
eLearning Resources and News
learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George SiemensGenerations of Mind Mapping

History of Mobile Phones
Teemu Arina provides a link to a video on the history of mobile phones. Scary thing is I remember each stage of development. The first mobile phone I ever held had a value of $2500 (I believe) and weighed just shy of ten pounds. Ah, but then came the days of Star Tac. I thought we had the hit pinnacle of technological advancement. At the time, I simply could not conceive how we could innovate beyond that stage. But that's because I was thinking that the main purpose of a mobile phone was to make calls. In early 2000, the mobile phone became less about calling others and more about sharing images, media, and music. Today, I look at the iPhone and have a similar sense of "well, that's that. We can't innovate past this". But, as Teemu states, "The future of mobile phones is perhaps… not a mobile phone at all, but rather a contextually aware and active mobile magic wand. It’s not about skins anymore. Not even about features, open source, multi-touch or iPhoney. It’s about who is going to make the device interact with your environment as well as capturing it in context."Many Eyes and Data Visualization

Social Media Disasters

Learning Environment Connector

"Imagine a world where students go to a single URL and connect to their course regardless of which course management system it is hosted on. Dashboards consolidate information for users from these many systems. Administrators easily access accounts and information across these systems; thus simplifying helpdesk operations. The Learning Environment Connector makes this world possible."The approach of using openness as a competitive leverage point works for Google as they have the trust and respect of their users. Blackboards lawsuit antics over the last few years have significantly damaged its reputation in the eyes of users. Perhaps developers will be more forgiving.
Wesch on Media Literacy and Such

Education for a Digital World

Originally written by George Siemens and published as weekly email digest on eLearning Resources and News. First published on July 3rd 2008.
