I have the fortune of going to this years Handheld Learning conference known as 'Handheld Learning 2009' at the Barbican. Organised by Learning without Frontiers who have been running the conference for the past five years.

This will be my first trip but am really looking forward to the different presentations on offer, ranging from best practices from innovators in handheld learning to the keynote speakers including Malcolm McLaren of Sex Pistols fame. Expect a review and some regular tweeting from the conference. To give you a flavour of where I will be, here is a video from the 2008 conference of Danah Boyd talking about the key points around digital and phone divides and more.

 After listening to a series of presentations around the Digital World at a recent workshop and being reintroduced to the film WatchUsNow, it made me think once again about the Age of Discovery.

As humans we have mostly learnt to discover in an analogue world with our senses, but with the ever increasing digital environment that we surround ourselves in ways of discovery have radically changed.

From finding 'how to do it' on You Tube to being able to see what you are heading to, or where you are going before you get there is something that is lost on the digital native, as they can have a full image and any supplementary information available at their disposal .

A great example of this is now even with Augmented Reality and its potential change in viewing buildings in the street. The thought of discovery either through exploration or picking up a book to find out more about a buildings origins will soon change.  An inbuilt app for the browser developed called Layar (see below) enables users to see metadata on a particular building which will no doubt be quite comprehensive in a few years time, from not just its Wikipedia entry but also perhaps other images of what it may have looked like previously as well as stories about the landmark from recent news.  It can also as the video shows have more daily uses around directories or perhaps current house prices on buildings for sale. 

I can only imagine how this might be changing for the future of education. School field trips for a start would never be the same!