The birth of mobile learning

A little research into the history of mobile learning reveals you that many researchers think that Alan Kay's "DynaBook" marks the dawn of mobile learning.



In a 1972 article in the Proceedings of the ACM Annual Conference entitled "A personal compiuter for children of all ages" (read an extract here), Kay described a device which could be carried anywhere, was no larger than a notebook, was connected to a global wireless network and cost less than $500.

However, if we agree with O'Malley et al.'s (2003) definition of mobile learning as

"Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location"

then the original mobile learning device is something else entirely. Rather than being the Dynabook the original mobile learning device must surely be the book! Gutenberg's development of moveable type meant that books could be printed much more quickly and cheaply than ever before. The availability of cheap books played a role in the Renaisance and the Enlightenment an as making knowledge available anytime and anywhere is one of the central tenets of mobile learning, I could therefore be argued that the introduction of moveable type means that mobile learning is an even older discipline than e-learning.

As always, youtube have a couple of amusing clips which illustrate the importance of this new technology:

Medieval Helpdesk

Did you know the BOOK?

Hope you enjoy the clips!

Neil

DIY mobile learning

Mobile learning has been on the "next big thing" lists of websites and journal articles for several years but for many people it still seems to be a complicated and expensive tool to implement. The American Society for Training and Development published an article by Naomi Norman in the December 2011 edition of T + D magazine with the promising title "Mobile learning made easy", read the article here.

The article reports on the results of research into mobile learning conducted for the NHS, an organization which has a huge need for flexible training due to the enormous amount of staff it has, many of whom work offsite or unsocial shifts. Amongst the key benefits of mobile learning identified are:

convenience
relevance
enhanced content retention
empowered learners
encouraged reflection

The study also notes that not everyone will want to use mobile learning so all courses prepared for Epic for the NHS are also available as e-learning. The physical limitations of mobile learning are also addressed in the report. For example, due to a very small or complete lack of physical keyboard writing long texts is not advisable and as learners will not sit using a mobile device for as long as they would sit at e-learning it is necessary to break the learning down into smaller chunks which can be completed more quickly.

The problem of compatibility is also addressed. Luckily the NHS, like many organizations, provides many staff with mobile devices so a certain amount of consistency is guaranteed. However, many people will prefer to use their own devices which may not be compatible with the official m-learning solution.

Exactly this problem and an answer to it are beautifully demonstrated by Dr Alisa Cooper in one of my favourite youtube videos on mobile learning (watch here). Alisa created an online class using a combination of a mobile-enabled Wordpress blog, embedded google docs, classmarker quizzes and youtube videos. This clearly demonstrates that with a little thought mobile learning doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to implement. I will certainly be looking at some of these ideas in designing my next mobile learning elements and I hope they will inspire some of you as well.

Neil

Sources

Mobile learning made easy, http://www.epic.co.uk/assets/files/ASTD_Mobile_Learning_Made_Easy.pdf [accessed 19.3.2012]

Mobile learning course overview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yasp9W70vw [accessed 19.3.29012]

Instructional design models

The e-learning I have produced up till now has all been made without any planned framework so in order to make my webinar and podcast as successful as possible I decided to take a look at the major instructional design models to see what I could learn from them. My first discovery was that there are seemingly hundreds of different models, some of them applying to learning in general, others specifically relating to online learning. Chaudry & Rahman (2010) published a very interesting critical analysis of such models in the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education which thankfully also helps me to reduce the number of models I should consider.

The ADDIE model seems to be the one which is presently most used in preparing online education materials. The five parts of ADDIE are:

A - Analysis
D - Design
D - Development
I - Implementation
E - Evaluation



The analysis stage is a needs analysis in which it should be found out, just what do our participants need to learn, what do they already know and what are the objectives for this piece of training. In the case of my APBOT webinar this question is irrelevant, one could however say the need is to be informed about the theory and practice of mobile learning.

In the design stage decisions have to be made about the format the training will be provided in, what content will be used, and a protoype has to be created.

The development stage is concerned with implemented the requirements listed in the design stage. In the case of e-learning this is also the stage where courses or software should be tested and debugged/corrected. This is the stage my webinar is at, at the moment.

The next stage is the implementation stage which is when everything is set up to deliver the training. Once I have completed my presentation this will be the stage where I upload it to Elluminate and ensure everything is working correctly before I begin the webinar.

Finally, in the evaluation phase presents the opportunity for the creator to evaluate the training themselves as well as giving the participants to provide their own feedback. At the moment I am working on an evaluation form to give everyone at the end of my webinar. This will be produced using the forms function of google docs.

Another very interesting model I discovered is the OAR model which is special in that it was specifically designed for distance learning in higher education.



In this case the name is an abbreviation for objectives, activities and resources. This model is appealing as it seems very simple and straightforward. However, unlike the ADDIE model it does not include any specific area for gaining feedback and evaluating the training.

I found these and the other models I looked at to be fascinated and I am sure there is no one ideal model which fits all circumstances. For my webinar, podcast and future e-learning projects I will therefore take a look at several more models and use the components which seem to meet my needs best. There is here, as always, a lot more reading to be done!

Neil

Sources:

Chaudry, M.A. & Rahman, F.U. (2010) A critical review of instructional design process of distance learning system, Turkish online journal of distance education, Vol. 11, Number. 3.
https://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde39/articles/article_11.htm [accessed 12.3.2012]

Instructional design models and theories, http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm [accessed 12.03.2012]

ADDIE instructional design model, http://www.intulogy.com/addie/ [accessed 12.03.2012]

OAR model, http://www.enotes.com/topic/OAR_model [accessed 12.03.2012]

Coming soon: APBOT Guest Expert Sessions

The date for my webinar on mobile learning has now been set along with the one from Marty. Here are all the details, courtesy of module leader, Keith Smyth:

Upcoming Guest Expert Sessions for Trimester 2 2011/12

Please find below details for upcoming Guest Expert sessions for this Trimester.

We recommend joining the sessions at 5-10 mins before they start, so you can be assisted in getting set-up to participate. Please also use a headset wherever possible.

All the upcoming sessions will be hosted in the Elluminate room joined via this link:

https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=28769&password=M.0EB687CE613C7FBE75E81FC14230CD

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Session 1: Marty Caine

Date and time: Wednesday 14th March 2012, 7.00pm-8.00pm (GMT)

Session title: An introduction to peer mentoring to support online and distance learning students

Description: This upcoming guest speaker session tackles the subject of peer mentoring. Our journey to discovery more about this topic begins with an overview of peer mentoring, where we will consider questions such as 'What is peer mentoring?'. We will look at the role of the mentor by answering questions such as 'What is a peer mentor' and 'Is an online peer mentor different?'.

Are you intrigued to know more? The short videos clips below will provide you with an insight into these themes:

Peer mentoring http://youtu.be/5bFWKS_rWuQ

Peer mentorship http://youtu.be/G4GGZpF9Udw

Peer mentoring: Giving Time http://youtu.be/Aa-cUDyHCoE

The session will also look further into how peer mentoring can be used as a tool to support online and distance learning students, exploring the benefits not only to the students but the education establishments who implement them. Once the decision has been taken to incorporate an online peer mentoring scheme, we need to consider its implementation, including the requirements and the challenges it brings, which will complete the topics to be discussed during this first guest speaker session.

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Session 2: Neil Davie

Date and time: Tuesday 20th March 2012, 7.00pm-8.00pm (GMT)

Session title: Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice

Description: Mobile learning has been a buzzword amongst e-learning practitioners for the last few years. In this webinar we will explore the definitions and theoretical basis for mobile learning and look at student attitudes towards mobile learning: Are students interested in mobile learning, are they perhaps already using it, and how can we best support them? The final part of the webinar will focus on simple, cost-effective ways to introduce mobile learning to your institution. This webinar is for anyone who is interested in mobile learning but not sure how to begin and for those who have already taken their first steps.

Neil

Mentoring Issues

Nicky and I had a mentoring session today so I thought it would be good to list the points we discussed so we don't forget anything and also to have an example of the kind of issues that can be raised in an e-mentoring situation.

The first issue Nicky had today was how to identify which books are worth investing it. I think this is a perfectly justifiable question for any students today what with tuition fees rising and purse-strings being drawn tighter across the country. Academic books can sometimes be very expensive indeed and for a distance learning student getting hold of the books from the university library may not be easy or even possible. Some books are of course available in digital form and sites like Amazon sometimes have previews of a few pages but this is not always a good basis to make a buying decision on. Luckily for Nicky I have already completed a paper on her chosen topic (mobile learning) so I was able to give her my own personal recommendations based on the books I read here in the past. Not everyone is so lucky though so I think this could be a situation where more thought could be given to the availability of good literature. It is definitely a point where distance learners are at a disadvanatage compared to on-campus learners.

The second point we discussed was how to organise and control all of the sources that you find in the course of your research. Here we discovered we are the exact opposite - Nicky likes to read documents printed out and take notes digitally, I prefer to read the documents digitally and take my notes using pen and paper. Either way, it seems like we both have our difficulties with retaining order but perhaps tools like zotero might be the answer. I have never used it but zotero, which is a free Firefox plugin, promises to take all of the hassle out of remembering sources, attributing quotes, writing references correctly etc. If it works that well in practice it could definitely be helpful during the rest of my degree so I have downloaded it to give it a try.

The final problem we discussed today was a technical issue regarding the use of google docs to host questionnaires. This is something I used myself last year and I found it very easy to use. The system for creating questions is powerful but it is still easy to use. As recipients respond to your questionnaire their responses are automatically added to a spreadsheet and once you have some responses google docs can automatically generate a statistical summary and lovely graphics of the results. I am actually using google docs again this trimester to repeat my learning and technology survey from last year. I am sure that more professional studies might frown on the use of google docs due to privacy and data security fears but for a small scale project it seems like google docs works great. I look forward to seeing the results of Nicky's research.

Hopefully our mentoring session managed to address all of these issues today, we will just have to wait and see!

Neil

Webinar to-do list

Yesterday I had a skype meeeting with my tutor Keith with the result that the date is now set for my webinar on mobile learning. Although I knew the webinar would be coming sometime soon it seems that you don't really get a sense of urgency until a clear deadline has been set (psychologists have surely already researched this). Now that the date has been set, March 20th, it is all hands on deck to get everything ready.

So, to (hopefully) keep me on track, here is my current to-do list for the webinar:

1. Introductory (enhanced) podcast to be ready a week before webinar
2. Powerpoint presentation
3. Learn to use Elluminate as a moderator
   
4. Create Elluminate polls/quizzes
5. Socrative questions
6. Updated student survey to check results from last year (to be ready by 8th March)
   
7. google doc questions for participants?
8. twitter hashtag?

I'm not sure if I will really go through with number 6 and 7 but that is my plan at the moment. And in the meantime I will also be working on the other side of my project, providing mentoring to Nicky. It looks like it is going to be a busy few weeks!

Neil

Theoretical Models for (Peer) e-Mentoring

Last week we had an excellent Virtual Office Hours (VOH) session with myself, Marty and Julia in which we really got to grips with some of the theories which could be applied to the use of peer mentoring in a blended or online course. Marty has already posted on the subject in his blog:

http://limey76.blogspot.com/

but I think the issue is so important that, at the risk of repeating something Marty has already said, I would like to also share my thoughts here.

Before I begin that there is also some important background information I have gathered from Ormond Simpson's "Supporting Students in Online, Open and Distance Learning" (2002).
Simpson begins by dividing student support into two distinct areas - academic suport and non-academic support. Whilst academic support involved tasks like defining and explaining, non-academic support is concerned with advising and acting. As the peer support I am providing for Nicky is being done in a non-teaching role I therefore think it falls into the non-academic category. Simpson later lists the characteristics of non-academic support as empathy, stress management, listening, warmth and openness. This is hopefully exactly what Nicky has been receiving from me as a mentor so far.

Another interesting practical point that Simpson raises are the results of a study into which sources of support are most important for students. 32%, the largest amount, said that family and friends where the most important source of support followed by tutors in second place with 29%. The third most important source was other students with 21% and lastly support given by the institution was voted most important by only 17%. This result makes it clear that the majority of students find family and friends or fellow students to be the most important source of support. If this support is being provided informally then it should be encouraged by the institution, perhaps by facilitating ways for students to meet or pairing off mentors and mentees.

In our VOH session we talked about how Garrison et al's Community of Inquiry model can be applied to mentoring. Garrison breaks the Community of Inquiry down into three components which all need to be fulfilled in order to create a success learning environment: cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. At first glance, it seems that mentoring can be order to the social presence area of the framework. Social presence is the ability of learners to be seen as real people whilst studying in a virtual environment. Having contact with another student in a mentor-mentee role will obviously allow this. In addition I think there is also an argument to include mentoring in the cognitive presence sector of this model. Cognitive presence is about being able to establish meaning and I think mentors can provide support in this role helping others to make sense of the information they receive. Although for this module we are purely concerned with peer mentoring, successful online teachers should also be providing a mentoring function to their students. In that case it would therefore be possible to also assign mentoring to the teaching presence sector and thereby place mentoring directly in the middle of the Community of Inquiry model - in other words, right at the centre of the educational experience.

In addition, we also briefly discussed the cybergogy model and in my research I also found that Palloff and Pratt have some interesting points to make regarding mentoring. To stop this post getting any longer I shall return to these in the near future.

Neil

Garrison et al (2000) Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. In The internet and higher education 2, (2-3): 87 - 105

Simpson, O., (2002) Supporting students in online, open and distance learning (2e), London: Kogan Page

http://communitiesofinquiry.com/welcome [Accessed 4.3.2012]

Social Media Learning in Action

Social learning and social media learning are two areas we have discussed in the past on the BOE programme. A very interesting article by Jane Hart at the elearningcouncil website explains the difference between the two:

http://www.elearningcouncil.com/content/social-media-learning-more-social-learning-jane-hart

Social learning is the older expression and literally just means any learning that takes place within a social i.e. group environment. Social media learning is a newer term with focuses on the use of social media (Web 2.0) in learning.

Although I have thought about social media learning before, this week I experienced a classic case of social media learning in action. Marty, a fellow BOE student, found an excellent article on mobile learning in the Social Learning Blog:

http://www.dashe.com/blog/mobile-learning/mobile-learning-more-than-just-mobile-learning

Being the socially-aware learner that he is, Marty shared his find with his twitter followers from his twitter account which is linked to his linkedin account. I then got an email from linkedin giving me the week's news which included this tweeted link. I now I am posting about this again in a blog which means the circle is complete - from blog post to micro blog post to social networking site back to a blog post again!

As I am preparing an webinar on mobile learning I found this post especially interesting. The first point the article makes is the difficulty in coming to a clear definition of mobile learning. Definitions seem to go into one of two camps emphasising either the technology (a mobile device) or the mobility of the learner. Luckily John Traxler is quoted who provides an extended definition which also addresses padagogical issues in mobile learning, including for example spontaneity, informality and bite-sized content.

A nice example of successful m-learning taken from Elliot Massie's 2008 report is also given. Merrill Lynch launched an inititative called GoLearn using BlackBerry devices to reach over 2,000 learners. The results of the user feedback at the end of the trial are clear - 100% said they would complete more training delivered in that format and 75% praised the benefits of the mobile course with regards to convenience and time management.

Unfortunately for myself and probably most other European lecturers in higher education, we don't have a grop of users with only one type and device and we certainly don''t have the budget that Merrill Lynch invested in this project. On the other hand, the results are very impressive and I hope that any m-learning we introduce will be equally well-received.

Neil