Going Amish for learning and technology - by Ishmael Burdeau
Last month I was somewhat surprised when my teenage son announced that he was going to sell his iPhone and start using a £10 monocrome mobile instead. Naturally I was interested in trying to understand his motivation for downgrading so dramatically. It seems that after six months of trying out various apps and dealing with the fragility and complexity of the iPhone, he was ready for something simpler. Now it would be easy to dismiss this as an odd piece of youthful behaviour, but I was even more surprised when a friend of his did the same thing, selling his hard-earned iPhone and swapping it for a cast-off Nokia. To me this raised some interesting questions about technology and what influences our choices when we adopt or reject new tools. As someone in a high-technology industry, I am very familiar with best practice when it comes to the process of "gathering requirements".
A young Amish rollerblader
As consumers, too, we are well-versed in the practice of weighing up features and functionality, comparing cost-benefits of each product and typically selecting the product which offers the most functionality for the lowest price. However with the current rate of technological improvement, is such a model still relevant? Or are there other models that would fit better with today's world? One way of answering this question would be to look at communities that have a different approach to technology and community.
The Amish of Pennsylvania are an interesting example of how a culture makes choices about what it adopts and what it rejects. Contrary to popular belief, the Amish do not reject all modern technology out of hand. Nor do they rely solely on scripture or tradition to guide them. This has some fascinating outcomes. Why, for example, do the Amish permit rollerblading but ban bicycles? Similarly, they embrace high-tech materials such as carbon fibre for their horse-drawn buggies. Amish businessmen make use of electricity to power their tools, but only if it comes from a battery rather than a wire. To outsiders, these choices seem inconsistent and probably superstitious, but the reality is much more intriguing.
Even more intriguing is the fact that Amish culture is enjoying a boom, and Amish businesses thrive while their counterparts often struggle. In fact Amish small businesses have a success rate of around 95% compared with a figure of around 50% for the US as a whole.
Amish houses have telephones, but they are kept outside the family home.
Many Amish businessmen use mobile phones, but only for work.
The answer to these questions can be found in their basic approach to evaluating new technology. When first faced with a new tool or gizmo, the Amish will first engage in a debate within their community. Rather than evaluating this new technology in terms of features, functions or price, they will instead ask the question "does this bring us together or push us apart?" In The Riddle of Amish Culture author Donald Kraybill states that "The Amish employ an intuitive sense about what will build solidarity and what will pull them apart...You find state-of-the-art barbecues on some Amish porches. Here is a tool they see as increasing family coherence: Barbecues bring people together."
As learning technology experts, we are faced with similar choices on a continual basis. As well as evaluating new interfaces and approaches to learning, the advent of more mobile learning options means that more and more we are also asked to evaluate what hardware is best suited to our learners. Many experts agree that learning is very often a social activity, and that learning is greatly enhanced when it is part of a wider community. Perhaps it is time to step back and think carefully about the questions we are asking when we are evaluating any new technology. Rather than asking if a piece of technology has the required functionality, let's start by asking does it enhance learning and bring learners together or does it diminish learning and push them apart?
Bringing us together?
Or pulling us apart?
Reflections on Mobile World Congress 2010 - by Dr Naomi Norman
Having recently won a mobile learning award, released a new mobile learning app, and hosted an e-learning debate with a motion about mobile learning, it seemed only fitting that Epic attend the global mobile event of the year: Mobile World Congress. And, oh boy, are we glad that we did?!
Over 50,000 mobile professionals from more than 180 countries gathered last week in Barcelona to talk all things mobile and to hear from ‘the great and the good’ of the industry, including Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.
We saw the new technologies yet-to-be released: to name but a few, the Windows 7 Phone Series, which integrates with Xbox LIVE; the Samsung i8520 Beam Android phone with built-in projector; and the less commonly known Puma – a phone packed with loads of sports training software.
All these small advances in technologies may make for big contributions to learning, be it games-based mobile learning offered on the Windows 7 Phone Series, or overcoming the challenge of fitting learning on a small screen by using projection on the Samsung i8520 Beam, or tracking systems on mobile phones to enable intelligent training plans, such as on the Puma.
We also experienced the buzz in the growth in the app market: the iPhone may have started the revolution, but others are determinedly playing catch-up. Companies such as Nokia, Intel, Deutsche Telekom and Samsung all made use of the Congress to entice app developers to their platforms and smartphones. And many of these phone companies are now joining forces to launch an open platform, making it easier to create apps for multiple devices.
And with Gartner research this week reporting that the mobile phone market will rebound more strongly than ever this year, the future for mobile technology certainly looks bright (and not just for Orange!). We, at Epic, believe it looks just as bright (if not brighter!) for mobile learning.
What do you think the future of mobile learning will look like? Why not comment below?
Dr Naomi Norman, Director of Learning, Epic
BETT 2010 Review - by Shaun Green
BETT (British Education and Training Technology) rang in the New Year with its annual exhibition held in London. It’s not only Britain’s biggest educational technology show it’s the largest in the world. With a 25-year pedigree, 700 exhibiting stands and nearly 29,000 attendees, it’s not hard to see why it’s such a landmark event.
For us, it provides a fantastic opportunity to meet with clients old and new to discuss forthcoming titles, developments in the industry, future technologies, changes to the educational market, and otherwise just chew the fat about educational IT, software development and testing. It’s safe to say our testing and service desk departments help ensure quality for approximately 70% of exhibitors working in the digital educational publishing field, so it’s easy to spend most of one’s time networking.
Ian Callow, Head of Offline Delivery & Support at Pearson Education, agrees that there are “immense opportunities in the networking aspect of BETT.” It’s the perfect setting brimming with creativity and possibility.
Ewen Rubython, Epicentre Manager, noted that BETT 2010 was “buzzing with atmosphere” – a bigger and more exciting affair than 2009.
Of course, networking is not all that the show offers. This year’s keynote speeches and seminars covered a huge range of topics, from methods of utilising ICT solutions in support of dyslexic students to the growing role of games-based learning which was well represented amongst exhibitors as well.
Epic’s Deputy Service Desk & Hosting Manager Steve Avey was particularly struck by the range of robotics on display, including eye-catching offerings from LEGO for building STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The centrepiece of BETT is the Awards ceremony for around a dozen categories, including Special Educational Needs Solutions, Early Years Solutions, Digital Devices, ICT Service and Support and so on. For publishers and developers these awards are a fantastic win, offering them not only publicity before BETT attendees but also a widely-recognised brand to help market their software or services.
We are happy to say that this year’s winners and finalists included a number of our Epicentre clients and associates, such as Smart Learning, Whizz Education, Q&D Multimedia, Espresso Education and Rising Stars.
If you weren’t there this year then all we can say is: see you in 2011!
Shaun Green, Lead Tester, Epicentre
