Mobile Development Challenge Starts at the Grassroots for mLearning

Published on Desire2Learn's learning insight blog (Tues, March 20th)

During the past few months, I’ve had a great opportunity to engage with students and faculty at our local Conestoga College. In one of my several visits, I discovered their inaugural ‘4x4 Challenge’ – an internal technology development contest that really peeked my interest. I was intrigued; why would students dedicate Reading Week (their week off from school!) to work on a project that may never see the light of day? Not to mention, with limited resources and time (4 days x 4 nights), could they even pull it off?

After speaking with Ignac Kolenko, Chair of the School of Engineering and IT at Conestoga College, the answer was a resounding ‘yes’.  Innovation and ideas are thriving at a grassrootslevel. Students are self-motivated, driven, and have a great deal of pride to deliver something meaningful – something that matters.

Your idea + Mobile + Education= mLearning

For the past few months, we've been talking about innovation, mobility and transforming education thru mLearning. At the foundation of any big idea there are several small ones that are not so perfect, well thought out or even sound half intelligent. 

Do you remember the first time you took a spin on your new bike without training wheels? I still have a scar on my forehead to remind me of that day. Luckily for my daughter , she has transitioned from training wheels to balancing on two wheels in less then week. Unlike her Dad - she has a helmet and knee pads.  


How does transformation takes place? Do we step out of fear and embrace bravery? Why are so afraid to get up in front of people and share an idea? It is really true that more people are afraid of speaking in public then dying? 


So here it is - Desire2learn is providing a platform not to be perfect for one night. 
Bring your idea - your pitch - tell the world (it will be recorded) how education will benefit from your gem and change (the game) how mobility is used in our schools, on campus and how we learn......(how to enter below)

5 ways to avoid mobile application lost and found + $25,000

Last week we discussed how 33 innovative College students spent four days building out several comprehensive mobile modules for their Campus contest. Aside from endless amounts of coffee and pizza – the end goal was to showcase a working prototype and gain invaluable industry experience.

So – what’s next for these young entrepreneurs? How can they further gain exposure and interest in their mobile application? Are there opportunities to commercialize their project? How do we instill innovation, creativity and building something that matters…..?

College Students build mobile prototypes in four days

This week I was fortunate to be involved in a local mobile application development contest, sponsored by the Technology / Engineering Facuality at Conestoga College.  Under the careful direction of Ignac Kolenko, Chair, School of Eng and IT; “Ig” challenged his students to create and design working prototype in 4 days. A $10.00 gift certificate to a local coffee shop and Pizza served as inspiration to the teams (33 student’s) working day and night to produce some outstanding prototypes. 

RIM (Playbooks) and Communitech (resources, facilities and food) served as the primary sponsors for the inaugural event. Several volunteers at the College also chipped in over the 4 day reading break to ensure students had access to labs and resources.

The students were split into two groups: 

Group #1 - Blackberry/Playbook

RIM provided (and a few new Playbooks) links to HTML5 development on Blackberry/Playbook devices: 

Lessons from Thomas Edison and mLearning

Last week we discussed Failure and the 5 Big Questions for mLearning. This week I’ll focus on lessons learned from failure. It is through our own experience and how embrace change can have the courage to innovate.

To truly appreciate innovation; we need to study Thomas Edison, a master of transforming ideas into modern day marvels. Contrary to popular belief, he didn’t invent the light bulb, but rather improved upon an idea. Mr. Edison was methodical and persistent in his approach to get it right – but the key to his success was his ability to adjust and be nimble. In his seven steps of development he carefully documented his findings. (from inventors.about)

1. the parallel circuit
2. a durable light bulb
3. an improved dynamo
4. the underground conductor network
5. the devices for maintaining constant voltage
6. safety fuses and insulating materials
7. light sockets with on-off switches.

As an eternal optimist, here are a few quotes that capture the spirit of Edison's lessons learned......

Failure and 5 Big Questions For mLearning

Last week we discussed the call for innovation and the opportunity to create, collaborate and build technology that matters. Like most great ideas we also need to study FAILURE first.

An optimist will tell you failure is simply many tiny adjustments to success. A pessimist will tell you why they don’t like your idea and may elect to give you many reasons why your approach is flawed.

 ….taken from Wikipedia – defining Failure

Thomas J. Watson is attributed with saying "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate". Wired Magazine editor Kevin Kelly likewise explains that a great deal can be learned from things going unexpectedly, and that part of science's success comes from keeping blunders "small, manageable, constant, and trackable". He uses the example of engineers and programmers who push systems to their limits, breaking them to learn about them. Kelly also warns against creating a culture (e.g. school system) that punishes failure harshly, because this inhibits a creative process, and risks teaching people not to communicate important failures with others.

For me, FAILURE is not even trying, giving up, passing the buck, not taking the road less travelled and not engaging in the risk = the missed opportunity.

Keith Richards and mLearning (Part 4/4 on Innovation and collaboration)

This week we wrap up our four part series on innovation. Wikipedia defines Innovation as: a creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of a new idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself.

In my Innovation for Dummies post, we discussed the power of music as a creative art form how it can transform both the listener and the musician playing the song.

In the case of Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones legendary guitarist) it is his ability to pull off several iconic classic rock guitar riffs with style and ease. When asked how he remembers all the chord progressions from The Stones vast catalog ….he responds “I don’t get caught up in memorizing songs – it is more of a feel – I let my fingers do the walking – I just trust my instincts and try to never play the same song exactly the same….that would be awfully dreadful.”