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
Tag Archives: M-learning
9 Ways Mobile is Moving into Academia
Staff writers at Best Colleges Online have put together a great article on the nine ways mobile devices are expanding in the academic world.
Below is an edited version of the article:
Mobile phones are ubiquitous among students, both in college and K-12. And while some schools shun the use of cell phones, others are embracing them as a powerful tool. Marketing, learning, and mobile access are just some of the ways academia is taking advantage of what mobile has to offer.
EXPANDING UNIVERSITY APPS AND MOBILE WEB: Universities around the world have learned the value of mobile devices, publishing iPhone and Android apps, mobile-optimized sites, and more, that have allowed students and visitors to find campus news, maps, and other helpful resources right in their phones.
NOMADIC LEARNING: The beauty of learning everywhere is that students can learn outside of the classroom, not having to worry about the world going on without them while they’re locked up inside. Podcasted classes, real-time scavenger hunts, and mobile games are all great examples of learning on-the-go that can be created by traditional educators, and employed by otherwise traditional students.
AUGMENTED REALITY LEARNING SCENARIOS: Mobile phones make it possible to learn anywhere, but with augmented reality learning scenarios, students can really learn anywhere and even any time. Going beyond convenience, through augmented reality mobile technology on GPS-enabled handheld devices, students can find information from different locations outdoors, like on a playground or school field.
MOBILE APPS FOR EDUCATION: Although overall mobile apps have a long way to go in classroom education, they are making great progress. Apps that allow students to explore constellations, for example, offer a great way to interact in the classroom.
TWITTER FEEDBACK IN CLASS: Through Twitter, lecture halls full of hundreds of students can all participate at the same time, tweeting comments, questions, and more using their laptops and cell phones. TAs and professors can respond to the real-time feed, and the entire classroom can watch as it goes by. Students enjoy being able to overcome the shyness barrier, and the entire classroom benefits from increased participation.
MOBILE LIBRARY ACCESS: For years, the only way to access academic libraries was to physically make your way down there and get familiar with the stacks. With the Internet, that’s changed, allowing students and researchers to log in from any computer and enjoy many of the resources that libraries have to offer. But with mobile devices, the game is further changed, allowing for the use of eBooks in academic reading, mobile library database access, and simple library notifications.
MOBILE PHONE PAYMENTS: Anyone who’s tried to get lunch during the afternoon rush on a college campus can tell you that things get a little crazy, especially when it comes to paying for food. With mobile devices, schools have the opportunity to streamline the process, using phones to buy food and beverages through secure transactions.
MOBILE MARKETING: To be a good marketer, you’ve got to go where your target market is, and for colleges, their target market is on cell phones. Research from Ball State University indicates that 97% of all U.S. college students own a cell phone. The University of Louisville and other colleges have capitalized on this opportunity, using QR codes, SMS marketing, and the aforementioned mobile apps to connect with prospective students.
MOBILE POP QUIZZES: Student response systems, which allow teachers to get digital answers from students in their class, usually cost about $1,200 for each classroom. But by using existing student cell phones, that price tag is quickly slashed to just $50 a year. In addition to quizzes, teachers are able to use cell phones for testing, homework assignments, and more, encouraging students to educationally engage with their phones instead of using them as a distraction.
The Mobile Learning Experience is approaching!
Check out Tony Vincent’s very interesting post about the upcoming Mobile Learning Experience 2012.
EXCERPT: Classroom teachers, technology coordinators, administrators, special educators, and others interested in reaching today’s students are gathering in Phoenix, Arizona April 11-13 for Mobile Learning Experience 2012.
Mobile Learning Experience 2012 has already received registrations from all over the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It’s very powerful to network with those in attendance. In fact, even if there was no program the conference would still be incredible because of the passion those in attendance bring.
A Day in the Life of an M-Learner
Posted in infographic, Mobile Learning
Tagged 21st century learner, infographic, M-learning, m-learning student
Leave a comment
Designing Mobile Learning Material
Mobile Learning offers users the ability to access content from their devices wherever they are. That being said, how does one decide which content, and in what form, is suitable for mobile device viewing and on-the-go learning?
Designing good, usable content for mobile learning can seen to relate to the interaction design research (e.g. Jones & Marsden, 2006), which offers general principles for human-computer interaction on mobile devices. These have been supplemented by more specific findings from mobile learning projects (Naismith and Corlett, 2006).
These general principles are:
- create quick and simple interactions,
- prepare flexible material, that can be accessed across contexts,
- consider special affordances of mobile devices that might add to the learner experience (for example, the use of audio; or employing anonymity of the user),
- use mobile technology not just to ‘deliver’ learning, but to facilitate it,
- make use of the features in the mobile devices for voice communication, note-taking, photography, and time management.
It must be kept in mind that the learning content, (and not the mobile technology itself) must be the core focus of any mobile learning initiative.
- Once the learning objective is defined look at various ways of delivering content that will work towards that objective.
- Fragment the content into slivers of information, which can be consumed in 10 minute periods.
- See how audio, video and animation can be used to support the subject material
- Check for free app that provide interactive activities, which would reinforce the learning
- Locate and list veritable blogs and discussion groups which allow email entries for queries
Mobile learning opens subtle channels of communication, which can encourage students who don’t actively participate in classes to respond and express themselves. By exploring and testing new forms of content and exercises, you’ll come across ways to engage your learners both inside and outside the classroom.
The Importance of Content Management in Mobile Learning
It’s all about content. Creating, editing, publishing, reworking, and distributing of digital content is the core of what makes any content management system work. According to Wikipedia, content management, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium.
Enterprises, news publishers, educational institutes are all big users of content management systems. However these systems have been designed and created during a PC prolific era, when accessing the web through mobile devices was still a concept. As a result, most content management systems are either legacy-oriented or based on standardized tools which are not adaptable to today’s mixed access environment of PCs, mobiles, laptops, netbooks and tablets.
Managing multiple content needs
In order to be relevant to current mobile learning requirements, CM systems need to evolve to match the information consumption variations of today. These content variations may include long documents accessed on an ebook reader or short slivers of points accessed on an mobile phone. A content management system to be relevant to today’s needs must be geared to handle this range of content consumption.
Today’s users access the internet to explore websites and research material, obtain access to niche experts, publish articles, read & disburse news, and socialize and share information, all at a very rapid pace. As a result there’s been a spike of both information being produced, as well as an increase in channels to receive information such as emailing, messaging, chats, feeds and blog posts.
Disruptive Content Management systems
Newer technologies now allow users to receive alerts for every new bit of information, merely minutes after it is published. Twitter is an excellent example of a disruptive content management system. The CMS in this case is being designed and created at a nano level, and loyal to the system for which it was developed.
Content Management & Mobl21
Mobl21 is a similar tool that has an in-built, nano-level, content management system. Users of this technology do not need to develop reams and reams of content. Using a simple editing interface, educators, learners or publisher can create chunks of learning material easily. Chunked content facilitates easy readability through the use of bullet lists, and shortened paragraphs with subheads and scannable text, and bold key phrases.
Once created, this learning material is always available and can be easily edited, modified and republished without extensive technology know-how or the need to recreate content for different devices. Content is also mapped to learner requirements and users can choose to download the information they require and nothing more.
EdTech Digest interviews Sesh Kumar
“Taking education to everybody, everywhere” has been the motivational mantra of Sesh Kumar, who founded Emantras in 2000 and currently serves as CEO.
Why did you create Emantras?
When I started Emantras in 2000, I was pretty certain on what I did not want it to be: a publishing services company, another eLearning company, another Indian outsourcing company.
I was very interested in the use of technology in education. And for a long time I’ve personally held the belief that learning through technology can be very effective. I started Emantras with the goal of creating digital products for the 21st century learner.
Our long term objective is to facilitate the progress of humanity through learning and initiate a global digital educational reform.
What are your thoughts on education these days?
Technology is here for everybody and is no longer limited to just the whiz kids. Learning through technology can be very effective, if we can overcome the challenges in taking technology to those with no exposure, and enabling those with access to technology to use it for more educational purposes.
Technology is ubiquitous and in today’s educational scenario, you often come across learners who know a lot more about technology and ways of implementation than the educators themselves. Using technology and combining it with learning, in a way that is easy to use and provides value is the biggest challenge.
Technology should be viewed an enabler, as a tool to further learning, not a hoop educators have to jump through. We don’t want to challenge teachers by making them go through a huge learning curve in order to implement technology solutions in their classrooms. It must be useful, easy and effective.
We also believe that it’s not only about the technology but also about the content design. One cannot be effective without the other. The trick is to get the combination right for all these elements (teachers, technology, content, connectivity, devices and learners) to work together to effectively improve learning.
How is Mobl21 unique from other similar products/services?
Every learning app designed today, has been created to deliver valuable content in one form or the other. What distinguishes a true mobile learning system from an app that simply delivers learning material, is its ability to ensure that learning is actually taking place.
Understanding this need, Mobl21 provides both features for learners and tools for instructors. Mobl21 enables instructors to get involved in the m-learning process and determine whether learners are actually utilizing Mobl21 to study, and to what extent.
Unlike other educational products, Mobl21 is not limited to a specific grade or subject but can be flexibly adapted to any learning requirement.
What is your outlook on the future of education?
Everyday new technology, new methods, and new pedagogies are changing the face of education. Today, three- and four-years-olds can easily use a tablet device to learn versus just a few years ago when it would take a deep learning curve to know how to even use a computer. The same thing applies to senior people as well. They can now access learning using devices which are bringing learning to them, in a very non-intrusive, and intuitive way. This is tremendously promising for the future of education.
Even more promising is that across the globe educationists, governments and technologists are all looking at ways to revolutionize education. While there may be mistakes, hopefully we’ll also have a lot of “learned decisions” made at the end of the day.
Visit Mobl21 at FETC 2011 Conference
Jan 31 – Feb 3, 2011
FETC 2011 conference brings education leaders and technology experts together to exchange techniques and strategies for teaching and learning success.
Known worldwide for its outstanding program, FETC provides educators and administrators the opportunity to explore the integration of technology across the curriculum—from kindergarten to college—through hands-on exposure to the latest hardware, software and successful strategies.
The conference will take place Monday, Jan. 31, through Thursday, Feb. 3, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
More than 200 concurrent sessions will be offered, which will focus on integrating current and emerging technologies, safety and security, social networking/collaboration, and sustainability into the curriculum. Nearly 70 professional development workshops will provide training opportunities through full- and half-day lectures and hands-on workshops given by local and national experts.
Emantras will be showcasing Mobl21 at Booth 1519
Mobl21 – Mobile Learning Made Easy
Mobl21 allows educators to create content in the form of multimedia study guides, quizzes and flashcards, which learners can access anytime from their mobile devices, enabling them to study and revise at their own pace.
Mobl21 also offers multi-point interfaces over the web, mobile devices (including Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and Google Android) as well as through desktop widgets.
Posted in Mobile Learning Events, Mobl21
Tagged M-learning, mobile technology in education
Leave a comment
Mobile learning and how it relates (or differentiates) from e-learning
While most of us have heard or come across the term e-learning in the past decade, the term mobile learning or m-learning is not as widely adapted into common usage. While both are intuitive in their meanings, how they vary and differentiate from each other is not that apparent.
What is mobile learning?
In an earlier post, we’ve defined mobile learning is the ability to obtain or provide educational content on personal pocket devices such as PDAs, smartphones and mobile phones. As we have established in our timeline, mobile learning using handheld computers is in its infancy in terms of both technologies and pedagogies. As a result there is still some dispute amongst industry advocates in how mobile learning should be defined: in terms of devices and technologies; in terms of the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning, and in terms of the learners’ experience of learning with mobile devices. (Traxler, 2007)
Clark Quinn, professor, author, and expert in computer-based education, defined mobile learning as the intersection of mobile computing (the application of small, portable, and wireless computing and communication devices) and e-learning (learning facilitated and supported through the use of information and communications technology).
What is e-learning?
E-learning has come to define any dissemination of educational knowledge over the Internet. This makes e-learning a subset of technology-based training. It also incorporates a number of learning activities conducted on the Internet, of which mobile learning is one part.
Differentiating e-learning from mobile learning
E-learning can be real-time or self-paced, also known as “synchronous” or “asynchronous” learning. Additionally, e-learning is considered to be “tethered” (connected to something) and presented in a formal and structured manner.
In contrast, mobile learning is often self-paced, un-tethered and informal in its presentation.
Because mobile devices have the power to make learning even more widely available and accessible, mobile devices are considered by many to be a natural extension of e-learning (Ellis, 2003).
References
1. C. Quinn (2000), “mLearning: Mobile, Wireless, In-Your-Pocket Learning”
2. Traxler, John (2007), Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning: the moving finger writes and having writ . . .
3. Ellis, K. (2003). Moving into M-Learning. Training
Posted in General
Tagged M-learning, mlearning, mobile education, Mobile Learning, Mobile Technology
6 Comments
Mobile Learning – A Timeline
To understand why we’re in an exciting period in mobile learning education, it is important to take a look at the technologies and developments that have gone into making learning accessible to people on the move.
Let’s start with defining mobile learning. Mobile learning is the ability to obtain or provide educational content on personal pocket devices such as PDAs, smart phones and mobile phones. Educational content here refers to digital learning assets which includes any form of content or media made available on a personal device.
Simple enough to explain. However if you look deeper into the multiple technologies involved in m-Learning, tracking the developmental history becomes a little tricky.
Here’s how it looks to us:
From the above timeline, it is clear that the technology overlap that has happened in this last decade has given the needed impetus to escalating the potential of mobile learning. This convergence of mobile information and enabling technologies has significantly impacted the way users interact with information on a daily and immediate basis.
So if you’ve just downloaded a conversational French application on your iPhone, take a few seconds to appreciate the hardware upgrades, software development, wireless network and communication advances that have occurred over the last five decades, to get you to say your first “Bonjour” to the world.
With information and communications technology becoming portable and individual-oriented, we are today experiencing the first level of effective mobile learning as it was envisioned decades ago.
What we do with it is now in our hands.
Welcome to the Mobl21 Blog
“It will soon be possible, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear instantly in type in London or elsewhere. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument… which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles… One may listen or transmit speech or song to the uttermost parts of the world. In the same way any kind of picture, drawing or print can be transferred from one place to another…
…The song of a great singer, the speech of a political leader, the sermon of a great divine, the lecture of a man of science may thus be delivered to an audience scattered all over the world.” Nikola Tesla, New York Times | October, 1909
If Nikola Tesla were to awaken and join today’s mobile community, perhaps his first tweet to the world would be, “i tld u so”.
While most of us have witnessed, experienced and benefited from this tremendous communication growth, what has yet to be foreseen is the extensive learning potential mobile technology is bringing to the field of education.
M-learning, mobile learning, mobile elearning. Regardless of how you refer to it, the future of education is undergoing a dramatic change. Largely focussed on imparting educational information using mobile devices, mobile learning offers today’s educators a powerful tool to facilitate an interactive learning experience.
In the urban educational context, each year sees younger and younger generations of students, absorbing and integrating technology into the various facets their life with ease. Do they still need slide shows, with each student holding a phone screen? Or to share a computer, with a pretty powerful computing device in every pocket? With the application of mobile learning, institutions and schools will soon be able to provide study aids and real-time support to a competitive, and techno-savvy student body.
Making learning a 24/7 process.
The potential is enormous. Perhaps even beyond what a man of Nikola Tesla’s precognitive abilities could comprehend.
If you’re interested in mobile learning you’ve come to the right place. In this blog we’ll cover the latest happenings in the mobile elearning world, and discuss potential initiatives, key challenges, & possible pitfalls. We’ll also take a look at some interesting examples of mobile technology in education, and figure out which institutions have successfully implemented mobile education and how.
Posted in General
Tagged General, M-learning, mobile elearning, mobile technology in education, Nikola Tesla
1 Comment
