T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - Developing m-Portal - pedagogical issues The European Schoolnetworks

m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.org

T R I B A L

Developing m-Portal - pedagogical issues

The European Schoolnetworks Conference

New Technologies and Pedagogies, the Keys to Collaboration

Saturday, 15 February 09.30 – 11.00

Workshop Strand 3 The Open School: New Pedagogies in New Spaces

Alice Mitchell

M-Portal project leader

Ultralab

www.ultralab.net

October 2002


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October 2002

The m-Learning project

M-Learning - a pan-European project

Harnessing mobile technologies to promote learning

M-Portal development

SMS and MMS, push technologies, mobile games

Need for a shared pedagogy for m-learning


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October 2002

The m-Learning project

Project No: IST-2001-37187

Project Full Name: Mobile Communications Technologies for Young Adult Learning and Skills Development

Duration: 36 months Start date: October 1st 2001

Countries involved: Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom


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m--Learning consortium

Ultralab, Chelmsford, UK

The Learning and Skills DevelopmentAgency (LSDA), London, UK

Centre of Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Salerno, Italy

Cambridge Training & Development, Cambridge, UK

Lecando AB, Bromma, Sweden


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Why m-Learning?

“… one in five adults has less literacy than is expected of an 11-year-old” Skills for life

“In 1996 … a quarter of nineteen-year-olds were functionally illiterate” Basic Skills Agency

“Inertia and fatalism …are our chief enemies. We must be bold and imaginative to overcome them” Skills for Life


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How to reach them?

Using mobile technologies to: engage disaffected learners improve their Basic Skills re-connect them with learning

Using our combined strengths as: 2 university based research centres (UK & Italy) 2 e-learning companies (Sweden & UK) 1 educational research & development charity (UK)


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The challenges

A ‘high-risk’ project: 4 difficult and diverse areas:

new, emerging and rapidly developing technologies

developing learning content for devices with limited input/output functionality

target audiences who are disaffected and difficult to reach

Need for new pedagogic approaches


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Browser (big) Browser (small) IPAQVoice XML SMS

Learning Management SystemCourses, projects chat, forums

LIA

Content

m-Portal optional login - you can customise your environment

What? - System overview

Underpinning research

Underpinning research


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M-Portal research

Technology Watch: mobile technologies and their potential for promoting autonomous learning

Field research: needs, preferences, attitudes and habits of young adult phone users


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m-Portal layer


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Learner management tools

LMS - a learning environment for participants and tutor/mentors

Facilitates administration

Complements m-Portal with Forum discussions and chat functionality

Uses CRMPA Learning Intelligent Agent to make personalised learning paths to CTAD’s material


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m-Portal - pedagogical issues

Computers are increasingly powerful and complex,

but with an interface that presents an illusion of simplicity.

How can we make the interface easy to use?

How can we make it powerful and empowering?

How do we engage and support the disaffected learner?


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Features of progressivist environments

Promoting creativity, independence and interdependence - and delight in learning

Teacher as a facilitator/mentor rather than a knowledge provider

Students learn what they want and need to know

Wanting to learn and knowing how to learn are more important than acquiring factual knowledge

Their own evaluation - a meaningful judgement of their work

Learning takes place when students are feeling at ease


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M-Portal environment

M-Portal is designed as a progressivist environment, to promote:

Innate curiosity

Choice of activity

Emphasis on group and individual discovery

Learner self-direction and self-expression

Open communication

Mutual respect between participants


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Interactivity and collaborative learning

However the success of m-Portal will lie in the extent to which it is:

easy to use

engaging

able to foster a culture of learning

promotes interactivity and enquiry-based, social learning


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m-Portal Overview

Café

Portal Constructor

My Microportal

Forum

Other Microportals

MLWorld

Buddies

Study/Library

ContactsMentors


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m-Portal Screens


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m-Portal Screens

•Currently small browser based

•Uses database of known devices for layout detection

•English and Italian

•Direct access to LMS and Learning Materials

•‘My microportal’ functionality allows users to select, annotate and create


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m-Portal Screens

This is some info about me blah blah blah etc etc etc etc.

Contenutiaggiundi Found this helped with interest...Cool Italian English DictionaryMy short story


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Potential of mobile technologies to support learning

Importance of IPv6 and Broadband:

Ipv6 swings the axis of control of the infrastructure towards common good and public service organisations - a significant contributor to the European Union push for open source and non proprietary software environments.

Symmetry is a key component of a broadband learning environment - learners put in and contribute rather than simply download and interact.


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Potential growth areas

Wireless email and groupware - strong potential for m-learning

Technical benefits of asynchronous environments - reduced queries and ‘user idle time’ - controlled communication costs - a good choice for m-learning applications - people prefer it


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New generation mobile devices

Convergence of phones and PDA’s:

more bandwidth and speed to transfer data

handsets turning into ‘world phones’ or ‘microbrowsers’

e-mail, sound files, other data

daylight viewable, tactile screens with high resolution

more affordable AND significantly more processing power …

your phone is fast becoming your computer!


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SMS, MMS, mobile games

SMS - more than just a passing fad - a communication medium integral to young people’s lives

Clear market push towards MMS - but premium rate activities

Mobile games - the next ‘killer application’?

We should remain ambitious for the future


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Need for a shared pedagogy

We need an overarching, progressivist m-learning pedagogy that will:

accommodate different learner perspectives in developing learning strategies, models and applications

support virtual networked and collaborative learning

support ambient learning


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Discussion

What specific added value/s can you identify for using m-Portal with your students?

How could it provide you with the information you need about what students have learned?

What are key pedagogical issues for m-learning?

Documents

T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - Developing m-Portal - pedagogical issues The European Schoolnetworks