Mobile Learning: Ready to Move On?

Mobile Learning: Ready to Move On?

John Traxler

University of Wolverhampton

the topic:

strategic aspects of mobile learning

whether mobile learning, however innovative, technically feasible and pedagogically sound, has a chance of sustained, wide-scale deployment in

UK HE in the foreseeable future

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based on:

• JISC Landscape Study on the use of mobile and wireless technologies for learning and teaching in the post-16 sector

• Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers– Both with Agnes Kukulska-Hulme of IET, OU

first

setting the scene with some examples


PSPs

Project started April 2003Roger Kneebone & Harry Brenton


• A new role, the Perioperative Specialist Practitioner (PSP), will expand the surgical team, providing preoperative/ postoperative care through the patient’s journey.

• PSPs will become key surgical team members, providing continuity of care. Work will include:

– Preoperative assessment

– Communication with patients and their relatives

– Performing procedures

– Recognising and managing routine postoperative problems

– Managing discharge process

– Teaching members of the surgical team

the issues


technologies

• Compaq iPAQ 3970

• Foldable keyboard

• Docking cradle

• PPC

• ABCDB Database for activity logging

• Pocket Word


student evaluation• The majority of PSPs had not used a PDA before the

project

• Participants like using PDAs, but only if they save time

• Foldable keyboards are essential for written reflections

• Current technical problems in activity logging are a significant obstacle to everyday use

• Ready access to medical reference material would be valued

» From observation and interview studies


Using Personal Digital Assistants to Support

Students

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the issues

• non-traditional students– parents, mature, no formal

qualifications– unused to higher education

• substantial part-time work– attendance and performance

“at-risk”

• personal information management skills

• complexity of mass HE– rooming– modularity– timetabling

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student evaluationGeneral

– enthusiasm, interest– street/leisure image

• links to cameras, mp3 etc

Specific– revision, convenience,

access, portability

But– Mugging– Extra box– Data Protection– Short-term “buy-in”– Entry-level PDA model

• No WiFi, no email, no web but students found games

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smartphones at Sussex

• SMILE Project– Sussex Mobile Interactive Learning

Environment• Sussex University COGS

• course: Interactive Learning Environments

• students: – 19 third-yr u/g, 9 p/g students

– Rose Luckin et al

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technologies

• O2 XDA with full Internet access

• MS Office, email, browser, logging, GPRS, yahoo group, QuickTime, media player

• based on “conversational” theory

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student evaluation

• Students logged onto course web-site at normal lecture time and followed PowerPoint presentation– used interactive polls

– joined online discussion

• Issues (from feedback)– “ownership”

– reliability

– ergonomic

– functionality

second

possible definitions and abstractions

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mobile learning

“any educational provision where the sole or dominant technologies are handheld or palmtop devices”

“including mobile ‘phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and their peripherals”

not stable, no consensus, too technocentric

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mobile learning

mobile learning is technology supported learning

spontaneous, personal, portable, lightweight, situated, bite-sized, unobtrusive, disruptive, ubiquitous, informal, pervasive

constrained, minimal, primitive

costs differently

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mobile learning

e-learning

m-learning

Tablet PCSMS

MMS

PDA

PC

smartphone

laptop

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mobile learning

e-learning

m-learning

interactive

multimedia

hyper-linkedsituated

personal

spontaneous

informalconnected

media-rich

portablecontext-aware

personalised

a new paradigm???

structured

lightweight

massiveusable

accessible

intelligent

institutional

?

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mobile learning modes

latency

usability

connectivity

PC

SMS

PDA

laptop

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mobile learning - pedagogies

• supports a range of– conceptions of teaching– styles of learning

• has a range of affordances– depending on institution, curriculum, devices, costs etc

– deserving a place in the blend

• uniquely enables situated learning

• exploits dead time

lastly

the strategic question

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strategic issues

» those issues that the mobile learning community must address if mobile learning is to become viable on a large-scale sustainable basis

» issues governed by

– Resources– ie finance

– Culture– ie organisation, its practices, values and procedures

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strategic issues

• implies parity with other forms of provision and delivery in terms of:– costs, funding, resourcing– quality, validation– reliability– scaling and sustaining– monitoring and evaluation– legal expectations

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strategic issues - resourcing

– projects– fixed-term/small-scale access to funds

• perhaps refine or answer research questions– part of institutional ‘project economy’

– niches– small-scale but sustainable

• specific subjects– eg nursing, teaching practice

• specific pedagogies– fieldwork

• particular constituencies – eg EO, assistivity, WP, full-cost added-value

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strategic issues – possible trends

• Popular, retail and commercial markets driving mobile device design and pricing– Education appropriating/adapting mobile

devices – intended for commercial, business, leisure markets

• Slowly increasing urban and campus connectivity– favouring laptops over PDAs and phones

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• Institutional caution on mobile learning with PDAs

» SENDA, usability;

» network security;

» diversity/fluidity of devices, platforms and systems;

» lack of staff expertise;

» interoperability with VLEs, portals, e-Portfolios, learning objects;

» procurement, maintenance, ownership issues

strategic overview – possible trends

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• PDAs in education squeezed by • smarter phones (PIM functions, universal

ownership),

• USB sticks (content delivery, cheap),

• laptops (wireless connectivity, reformist technology)


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• SMS breaking through to institutional/large-scale use,

– assuming tariffs stable;

– operators trying to develop GPRS, MMS and 3G markets (and recoup licence fees)

• increasing but unsupported PDA use by academic staff but possibly even greater laptop usage (and home-working);

– continued concern about cost issues, working day, stress


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• continued difficulties funding ‘second-generation’ pilots or large-scale trials with PDAs in FE/HE

• eg across institutions, across subjects

• inclusion arguments for funding mobile technologies gaining some ground in HE/FE

• WP, EO, SENDA etc

• retention


Thanks for your attention

Questions and Reactions?

John Traxler

Documents

Mobile Learning: Ready to Move On?