On 10 May I joined in a videconference organised by Gwella ELESIG. Gwella ELESIG is one of the newer forums in Wales at it aims to exist both as a virtual community of practice and as an occasional face to face meeting. Its membership of the wider ELESIG implies a focus on learner/student experience, and while it was a spin off from the Welsh HE Gwella programme it's seeking to widen its contacts further afield. The focus for the day's conversations was 'mobile and the learner experience'.

We comprised about 25 people over the whole day, from HE and FE, learning technologists, academics, a librarian and IT staff, in five videoconferencing studios. We alternated between short presentations delivered to the whole conference and informal discussions in individual studios, a nice balance of activities. To give you a flavour of the day here is a sample of tweets. You do really need to be there though, so I recommend you join in the Gwella ELESIG social network (it's free to register).

Our first session was led by Peter Rayment of Cardiff University, talking about Cardiff's moves into mobile. Simon Wood provided some useful additional commentary, with observations added by other participants. A web page covering Cardiff's various apps is at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/mobile/ .

A few issues were highlighted which other institutions may like to learn from:

We broke into groups and used a Google Doc to collate information on mobile take up, drivers, student involvement etc. There were some interesting examples of use in teaching at University of Glamorgan, and some detailed student survey data from Aberystwyth. Several people expressed a need to know more about what students are actually using mobile for, and what they would need in future.

We had a presentation from Kevin Evans, Chief Technology Officer at University Glamorgan, which took a wry look at the way IT services are changing, with a shift away from centralised corporate services to more use of devices under the control of the learner.

In our discussion group, we talked about the kind of support students need when they bring their own devices. Should the institution still provide back up in the form of PC labs eg to enable assignment submission? Some felt that fears of students being excluded by not having smartphones are unfounded, and I felt we could do with gathering together all the different surveys people are doing so we can get a richer picture of the state of play.

A few points were made about use of iPads:

So what is the role of central IT departments in the future, if we tell people to "Bring Your Own Device"?

It was good to have a college viewpoint: tutor Ian McNeill and student Liz Hutchinson talked about student experience of using ipods on a creative technology course.

Participants exchanged tips about apps: