PocketLearn Introduces Products That Transform Mobile Phones
Into Learning Tools
MIAMI, Fla. – March 31, 2006 – Technology startup PocketLearn Inc
(www.pocketlearn.com) has introduced a suite of software products that enable
many cellular telephones and personal digital assistants or “PDA’s” to become
mobile tools for learning. Among the products are special “Viewers” that are
installed on the devices, as well as Windows based content creation tools.
PocketLearn has initially targeted Windows Mobile devices such as the Pocket PC
and Smartphone, as well as Java phones. “It’s not widely advertised, but almost
all mobile phones today will run Java software. This means that if your device
is a true “smart” device that meets the minimum requirements, you can run the
software”, said company founder, Jorge Pando. There is also a Windows version
of the PocketLearn Viewer, which means it will run on Microsoft’s newly
announced “Oregami” device. A version for Palm devices is in the works.
PocketLearn has sought to establish a standard for educational software on these
smart devices by building products on top of industry-standard technologies
such as HTML and XML, and by making most of their software available for free.
Their strategy is to standardize the format of the content and provide viewer
software for a variety of devices. Content creators can really focus on
content, with the assurance that their creations will be viewable on a very
wide range of devices. PocketLearn content can include not only HTML-formatted
text, but also images and audio. “Up until now, there has been no
standardization in educational software for these devices. Content of any type
has been scarce, and you needed a great deal of luck to find the content you
wanted for the device that you owned”, added Mr. Pando. PocketLearn content
utilizes the familiar “flash card” paradigm, but can also include multiple
choice tests, which the viewer software is able to administer, grade, and in
many cases export the results for spreadsheet analysis.
Key to the PocketLearn strategy is their online content repository (also at
www.pocketlearn.com), which serves as a searchable and categorized collection
of content that can be downloaded, rated and reviewed by the user community. In
fact, the web site is also “small device friendly” and provides a good browsing
experience for the limited browsers found on these devices. “The repository is
important because nobody should have to reinvent the wheel. Before you create
the content you need, you can make sure that someone else hasn’t already
created and published it on the web site”, said Mr. Pando. “We encourage our
users to publish any content that they create. While we expect that much of the
content will be free, some of the more sophisticated content may come at a
price”, he added. To encourage the creation of content, PocketLearn gives away
a Title Development Kit, or “TDK”. The TDK includes documentation, software and
examples to allow anyone with a little HTML and XML expertise to create content
or “Titles” for the viewers. For those less technical, PocketLearn also makes
available a commercial product called “Flash Card Studio” that simplifies the
process. PocketLearn believes that their software can find a home not only
among high school, college, and vocational students, but also in the corporate
world, where employee educational and compliance programs could benefit from
the inherent flexibility of a technology that makes the educational material
very portable and convenient to use.
