mEga meGa megA Mega

I love the show SpongeBob SquarePants, especially 'Patrick' the StarFish, and his classic saying 'Never, ever, ever ever', which made me think of the title of this blog post: mEga meGa megA Mega.

mEga - mobile entertainment growth alliance - is a collaborative group comprised of private sector, education and government bodies operating under the banner of mEga, which aims to increase the mobile applications and content industry in Australia.

mEga offers an Incubator Workshop program, which in 2007, our Chief Executive endorsed as 'approved' professional development for staff ;>.

So during farewells at a workshop last year, a very brief conversation occurred between the mEga National Manager, Peta Pash, and another colleague, Jim Plummer about "why didn't Jim & I apply to be a part of this Incubator Workshop program as part of our PD in 2008?"

Jim has been a keen advocate and pioneer of mobile learning (mlearning) in South Australia, for a number of years.

Although nowhere near to the level of Jim's experience or passion, I too have been very keenly watching and supporting the potential of using mobile devices to aid learning. This interest in mlearning was kicked off in 2006, when I discovered Leonard Low's Mobile Learning blog.

Like half the world's population, I am 'physically' attached to my mobile phone, and use it as an alarm clock, calculator, camera, reminder, to do list, note taker as well as a phone and text messager.


So Jim and I submitted our applications to be apart of the mEga Incubator program and we've been accepted. Last Thursday evening was our first Workshop Session: meeting the other mEga Incubator participants, and pulling together our teams for this program.

Our team is made up of a people with a range of skills including: graphic design, training/education, project management, creative ideas, WAP site development, practical thinkers, scripting, content development, multi-media creation, mobile technology, finance, admin etc.

Our team has not really formalise the 'commerically viable product or company' project idea yet ... that's over the next couple of workshops ... but there are certainly some good ideas about using mobile technology to allow learners to learn WHEN and WHERE they need to ... so stay tuned.