The Changing Mobile Landscape and its Impact on Education

© 2011 University of Denver

The Changing Mobile Landscape and its Impact on Education Joseph Labrecque Center for Teaching & Learning


Introduction

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Joseph Labrecque, MA University of Denver - CTL Senior Interactive Software Engineer Adjunct Faculty

Fractured Vision Media, LLC Proprietor

Adobe Community Professional

Adobe Education Leader

What’s New in Flash Player 11

What’s New in Adobe AIR 3


Mobile Considerations

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Traditional Computing in Education

While mobile has always been with us in some form, things are rapidly changing from what once was a normal computing experience.

Traditional Computing

Laptop requirements

General activities include research and writing, with access to online tools

Fully powered, unrestricted machines

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Mobile Differences: Desktop User Experience

Average user desktop: 1024x768 - 1280x1024

Lots of applications opened simultaneously - Multitasking!

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Mobile Differences: Screens

Users generally have very small screens and therefore not a lot of room to work with.

Applications take up the entire screen when running.

This means:

Serious choices must be made in terms of what is made available to the user.

Interface elements should be kept to a minimum.

No clutter!

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Mobile Landscape

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A Plethora of Devices

Smartphone Operating Systems

Apple iOS

Google Android

Windows Phone 7 (WP7)

Blackberry QNX

Tablet Operating Systems

Apple iOS

Google Android

Windows 8

Blackberry Tablet OS

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The State of Mobile

Mobile explosion!

iOS, Android, QNX, WP7…

Smartphones and tablets

Android ahead, Apple not far behind

Other platforms are being crushed

By 2014, mobile internet consumption will overtake desktop consumption

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Example: Android Growth

Fastest-growing Mobile Platform 550,000 new Android devices

activated every day. (This is growing by 4.4% EVERY WEEK) (August ‘11)

100 million activated Android devices to date. (July ‘11)

4.5 billion applications have been installed from Android Market. (July ‘11)

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Android Growth: Detail

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Impact on Education

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Mobile is Great for Education

Developments in mobile have great impact because students are now even more connected to systems and information than ever before.

Portable

Social

Connected-ness

Lightweight

Directed experiences

Leading…

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Challenges of Mobile for Education

Students and faculty expect to be able to perform the same tasks with phones and tablets that they are able to perform on desktops and laptops.

This is a major problem

Devices are limited in power

Non-traditional OS

Limited functionality

Locked down platforms

Fragmentation

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Pre-Mobile Content

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The web has been available for general use for nearly two decades and there are many, many useful systems that were not built with mobile use in mind at all.

These experiences include

Websites

Web Applications

Rich Experiences (eg: video, audio, interactivity)

This is a problem because

All still viable

All still useful


Mobile Decisions

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Delivery to Mobile Device Platforms

Website

Limited functionality w/ HTML as a mobile-aware website in presenting static content

Application

Native or cross-compile?

Both provide much more functionality than “Web”

Native is platform-specific

Cross-compile casts a wider net- but performance and experience could suffer

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Decisions on Delivery Type

Mobile Website

To convey information.

Mobile Application

When there is a directed purpose.

When you need operating system level interaction.

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Mobile Statistics

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Average Processing Power

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(rel

ativ

e un

its)


Average Screen Size

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TV

Laptop

Tablet

Phone


Mobile at DU – First Day of Classes Autumn 2011

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Compared with 1 Year Ago…

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Let’s look at some academic apps

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Blackboard Mobile Learn

Allows students to access course material in a manner more usable on small screens.

We have chosen not to enable this at DU:

The free version is restricted to certain devices and networks.

The paid version is very expensive and has a limited feature set.

There has been no demand on campus.

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iThoughts

Mindmapping app for iPhone and iPad.

No cross-platform support – iOS only.

Example of a directed utility app.

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University of Denver

DU mobile application directs users to certain information channels

Integrated calendar and map.

Android and iOS.

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Penrose Library mobile website includes account access and search.

HTML


CourseMedia Mobile

Extension of directed CourseMedia functionality to smartphones and tablets.

Beta-test on Android… cross-compile to iOS and other platforms once solid.

Images, text slides, meta-data, and streaming video!

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Streaming Video

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Students, Faculty, and Staff “get” Mobile

Classes

Special Topics: Mobile Android Development with Flash Platform Tools

Independent Study: Rapid ELISA Mobile Assay (REMA)

Research

Andrei Kutateladze - The ability to “draw” a molecule on a smart phone screen, submit it to a DU server for calculations of molecular structure and other properties, have the results sent back to the phone.

Textbooks

Many students now purchase the electronic version of the textbook: whether PDF, ePub, Kindle, or some other digital format.

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Closing Thoughts

Observations

Mobile requires a certain directed approach that is not required with desktop application development.

Mobile users still expect everything to work flawlessly on whatever random device they may be using. This perspective is flawed.

Designing good educational applications requires collaboration between educators and tech professionals.

Knowledge of how people learn (key components include interaction and feedback).

Awareness of the technical opportunities and challenges.

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Thank You.