FernUni booth, TV interview with Andreas, Mobile Learning lectures and the Mobile Learning Arena.

This year, for the first time, I was at the Learntec as a visitor and not as an exhibitor. I got a free ticket from Andreas Bischoff (the man behind pediaphon), so I just couldn’t resist to stop by for some hours. I visited the FernUniversität booth and the Mobile Learning Arena. It was nice to meet some ‘old’ Mobile Learning friends like Oliver Pincus from afelio GmbH, Karsten Meier from Handylearn Projects as well as Uwe Weinreich and Nadine Hüllbrock from Mobile Coaching - Weinreich UB GmbH. I definitely have to intensify my work at the Mobile Education Center of Excellence on Microlearning and Mobile Learning )

Unfortunately I didn’t have time for all of the lectures at the Mobile Learning Arena this year, but the program was quite promising:

• Mobiles Lernen in Deutschland – State of the Art
  Nadine Hüllbrock, Mobile Coaching – Weinreich UB GmbH
• Praxisbericht: Mobiles Lernen in der betrieblichen Praxis
  Bernd Semmler, Leiter Michelin Center für Training + Information, Michelin Reifenwerke KGaA
• mooleemoo.de – Mobile Lernmodule erstellen, veröffentlichen und tauschen
  Oliver Pincus, afelio GmbH
• Lernen mit dem Handy: wie es funktioniert
  Karsten Meier, Handylearn Projects H2H e.K.
• Messaging und Streaming
  Lars Müller, Fraunhofer-Einrichtung für Systeme der Kommunikationstechnik ESK
• New Generation Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions for Media Based Learning Personalization
  Robert Jaksch, Lerneffekt, Gianfranco Congiu, Giunti Labs
• Das Pediaphon: Bei Wikipedia anrufen – ortsbezogenes mobiles Lernen mit Mobiltelefonen und PDA
  Dr.-Ing. Andreas Bischoff, Lehrgebiet Prozesssteuerung und Regelungstechnik, FernUniversität in Hagen

Me and the official mascot of the learntec 2007.

On my second day in Karlsruhe I had one lecture left: ”Mobile Learning - Anwendungen, Potenziale und individualisierte Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten für arbeitsintegriertes Lernen”. In the beginning of my lecture I was curious if really everyone in the audience has a mobile phone. And actually there was one person who didn’t have one! Later on I gave him a bottle of wine, because today it is so unusual to meet people without a cell phone. He was pleased with the present )

The Project “Pediaphon” of my colleague Andreas Bischoff is getting more and more attention. Many visitors came by to marvel at this tool for automatically generated MP3 files, playlists and podcasts from Wikipedia. I hope Andreas will soon also find a way to earn money with that )

Finally I should mention the entertaining, but also interesting fair talk ”Web 2.0 – Microlearning unterwegs mit Handy oder Smartphone” with Dr. Martin Lindner from the E-Learning Research Studios in Salzburg/Austria. Our neighbours seem to face the same experiences and challenges with Mobile Learning as we do.

My lecture, the FernUni booth and the academic team

After a very short night after a very long journey I finally got to the new exhibition centre in Karlsruhe/Germany to join Learntec 2007 – the International Convention and Trade Fair for Educational and Information Technology. Today I got the opportunity for two lectures: “Mobile Edutainment – Das Handy im Berufsalltag spielerisch zum Lernen nutzen” and “BIBB-Forschungsprojekt Mobile Learning” (together with Michael Härtel, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Bonn/Germany).

This year a new company called Crammy joined the Mobile Learning Arena. They offer a handset for Mobile Learning of vocabularies. It is very easy to use, but for me it is a daring adventure to introduce a complete new device for Mobile Learning and to offer on the market already available solutions. However they have interesting marketing ideas and fresh ways for the market cultivation – we will see what the future brings. 

But the best thing was to meet many old friends from the German Mobile Learning Community like Oliver Pincus (afelio) and Uwe Weinreich (sms coaching). It seems to be still a tough business with Mobile Learning on the German market for everyone…