There is a good quote from a Mobile Learning report just out from Brandon Hall Research:
True mobile learning is personalized learning that unites the learner’s context with cloud computing using a mobile device.
This is very much in line with our thinking on Personalized Learning Systems here at Praxis Language and offers a framework on a simple acid test for true mobile learning services: 1) it must be personalized and 2) it must be context sensitive (location, age, learning preferences, interests, search history, gender, language and learner achievements) and 3) it is consumed on a network-enabled mobile device.
Over the weekend, I was browsing through the education app’s released in the iPhone app store. They seem to fall into 3 categories: dictionaries, phrasebooks, and flashcards/quizzes.
Dictionary App. - Ultralingua ($29.99)
Phrasebook - Lonely Planet (free)
Capitalizing on Olympics fever, but free.
Phrasebook - iLingo ($9.99)
Simple service, but broad selection of languages.
Phrasebook - Lingolook ($4.99)
Nice graphics, but no audio?
Correction: audio is there, but would an audio icon or some visual response when a phrase is selected be too much to ask for?
Phrasebook - Gorilla (free)
A carry-over from their previous browser-based effort.
Flashcards/Quizes - AccelaStudy ($14.99)
Actually trying to be a learning tool as opposed to a travel tool. Simple functionality, but at least starting to incorporate some of the iPhone input methods (e.g. switching flashcards, turning cards).
All of these are clearly first generation applications. Look for next generations to have the three characteristics that Brandon Hall Research emphasized: personalized, context-sensitive and connected to the network via a mobile device.
