Via the always-indispensable OLDaily, a pointer to the MobileEducator, described by Michael Fienen as “a framework that would allow anyone to get into mobile apps without the expensive cost of development and cumbersome integration processes that schools face now.” Fair enough, that’s enough for me to take a look.
Noted: that on the MobileEducator site it suggests it “has been developed with Admissions marketing in mind.”
Noted: a number of prominent social media projects on my campus that have been driven by Public Affairs and others with an interest in admissions marketing. A Place of Mind is one recent high profile example.
Not to suggest that the teaching and learning side isn’t doing anything in the mobile (or social media) space, but I’m not aware of an equivalent to MobileEducator for pedagogues. Maybe I’m overthinking this… a reasonably clean weblog installation has some nice mobile affordances. Even without specialized plugins.
I’m aware of some interesting work, but it all still seems well off from where mainstream efforts are happening.
Noted: The idealistic MIT Nextlab Initiative describes its mission as “Launching Mobile Ventures for the Next Billion Consumers.”
I’m afraid I’m simply throwing out points of conjecture without connecting them. But my recent lack of blogging output suggests that if I need to feel coherent on something before posting, I might as well close this space up…
On the teaching & learning side, don’t we just call it “the web”?
Am I pining for a handheld Blackboard?
We are pretty happy with the WPTouch plugin, we have some work to do on the frontpage of UMW Blogs for a mobile edition, but other than that let the mobile revolution come, we are patiently waiting and prepared.
I’ve seen great enthusiasm about social media from campus admissions and alumni for years, usually at a higher rate than seen in faculty (or some IT, for that matter).
When it comes to mobile devices… we still seem to be in the porting content era. Trying to figure out what to cut down to size, what the interfaces mean for users, who the users are.
There are many pilot projects, from Abilene Christian to Seton Hall. No generic tool have I seen.
Did you see the Meeks presentation this week? She thinks we’ll see services get big on handhelds before content does.
I’ve been talking about this for more than a decade. It’s coming along.
PS: keep this place open, man!
Bryan, sorry to be so slow responding. I appreciate you offering your perspective (not to mention encouragement), and I had not seen the Meeks presentation you refer to… I’ll try to hunt it down.