Infoclouds and Mobile learning

One of the most important elements of Web 2.0 tools is the ability to create media outside of the mainstream. As I read the article, "Mobile, wireless, connected Information clouds and learning," I immediately thought about "live" blogging where people blog at an event, about an event, as it is happening in real time. This is great, given the fact that a quiet revolution is happening in journalism, in particular, where people can access blogs for alternative perspectives to mainstream media. I thought about how my students could attend an event, blog in real time and immediately upload to the web, given whatever mobile device is in their possession. This creates potential for rich learning experiences for teachers and students as they can expand their curriculum to include mobile devices in lesson planning and project based learning. Say for example, I wanted to create a virtual walking tour of San Francisco murals. Students can be sent to the Mission district, take pictures of murals, tag the image based on location and upload their pictures to a blog, Voice Thread, Flickr or any other online Web 2.0 site. Students could immediately view the tour, comment and discuss the murals and their meanings. This creates an engaging experience since the learning, image capture and comments occur on site and at that moment.

However, mobile learning should be one of many tools educators use to engage their students and design curriculum. I like the idea of user control and contextual / situational learning and the ability to share this experience with others. In my opinion, this can be an authentic learning experience, however, there needs to be some structure or guidelines in place so that the information is rich, meaningful and relevant. As an educator, I want students to post work that has educational value and follows copyright and fair use guidelines.