Reflecting on the mobile learning webinar

My first ever webinar seemed like it was taking forever to arrive and then when it did come it was over in a flash. During my preparation I found myself revisiting a lot of material I had looked at in previous BOE modules as well as discovering lots of new information too. Now that the dust has settled it is time to reflect on the experience and what I have learnt from it.

At 7pm UK time on Tuesday the 20th of March I presented my webinar "Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice" via Napier's Elluminate web-conference platform. For anyone who missed the webinar it is possible to see the recording here. In order to make sure my memory isn't playing tricks on me and, more importantly, to experience the webinar as the students did, I have also played it back again to analyse it myself.

Firstly there were some interesting technical issues. I found talking to a group of students you cannot see and not being able to hear yourself either a very strange, eerie experience. I was also concerned by a constant background noise in my headset which was also present in the recording. This may be caused by the fan in my PC or perhaps another technical fault. If I was to be presenting webinars more often this is something I would definitely want to address.

Elluminate proved to be very straightforward to use and the eight students present were a mangeable amount. As I didn't know all of the students present I decided to begin with a short round of introductions to break the ice. This also revealed the first problem that not everyone present had a headset so some of the introductions took place purely as chat. And after the first person introduced themself via chat all the remaining participants did too, even the ones who seemed to have a headset. This is something that could be controlled a bit better next time.

Through my previous brief experience with Elluminate I learnt that it does not support the transitions that I typically use in my Powerpoint presentations. This time I was prepared for this and put additional information on separate slides to achieve the same effect. It was actually only in preparing for the webinar in a short session with Keith that I realised that Elluminate simply converts each Powerpoint slide into a graphics file which it then displays in the chosen order. This knowledge means that a different approach to presentation design has to be taken for webinars in comparison with traditional presentations.

During my webinar I also used Elluminate's question feature to get some input from the participants and encourage discussion. This feature was easy to use and I was able to switch between yes or no answers and multiple-choice (A, B or C) options. Unfortunately after one such question I was unable to remove the results box from the screen and was only able to do so by switching to the next slide. There is hopefully a proper way to hide the results which I can learn for use in the future.

At the end of the webinar I had left time for questions and a discussion but there was very little response from the audience. I hope this was due to them being satisfied rather than bored by the content. In my next post I will look at the results of the participants questionnaire which I asked everyone to complete. This will hopefully reveal how they really felt.

Neil

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

Entering the world of tablet teaching.

As well as being a lecturer mainly teaching English as a Foreign Language I am also currently studying Blended and Online Education at Edinburgh Napier University. As part of my studies I recently did a project on mobile learning looking at the extent to which students at my university were already using mobile learning software and hardware. Having looked at what students are doing with m-learning I have decided it is now time to make myself the guinea pig and take a look at what m-learning, and in particular tablet teaching, could do for me. This blog will be my diary of the discoveries I make, lessons I learn and mistakes I make along the way. I hope it is as interesting for everyone reading this and it is for me trying it out.

All comments, suggestions and especially recommendations are welcome.

Stay tuned!

Neil