mlearn conference 2013 - proceedings

Via Google Scholar alerts, comes the proceedings from the 12th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2013). Conference was held in Qatar from 21 to 24th October.

Several papers are pertinent to our current 'project surface tablet' projects and summarised here.

• Exploring the impact of using tablet devices in enhancing students listening and speaking skills in tertiary education by Ismail Fayed,Amer Yacoub, and Ali Hussein from Qatar University. This reports on student's use of a range of mobile devices and apps to assist with communication skills in English.
• Post Web 2.0 Media: Mobile Social Media with Thomas Cochrane (Unitec, NZ) and  Laurent Antonczak. Of interest as it extends on work completed at Unitec to build a community of practice with lecturers involved in technology enhanced learning initiatives. Use of mobile technologies assist lecturers to 'learn by doing' before they implement similar approaches in their classes.
• Mobilogue – A Tool for Creating and Conducting Mobile Supported Field Trips with Adam Giemza. Mobilogue supports teachers and students to author and provide learning support with location awareness and guidance on mobile devices. Useful for field trips, museum visits etc. QR codes are used to provide access to information and GPS is used to pinpoint place and items for exploration.
• Large Scale Deployment of Tablet Computers in High Schools in Brazil is a case study of introducing tablets into public education system on mass. Potentialitites, pitfalls and recommendations are detailed.
• Creating coherent incidental learning journeys on mobile devices through feedback and progress indicators. An interesting article from a group of English researchers with Mark Gaved, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Ann Jones, Eileen Scanlon, Ian Dunwell, Petros Lameras and Oula Akiki. Recommends how timely feedback may be provided to learners through incidental or informal learning. Increasing learners' coherence of learning by bringing fragmented learning moments into a more cohesive learning journey for reflective learning.
• Key Challenges Associated with Bringing Personal Mobile Devices to the Classroom. Ieda Santos discusses the pros and cons of BYOD.

Then two articles on ethical issues using mobile devices.

• Poster by J. Wishart provides a good overview to the challenges
• paper by Trish Andrews, Laurel Dyson and Jocelyn Wishart on how to support practitioners implementing mobile learning.