mLearning - From Apes to Apps

Since the beginning of our existence, our main goal is connection, learning, survival, evolution. This is what we still pursue nowadays, meaningful connections, lifelong learning to become better human beings. Well, if it's not everyone's goals, at least these are mine, and I know a bunch of inspiring educators, like the Webheads, who pursue exactly that.

In my constant search for becoming a better professional, I'm now taking the Consultants-e mlearning course, which was made possible by the Binational Center I work for, Casa Thomas Jefferson, through a grant we've applied and won to use tablets to teach English to at-risk students in a program in partnership with the American Embassy, ACCESS.

We're in Week 2 of our online session, and it is always a pleasure to see Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Nockly in full steam, generous in their sharing and eager to connect in their facilitation.

Some of the highlights of the mlearning course so far:
- They've been making full use of MOODLE's flexibility in terms of design possibilities and interaction opportunities
- They've been doing what they preach, giving different options to take quizzes and do the activities. So, what they present about, talk or blog about is what you can see taking place in the course.
- The app to access MOODLE suggested by Gaving mTouch is a treat
- I loved the Sounds of you introductory activity, in which you were guided to share the sounds that talk a bit about you instead of the same old tell me a little bit more about you. This part was done as a task in which we had to fill out our profiles, generally an area in MOODLE that is blank (it makes much more sense as we can just click on the participants' names to remind ourselves who is who).
- My aha moment so far? Just found out about Wiffiti
A neat online application where you add tags and get a dynamic screen. Hum...I can imagine it being used with students tweeting straight to the screen about a certaing topic, or even using the Wiffiti webpage to add their thoughts on the topic.



Of course, these are just tidbits of a wealth of resources, discussions, activities that we've been experiencing. There's way more into it than I could write here, but I just wanted to keep all these precious online moments registered here.

More updates to this page coming soon as the course progresses and I keep on my ongoing opportunity search for professional development and evolution.