In an early post, http://dougwoods.co.uk/blog/handheld-learning/ I mentioned that I was attending the 2009 Handheld Learning Conference in London. I also mentioned that I was looking for four things;

So how did the conference measure up and did I meet my four goals?

Let me start by saying that this was one of themost interesting conferences I have been to in the field of education. It was spread over 3 days; the first day being taken up by a Handheld Festival showcasing some of the work people and schools have been doing. For me, the best part of the day was the Learners Y factor session hosted by Jason Bradbury, he of the Gadget Show fame and also dot Robot (which sadly we didn’t get to see). This session showcased the work of several schools in using handheld technologies and was presented by the pupils themselves. It would be true to say that each of the schools were interesting and inspiring in what they demonstrated.

Earlier on the Monday, I had the priviledge of listening to a presentation given by Dawn Hallybone about her work using Nintendo handhelds and Wii devices. Dawn is well known for her work and rightly so for she has done some fantastic work using handheld devices in education. I however was particularly interestedwhen she mentioned some new work in the pipeline using the Wii with dyspraxic learners.

I attended only part of the session organised by Mirandanet. The problem was that there were so many sessions running in parallel, that it was impossible to attend to all the sessions I wanted to. This was a fascinating sesion and it is a shame that I missed the drawing up of the mind-map but was able to listen in to the discussion afterwards. Thankfully the mind-map has been posted on the web and should be found by following the above link. There was one aspect of the discussion afterwards which was perhaps more depressing than anything; there was a small group of student teachers who were saying that their exposure to ICT in their teacher training was very limited andd, they felt, did not fully prepare them for teaching modern learners.

Sessions clashing and missing speakers I would have liked to see, was a factor on the second day. I managed to attend an inspiring session by Ollie Bray , who has posted his presentation online, but this meant, unfortunately, that I had to miss a fascinating session by John Davitt. I also missed Tim Ryland’s sesion, which was a great shame. I was, however, able to catch the session from Tony Vincent, whose session came at the end of the day and after a few poorly presented sessions. Which is a great shame for I feel that many more could have benefited from his session.

The final day, Wednesday, was a packed day with 3 strands and various breakout sessions planned. The highlight of the day was probably the final speech by Ray Kurzweil  at the end of the conference. He is an influential thinker, who I had only come across before as a result of his work in speech synthesis and recognition. His work, though goes a lot deeper and this session he chose to focus upon his work into the exponential development of technology. This work, I feel has a major importance for those of us in educational ICT. We often complaiabout how slow the world of educationchanges whereas the world of ICT changes rapidly, well Kurzweil’s work suggests that the ICT world will continue to change even more rapidly as it changes exponentially, rather than linearly. So in the future can we expect to see more of a gap between the technology and the pedagogy?

So did the conference help me achieve the four goals I set out before attending? I would say it did. I certainly had many opprotunities to see some new ideas and also to meet people. I certainly also got a lot of information bout how handheld technologies might be used in future education but any assessment of this will have to wait for a while! and was there any fun? yep!

It is always difficult and a bit dangerous to try to predict the future of ICT in education, nevertheless, I believe that at the recent Handheld Learning Conference, we might have had a glimpse of that future. Let me try to explain what I mean.

It does not take great insight to see the timeline progression from Desktop to Laptop to Handheld device (in this timeline I’d see the netbook as a stopgap device between laptop and handheld in that it retains much of the functionality of a laptop but does not quite fit in your pocket). This would appear to suggest that the future lies in handheld devices.

I am yet to be convinced, however, that current mobile phones or gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP devices represent in any way the handheld computing devices of the future.

What is not so readily evident is the learning environment behind the devices. Originally we used standalone machines that required content to be loaded on to them before they could be used to support learning. Then the environment moved to networked machines that meant that content stored centrally within an institution could be utilised by any or all devices. With the advent of networking, came the ability to share and collaborate with other users. In time, the networks expanded and connected with other networks with the advent of the internet, thus these devices could access a vast array of information. Also at this time, we saw the learner being able to access the information from almost any device; not just those in an institution but also devices at home.

In recent years we have seen the arrival of devices that allow a user to access content while on the move. Initially, these devices were fairly limted in what they could access but the technology has been developed rapidly and the facilities of such mobile tools have expanded rapidly. The approach of the iphone with its apps store has been followed by other manufacturers and so a new type of mobile computing device has been born; one that can access and manipulate content from almost any location.

So the question must be asked, why have a device at home, a device at school and a device in your pocket that can all do the same thing? Would not just one device, which you can use anywhere, be a more sensible approach?

I know, I know… that one device does not yet fully exist; which is why I say we had a ‘glimpse’ at the Handheld Learning Conference. It was a tantalising glimpse and an exciting one and I am sure I am not the first to have had such a glimpse.