In addition to opening up Pintley to Android users, this version of the app brings dozens of updates, including:
With the evolution of mobile technology, the next step of education is naturally bringing eLearning to mobiles. The main four mobile operating systems are: iOS, Android, RIM & Symbian. As we know, the final product of the majority of eLearning projects is Flash. As of today, Symbian supports Flash Lite, and Google (with Adobe's help) has done a wonderful job of making a full version of Flash work on Android devices. That leaves Apple's iOS and BlackBerry's RIM as the only platform not to support Flash, with the exception of BlackBerry's tablet, called the PlayBook. You can take the time to write custom apps work like your eLearning, but that costs too much in both time and money.
So what other solutions does that leave us with. As many know, I've been very skeptical of HTML5 technology, mainly because so many are saying its the silver bullet solution to compatibility issues. Well, I'm still not sold on that, but I do think it is a great tool to have at your disposal, especially in the eLearning world.
Last week I was given a demo of a new eLearning tool, Rapid Intake's mLearning Studio, that produces both a Flash based course for desktop and laptop computers, as well as an HTML5 version that works on iOS, Android and soon RIM. The beauty is that you don't have to write two versions of the same course.
Here is a live link (http://rapidintake.com/mobilebeta/sample_beta1/player.html) to a course they produced. Go ahead, take a look at the Flash version on your computer, then pull out your iPhone, iPad or Android (2.2+) device and take a gander at the HTML5 version. The technology is still in the development stages, so if you have any trouble accessing it from your Android, try this link (http://rapidintake.com/mobilebeta/sample_beta1/indexMobile.html) instead.
Here is a link (http://www.rapidintake.com/products/mobile/mobile-learning-studio/) to their product page. Take a look, and feel free to contact them with your questions!
I have to disagree with Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff. While Apps are the popular thing right now, there is too much fragmentation between Operating Systems. iPhone/iPad support this 3D HTML5, Android supports Flash, Blackberry does this, Symbian does that... yada, yada, yada...
Then on top of OS fragmentations, you have fragmentations between different versions of the OS. For example, the iPhone 4 & iPhone 3GS is running the 4th version (iOS 4) of the iPhone OS and can do multi-tasking with apps, while the iPhone 3G can run the iPhone iOS 4, but it can't do multi-tasking with apps. Then the iPads aren't getting the iOS 4 until Q4 of this year, so whoever has an iPad you won't be able to do multi-tasking until then. Yes, fragmentation will always exist because of better technology, but obviously less fragmentation is better than more fragmentation.
A solution to fragmentation is web apps! All browser support HTML. I'm still not touting HTML5 as the savior from fragmentation completely, but I am saying that is can help.
From a developer's or product manager's standpoint it would be easier and much more cost effective to develop multiple web views with HTML, than to have specialized teams developing an app for the iPhone, the iPad, the Desktops, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, etc... Right there you are up to 6 various apps platforms, 6 completely different operating systems (iOS, Windows, Mac OS X, Android OS, RIM & Symbian), and at least 2 different programming languages (Java & Objective-C). Developing apps is a hassle, time consuming and most developers only specialize in one or two languages.
I think apps are a great tool for the here and now, but in the coming years I'm betting mobile web will end up as the king.
Resources:
Well I don't think Apple's announcements today were anything groundbreaking, but there were two features I found absolutely impressive:
Images via: http://www.macworld.com/article/151730/2010/06/liveupdate.html
Hi! I'm Lee Graham. I'm a eduGeek, as well as an eLearning Developer for Red Hat, Android FANATIC, & eduGeek.
DISCLAIMER: The information contained on this site are strictly my personal views and doesn't reflect the views of Red Hat.
