Over the past 2 years I have managed to go through 4 different mobile phones from a variety of manufacturers. They have all stopped working at one point for a variety of reasons ranging from been dropped one too many times to another getting absolutely soaked during a thunderstorm!

For the past couple of months I’ve been using an old Nokia (old in terms of features) that has managed to cope with being dropped a few times, chucked into a bag and actually being used as a phone at some point. Having had various pda, xda etc I did want something that synched with email, calendars etc and also could be used for a bit of research.

So….I got an iphone.

The phone was quite easy to set up and did sync with my software really well, we had to add software to the server to get the email to work but its been a success.

Its a good device with neat functionality to email, calendars etc….but the battery life is not that great! We’ve had a look at the apps that are available and there some great tools available from tube maps, flight checkers, travel guides to games. The ipod works well but as the phone needs to sync with itunes if you use profiles you might end up with a massive profile if you keep you music on your office pc!

The GPS/google maps is very useful and opens up the device to a range of uses even if it can be a bit scary to see you blue dot moving as you walk. I know you can get a gps in a car this just seems a bit different.

As a learning device we’ve spoken to a number of people who are interested in seeing how they could be used to deliver content. The barrier is the cost of the devices and the fact that you need a long term contract to actually have one…perhaps there is a need for a next gen ipod that is more of a travel/office device without the phone?

…the browser is good as well!

we’ve just started to update our twitter account….again. We opened the account last year but didn’t really do much with it. We are going to integrate it into the site as an addition to our news and blog just so that any of us can post to it with news of what we are up to.

I’ve not been able to update via SMS yet but I’m hopeful that we’ll get that working at some point. IT would be excellent to be able to update via SMS and provide more remote updates on what is happening at RP.

At this moment in time we are taking some time to look at the practical uses of it….its quite fun and we are being followed by a few people at the moment. You can follow us at www.twitter.com/realprojects

We have just finalised our link up with the Computer Games Degree at NUCA. We have agreed to take a student from the second year for a semester at a time. Sam is our first lucky student! The aim of the link is to provide the students with an insight into e-learning and learning technology and they help us to develop more games based learning within our own projects.

I’ve been interested in games development for sometime and have posted articles in the blog and visited several courses so its great to get the link up sorted. I view the link as a two-way process as I think there is a great deal that the students can teach us about Games Design.

As e-learning developers we are always looking for ways to improve and use new technology and innovations. This link up should allow us to do this. We’ve been talking to Caspian about using their new development tool and the students were very excited about the possibilities of working with the tool.

…finally….during the interview process we asked the students what their favourite game was and why? I can’t afford to buy all of the games that they mentioned but we are going to look out for monster hunter which is something of a classic in Japan!

ok….so its taken a while to organise the first event of the year but everything is now in place!

The first e-learning forum of 2009 will take place on March 18th at the St. Andrews Financial Services Academy in Norwich. Richard Hubbard from Renaissance Learning is going to be demonstrating the AlphaSmart Neo 2. Richard is bring along a whole set of Neo’s so that people can actually participate in this session. Over the next few days we’ll be emailing out an invitation with more details of the event.

If you are interested in coming along and don’t think you are on the email list please use the contact form at http://www.norfolkelearningforum.co.uk/ or http://www.realprojects.co.uk/contact.php to request a place.

We’ll also have a quick review of new material and products from Learning Technologies and Bett.

I’ve won a prize draw!

During Learning Technologies 2009 I visited the trainingzone.co.uk and had a chat with them about their website. I didn’t realise at the time but I’d also been entered into a prize draw for a Micro Professional Projector MPro110 from 3M.

…then yesterday I had an email from Ed Martin telling me that I had won. Very cool! When we get the projector we’ll be testing it out in the office and posting on the blog about what we think. It looks very neat from the initial product review.

At Learning Technologies I managed to catch a seminar about how the Navy has used PSP devices to deliver e-learning courses. Being involved in an e-learning company I’m naturally interested in how these devices are being used.

..so…I’ve bought one, along with some games and videos. I’m sure that there are lots of reviews of the hardware and the many games and gadgets available but here are my first impressions. The device looks quite robust and fits quite well when you are using it. There is a slot for a memory card and also a USB connection, the quality of the video from UMD discs and also the range of file formats that are supported is impressive.

I’ve bought a copy of FIFA 07 to try the gameplay and interface. I’ve only managed to lose each time I’ve played and never looked like scoring a goal but it was very easy to pick up the gameplay. There are a vast number of in game options using the variety of buttons which I’m sure extends the gameplay.

Personally I’m interested to see how we can use the device to deliver learning content. I’ve spoken to one client this morning who was impressed with the cost and possibilities that the device had. He’d looked at iphones but was put off by the cost of ownership. As we develop our relationship with the NUCA games degree I’m going to be interested to see how the students can make use of the PSP to deliver learning objects.

The PSP also has a web browser and we’ll be looking to see what we can deliver via this and the memory card.

I did buy a brain train game and thought I was doing quite well until it told me that I’m 20 years over my brain age! I’ll need to do some practice.

I’ve been on the road quite a bit recently and I’ve bumped into a number of friends and colleagues. IT was nice to get comments that people actually do read the blog!

Hello to all of our readers….I’m not sure quite how many readers we have!

At learning technologies I saw Clive Shepherd deliver his seminar on e-learning in a downturn. He mentioned blogging and how you needed to be prepared to contribute to the blog regularly, how right he is! I’d like to blog a bit more than I do but it is quite tricky to do this every day, although I’m going to try to make a few more blog entries than last year.

This month I’m making the final touches to the first norfolk e-learning forum event of the year and we are working on a number of projects in the public sector. I’ve also taken some time to write a series of short articles about project management which we might upload to the website.

Thank you for taking the time to read the blog, I hope that there is something interesting from time to time…

oh….I bought a PSP at the weekend so we planning to do some R&D as well as road testing an acer aspire one. My first acer aspire only lasted a week before the screen blew!