Handhelds and the Mobile Web
Presenters:
Yianni Yessios, Manager, Web Technologies, ITG and Katie Bauer, Usability and Assessment Librarian, Library
Katie was the first to present and she shared some information about smartphones, which she noted are
now sometimes called App Phones thanks to NY Times tech writer, David Pogue. Smartphones have email and internet capability in addition to their normal phone service. As an example, Katie showed the audience her Android. In a Ball State University survey, it was found that 27% of undergraduates own a smartphone and that number is destined to increase. At Yale, Katie said, the iPhone is by far the most popular, followed by Blackberries, and Androids have a small percentage of the market.
Katie scrolled through some of the 12,000 apps (some free and some for purchase like the ones for the iPhone) for the Android. One of her most favorite apps is the Barcode Reader app. This app uses her phone camera to scan a book’s barcode. Most books published from the 1990s onward have a barcode available. The app will find the bibliographic information for the book. Then, the user has the option to read reviews, search for pricing and availability, and it can also search the local library’s catalog to see if the book is checked in and available . Additionally, the app allows a user to search for keywords in the book using Google Books. Katie mentioned the popularity of QR codes in Asia and how they integrate with smartphones which have apps that can read the QR code and then direct the user to the website or, in the case she showed, a catalog record for a book.
After her demo of Android, Katie mentioned that more and more websites have a “mobile-friendly” sister site including the popular bibliographic manager and citation tool offered through the library, RefWorks. Most sites configured for mobile devices present a pared down portal to their content, stripping out most images and presenting the most basic textual information. For example, the Yale Medical Library has a mobile website configured for smartphone use. it offers the user information about the library’s hours as well as links to clinical resources for mobiles. Katie points out the the future of website depends on its ability to display correctly on cell phones and commends Yale’s Medical Library for its mobile website, which is very important for its user base (doctors and nurses on-the-go).
Yianni presented an overview of apps for the iPhone starting with the most banal, but quickly asserted that
there are apps that can be used in the educational context noting the 100 Best Apps for Serious Self-Learners. Additionally, institutions and those that provide technology services are beginning to create apps for students. BlackBoard, the course management system used at some institutions, is creating apps for its customers to purchase for their institutions. Purdue University has created an app called HotSeat that is “a social networking-powered mobile Web application, creates a collaborative classroom, allowing students to provide near real-time feedback during class and enabling professors to adjust the course content and improve the learning experience. Students can post messages to Hotseat using their Facebook or Twitter accounts, sending text messages, or logging in to the Hotseat Web site.” Another popular app is one that replaces the need for clickers in the classroom as it turns the student’s phone into the clicker as in the case with an app developed at Abilene Christian University. Museums are also pushing out apps for smartphones, like the Louvre and the Van Gogh Museum. In addition to app creation, Yianni mentioned institutions are starting to create mobile web portals for the whole school and noted the mobile portal for MIT, which includes information like the campus map, shuttle schedule, people directory, and events calendar.
After his overview, Yianni said that he sees opportunities at Yale for making apps to use in the classroom and invited the audience to brainstorm some ideas. He stated that using mobile technology can help to take learning out the the classroom and create an active learning experience for the students. For example, using the camera , GPS, and web capabilities in a student’s smartphone can be a huge aid in field work, whether it be an urban studies, science or architecture course. ITG invites any faculty interested in integrating mobile technology into their classroom to contact them for a consultation.