Low Bandwidth/Mobile Versions

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Low Bandwidth/Mobile Versions
Interest is growing in low bandwidth/mobile versions of OERs to be used in areas with limited network connectivity and/or for use on devices other than laptops and computers.

Low bandwidth versions: Similar to offline versions, there is interest in providing low-bandwidth versions of OER materials. In the developing world, some users only have limited access to network connectivity and/or network connectivity is prohibitively expensive.

Mobile Versions: Research is showing that students are much more likely to have and use a cell phone or PDA/smartphone for communication than computers (though typically they own or have ready access to laptops and computers, at least in the developed world). In addition research is showing that the prevalence of cell phones and PDAs/smartphones is high outside the North America, especially in developing countries.

Considering potential impact from mobile devices on teaching and learning lets us think about creating and facilitating microlessons and quiz delivery, courseware integrating gaming, student question <-> teacher feedback/tutoring networks, local expert/community leader networks, geolocation-related content and data collection, to transform learner interactions.

Examples:
 * USU OCW has had initial discussions with Teemu Leinonen and others about the MobilEd Initiative ([]) and with Aptivate at the University of Cambridge ([]) about low-bandwidth versions.
 * Yes - MobilED enhancements for accessing the various resources (Connexions, WikiEducator, OER Commons, OCW, etc.)
 * Also mobile services around these resources, for example
 * variations on this theme ("Dr Math" - learners SMS questions, mentor team responds and shares hints towards understanding concepts for students to be able to do their assignments) - read this for more background, and
 * adapt work being done in projects like this around services delivery.
 * eXe content export for iPod
 * and other phones (an open standards based approach?) ... or for (e.g.) OpenMoko (open source).
 * Content experiments: instructor- and student-created content exploring web-based and mobile device enabling and its inter-relationship with teaching and learning, at Hong Kong University: See list of resources on OER Commons: http://www.oercommons.org/oer/oer-providers/course_related_materials/?getCollection=Learn+Activity+%28University+of+Hong+Kong%29 and related slideshow: http://www.learnactivity.com/Mobile.htm
 * Commercial content: exists but not yet many open examples, e.g., www.k12handhelds.com
 * Agricultural community networks: farmers use handhelds to transmit data, questions, pricing, weather conditions, get answers, complete transactions, etc. via mobile devices.

(Note: Although low bandwidth and mobile versions can be seen as separate use cases, they share a number of common features, challenges and enablers.)

User Stories:
 * Create Exam Hint for Learners
 * Access Exam Hints
 * Related Concept development and User Stories.

Challenges:
 * For low bandwidth, scheduling and chunking content for download, updating content
 * Service disruptions; piggybacking on intermittent services, e.g. timing your downloads to when the plane flies over you.
 * Coming up with a subscription service so users can target fine grain content updates/downloads

Enablers:
 * For video, multiple quality/size versions; for images, optimization of file size and no gratuitous images; for text, the ability to include older technologies (Palm VIIs, perhaps) with the facility to read PDFs, or the ability to create new, (not invented yet) inexpensive readers that can display high quality text. Expensive versions such as the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle still create a barrier for those in developing countries. Ideally, a great enabler will be the ability both to access and author/adapt content and then upload to the device, as well as to an online environment.
 * Commercial partners: i.e, cell service providers
 * Addng GPS coordinates to content metadata
 * Mobiled v2 development site
 * python-mms - a python library for the creation, manipulation and encoding/decoding of MMS messages used in mobile phones
 * Mobiled v3 - Entangled - a distributed hash table (DHT) based on Kademlia, as well as a peer-to-peer tuple space implementation
 * Mobiled v3 platform development site (code only, currently hosted by UNICEF)
 * OpenPhone: Dialogpalette web site (includes the Asterisk TTS modules developed for the OpenPhone/MobilED projects)