Innovation Fund Update

On Friday many of you listened to Leanne's presentation on the Mobile Learning Conference she attended in London, England, and then to Dwayne's information on the Innovation Fund.

Yesterday, the LC Steering Committee (Dwayne, Karen O'Dwyer, Frank Whidden, and Peter Leclaire) met with a similar committee from the U of L. This included Trevor Woods (CIO), Dave Hinger (Director of their Curriculum Redevelopment Centre (CRDC)), Kris Magnassun (Associate Academic VP), and Ted (Web Services Manager).

Highlights:
- The proposal is for sure going forward for a mobile learning initiative.
- There was quite a bit of discussion around the device and whether students would be given a new device or would be able to use their own current cellphone. U of L wants to go with the iPhone or iTouch. Advantages include consistency in use for all students and it's a cool tool, etc.; the main disadvantages are that students currently have a device, so this may mean they have two to carry around, and the iPhones / iTouches don't currently have video (iTouch doesn't have a camera either). Perhaps we could do research at LC with one program using the ITouch / iPhone option, and another using existing devices.
- Trevor Woods commented that video apps are available for the iPhone.
- There will be some flexibility for LC and U of L to take different approaches; for example, it sounds like the U of L wants to do a complete first year initiative where all first year students would get an iTouch or iPhone (pay their own data plans). At LC we're discussing the possibility of starting with one or two programs where students would immediately benefit from using a movile device. This would allow us to better support faculty.
- We would need to come up with a support plan for instructors. This could (should in my humble opinion :)) include budget for release time for instructors involved in the project.
- The question of "What would be considered success in this project?" lead to some interesting discussion but no real answers yet. Would we be successful if every first year student could connect with the institution for administrative type information, or would it be successful if students in most courses in a specific program were using the devide to enhance learning on a daily basis?
- This will become a research project as we evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative.

Dwayne is currently working on the next draft with Cathy King, a proposal writer from the U of L; this next draft is supposed to be ready to review by Wednesday, November 12.

I would really appreciate our thoughts on this initiative. It impacts us in many ways, and I'm sure in ways that we can't even imagine at this point.

Karen