Innovations for mLearning: Hammer vs. Lego (part 3 of 4)

Guest post by: David Kruis

Shawn asked me to guest post this week, and as Director of Mobile Strategy at Desire2Learn, he suggested I explore some of the innovations in the mobile industry as they apply to education.  Of course it’s hard to not to immediately think about recent announcements by Apple and how they are entering the school textbook market by using iBooks, iPad apps, and desktop tools to help streamline the creation and delivery of textbooks.  While Apple is not the first ‘etextbook’ solution on the market (Kno.com, Inkling.com, CourseSmart.com, etc), they certainly generate plenty of marketplace buzz, and know how to bring technology to the masses. 

Willy Wonka an Original Innovator?

In last week’spost, we talked about who inspires you to reach for the stars, encourages you to challenge conventional thinking and pushes you to attempting something daring?

Recently, I’ve introduced my six year old to the 1971 classic movie, Charlie and the Chocolate  Factory.  (From Wikipedia..)The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. The factory is full of strange and fantastical rooms, including a chocolate-mixing room that looks like a huge garden, where everything is made of candy and there is a chocolate lake in the middle, a research and development room with dozens of complex machines designing new forms of candy, a nut-sorting room with an army of trained squirrels that sort the good nuts from the bad, and a TV studio-like room with a giant "Wonkavision" camera, which can teleport giant bars of chocolate into people's homes through their television. The factory is staffed by small, pygmy-like men called Oompa-Loompas.

Innovation for Dummies?

Over the past weeks I’ve been eagerly anticipating the post-holiday season to indulge in “new music” releases.  As an amateur musician, I appreciate when an artist provides an alternative version of their song. A quick search on YouTube and presto I have an acoustic version of a favorite song that I can enjoy on my iPhone or Blackberry. (we're Bilingual in Canada)  Nothing compares to the capturing the raw essence of a live acoustic performance.  It is honest, organic and innovative (unique from the original)

Speaking of live performances, have you ever been to a concert that was lame? Did they just mail it in? Was it a recycle of their old hits? With all respect to Sammy Hagar the 2004 w/ Van Halen tour was dismal.  Blame it on poor health, band tension, greedy ticket sales or pitching recycled hits – still lame from the seventh row. However, I am awaiting the new album on Feb 7^th – A Different Kind of Truth =-)

mLearning -Students push Admin to do more with mobile

I never understood all the excitement regarding end of year Boxing blow out sales. How do those darn advertisers create so much pent up demand having us wait all season to spend – spend – SPEND? Do people actually stand in line overnight to secure the best possible deal? Is this kinda like the 80’s when you set up camp outside of your local Ticketron (now Ticketmaster) outlet hoping to secure front row tickets to your favourite band? 
I’m still bitter …..for me, it was John Cougar Mellencamp -The Scarecrow Tour 1986. I waited in line for 22hrs for great seats – the outcome, last row nosebleeds @ the Gardens. Now with technology – I can beat the box office – there is a mobile app and connection for that! (U2360 Front Row – best live show ever)