved January 19, 2009, from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2479360146328027324&hl=en.

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