Lee’s latest comments on m-learning have taken the discussion in a slightly technical direction, and covered some of the current obstacles to a good mobile web experience. It seems like a good opportunity then to explain why we think this is about to change, and to discuss some of the technical choices we’ve made.
The mobile web has got off to a slow start. Many people have never even used it, and even now the vast majority of users just download ringtones. Just as the regular web has been driven by the adoption/evolution of suitable technical standards, broadband penetration, and device power, the mobile web has been held back by the lack of these.
The good news is things are starting to change. On the standards front, there is a developing set of best practices (supported by the W3C, and which we have followed) including the use of XHTML as the browser protocol. Network operators are (slowly) starting to offer fixed-rate data plans, and many new phones are wi-fi enabled and have far more powerful processors. The iPhone is a seminal moment for the mobile web, not because everyone will own one eventually (as Lee points out, they are expensive), but because it is going to define a new standard, and re-define consumer expectations.
When planning our new mobile site, we designed with this new type of environment in mind, as we believe within a few years this type of environment will be common (although of course this means that unfortunately some phones currently in circulation won’t allow optimal use of the sites). As ever, it will be an iterative process, and we look forward to your feedback to help us figure out the best way to support your learning and complement the main site in a mobile context.
I like the mobile site so far. I (also?) think this is the most interesting nook of the eLearning world right now, as the technology is really in its infancy, there is still so much to accomplish. The shaking out of some standards will be one of them - the existing eLearning standards such as they are (SCORM etc) aren’t targeted very well to the limited environment of a mobile device.
Clearly, Praxis are aiming to be leaders in this space and I don’t doubt they can be.
By the way, is anyone from Praxis planning on attending the mobile learning conference in Melbourne this year? (http://www.mlearn2007.org/) Inconveniently it’s right before the Learning2007 conference in Florida.
I like the promise of m-learning, but i’m afraid i have learned my lesson from previous technology investments. I have a wonderful 8-track music player and a Sony Betamax and Walkman collecting dust in my basement, for sale, cheap.
File this under “Pedantic Git”, or indeed “Git, Pedantic”. XHTML isn’t a protocol, it’s just a markup language. But it IS the right markup language to use, and more should be using it, so, well, em, good stuff.
Right. I’m off. I can hear somebody on another blog using the word ‘data’ as if it were singular…