Las ventas de smartphones crecen sin parar…

Recently I”ve read an interesting post in AboveTheCrowd about this war. The conclussion that I obtained reading it and some other good posts is that Google’s Android is going to win the war for the majority of people. As they succesfully pointed: “Google is attempting to be the Microsoft of the smartphone market.  Perhaps ironically, Apple is well positioned to be the “Apple” of the smartphone market.”

The reason is clear, Apple goes on with its Operating System mounted over its Hardware (as ocurred in PCs), while Android is an Open Source Operating System open to be mounted over any device of any company (e.g. currently I know at least Motorola, Samsung, and HTC).

These are two clear advantages: open source (millions of developers working for free to provide cool applications); and hardware independence (many manufacturers will use Android to reach the masses).

But, there is another good reason that will Google win the battle. While carriers have to pay a fee to Apple to sell its devices, Google gives them for free. Better than free! Google pays to the carriers an ad share! The reason is because Google don’t need to earn money selling hardware or software, they want to control the device from where masses will make searches (and see its advertisment). In other case, if Apple would control the masses’ device, it could ask an add fee to Google. And that’s bad for Google’s ad bussiness, which is its main bussiness.

And where is Microsoft in this war? I have no idea, but it’s going to be very hard to compete against the Google’s “Better that free”. That’s a bad deal for Microsoft.

So, my decision is clear, my next mobile learning projects will be over Android, obviously if I can’t do it purely Web.y next mobile learning projects will be over Android, obviously if I can’t do it purely Web.

Please feel free to download, participate, collaborate, ask and suggest! Here you can find a brief summary:

The M2Learn framework is designed to address the requirements analysed in the previous chapter, regarding user-centric media (social networking; ubiquity; personalization; and interoperability); Future Internet; Education; and Digital Ecosystems. The framework offers an open API that helps developers to easily create new mobile applications with these features. From the scalability and reusability points of view, the framework supports plug-and-play configuration thanks to the use of standards, and definition of public interfaces. This feature allows adding new services to the environment without changing the software.

Regarding user-centric media, the framework is focused on user-driven collaboration and communication by supporting the inclusion of multimedia content in wikis, blogs, chats, and forums supported by existing e-learning platforms. It also supports participation in mobile social (learning-oriented) communities, thanks to its interaction with e-learning platforms and location technologies, promoting the called Internet by and for People and theP3 social networking (People-People-Place).

This concept is empowered by its ubiquity and pervasive features, which provide easy access to sensors and multi-modal interfaces (e.g. accelerometers), improving student engagement in content and activities; invisible management of location-based technologies (e.g. GPS, cell towers-triangulation, WiFi?); and support for the Internet of Things integrating a module that manages an RFID reader, All the data from these sensors and devices is gathered to compile the user’s context. This context is complemented by the access to services devoted to translate IDs or latitude and longitude coordinates into a name of area (e.g. room, building, street, city, and country), and associating it to services, or contents. All this contextual information can be also used to simplify the development of augmented reality applications, as a developer only needs to use the provided API (location+motion), and add the information that wants to mashup in the images from the camera.

All this contextual information (e.g. location, moment, profile, schedule, people around him/her, or preferences) is used to support the Internet of Services and the Internet of Knowledge, personalizing the access to content and services according to user’s context. Thus, the framework integrates modules for content and service discovery depending on spatial and temporal variables (associating resources to moments and places); personalized context-aware search results; and integration of mainstream and social media through the support of data feeds (RSS).

As a Future Internet cannot be conceived as an isolated application, but as a live ecosystem of both services and users, the framework is designed to serve as a leaven to the coexistence of multiple users that interact, collaborate and communicate with each other, giving rise to global value-added applications that mind the group’s context. In addition, the framework allows the creation of mashups by offering the users’ contextual information through an external service that.

Regarding educational requirements, the M2Learn framework gives support for some fundamental e-learning standards, such as LOM for Learning Objects, and IMS-QTI for assessment. In addition, it interacts with existing services in e-learning platforms (currently Moodle), such as calendar, chat, forum, blog, assignment, and wiki. It also supports integration of logs from external applications to put together in the e-learning platform the whole student’s e-portfolio, no matter if the educational experience comes from a mobile application, a game, or from the own e-learning platform.

http://technology-for-education.blogspot.com/2010/03/augmented-reality-is-here-and-is-here.html

And thinking about other uses in education, besides offering guidance, I think books are going to be one of the places where AR best suits. Have a look to this video about an Augmented Book:

Although this technology is a fact, it exists, actually it exists for desktop computers with a webcam. The real power of AR comes together to mobile devices. There are some good applications of AR in mobile devices (mainly iPhones, Android and Windows Mobile), such as Layar.com:

Currently Layar is focused on geolocation-based AR, and not to signs in books. I want to find some spare time to research in some Open framework to support this integration with traditional books. Any idea?