Mobile Learning Challenge

The International Association for Mobile Learning (IAMLearn, www.iamlearn.org), in collaboration with Epic (www.epic.co.uk), is proud to announce the Mobile Learning Challenge.

Mobile technologies have changed how we communicate, work and meet. They also have huge potential to change the way we learn.

The Mobile Learning Challenge is searching for innovative and visionary solutions for learning using mobile technologies.

Objective

Identify a learning challenge and think of an innovative and yet practical mobile solution for this challenge. A winning solution is an answer to the following question:

How does mobile learning support educational needs or create a clear and innovative educational opportunity?

The Mobile Learning Challenge is open to creative solutions for all kinds of learning, be it for schools, universities, in the work place, or in leisure time.

A solution can be related to research, design, educational practice, or evaluation. It must not represent work that has already been done, but should focus on a problem or opportunity that has not yet been successfully addressed by mobile learning so far.

Your Task

• Identify a learning or educational challenge that can be solved with mobile technologies.
• Briefly describe your mobile learning challenge in up to 20 words.
• Explain your mobile learning challenge in up to 200 words.
• Provide a solution to how this challenge can be solved.

The solution can be a scenario description, a prototype design (mock-up), an interface walk through, a storyboard, a visionary essay, or a video.

A solution needs to be

• achievable
• concrete
• inspiring
• addressing a real learning need or creating an opportunity for learning

Your solution should be realistic and implementable within 6-18 months. This does not mean that you have to implement it in case of winning.

Target group

The challenge is open to everybody; however, entrants must be members of IAmLearn on the date of submission. Submissions by individuals and small teams are possible although each prize is limited to one person.

Practitioners, students, and young researchers are particularly encouraged to contribute their inspiring and visionary concepts. Specific technical skills are not required for participating!

Submission

All submissions need to use English descriptions.

Deadline for Submissions is Wednesday, 14 September 2011 24:00 GMT.

The winner will be announced by the end of September.

Rating the solutions – criteria

• The identification of the challenge
• The imaginativeness of the challenge
• Appropriateness for mobile learning
• The creativeness of the solution
• The practicality of the solution
• Overall presentation

The first prize

The winner of the Challenge will receive £1000 (one thousand GBP). The winning solution will be presented to the mLearn 2011 conference audience either by the winner (if present at the conference) or by the President of IAmLearn.

This prize is co-sponsored by IAmLearn and Epic.

The second prize

The runner-up will receive a prize of 5 years’ free membership of IAmLearn.

The Judges

• Agnes Kukulska-Hulme (The Open University UK)
• Mike Sharples (Nottingham University, UK)
• Christian Glahn (Open University of The Netherlands, The Netherlands)
• Carl Smith (LRTI, UK)
• Daniel Spikol (CeLeKT, Sweden)
• Naomi Norman [Epic, UK]
• Marcus Boyes [Epic, UK]

Publication Rights

All submissions remain the intellectual property of the entrants. A submission to the Mobile Learning Challenge automatically grants publication rights to IAMLearn. Any publication of submissions will have clear indication of the entrants and the relation to the Mobile Learning Challenge.

A submission accepts that

• IAmLearn and Epic may present all, or extracts from, the winning entries on their websites.
• A selection of other submissions may also be published on the IAMLearn website.
• The judges of the Mobile Learning Challenge, staff in Epic and Board Members of IAMLearn have access to the submission.
• The identified challenge may be included in public repositories for research challenges for technology-supported learning.

Any publication implies an electronic notification of the entrant about the publication.

Disclaimer

IAMLearn does not provide any support for implementing a winning solution.

All submissions need to be submitted by the deadline set in this call. Submissions past this deadline are excluded from the Mobile Learning Challenge. IAMLearn cannot be held legally responsible for any technical failures that lead to the exclusion from the Mobile Learning Challenge.

IAMLearn may exclude individuals, and change details of the Mobile Learning Challenge including extending the submission deadlines, or cancelling the Mobile Learning Challenge without notice.

The judges are not eligible for participating in the Mobile Learning Challenge.

All entrants need to confirm the intellectual ownership of their submission. IAMLearn cannot be held legally responsible for submissions that violate personal rights of third parties.