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Podcast Host: Leonard Low
Website: http://mlearning.edublogs.org
Location: Canberra Institute of Technology, Australia
Mobile Learning is an online journal of current practice in the use of digital mobile devices, such as PDAs, cellphones, and iPods, as educational tools for enhancing teaching and learning.
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11/11/2009 | Download File (0.54 MB) - right click to download
Leonard Low University of Canberra, November 2009 ABSTRACT: Since July 2007 there have been more mobile phones in operation in Australia than there are people; and when you add in the other mobile, digital devices that ordinary Australians own – such as media players, digital cameras, and portable computing devices – it is apparent that there are tremendous tools for personal and lifelong learning in the pockets of our students. Unfortunately, there is an equally enormous mental rift between the way these devices are perceived by most users (who usually view these devices as being for entertainment or personal communications only), and the way they need to be perceived if they are to be used to their ultimate potential: as digital "pocket knives" of tools for creation and learning. This paper draws a comparison with personal computer users who view computers as primarily an entertainment or communications device; discusses user resistance to the intrusion of "work" into their "personal" spaces; and makes the case that changing user attitudes is just as important as training user skills, if we want to unleash the hidden power of ubiquitous mobile devices for personal and lifelong learning. Author's Notes Educators have contemplated the possible benefits of using mobile technologies for learning for decades, and hundreds of scholarly articles have been published in recent years on the potential affordances of mobile devices for facilitating, supporting, and enhancing learning. With so much interest, speculation and research into the use of mobile devices for learning, and with such broad availability and affordability of mobile devices, why hasn't there been a corresponding surge in the use of these devices in educational contexts? Why aren't students already using their mobile devices for personal and lifelong learning? Two dominant strategies have emerged in relation to ownership of digital devices for mobile learning: one in which a uniform set of devices is provided to all learners to overcome barriers of platform diversity and device access, on a temporary or permanent basis; and an alternative strategy which leverages the mobile devices already owned by students (regardless of interoperability) for learning activities. I believe there are problems with both strategies – problems which currently present psychological barriers to the adoption of mobile devices as learning tools, despite their many affordances. In the first instance, a school or institution may provide, sell, or direct students to purchase a particular mobile device, for example, an Apple iPhone, for the purpose of study. In cases where devices are loaned to students on a temporary basis, students generally have very little time to develop proficiency or fluency in the use of the device. Better outcomes are evident in cases where students are allowed to retain devices for longer periods of time to develop proficiency and personalise devices to suit individual usage preferences, but the expense of buying these "standard" devices (either for the organisation, or for the student) can make this strategy difficult to implement. In the second scenario, an educator may draw on the mobile tools that students already own. One major difficulty with this approach is the wide range of mobile devices owned by students, which are as divergent in capabilities for communications and networking, media playback and capture, and application customisation as you can imagine. However the perceived advantage with this approach is that it allows students to use the tools they are already most familiar with for the purpose of learning. This paper looks at this particular issue – the use of personal mobile devices for learning – and posits that the "personal" nature of these devices is a double-edged sword: it improves flexibility and reduces cost of participation, but at the risk of students feeling like learning is imposing on their "personal spaces". TBC… addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmlearning.edublogs.org%2F2009%2F11%2F11%2Fthe-genie-in-the-bottle-unleashing-the-hidden-power-of-personal-mobile-devices-for-learning-november-2009%2F'; addthis_title = 'The+Genie+in+the+Bottle%3A+Unleashing+the+hidden+power+of+personal+mobile+devices+for+learning+%28November+2009%29'; addthis_pub = '';
11/11/2009 | Download File (0.21 MB) - right click to download
I've been kindly invited a mobile learning research workshop at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in a couple of weeks, facilitated by Laurel Dyson and Andrew Litchfield, members of the Technology and Education Design and Development (TEDD) Research Group at UTS. Laurel and Andrew have been involved with quite a bit of recent research into mobile learning, with a summary of their research contained in this ASCILITE paper: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/dyson.pdf. In this workshop, we'll be working together to share our experiences in m-learning, develop at least one ARC Discovery Grant proposal for 2010, and possibly other m-learning projects (e.g. ALT-C), and to launch an Australasian Special Interest Group around m-learning. I thought I would share some of the Key Research Questions here, as I prepare for my involvement in this workshop. Some of these questions point at topical issues in the development of mobile learning strategies – issues that all mobile learning developers and researchers will need to grapple with: How can we best incorporate mobile technologies into designs and strategies for improved learning? What are the best approaches to achieve sustainable, low-cost mobile learning? How can mobiles enable more engagement and interactivity in lectures? Interrogating anywhere anytime learning What are the best-practice mLearning activities for each discipline? addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmlearning.edublogs.org%2F2009%2F11%2F11%2Fmobile-learning-research-workshop%2F'; addthis_title = 'Mobile+Learning+Research+Workshop'; addthis_pub = '';
10/29/2009 | Download File (0.20 MB) - right click to download
The latest edition of "The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009" has just been released by the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research. This report provides insights into the ways in which students use, and would like to use, various technologies in their own lives and in their learning. Some of the "m-learning" findings across 39 institutions include: students are switching from desktop PCs (71% in 2006, down to 44% in 2009) to laptops (65.4% in 2006 to 88.3% in 2009). one-third of students own and use Internet services from a handheld device, with another third of students owning or planning to acquire a handheld, internet-capable device in the next 12 months. "Asked to select the three institutional IT services they are most likely to use, if available, from an Internet-capable handheld device, responents who currently own a handheld device and use the INternet from it selected as their top three e-mail system (63.4%), student administrative services (official grades, registration, etc.) (46.8%), and course or learning management system (45.7%)." (pg 11). via Tony Bates' e-learning & distance education resources addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmlearning.edublogs.org%2F2009%2F10%2F29%2Feducause-report-on-undergraduate-student-use-of-technology%2F'; addthis_title = 'EDUCAUSE+Report+on+Undergraduate+Student+use+of+Technology'; addthis_pub = '';
10/23/2009 | Download File (0.20 MB) - right click to download
An article in the respected Australian newspaper has showcased the new mobile student support website recently implemented by Curtin University of Technology. Dubbed "CurtinMobile," the service was developed in response to the growing use of, and demand for, supported mobile platforms and services: Chief information officer Peter Nikelotatos said 99 per cent of Curtin's students had mobile phones and 75 per cent of those phones were web-enabled. "What we wanted was an application layer that recognised that our students were using netbooks and smartphone devices more and more and they wanted to be able to access a lot more information through these devices rather than desktop PCs," he said. In addition to the current provision of mobile student information and services, Curtin is looking into the future use of mobile devices for learning: "Areas that we want to explore a lot more are integration opportunities with our learning management system and a lot more around emergency and critical incident management and integration from an international perspective," [Mr Nikelotatos] said. What is *your* institution or organisation doing to cater for the growing use of mobile, web-connected, devices? The mobile device industry is the fastest-growing sector in the IT and web markets, and making good use of mobile platforms will soon be as important for universities asmaking good use of the internet. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmlearning.edublogs.org%2F2009%2F10%2F23%2Faustralian-uni-goes-mobile%2F'; addthis_title = 'Australian+uni+goes+mobile%21'; addthis_pub = '';
10/7/2009 | Download File (0.14 MB) - right click to download
Apparently, Microsoft released their "answer" to the iPhone today: a refreshed version of their Windows Mobile operating system, skinned with an iPhone-like icon-driven navigation system, dubbed "Windows Mobile 6.5″. And here it is: I have no idea how a company can be involved in software development for so many years and still mess up the fundamental principles of interface design. Those offset icons have "fail" all over them. There is a reason that good interfaces arrange icons into grids – it's so that the eye can quickly scan across them, left to right, up and down, to find the information or application required. While offsetting them like that might look trendy, it's terribly bad for actual use. The rest of the system looks pretty much like vanilla Windows Mobile. C'mon Microsoft, you'll have to do better than that if you want to claw back market (and mind) share! addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fmlearning.edublogs.org%2F2009%2F10%2F07%2Fmicrosoft-iphail-released%2F'; addthis_title = 'Microsoft+iPhail+released'; addthis_pub = '';
