The European Repository Adds Hot Lava Software as Project Partner

Haymarket, VA and Zierikzee, Netherlands (March 28, 2008) Take Shape Share (TSS), The European Repository, has added Hot Lava Software as a mobile learning project partner. This strategic partnership will allow TSS partners the opportunity to author, deliver and track mobile learning via Hot Lava Software’s Learning Mobile Author (LMA) and Mobile Delivery and Tracking System (MDTS). The impact of this partnership will facilitate the mobile sharing of educational content among a European community of schools and colleges as well as improve, in general, the quality of learning and vocational training. The excitement of this partnership abounded during an interview with Drs. Albert de Vos, Project Manager for the Take Shape Share project.

During May 2008, in London, the first training will take place for teachers and staff members from four countries. They will learn how to use formal educational content according to the content chain. This is made possible by using metadata in conjunction with the harvester to search and locate content that lives in many repositories and databases—all based on knowledge sharing standardization.

“For this project we are focusing on eLearning as well as mLearning materials. We expect that Mobile Learning is becoming more and more important in the field of education, but there is still a lot of work to do, for example on Mobile SCORM. The Hot Lava MDTS fits exactly in this project because the MDTS has all the functionality needed to develop into the most important repository for using, re-using, storing, searching and finding mobile content on an international scale.” says Drs. Albert de Vos, CEO, I.C.O. Europe. “If we manage to integrate Mobile Learning into the learning environments of educational organizations, and companies through the harvesting system, and we can position the MDTS as an international repository for mobile content, we will make a huge leap towards the realization of collaborative learning. The LMA makes it possible to create content on demand for anytime anyplace learning.”

Sharing knowledge on an international scale that is easily accessible for students, teachers, company trainers, business employees, managers, etc. are the main objectives of the TSS European Repository Project. Easy to use tools for content development, such as the LMA, for mLearning, and tools like Wimba Create, for eLearning, and others with the restriction, that those tools are able to work with standardization protocols like XML-, IMS-, and SCORM- compatibility is just what the project needs to succeed.

“The TSS project will be evaluated at the end of 2008, with knowledge dissemination as one of the key issues for the European Commission. So, as the project manager I have to travel a lot in Europe, for instance, the EdReNe conference in Slovenia (edrene.org). I also travel within the U.S. For example, I attended the Nashville IT conference in November 2007 as well as the Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) conference in Washington, D.C. I target these important conferences so that I can learn about the application of new and cutting edge technologies in education, such as Hot Lava Software.” states Drs. De Vos. “In the TSS project we integrate this new technology and share this knowledge with our partners. That’s the reason that Hot Lava Software came into the picture as the leading company for mLearning solutions, as well as Hot Lava’s intense focus on innovation and their drive to be the best in their field of education and mLearning technology.”

“We are extremely honored and excited to be a part of such an outstanding project as the TSS Project. They are really making the Mobile Learning market come alive in Europe. Mobile Learning technology is fast becoming a very important part of everyday life in a lot of countries around the globe.” says Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava Software. “Making learning easier and more accessible through handheld learning is exigent for the continuance of today’s educational experience.”

“We have to invest a lot of effort in making people aware of the possibilities of Mobile Learning. In the Netherlands, the first projects initiated by the government have begun to investigate the possibilities for mLearning within Universities and Higher Education. In the UK, there are already huge conferences organized for Mobile Learning. In Germany, Mobile Learning is in its infancy. One of our main goals is to prepare an infrastructure in Europe for producing mobile content with all the possibilities users and developers need.” adds Drs. De Vos “People ask me many times: why Europe? The answer is very simple—Anytime, Anyplace Learning is an international activity of people all over the world and it is, in my opinion, a good idea to connect people with the purpose of making formal educational content (that is, content related to curriculum development), for eLearning and mLearning, available for all learners. For more information please visit: tsseurope.eu.

Contacts:

Bob Sanregret, CEO, Hot Lava
bobs@hotlavasoftware.com
+1 (703) 754-1218
http://www.hotlavasoftware.com/
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Drs. Albert de Vos, CEO, I.C.O. Europe
avjdevos@zeelandnet.nl
00+3(111) 855-8900
http://www.icosales.eu/
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Laisa Bernard, Marketing Specialist, Hot Lava
laisab@hotlavasoftware.com
+1 (479) 524-8468
http://www.hotlavasoftware.com/