mLearning, Mobility and Change: Broadening the Conversation

Abstract of KeyNote to be presented at the University of Maryland.

Friday 23 April, 2010

(Tweets will be linked to this presentation)

The year 2010 is touted to be the year mobile devices move from the fringe of student learning to the centre of a personalized learning experience. There is no escaping the evidence from numerous surveys that young people see mobile phones, in particular, as their birthright, ultimately personalisable ubiquitous parts of their lives. This view of a mobile phone as an essential personal appendage is not always a view shared by many educators, particularly when disturbed by the incessant ring of a mobile phone at an inopportune moment. Mobile devices in education are often seen as distractions, or threats to learning rather than opportunities for engagement.

In higher education what are the drivers for change? There are a number of candidates. Some educators and techno-savvy innovators see opportunities for the use of rich media (video, audio, and student-initiated content creation), utilizing the social networking and technology skills of students for collaboration and engagement, while others question the need for change: ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. While technology moves very fast, we as educators often do not and whether we chose to accept it or not, change is upon us.

This presentation will examine pedagogy and practice of mLearning, the need to extend basic student literacies in the 21st Century, and issues of individual and institutional change in an effort to broaden the debate about how notions of mobility and mobile devices might contribute to the student learning experience and student learning outcomes.

To iPad or not to iPad: That is the question

iPad fever has reached its peak with opinions, first-impressions, hands-on reviews for the select few appearing everywhere, even making it to the front pages of national newspapers! Click HERE, and HERE and even more HERE from Engadget. The pundits are suggesting that it will revolutionize the personal computing experience and maybe, just maybe, kill off the mouse.

What does this mean for education? A large number of educators are scrambling to see if this (what looks like) persuasive, sexy and cool-looking device will really assist student learning. At least one (rich) institution has already indicated a very large commitment to developing iPad applications. And that is where the serious question resides: what affordances does the iPad offer that will make it the killer-product for education in addition to the rest? Read any number of writers on the use of technology in the classroom and they will talk about communication, student engagement (and not just with content), social networking and the like. Apple, however, talks about access to content via iTunes such as iBooks, movies, games and music. That is, consumption of content rather that creation of knowledge from the plethora of information that will now be available in a lightweight, attractive package. The latter is no where better exemplified by the comments by Rupert Murdoch, touting the iPad as the saviour of newpapers!

It is the work of app developers and maybe the next version of the iPad with camera (still and video), USB, and access to external media that may answer the questions and opportunities for education.

Visualising your language learning

This is not one of my usual foci, but it is a very powerful use of visualisation technologies which have been shown to enhance learning.

How do we get student to visualise the relationship between related terms when attempting to understand (fully) the nature of a concept. One more recent addition is the rather eye-catching VisuWords (http://www.visuwords.com/). Each colour represents a particular part of speech (nouns, verbs etc), while the arrows and their colours represent the relationships (synonym, homonyms etc).

If you roll-over the the words in circles, a small window pops up with more information. Try it and see! Besides being visually appealing, it also provides a better more engaging way to visualise the relationships that are part of the concept.

2010: The year the mWorld becomes mainstream?

I have deliberately used a provocative title based upon all of the articles that are appearing touting the rise of mobile computing in 2010, moving from the fringes of education to the center. But will it happen in higher education in the West? I am inclined to agree with Tony Bates when he suggests that the revolution will occur, but not where we might expect it to.

On a trip through Rajasthan in 2008, a relatively desolate place of sand and scrubby trees with little sign of habitation, I was constantly amazed to find a mobile presence - a connection to a mobile network on my mobile phone. More recently, attending a UNESCO event in Paris (Dec. 2009) I was intrigued and very engaged when the presenter talked about the impact that a project funded by Nokia was making on the lives of farmers in developing countries. Can you think of a more contrasting image to that above? Farming practices that have remained unchanged for hundreds of years, supplemented by real-time instant updates via a mobile phone to market prices for produce in the city.

In developing countries, where a small fraction of the population has access to a traditional library, the mobile phone provides a link to the internet for a much larger proportion of the population. The concept of learning via mobile phones is compelling, because that is the medium of communication and collaboration, providing access to the wider world, to markets, improving the fundamental aspects of peoples lives. In one sense, in developed countries we are too rich - we have so many other avenues by which we can access information, and so many alternative means available to us for collaboration.

Arguments for appropriate pedagogy when considering the use of technology in teaching and learning occasionally miss the point - pedagogy does not exist in a vacuum, anywhere. The local context, perceived educational needs and motivation, and the educational intent and knowledge of learning design of the teachers who design and develop learning activities are also key drivers that impact on the adoption of any technology - most especially mLearning. Having said that, it is clear that there is an unstoppable change occurring, with small mobile computing devices (netbooks, laptops and mobile phones in particular), outselling desktops. Mobile phones now have features that just a few years ago required a desktop with an ethernet connection. There seems to be an opportunity or two here to engage students with the technology they always carry and is always on.

Google wave

I like a number of others have been provided with a Google wave account. I have been looking at it for about two months now, and more than any other application in my experience, I am asking the question, does this have a place in education? If so, what is its place?

After I set up the account, I invited a number of people I know who are not afraid to try something new and guess what happened, after the initial flurry of exchanges, the communication channel died and for the past four weeks it has been entirely dormant. I have read one account of a professor that used Google wave as a means of communication between classes on different sides of the Atlantic, but that could have just as easily been accomplished using other, more well established and understood, mediums of communication. So to the occasional viewers of this blog, or visitors, do you have any examples to share? How was it evaluated? Would you use Google Wave again?

Voting with their virtual feet!

Here is evidence of an unanticipated outcome for teaching, learning, the impact of technology and the increase in the offerings of the open-content and courseware in last week's Chronicle of Higher Education. Not withstanding the claimed importance and engagement (by some) of face-2-face classes and the potential for direct engagement, students are voting with their virtual feet to get their education from online courses being published by the likes of MIT or Harvard or the University of New South Wales (some quite popular courses). See HERE or http://chronicle.com/article/Students-Find-Free-Online/48776/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

This recent story begs several questions, not the least of which is: "What happens when your line manager/ Departmental Head finds out (from the ubiquitous teaching and learning evaluations that every student in universities and colleges completes at the end of every course) that the students in your class prefer an online presentation from you?" What does this mean for staff evaluations of teaching? How is likely to impact on tenure and promotion? What does this mean for student enrollments, university reputation, and esteem to which a department is held?

Good teaching is not really a secret. Good teaching includes such things as profound knowledge of the subject domain, being focused on key concepts and ideas rather than just covering the content domain, being pro-active in addressing student learning problems and responding quickly through a variety of channels, having high expectations of students, employing teaching and learning strategies that are aligned with the activities, elements of assessment and intended learning outcomes, a commitment to support and encourage independent learning, and an ability to motivate and engage students, to name a few key factors. Good teaching is not necessarily easy either.

I am not for one second taking the view that teaching is more important than research output in such questions related to tenure and promotion (not in my part of the world anyway) but teaching does count for most academic staff in their performance reviews. Very poor reviews such as those articulated by the students in the Chronicle article would not sit well with senior staff concerned about the reputation of the university (at least not in my institution). Ultimately, students may initially vote with their virtual feet for a few classes or lectures, but eventually they are likely to take their custom elsewhere as well. Something for all of us involved in teaching and learning to remember.

I remember my first year undergraduate physics lecturer well - but not kindly. If I could have gone elsewhere at that time, I would have!

Comments welcome.

Research article on mobile learning

The impact and effect of using for mobiles for learning can be a mixed bag. This recent publication (finally, :-) ) highlights some of the issues, most particularly the impact of learning design (particularly assessment), and students' perceptions of what may or may not be important for their learning. The paper has been ranked in the top 10 most accessed articles in September - really pleasing to know.

Vogel, D., Kennedy, D. & Kwok, R. (2009). Does Using Mobile Device Applications Lead to Learning?. Journal of Interactive Learning Research. 20 (4), pp. 469-485. Chesapeake, VA: AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/29431.

The paper may be found HERE.
The students have the devices, use them socially and, to a limited extent, for learning. However, what is interesting is that the key issues of 'what will be assessed?', what instruments will be used for assessment?', and 'what are students' perceptions of what is important in learning?' are still constants. Comments welcome.