Search
Most Shared Posts
-
Recent Posts
Follow mobl21
Tags
educational technology education technology General Howard School instructional activities ipad ipod touch learning alternatives learning assets learning environments learning pedagogies M-learning m-learning on iPad microlearning mlearning Mlearning Pilot mobile devices Mobile Eduation mobile education mobile elearning Mobile Learning mobile learning app mobile learning applications Mobile Learning Cartoon Mobile Learning Case Study Mobile Learning Challenges mobile learning in classrooms mobile learning initiative mobile learning pilot mobile learning pilots mobile learning program Mobile Learning Timeline Mobile Learning Tools Mobile phones Mobile Pilot Mobile Technology mobile technology in education mobl21 Nikola Tesla Parent-Teen Cell Phone Survey Podcasts quality learning teaching methodologies u-learning ubiquitous learningCategories
Archives
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
Follow mobl21
Monthly Archives: July 2011
5 Steps to Ensure Success of your M-Learning Initiative
Aim at short-term, problem solving goals.
First identify what immediate learning issues, mobile learning could help solve. For example, could m-learning help biology students learn and memorize their taxonomy? Could it get algebra students to recollect and apply formulae correctly?
Utilize the content you have.
Take a look at what content you have easy access to, and use that first for your mobile learning program. Understand the issues involved in getting your existing content ready for a mobile device environment.
Work with existing devices.
Devices are a big expenditure. Rather than investing upfront, encourage students to bring in whatever mobile device they have and get an idea of what features are common and available to all. See if students can share between them.
Gain student usage and acceptance.
It’s easier to solve problems and identify potential hiccups while working on a small scale. Your mobile learning pilot will therefore enable you to understand the problems student face, and whether they are getting any learning value out of using the mobile devices.
Identify long-term strategies.
Once you’ve worked on small scale, it’s easier to expand by adding more lessons, chapters or even subjects. Now look at long-term strategies with what you’ve learned about the potential of mobile learning. Will implementing m-learning help an entire grade with test prep, or as remedial learning for students who need more exercises and revisions?
Getting into m-learning can be easy, if you start small and learn before scaling for entire grades and subjects. The important thing is to get started.
10 Questions to Ask Before Investing in an M-Learning Solution
1. Is the m-learning system applicable to any subject or grade?
2. Does the m-learning system work across multiple devices?
3. Does it provide you with information on learning usage, measurement and reporting?
4. Must users always be connected to learn on their devices using the m-learning system?
5. How many different types of learning interactions does the m-learning system support?6. How does the m-learning system enable collaboration between students-students and students-teachers?
7. Does the m-learning system provide a way to manage multiple users, classes, authors, etc.?
8. Will the m-learning system support delivery of images, video, animations, texts, html links and audio?
9. Does it provide a way to import or bulk upload digitized lessons?
10. Does it offer any communication tools like text messaging, chat and voice communication within the system?
Ways to get technology into class despite budget cuts
Have students bring their own devices to class
Take a count of how many mobile devices are owned in your class. Then get permission from parents/school authorities to have kids bring these devices, maybe for just one day of the week to start with. Depending on the number, students can divide into groups and share.
Borrow an iPad2 and projector, and voila! you have an interactive whiteboard
Can you get access to an iPad2 and projector? If so, you now have an interactive whiteboard and access to 1000s of free, interactive applications. The iPad2 has a “mirroring” capability, which means that the screen will mirror anything on its display as a projection. So a student can work with a fun app on fractions while the classroom watches or you can teach using a great online resource, all from the borrowed iPad2.
Use free multimedia tools
In the article, 7 essential multimedia tools and their free alternatives, the author has listed out excellent options for some of the basic multimedia tools your students may need for their projects and reports.
Research for free apps or web resources
Offer students the option to check out which resource they want to go to look into. This can be done at home or in class. Follow up with which groups felt had the best content and why? What did they learn that other groups did not?
Get students to create an online resource of their own
If students feel the online lesson was inadequate or simply boring, how would they do it differently? Ask them to sketch a mobile educational app, or enact an online video. Give them a project that uses technology to best convey the lesson. You’ll know if they’ve learned anything, and they’ll have fun, and (who knows!) you may be able to use their self-generated material next year.
Start a used device collection drive
At some point or the other someone in your community is upgrading their device to the next best thing. What happens to their old device? It probably goes to their kids. Why not have your class start a campaign for used smartphones and tablets, which will be used in classroom. Look at how Travis Allen, Founder and President of the iSchool Initiative is getting donations, or Steve Glinberg’s iPhone/iPod touch Recycling Program.
Why the iPad is such a great learning device
Across the US, universities and schools see the iPad as the device which will take classroom education truly into the digital era. Educators in particular, feel that tablets will change education because they dovetail with the goals and purposes of education in the digital age.
Let’s look at the features that make the iPad such a great learning device.
Touch Screen Usability
The touch screen of the iPad has extended Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in a way that mimics human gestures. The iPad touch screen enables intuitive touch to interact with computers, bypassing mouse-click and PC learning requirements, and getting straight into the action. While adults with ingrained technology habits consider the lack of keyboard a problem, digital natives have a different perspective.
Kids who haven’t learned to read or operate a remote, are picking up the iPad’s interface with remarkable speed. According to June 2010 Ad Age article “How the iPad Became Child’s Play – and Learning Tool”, after using the device, toddlers as young as 18 months try to interface with TVs and monitors as if they were touch screens too, indicating how intuitive this technology may be to the iPad generation.
Single Screen User Interface
The iPad does not provide users the ability to read information from multiple sources simultaneously on a single screen through windows. This perceived shortcoming makes the iPad prone to criticism as a productivity device. However as a learning tool, the iPad’s single-screen interface reduces elements of interruption and potentially enhances user orientation to a specific task.
An abundance of features can be a disturbance to the cognitive process and educators often prefer mobile devices without distracting features like messaging and phone calls.
The single screen user interface may help students stick to their assignments, as closing and launching other applications takes time and can be monitored in class. In fact teachers at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Kamuela feel the iPad’s flat screen also makes it harder to hide surreptitious surfing.
A Better eReader
The iPad’s Book Reader is one of its most popular features and already outpacing Amazon’s Kindle according to data released by Student Monitor, a firm that researches consumption trends among college students.
Their March 2010 survey of 1,200 students at 100 colleges, indicates that of students who reported interest in buying an e-reader, 46% said they favored the iPad, versus 38% for Kindle. That works out to around 782,000 students who might soon buy the iPad for its e-reader capabilities alone.
Convergence & Productivity
Long ago, school children only needed a slate and chalk for all learning. Similarly, today’s tablets can provide for every kind of learning requirement without external devices like a mouse or keyboard.
Modern educators are voicing the need for learning to be more contextual and engaging. Mobile phones and digital whiteboards add a level of interactivity, but not a lot of computing power, and a laptop is not always convenient.
The iPad fills this gap by enabling a host of activities such as referencing, collaborating and content creation. In an August 2010 Wired.com article, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet”, the transformation from open web browsing to specialized apps was a change driven by the Apple model of mobile computing. The iPad leverages this trend by providing personalized choice of content, a big plus for students users.
