Wednesday, 3 October 2007
Mobile learning - issues and opportunities
Having just been interviewed about mobile learning for the new WolF project, I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts!
Good examples of mobile learning:
There are several good examples of podcasting in the IMPALA project
Students doing work-based learning and work placements benefit from mobile learning in a variety of ways:There are some examples of research projects in this area at the Assessment and Learning in Practice Settings CETL
- contact with tutors
- contact with other students
- maintaining contact with the learning community even while out on placement
- making notes for reflection, e.g., moblogging (could include an assessment element)
- taking videos for own use or to feed back to the class
- small formative assessment tasks
Adding a Mobile Dimension to Teaching and Learning is a network of researchers diedicated to the use of mobile learning.
The Kaleidoscope network also has an mlearning Special Interest Group.
Issues with mobile learningHow I would like to use mobile learning in my teaching
- Cost of technology and of connections - who buys the PDA and pays for sending the student's video back to the course wiki at £1 per megabyte?
- Security of technology - "what if I lost the PDA?"
- Lack of familiarity with technology - especially for mature students
- Preferred learning styles - I would myself prefer a written or web version of a lecture rather than an entirely audio podcast for example (unless it's of Radio 4 quality!)
- Students preferring to use iPods and phones for leisure and not for learning, however informal.
- Issues of identity - who is handling the phone?
I teach writing to lifelong learners in an entirely online course. One of the tasks that I like my students to do is to get out into the outdoors, the countryside if possible, and go on a "haiku walk" using nature as inspiration. At the moment they take notebooks and pens, and write up their haiku in the forum in the VLE when they get back to their desks. Maybe they use laptops or PDAs, I don't know! It would be interesting to have them create their haiku and share it via PDA while still out "in the field".
And it's not my course - but I'd love to see the "pondcasting" that a colleague suggested as a way of assessing the field work his students do on water ecology.
Mobile learning and assessmentThe future of mobile learning
- definite possibilities for formative assessment
- sending multiple choice questionnaires via PDA
- moblogging to create a reflective journal
I guess I'm a bit controversial here. I'm expecting that mobile devices and the PC will converge and a small wearable computer - that is also a phone - will become the norm. The affordances for learning will be related to but different from current mobile devices. Perhaps I've seen too much Sci-Fi...
I am about to purchase a PDA for personal and professional use - does anyone have any recommendations? I'd like one with a slide-out keyboard, Bluetooth, camera, radio, etc. that does WiFi where it's available as well as 3G.Labels: mlearning, mobile learning, PDAs
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:00 AM
Comments:
Have you considered getting an UMPC instead of a PDA?
The PDA's main advantage is battery life, most UMPCs won't last more than a couple of hours, but they are getting better.
one of the few devices which meets all your needs is the Nokia N95.
The PDA's main advantage is battery life, most UMPCs won't last more than a couple of hours, but they are getting better.
one of the few devices which meets all your needs is the Nokia N95.
Nice idea - looks like a cool device! Funny though, the Nokia website mentions audio, video, photos and other graphics but nowhere mentions what you can do with text - I will have to find out whether it's just the "texting" type of text or whether I can make real notes that can transfer to my computer. My in-house technical adviser - although recommending me to have a look around - pooh-poohed this suggestion in a way that makes me think he already has a definite idea what he wants me to choose ...
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