Okay. We appreciate the irony of a site on mobility being static for AGES! It’s true that we’ve been in hibernation for a long time — at least here. But we’ve been busy elsewhere, so we’re heading off in a couple of new directions. We’d like to invite you to join us on two new sites:

For news, discussion, and information about what’s going on at ACU, dial in to our Connected Blog.

For a global discussion community focused on research (and also on best practices) in mobile learning, check out the site for the Consortium on Innovation and Research in Converged Learning (CIRCL).

Thanks to everyone who has read us over the years, and we hope these two active sites will give a much richer experience than we were ever able to muster here at iThinkEd.

Here at iThinkEd HQ (deep in the bowels of an undisclosed academic library, hidden in the unanimity of the bound periodicals section), we’re pretty excited about the new iPhone OS Apple premiered the other day. Boasting over a thousand new APIs, we think this is going to be big–especially for a device that’s already captured more than 33% of worldwide smartphone traffic (and almost 50% of US traffic). Here are a few features we think are going to rock higher ed and here’s why:

Incremental Purchase: Okay. This may seem irrelevant at first, but we think that allowing people to buy additional content from within an app is going to unlock text production for the iPhone and iPod touch in a big way. Apple already offers media content in a remarkably convenient format, and we think this will make printed material just as convenient. While people may quibble with the iPhone as an eBook reader, many people are already consuming their eBooks on the device, and making it easy to add new content is going to drive that even further.

Cut/Copy/Paste/Find: People have been clamoring for these features since before the iPhone or iPod touch even went on the market, so it’s not surprising that we’re pleased to see these features finally appear in 3.0. For educational use, this means these devices can finally move from being a platform primarily for consumption of information to a platform for production and collaboration. Now I can have my students go out, find a few URLs and send them to a class blog, or I can have them edit and organize information more readily on these devices. While there were work-arounds before, building in these basic features is going to give me a new way to leverage these devices for learning.

Peer-to-peer: The new built-in BlueTooth auto-detection feature means not only that iPhones can now recognize one another and make ad-hoc networks, but also that I can now use those networks for teaching and learning. Want a quick way to form workgroups or teams? Have students go stand near each other. Voila. What could be easier? And with the new file sharing capabilities, students in those groups could now share documents for collaboration and interactions. If the iPhone and iPod touch were compelling before, this feature makes them even moreso, and we can’t wait to see what developers will end up doing with this one…

As you likely know, mobile technology is dramatically shaping the nature of teaching, learning and social interaction at Abilene Christian University. This past fall, ACU became the first university to distribute Apple iPhones and iPod Touches to the incoming freshman class. This strategy has enabled all freshmen and their teachers to integrate technology and learning both in and out of the classroom. Along with this mass distribution of Apple devices, ACU introduced a portal, ACU Mobile, to help connect students to the campus through news and calendars, course documents and media, in-class surveys and polls.

This spring ACU will host the ConnectEd mobile learning summit (Feb. 26th and 27th) for campuses deploying iPhone and iPod Touch focused applications, portals, and initiatives in higher education. Whether you’ve just started thinking about mLearning or are a leader in the field, ACU is inviting you to join colleagues from across the academy for a summit focusing on integrating iPhones and iPod touches into your institution.

The goal of this summit is to help faculty, technologists and administrators make connections with peers at other institutions to facilitate practical, hands-on solutions. Featuring communal vision sessions and targeted breakouts in key areas of infrastructure, theory and deployment (see the list below–and feel free to add others), the ConnectEd summit is focused around a set of “bring-your-own-work workshops.” Participants will work with others in the field to outline key challenges and determine best practices, leaving with a core of useful materials and approaches. And ACU will be providing code, working documents, user materials and procedures to help jump-start your program. The summit will also feature selected corporate developers who can help provide end-to-end solutions tailored to your specific needs.

To find out more and express interest in attending, visit ACU Connected

The Wireless Foundation, Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative and Digital Millennial Consulting will be hosting the first annual International Mobile Learning Conference at Capital Hilton, Washington, DC—February 16 & 17. This is an excellent opportunity to join the discussion concerning mobile wireless technology in education with worldwide representatives from primary, secondary and postsecondary education institutions, policy makers and executives from the wireless and education technology industries.

Conference speakers include: Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, Chairman of the Board, Qualcomm; Marc Prensky, Founder and CEO, Games2Train; Dr. Elliot Soloway Professor, University of Michigan; David Whyley, Project Director, Learning2Go; Julie Evans, CEO, Project Tomorrow; Bruce Wilcox,
Education Consultant; Stacie Hudgens, President, PsyMes Consulting; Dr. Ann Flynn,Director, Education Technology, National School Boards Association; Stephen Weimar, Director of The Math Forum @ Drexel University;Dr. Linda Roberts, Former Director, Office of Education Technology, US Department of Education; Timothy Magner, Director of Office of Education Technology US Department of Education; Julie Dodd-Thomas; Andrew Seybold (Invited) President and CEO of Andrew Seybold, Inc.

By bringing various stakeholders together the Mobile Learning Conference hopes to promote the development of mobile learning, foster new innovative practices in mobile learning, address key concerns of policy makers and educators regarding mobile technologies, stimulate a critical debate on theories, approaches, principles and applications of mobile learning, share local and international developments, experiences and lessons learned, promote collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors in mobile learning, and encourage the study and implementation of mobile applications in teaching and learning.

For more information and registration, visit http://www.mobilelearning09.org/about.html

Yesterday, Google’s voice search function for the iPhone finally debuted. The feature allows users to speak a search term, which is then transmitted to Google’s servers, recognized, and entered as a search term.

iPhone Atlas suggests that in the initial testing, the feature works surprisingly well, easily recognizing simple, single words like “animals” and “cookies,” and even complex phrases like “what is my dog thinking” (don’t ask). In fact, despite initial skepticism, Atlas this feature might actually be faster than the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard for complex phrases. Add to this well-oiled functionality the fact that search results are displayed in an iPhone-optimized format, and the app’s access to other time-saving features, Google’s iPhone offering might prove to be pretty useful.

Download the application through iTunes App Store.

Doug Gale recently contributed a word of warning concerning the usage of smartphones in higher education to Campus Technology. Gale suggests that while many universities have educated faculty and staff to the dangers of traveling with a laptop containing sensitive information—e.g., Social Security numbers or a faculty member’s latest patentable research, not much discussion has taken place concerning the security risks of smart phones. He asserts that we need to teach users be as skeptical of e-mail attachments, unexpected connections, and update confirmations on their smart phones as they are on their computers. Some precautions he recommends include:

• Enable any password protection features that the phone provides. Smart phones are small and easily lost. Using a password gives the owner some protection from call charges and the lose of sensitive data.

• Enable any data encryption features that the phone provides. If the device does not include data encryption options, consider add-on packages, such as Pointsec Mobile. Some users may want to consider PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) schemes such as PGP Mobile.

• If you lose a smart phone call the provider immediately to avoid call charges, record information about the call and get confirmation in writing that your phone has been disabled. File a police report. It probably won’t help getting the phone back but it provides an official record.

• Smart phones get viruses too. Vendors such as Kaspersky are now marketing anti-virus software for Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms.

For more, be sure to check out Gale’s full article at Campus Technology.

Good news for those of trying to use our iPhones for teaching and learning despite clumsy fingers—the new app Typing Genius is a typing tutor for the iPhone that includes 50 randomized exercises in 17 categories. Key statistics are provided and tracked allowing users to see how they perform in normal mode, landscape, and without auto-correction. Tips regarding hidden shortcuts are also included.

The application’s developer boasts “Most iPhone or iPod Touch users type at an average rate of 30-50 CPM (characters per minute). Typing Genius can assist you in reaching an average of 100-150CPM.”

A number of other typing tutor applications for the iPhone exist, but none are quite as polished as Typing Genius. The app sports a clean interface, exercises that at least feel like they could improve typing speed and nice touches like the ability to use either landscape or portrait typing.

For more, check out a full review at iPhone Atlas.

iPhone Atlas reported late last week that podcast downloads will be available in iPhone OS 2.2. The German blog Schimanke.com has posted screenshots from the beta version of the iPhone 2.2 firmware. The images reveal more information about the new release, including details about new iTunes and App Store features. These features only appeared within the last week and have not been fully implemented on the iTunes-infrastructure side.

The screenshots show that Apple will be adding delivery options for over-the-air downloads of additional media, including video and audio podcasts. The 10 MB download size limit will be in place when the iPhone is on a cellular network.

There is currently no indication regarding iPhone OS 2.2’s release date.

Today, Ars Technica reports the release of Remember The Milk (RTM) for iPhone. Ars suggests that RTM has remained one of the most interesting and innovative apps for keeping track of tasks. Existing primarily as a rich web app, RTM integrates with a virtual boatload of other apps and services, including Gmail, Windows Mobile, Google Calendar, Twitter, and now, iPhone.

Just like the website, RTM for iPhone allows tasks to be added quickly to an Inbox to get them out of your head where they can so often be forgotten. If you want, you can add all of a task’s pertinent information right away, such as a priority, due date, notes, tags, and even a location. When it comes time to get things done, the beauty of RTM (and similar GTD-based systems) is that you can view your tasks by almost any criteria: list, due date (Today, Tomorrow, This Week), tag, location, and more. Adding a task while viewing a specific list or due date will endow your new task with those criteria.

Ars asserts that one of RTM’s most useful features, especially in light of the iPhone’s continued lack of an alert system for third-party apps, is its rich support for reminders. While you can’t apply a custom reminder time for each task, the RTM site offers a wide variety of options that can be sent over IM (AIM, Google Talk, Skype, and more), SMS, e-mail, or even Twitter. You can chose to receive a daily list of tasks and set a site-wide reminder time for tasks with a due date, all of which can be sent over any of the aforementioned communication methods. These reminders aren’t quite as integrated with the iPhone OS as Apple’s phantom push alerts system or a true background process would be, but they certainly offer a lot of flexibility for staying on top of tasks, no matter how or where you work.

RTM for iPhone has a lot of other interesting tricks, such as Smart Lists that can aggregate tasks by any criteria, horizontal support for using the iPhone OS’ wide keyboard, multilingual superpowers to run under every language the iPhone OS supports, and, of course, customizable syncing with the RTM website (auto, WiFi-only, manual), and much more. Like the other apps for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile, though, you’ll have to upgrade your free RTM account to the $25/year Pro account in order to use this application.

Be sure to check out Ars Technica’s full article.

iPhone Atlas recently reported that DataViz, publisher of the venerable Palm OS application Documents to Go, has announced plans to bring a version of the application to the iPhone. The software allows users to view and edit Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel Spreadsheets and offers many other features, including the ability to display graphic files.

DataViz is projecting delivery of Documents to Go for the iPhone in 2009. The company asks that anyone interested in news or information about the software sign up for a mailing list here.

The iPhone has built-in support for viewing some Microsoft Office documents and Adobe PDF files, but the functionality is not as robust as Documents to Go for Palm.

For more information, be sure to check out iPhone Atlas’ full article.