I will be the first to admit that I have not exactly embraced mobile computing as an educational tool. I have a cell phone, grudgingly acquired in 1998. CPW was, against his will, given a cell phone when we moved down here, which he lovingly labeled “CPW’s Leash.” This is fairly appropos of how I view mobile computing as well–both a way to be flexibly connected as well as inextricably plugged in.

Nonetheless, I love gadgets so when it was announced that we have a Treo in the office that will rotate monthly so that we all take the opportunity to get acquainted with the “possibilities” of mobile computing, I volunteered to start things rolling. Having used a pocket pc for a time, I am not optimistic over some of the limitations. With the pocket pc, for one, I couldn’t seem to connect to any wireless networks, which really killed the whole instant connectivity angle. The Treo on the other hand, comes with a data connection (obviously, we’re paying for the connection) and it was very easy to get up and running. I immediately started playing with its many features, sending a sample text message, taking a picture, checking out all my favorite websites to view them in all their glory. Blackboard was especially magnificent in its lack of functioning with the tiny interface, and apparently I need some kind of scripting installed, but the instructions as to how to enable that as provided by Blackboard were not pertinent to Windows Mobile. But I was not surprised.

Some web resources are easier to use than others with the rather small palm screen.

In no particular order:

• Flickr: Awesome! I can sign in, browse easily, download pics to pda, uploads via email seamlessly. A+
• YouTube: need flash plug-in of some kind. Seems to be Treo’s fault. Not sure where to obtain it, will look into it. Grade of I.
• Facebook mobile: Pretty good. Nice browsing interface. Easy to read what’s there. I found out, however, that uploading photos requires using the phone rather than data. I hadn’t realized this, but I have all the technology I need with my own cell phone to be an active mobile facebooker (what a relief!). So I set up my own phone to work with it. Since confirming that a phone is associated with a particular account appears to be a security issue (though why one can’t authenticate by the originating email address I’m not sure), I’m not worrying about this aspect. Facebook gets an A for considering mobile users browsing.
• Skype: Which brings me to Skype. I am disappointed by my favorite messaging program. The website is awful to try to interpret via Window Mobile. They don’t appear to have their Windows Mobile for Palm Treo, which seems very odd to me. With grade inflation being what it is, they get a C-.
• Gmail: Not exactly sucky, not completely great. I guess my biggest complaint is that I can’t delete messages. I know, I know, there’s plenty of storage in gmail, but I like to delete completely useless emails. Other than though, it’s pretty good. A-
• Blackboard 6.x: Useless. Totally useless. F- Ok, maybe that’s harsh. I will install scripts to see if I can at least see the content.

I will keep playing and trying out new resources so that I can finally get an m-life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.