New
book at the CPIT library published by Routledge (2013) and edited by Z.L. Berge and L. Y. Muilenburg. The book is a contains a
comprehensive corpus of work to date on mobile learning frameworks, theories,
pedagogies and challenges.
Book has 53 chapters in five parts. Relevant chapters to our
project surface tablet summarised.
Chapters are short and cover a good spectrum of mlearning
sphere to date. The list of contents has short summaries of each chapter.
Part 1 –Foundation and Future has 12 chapters providing
overview of the evolution, foundational theories and possible future
trajectories of mlearning.
Chapter 1 by Helen Crompton covers the development of
mlearning through it’s elearning roots. Definitions of mlearning are proposed.
The pedagogical shifts in education also summarised from the 1970s (discovery
learning) to constructivist (1980s), constructionist (later 1980s), problem-based
learning and socio-constructivist (1990s) along with learning centred
developments. The advances in ‘educational technology’ also summarised through
1970s to 1990s.
Chapter 2 - W.C. Diehl covers ‘mlearning as a subfield of
open and distance ed.’ A mainly American historical evolution of distance
learning is summarised from the 1800s through postal / paper-based, to the
emergence of radio and TV.
Chapter 3 by T
. Cochrane provides ‘a summary and critique of
m-learning research and practice’ through overview of the various phases and
research approaches used. Key mlearning projects, sources of research funding,
project contexts and methodologies are presented. The gaps in mlearning
research summarised as being a lack of explicit underlying pedagogical theory,
lack of transferable design frameworks, longitudinal studies, explicit support
for student / lecturer support and poor integration with pedagogical; and
general lack of awareness of ontological shifts required of learners and
lecturers to move forward.
Chapter 4 covers the ‘sociocultural ecological frame for
mobile learning’ contributed by N. Pachler, B. Backmir and J. Cook. Argues for
the need to adopt a cultural ecology perspective for mlearning, Sociocultural
structures include the inter-relationships and reciprocities between
sociocultural structures, agency and cultural practices. ‘Appropriation’ of
learning (new cultural products) needs to be couched in terms of individual’s
habitus of learning as it is the individual who shapes knowledge out of their
own sense of their world.
5th chapter written by H. Crompton offering a new
approach or theory for mobile learning. Proposed theories supportive of
mlearning precepts include activity theory, conversational theory and
connections between multiple theories (e.g. behavorist, constructivist,
situated, collaborative, informal / lifelong and learning / teaching support).
Mlearning ‘special’ contributions include context, connectivity, time and
personalisation. The specialised and unique characteristics of mlearning is
able to contribute to require a rethink and a need to develop a new theory for
mlearning.
Chapter 6 by A. Moura and A.A. Carvalho describes a
framework for mlearning integration into educational contexts. Activity theory
is used to ground the study leading to development of the framework. Mobile
learning is informed by pedagogy and aspects of mediation and learning through
inter-relations between activity, tools and students.
Chapter 7 on ‘learning and teaching as communicative actions’
is by S.J. Warren and J.S. Wakefield. Communicative actions to support teaching
and learning are defined as normative, strategic, constative and dramaturgical.
Each of the communicative actions inform instructional design principles and
establishes the design directive. An interesting concept to follow up on.
Chapter 8 by C. Quinn discusses the ‘future of m-learning’.
Mlearning is defined to afford content consumption, interaction to compute,
ability to communicate with others and to capture context with combination of
one or more of the 4 Cs. Suggested ways in which mlearning may move forward
include capabilities that may allow the ‘making of thinking’ visible;
‘meta-learning’ supporting formal and informal aspects of learning between
contexts; and meeting learners’ needs when (connected through calendars) and
where (location awareness via GPS) required.
Chapter 9 is written by 6 authors with M. Milrad the first
author. The chapter focuses on ‘seamless learning: an international perspective
on next-generation technology-enhanced learning’. The 10 dimension of Wong and
Looi (2011) are used to help provide anchoring points. The dimensions are:
encompassing formal / informal learning; personalised / social learning; across
time; across location; ubiquitous access to content for learning; encompassing
physical / digital worlds; combining use of multiple devices; seamless
switching between multiple learning tasks; knowledge synthesis; and
encompassing multiple pedagogical and learning activity models. Projects from
Taiwan, UK, Sweden, Singapore and Japan are provided as examples.
The next three chapters, report on the state of the play
with regards to mlearning. Discussions are on ‘educational change in the palm
of our children’s hands’; ‘future of mobile apps for learning’; and ‘mobile
learning across developing and developed worlds’.
Part 2 – learning and learner support covered in 9 chapters
Chapter 13 by A.Kukulska-Hulme summarises the profile of
mobile learners ‘who they are and who will they become?’ Targeted learners have
included school children and their carers; higher education students; young
adults not in education or work; the underserved in development contexts;
workplace learners including employers, apprentices and professionals;
communities, friends and families; and learners with special needs and
abilities. Not represented as much are older people and retirees; engaged,
enthusiastic and talented young adults;
families; support for disabilities; and under privileged in all
countries, both developed and developing.
Chapter 15 by O. Ozan and M. Kesim covers ‘rethinking
scaffolding in mobile connectivist learning environments’. Summarises
Vygotsky’s scaffolding concept and Berge’s learner support strategies and
synthesises with Siemen’s connectivism approach. Provides an example of how a
mobile connectivist learning environment may occur through collection of
‘mobile learning management system’ with social community and various
affordance of mlearning as summarised in chapter 8.
Part 3 – teaching in instructional design has 10 chapters
Chapter 22 by T. Cochrane on ‘mlearning as a catalyst for
change’ uses case studies from performing arts, architecture and journalism to
argue the case for the entry of a ‘disruptive’ form of technology to become the
lever to change pedagogical practice.
Chapter 23 by A. J. Sams is on ‘flipped classroom meets
mobile learning’ detailing the implementation of a sustainable flipped
classroom learning model. The 4 flipped classroom models are also defined as
pretraining, inquiry, flipped-mastery and project-based.
Chapter 24 by J. Gerstein provides the rational for ‘team
and community building using mobile devices’. Increased usage of mobile devices
along with characteristics of the millennial and igenerations along with the
greater need for building of collaborative skills push the adoption of mobile
devices. Examples of team building activities using mobile devices are
detailed.
M. M. Grant and M.K. Barbour in chapter 25 provide case
studies from the K-12 context on using mobile to teach and learn both in the
classroom and when on-line.
A.M. O’Loughlin, S.M.
Barton and L. Ngo report on the use of mobile technology to enhance teaching in
chapter 26. The framework is that learning occurs through processes of ‘test
programming’, questioning, reflection on the programming and feedback. The need
to ensure ‘human and social’ capital investment is a strong recommendation from
the evaluation.
Chapter 27 on ‘teacher tools’ contributed by S. Price, P.
Davies and W. Farr. The designing of customisable applications for mlearning
activities is reported.
In chapter 28, S. Huber and M. Ebner report on ‘iPad human
interface guidelines’ and why the interface with mobile devices is important
towards ensuring learning is assisted.
X Ge, D. Huang, H. Zhang and B. B. Bowers report on chapter
29 the ‘three dimensions design for mobile learning’ to include pedagogy,
design and technology considerations using a case study based on learning
through simulations for nurses.
S.A. Nikou and A.A. Economides summarise the current ‘mobile
assessment’ landscape in Chapter 30. A range of approaches in deploying mobile
learning to assessments are discussed. Included are classroom response systems,
self / peer assessments, collaborative assessments, computerised adaptive
tests, dynamic assessments, context-aware assessments, location aware
assessments and mobile game based learning (mGBL).
Chapter 31 by I. de Waard explores the concept of mobile
MOOCs and the design aspects required to work mMOOC in the cloud.
Part 4 – 7 chapters on policies, administration and
management. Issues covered include: institutional move to mobile platforms
(chapter 32 by G. Baroudi & N. Marksbury); Framework for implementation of
mobile technology (33 with R.M Seilhamer, B. Chen and A.M. Sugar); BYoD case
study by J. LaMaster and J.D. Ferries-Rowe; holistic framework for ethical
mlearning by L.E. Dyson, T. Andrews, R. Smith & R. Wallace; copyright and
fare use by P. Aufderheide; accessibility issues with J.B. Roberts; and role of
academic libraries with R. Wexelbaum and P. Miltenoff.
Part 5 has 15 chapters providing various cases and
perspectives. Of note are:
Chapter 41 by S. Stoerger on ‘becoming a digital nomad’. Chapter
42 with R. Brandt and R. Rice on ‘mobile medicine praxis’. Closer to home,
chapter 44 by J. A. Willems with ‘mlearning during emergencies, disasters and
catastrophes. Chapter 45 with H.G. Tuttle on ‘improving students’ modern
language speaking skills through mobile learning.
Overall, the most relevant chapters are in Sections 1 and 3.
Specific case studies, especially those involving the customised production of
mobile apps, become dated very quickly in the fast changing mobile technology
world. We learn from every project deploying mlearning to a range of diverse
and often challenging contexts. Mlearning is still to meet its potential
especially in helping to bring affordances to learning to remote, deprived and
transient communities most in need of access to education. This book is an
excellent resource for any educator embarking on the mlearning journey as it
reports triumphs and challenges, modelling the complex political and social
area mlearning occurs in.