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This post is a brief overview of the mobile learning industry in Canada. This is of interest because i5 Research, my company, is located in Cobourg, Ontario. This is my first pass, so please send any mobile learning resources that I missed to gwoodill [at] gmail.com. Here is what I have found:
Blogs and Websites
MobileLearning Canada – resources on mobile learning in Canada and beyond
Mobile Syrup - mobile news and reviews for Canadians
Mobile Learning Edge – website to support Dr. Gary Woodill’s book of the same name
Hardware Vendors
Research in Motion (RIM) – Blackberry
Psion – ruggedized mobile devices
Software Vendors
RIM – Chalk Pushcast - Waterloo, ON
Desire2Learn – 2GO Mobile Web for Mobile Learning - Kitchener, ON
Operitel -LearnFlex Mobile - Peterborough, ON
Consultants
Lidia Varbanova, PhD. – Montreal, QC
Gary Woodill, Ed.D. – Cobourg, ON
Research and Education
Athabasca University is a world leader in mobile learning research, under the leadership of Dr. Mohammad Ally. The Mobile English as a Second Language project is a good example of their work.
Durham College and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) both on the same campus in Oshawa, Ontario, provide a mobile learning environment and resources on campus.
The Laurier University School of Business & Economics has engaged its 100 full-time Waterloo, Ontario, MBA students in an innovative one-year mobile e-learning pilot.
Dr. K. Balasubramanian, Education Specialist, Agriculture and Livelihoods, Commonwealth of Learning, in Vancouver, BC. is working with the University of British Columbia on a Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Content Management System “for audio and voicemail based learning”. It is called the Learning through Interactive Voice Educational System (LIVES) and is aimed at helping farmers in developing countries.
The Mobile Learning consortium is comprised of post secondary institutes — Seneca College and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) — and educational publishing and technology companies. Members include: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, a leader in providing electronic and print information to the educational and business markets; Bell Mobility, a division of Bell Canada and Canadas leading wireless provider; Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, one of the worlds largest management and IT consulting firms; BlackBoard Inc., the leading provider of Internet infrastructure software for e-education; Hewlett-Packard, a leading global provider of technology products, solutions and services; and Avaya, a global leader and innovator in enterprise communications serving customers who require superior communications to power their business.
The Centre for Mobile Education and Research (CMER) is housed within the Department of Computing and Information Science at the University of Guelph. The mission of CMER is to engage in leading edge applied research to develop state-of-the-art applications and services to facilitate and enhance mobile education and learning, and to provide leadership in integrating mobile devices into the computer science curriculum. This mission will be fulfilled in a variety of ways including, cutting edge research projects that have been completed or are in progress, research partnerships, and technology transfer. The research carried out in CMER has real and immediate applications in mobile education and learning.
Publications
Ally, M. and Laughton, S. (2006). M-Learning in Canada. Online paper, University of Toronto.
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