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Tag Archives: Mobile Learning
Punflay & Mobl21 at MobiLE 2012
Derek Keenan, a professional learning coach in 21st century learning and technology at Bert Church High School in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada presented Mobl21 and Punflay apps at MobiLE 2012 in Phoenix, Arizona. The presentation titled, The Educational Implications of App Innovations, showcased how developers are beginning to make a difference in education through their products.
Below is an excerpt of Derek’s blog post:
Emantras has a well polished Learning Management System called Mobl21. The key advantage of this system versus many of the free platforms available is the ability to assign students work in section, units or packages. These partitioned groups of resources are then downloaded by students in groups on the devices of their choice (Mobl21 supports iOS and Android) and the content is available when students are both on and offline. This solution is perfect for students going on holiday, as they will have access to school work while they are away. As the students complete a network, the system sends it back for assessment and/or grading. While there is much more to say about the Mobl21 platform, a brief outline of the features, functions and benefits is in the presentation I have shared with this post.
So what does this platform offer by way of educational benefit? I think one could argue that providing students greater autonomy in their learning by mobilizing the platform could have significant benefit for students who take advantage of it. In terms of students who are not highly motivated, this is a tool that can be used by educational support staff in conjunction with your classroom to ‘catch’ a student up. The quiz, flashcard and multimedia functionality allow for mini lessons, tutorials and socially connected feedback with the teacher. In this way, Mobl21 offers a ‘classroom outside the classroom’ setup when the regular classroom is unavailable.
Posted in Mobile Learning Events, Mobl21
Tagged Mobile Learning, mobile learning in education
1 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.
How to use mobile devices in the classroom
Doug Belshaw of The Guardian, and former Director of E-Learning, shares his opinions on the transformational learning experiences where mobile devices such as iPods and mobile phones have been key.
According to Doug, modern mobile phones are like pocket computers which can connect young people to a world of information and learning. But not all teachers want to see mobile devices used in the classroom. Some point to a “digital divide” between the have and the have-nots. But the real divide is the “digital use divide”, otherwise known as the “participation gap”. Banning is a form of censorship, a futile attempt at maintaining a status quo. One only has to take the example of pocket calculators to see how banning a useful, transformational technology can be initially resisted before becoming ubiquitous (and extremely helpful) in schools.
You can read the full article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2011/oct/26/mobile-devices-classroom?newsfeed=true
Also published is a method on how to get the mobile learning ball rolling in schools and colleges, and ideas to teach with mobile devices in classrooms.
What Steve Jobs did for Mobile Learning
When you think mobile learning you think smartphones and tablet computing. While mobile devices of all kinds have played an important role in the discussion of learning on the go, it can honestly be said that the availability of educational apps, and a computer-like interface, gave mobile learning the required push it needed to move from concept to classrooms.
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.”
Steve Jobs (2007)
Apple founder Steve Jobs was the man on stage to announce the arrival of the iPhone and with it, he also ushered in the industry of smartphone apps. iTunes alone now sells over 500,000 apps. Schools have already started implementing mobile learning pilots using iPhones and educational apps, to extend student’s learning environment and engage them on the devices “that are just cool to use”.
Duke University began to use mobile devices to access symposiums, class material, and school news through iTunes. The program, called iTunesU was started by Apple in 2007, and enabled faculty and students to create and carry course material with them on their iPods, another Apple product. iTunesU is now used by several institutes including MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley offering access to courses, faculty lectures, interviews and more.
And then came the iPad.
Suddenly across US and the rest of the world, universities and schools began to see the iPad as the device that would take classroom education into the digital era.
According to CIO Today, over 2,300 K-12 school districts have implemented iPad programs, including schools in the New York City, Chicago, Arlington, Va, and Manatee County, Fla. More than 600 K-12 schools have launched one-to-one iPad programs in which at minimum, schools are providing an entire classroom of students with their own iPads to use throughout their academic school day.
While the Macintosh was always a popular school computer choice, the iPad became a game changer. Educators in particular, feel that tablets will change education because they dovetail with the goals and purposes of education in the digital age. In the third quarter of 2011, iPad sales to the K-12 market surpassed all of Apple’s educational Mac desktop and laptop computer sales combined.
“Last quarter, we sold more iPads in K-12 than we did Macs. To do that in just five quarters is absolutely shocking. We never would have predicted this.” Tim Cook (2011)
What Steve Jobs did for Apple is synonymous with what Steve Jobs did for mobile learning. He charmed, pushed, cajoled, and bullied the way so that other products and ideas could follow. Today mobile learning has moved from the crossroads to the implementation stage, and those of us in this field of educational technology have a big “Thank you” to say to the man whose destiny helped put a learning device in the hands of every student.
SOURCES:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/alan-kay-steve-jobs-ipad-iphone,10209.html
http://dynastii.com/best-steve-jobs-quote-read-them-enjoy-them-and-admire-him
Posted in Mobile Learning
Tagged education technology, Mobile Learning, mobile learning pilots, steve jobs
7 Comments
Technology Learning Curve of M-Learning
One of the main concerns facing newcomers to mobile learning revolve around the technology that needs to be absorbed and used. For those new to mobile phone technologies and web browsing itself, it could present some learning time, but otherwise mobile learning is easy to understand and fast to implement.
Internet browsing and basic formatting skills are important, but they are not critical to be able to offer mobile learning to students. If you are already browsing the net, emailing and creating documents and presentations with ease, you will have no trouble adapting to mobile learning applications.
Using Mobile Devices
Mobile phones are not new technology. Most of us have switched phones and service providers and have experienced a few days of steady paced usage before our fingers started to fly. Of course the pleasure of owning a new phone made the learning fun instead of tedious. Picking up usage on your new mobile learning tool will be something like that. Most mobile learning programs today incorporate smartphones, which are designed to be intuitive and usually touch based, and do not require special training to use.
Exploring Mobile Apps
Smartphone apps are almost everywhere now, and if you’ve used a smartphone device you’ve probably already downloaded and used new mobile apps. Like software programs, devices apps are programs designed to work on mobile devices and are usually very intuitive and easy to learn.
Software for Content Creation
What may require some getting used to, is the software that will enable your teachers to deliver customized content to student mobile devices. While these are designed to be easy to use, as with any new software there will be a small learning period which educators will need to become more familiar with the software features.
Mobl21 is an m-learning service that offers three ways (DIY, purchase, or purchase & modify) to get your content mobile ready. The Mobl21 is an easy-to-use platform which is designed to create content in just a few steps. You can even add video, audio, images and animations to lessons and create entire courses without any hassle.
Bandwidth & Connectivity
Multiple devices trying to access the internet from your school at the same time can lead to some bandwidth issues. Especially if your mobile learning plan requires multimedia applications, the transmission of voice and video over your school’s wifi could cause a bottleneck if your bandwidth is not geared to meet it. However thanks to the recent FCC’s E-Rate Order schools and libraries can now have access higher broadband speeds for lower prices by increasing their options for broadband providers and streamlining the application process. The FCC’s upgrades to E-Rate include ultra-fast fiber, school spots, learning on-the-go, and the 21st Century E-Rate Program.
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.
Mobl21 CEO Panelist today at SIIA Edtech
Sesh Kumar, CEO Emantras & visionary behind award-winning m-learning product Mobl21, is a panelist on the Hot Topic of Mobile Learning at today’s SIIA Edtech Industry Summit.
HOT TOPIC: Mobile Learning
With the advent of Smartphones, iPads, Notebooks and Tablets, you are likely developing for the mobile app market – or moving your successful software product to a mobile device.
How will you make decisions around the different devices, form factors, operating systems and service providers? Will your mobile application grow student achievement, engagement, and 21st century skills, and extend learning beyond the physical confines of the classroom? And, are there metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile learning?
Mobile Learning & the Evolution of Content Delivery
Every since the written word was created, content delivery was curtailed by the media on which it was delivered. In the beginning, clay tablets could only be so big before they became unwieldy. Therefore the amount of material that could be communicated was limited by the media.
The same holds true throughout history. When we come to papyrus scrolls or animal skin, text got longer and longer, and was formatted to suit the media it would be delivered on. (Which is probably where the phrase “reams of text” came from.) Then came books and newspapers. These were standardized into two sides of sheets divided by titles, chapters, headers, and paras. As printing presses improved, these were supplemented by boxed items and images.
With the advent of computers and the internet, content access became “virtually” unlimited. A person could click on links embedded within other links and tunnel through pages and pages of information without ever coming to a physical end of information. And additionally, videos, audio files, image and text, were all conveyable and supported using digital media.
Mobile Devices and Changes in Content Delivery
Now that we’ve moved on to a mobile platform, things are beginning to change again. Screen size limitations have once again come into play. Reading and learning on a phone is for many akin to peering through a keyhole that is far away.
The pervasiveness of mobile devices is ushering in a new age of learning pedagogies, making us examine and question how knowledge is organized and interrelated. So how do we evolve our text to be delivered in a way that is suitable for consumption on a mobile device and specifically, for learning? By delivering learning content in small, consumable portions, mobile learning enables users to access material through a method of quick reading, reviewing and testing.
Proven Content Framework – Study guides, flashcards and quizzes
Mobl21 has researched and developed an patented content framework to enable instructors to deliver learning material effectively to mobile devices. Using this framework, users can focus on delivery and consumption of goal-oriented learning and not mere replication of existing in-class or online content.
This structure of information enables users to go through a lesson using a study guide (where content can be in the form of video, audio, animation and/or text), review the highlights of the subject using flashcards and later test understanding and memory through quizzes.
To successfully enable m-learning, it is important to understand the role content design plays in facilitating learning and comprehension. By exploring and evolving newer ways to organize content, we can ensure users get the best use of this dynamic medium.
Posted in Mobile Learning
Tagged learning pedagogies, Mobile Learning, patented content framework
5 Comments
Interview: A Better Approach to AUPs for Mobile Devices
Insightful interview with Anthony Luscre, Director of Technology for Mogadore Local Schools in Ohio, by Dian Schaffhauser of THE Journal.
Excerpt: In this interview with The Journal, Luscre explains that an effective approach to the acceptable use policy (AUP) involves building not just awareness, but understanding among faculty, staff, students, and parents; demanding consistency when it comes to enforcement; and supplementing the AUP with more agile practices, such as concise, less formal rules that are posted throughout the school to remind students of what’s expected of them when they’re entrusted with powerful technologies.
THE Journal: It seems a little crazy right now. Some schools require students to bring electronic devices; others will suspend students for bringing them. Why is there such chaos about this topic right now?
Anthony Luscre: Technology innovations have been moving at a very rapid pace, one that often exceeds schools’ abilities to react to the changes. The manufacturer and service providers drive much of the technology innovation, and there’s little consistency in their offerings, which makes it harder for schools to adopt new technology. One of the other things is a question of whether the devices are going to be used for private use or for educational purposes in the classroom.
While it’s easier just to say no to ECDs, it’s important that school administrators and teachers realize that teens have a very large pent-up demand to use these types of devices because they practice using them almost continuously throughout the day…. When you tell a student, “No, you can’t look up something online,” or, “No, you can’t text,” they feel like the skills they’re developing aren’t valued.
Teachers must be aware of student demand to use their everyday practices such as texting, videos, and social networking. I am providing a session at FETC to encourage classroom teachers to harness these everyday student technology skills. I discuss how to capture these skills to improve student learning. That includes using texting to improve student composition; Twitter for haiku and other poetry; book reports by wiki; Google Earth for virtual field trips; eBay for economics; and iPhone apps development for creative thinking, problem solving, and math.
The other thing causing that chaos is that all school districts are at different comfort levels with new technologies. In addition, they have a track history of various incidents that may or may not bode positive for the use of ECDs. If there’s been an issue involving sexting, they’re much more hesitant to want to open themselves up to potential liabilities and problems with parents.
Benefits of Mobile Learning
We’ve taken a look at the challenges in Mobile Learning. Now let’s understand a few of the benefits.
Performance support: With easy access to information, special knowledge is put in the hands of students as a supportive tool. Quick access to lab diagrams, formulae, etc. can immediately impact students performance in a learning environment, facilitating their education.
Manage different learning requirements: All students absorb information at different speeds in different ways. Educational pedagogies currently support advanced tracks and special classes to manage these needs. Mobile learning is ideally geared to enable students to learn at their own speed, by uniquely catering to their requirements in a personalized way.
Enhancing two-way interaction: Mobile learning facilitates direct communication between teachers and students, in a way that may encourage students shy or hesitant to communicate more openly than they would in class. Additionally, teachers of large classes can use the direct interaction as a way of giving special attention where required.
Special education: Advancements in technology are facilitating those with learning disabilities in many ways. Mobile technology has tremendous potential to benefit those with special needs or learning disabilities. With several unique applications catering to overcoming learning challenges and physical impairments, learning through mobile devices enables challenged students today to compete with their peers on a more equal footing.
Reaching fringe students: Mobile learning enables educators to reach out to students who cannot or do not have exposure to continuous and regular education. With access to learning materials, these students can be still be brought within standardized curriculum, and their learning encouraged and monitored.
Access the experts: With the ubiquitous spread of mobile devices, everyone is now within reach of a mobile phone. As a result, students today can read views and blogs of industry experts, follow real-time conferences and webinars, and interact with professionals right from their homes or classrooms, overcoming the problems of distance, and expenditure.
