Doug's 565A e-portfolio

I think one of the best ways to incorporate mobile technology in the classroom right now is through Polleverywhere. This service offers online polling where the students can participate in several different ways, including:
– sms text messaging
– via the web using their web widget
– via a mobile device by visiting poll4.com

Polleverywhere is clearly growing, as the 3rd option that I mentioned above is a new development. I just tried it for the first time using an iPhone and it worked very well. It was easier to use than the sms.

There are a couple of big advantages of Polleverywhere when compared to some other technologies. First, it can be used with a regular cell phone and sms service. Most students in school have a cell and sms plan, which makes accessibility very good. If a student doesn’t have a cell, there is also the option to use a computer and web widget. The other big reason why I like Polleverywhere is because there is some sound pedagogy behind it: it can be used for formative assessment. Polleverywhere is a type of Automated Response System (ARS) and these are seen as having a positive student engagement response, along with the assessment aspect (Kay & Knaack, 2009).

Kay, R., & Knaack, L. (2009). Exploring the Use of Audience Response Systems in Secondary School Science Classrooms. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(5), 382-392.

I’m always interested in ways that technology can be expanded, and one of the big areas for all types of tech is the expansion of mobile computing; therefore, I set out to see what options are available for a mobile Moodle.

A few google searches didn’t reveal a lot. There seemed to be a couple of apps that were aimed at making a mobile moodle solution but it wasn’t clear as to the maturity of these solutions of if they were even being actively developed. I decided to send out an inquiry to the twittersphere, hoping to get some ideas back. I didn’t get many replies, but the ones that did show up pointed me in the direction of mpage.

The Moodle community seemed to be somewhat split on the idea of mpage. Mpage isn’t open source, which rubs some people the wrong way given that Moodle is a part of the open source community. Nevertheless I thought I’d try it out. There were two small hurdles to cross before I could do this though. First, I needed to install some software on the Moodle server. Obviously this can’t be done with the UBC Moodle site, so I turned to my own test site. Secondly, I was going to have to shell out a couple of bucks for the iPhone app. Mpage is an iPhone-only app. Luckily I have an old iPhone that my wife doesn’t use any more, so I get to play around with it. The end result is seen below.

It’s nothing earth shattering, and I haven’t really put it through the ringer because my test Moodle site doesn’t have much stuff on it (I wonder if there is a way to easily transfer data from the UBC Moodle site?). The app seems to work okay though, essentially giving the user a better UI to work with while using the iPhone.