Creating Learning Communities with Mobile DevicesMarie Bjerede

marieb@e-Mergents.com

@mbjerede

What is a mobile learning community?

• Students using mobile devices to access content anytime, any place• Web sites• Blogs• Forums

• Students collaborating outside the regular school day• Great for communities of practice, too

Why Learning Communities?

• Students learn better when they build understanding together

• Technology can provide content and lessons, but emotional support comes from other people

• Within communities students have the opportunity to explain and teach as well as learn, resulting in deeper understanding

Why Mobile?

• Any time, any place learning• Productivity in “snippets of time”• Learning and sharing with GPS, sensors, media capture

“When place doesn’t matter…or when place does matter

Technology Elements

• Devices with Internet Access beyond school• Cloud-based services• Wikis or web sites or blogs• e.g. Google Sites, Google blogs, Wordpress

• Social bookmarking• e.g. Diigo, delicious, digg

• Forums• e.g. Freeforum, phpbb

Community Elements

• Transition from:• Teacher-led to student-owned• Incentivized participation to self-interested participation• Facilitation to Moderation

• Multiple Models• Homework discussion• Project Collaboration• Open-ended Inquiry• Social

Setting Up a Web Site

• Free web sites from Google• Requires Google Account• https://sites.google.com/• Set up one per classroom• Classroom template already has many of the elements needed

for 1:1 learning• Updates are great for providing homework, project pages, etc.• File Box is perfect for turning in homework• Google docs can be used for individual homework or for

collaborative work

Setting up blogs

• Google Blogger: free blog sites available• Requires Google Account• http://www.blogger.com/home

• 5 minute setup – create one for each student/educator• Post articles, pictures, video

Setting up a Forum

• Free forums from Freeforums.org• http://www.freeforums.org/• Supports multiple languages

• Set up as needed:• One channel per class/subject for homework chat• One channel per group (class/grade/school) for social chat• One channel for each team project• One channel for each team open-ended inquiry

Putting it all together

• Student1 goes to website to find homework• Student1 watches the video and tries the problems• Student1 goes to the homework forum and asks for help• Student2 makes a quick video of himself solving the

problem and posts it on his blog• Student2 replies in the homework forum with a link to

the video he posted on his blog• Student1 watches the video, tries the problem again and

succeeds• Student1 turns in his homework via Google Docs to the

file cabinet

Communities of Practice in the Americas

• Graciously provided by Tomas Chaskell of Aula 2.0• AULA 2.0 • Aula 2.0 is the little sister of Classroom 2.0. Today it has 1500 members. The

main objective is to connect teacher from the continent but also through our webinars teach teachers new technologies that they could be introduce in their classrooms. Teachers also add articles to the blog and also events. 

• Some other networks in Americas include• Red Tebas• Red Excellere in Argentina• Red Educar Puerto Rico• Red Baja California, • Puentes al Mundo• Red Redem

Project K-Nect Links

• Project K-Nect in North Carolina was the catalyst for student communities of learning and the evolution of teacher practice

• Project K-Nect Web site: http://www.projectknect.org/• My article on K-Nect:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/03/cell-phones-in-classrooms.html