Categoria: Pocket Learning – Master’s Thesis ITP

I could not believe my eyes when I saw that www.iphoneclassroom.com was available!!

Why (Motivation)

• Worked in the mobile phone market for years
• iPhone’s new paradigm in user interaction allows for new kinds of applications 
• Open up a school in Brazil – interest in education
• DYI culture
• Could a cell phone be a platform for just in time learning?

What (Description)

• Innovative use of proven educational methods combined with leading edge technology that is not yet a standard but might very well be the model of all future similar devices.
• A curriculum designed for a mobile platform
• A program to teach photography on a cell phone
• Life long learning on the iPhone
• How to, Want to, Need to, Just in Time
• Self paced, interactive, participatory, useful, fun
• Modular learning anywhere, anytime, anyone.

How (Future Implementation)

• iPhone native application
• Class creation tool
• Other lessons that would effectively utilize this platform’s advantages:
• Car user guides (changing tires, setting the clock)
• Wood working tutorials
• Music lessons/tutorials
• Video making tutorials
• Translation tool
• Creative writting
• Museum guides
• Tourist guide application
• Standardized tests practice

Who (Target Audience)

• Learners with iPhones
• Teachers who want to innovate

Where (User Scenarios)

• Learner driven – already has the motivation to learn
• Could also be used in a classroom environment
• Connectivity, sync, and control for professors on student’s assignments
• Sharing assignments, notes, and comments between students

When (Market opportunities)

• Not the standard but offers a basis for future similar platforms
• iPhone Classroom platform – create your own lesson
• SWOT analysis
• Strengths:
• Be the first / early adopter
• Interface
• Mac OS programmer base
• Portability to Mac OS
• Modularity
• Connectivity
• Ease of use
• Weaknesses:
• Cost
• Not a market standard
• Easy to copy
• Opportunities
• Platform for a broader application
• Research in this new interface/interaction mode
• Wikipedia for learning meets Instructables
• Threats
• Other competing platforms
• Cost
• Laptop could become small and cheap enough to act as a subsititute

Conclusions

• User testing results
• Future development potentials

Project URLs

• Presentations (most current first)
• http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dgr64jt5_146ccmdvfpb
• http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dgr64jt5_127cwjfq9fb
• http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dgr64jt5_107gbq33ccc
• http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dgr64jt5_72568db3k3
• Web Interface mock-up
• http://iphone.lucaslongo.com
• Blog entries
•  http://lucaslongo.blogspot.com/search/label/thesis
• Thesis write up (this document)
•  http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgr64jt5_165dq23nmdf
• Project web-site
• http://www.iphoneclassroom.com
• http://www.iphoneclassroom.org
• http://www.iphoneclassroom.net

References

• Books
• How People Learn – Donovan Bransford Pellgrino

• Online photography courses
• http://www.starephotography.com/
• http://www.morguefile.com/archive/classroom.php
• http://www.betterphoto.com/
• http://www.shortcourses.com/
• http://tlc.ousd.k12.ca.us/~acody/digi7.html
• http://www.photocritic.org/2017/the-rule-of-thirds/

• Companies
• OLPC
• Squeakland.org
• Bob Tinker – Concord Consortium
• Terc Exploratorium (C.I.L.T)
• www.wirelessgeneration.com 

• Other references
• Low Residency Programs
• Martin Owen – School of Education na University of Wales, Bangor
• Graham Brown-Martin – Handheld Learning Ltd

So I’ve decided to really dive in into the iPhone Application development for my iPhone Classroom thesis project. What I had up to now was a web version – a prototype of the interface and user interaction. It did not give me the full extent of the iPhone’s interface capabilities, not to mention that you cannot turn the camera on from it. Pretty basic feature for a photography tutorial!
So I have been studying Apple’s Cocoa development environment (Objective-C) and the iPhone SDK. Slowly wrapping my head around the frameworks and how objects are handled and talk to each other within the iPhone environment. Very interesting and powerful.
I created these screen mock-ups to help me understand better all the elements I am going to have to build:

I have feverously working on my iPhone Classroom (new name) web application for the iPhone.

My presentation today did not go as well as I would’ve have wanted… I did not rehearse the flow of exactly what I was going to say so I felt a little too loose in my train of thought.
With that as a motivation, I cranked out some more changes to the document I presented today and now feel that the structure of the presentation makes more sense and flows better.
HERE it is.

I updated my presentation and did some more work on the interface.

Best viewed using Safari:

Some more documents related to the Thesis:

• Tasks
• Write Up
• Lesson Plans

Started coding the html interface mock-up following the iPhone’s specs. JavaScript monitors the iPhone orientation and changes the html dynamically. CSS styles are associated with each orientation – that is how I get the menu icons to be on top when the iPhone is in portrait and on the right when the iPhone is on landscape mode. Including video was also a bit of a hurdle but all figured out now – depending on the connection (WiFi vs Edge) the appropriate movie is shown – you actually have to put up 3 different files for each speed (the third one is for desktop viewing). Fortunately QuickTimePro does that automatically for you.