ASCILITE - Bringing Australasian Technology and Practice Trends into Focus - 2022-2023 Contextualising Horizon report

 ASCILITE publication - provides a contemporary reporting of the digital technology and practices across Australasia. 

Porter, D. B., Campbell, C., Logan-Fleming, D., & Jones, H. (Eds.). (2023). Bringing Australasian Technology and Practice Trends Into Focus: The 2022–2023 Contextualising Horizon Report. ASCILITE. 

The practices are thematic organised into: hybrid and flexible learning; AI literacy; mental health and well-being; the evolution of mobile learning; and integration of indigenous knowledges.

STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political) trends affecting how technology is availed and practices resources and supported, are discussed.

Social trends, post-pandemic, mean there are new ways of working, both within industry and academia. However, the pandemic also revealed the many challenges of digital equity and inclusivity, which have not been solved. The main technological influence presently, is Gen AI which requires workforce capability to be built. Advances in augmented and virtual reality, also require capability to be resources. The current rise in the cost of living, the reshaping of the higher education workforce, and a move towards skills-based hiring, all affect economics. Environmental concerns include the design of physical spaces to provide for more flexible work, learning and teaching, initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and the need to maintain and meet future sustainable development goals, are all important. Political forces include current and possible/impending global disruption, changes in government funding models, and the inclusion  of first people's.

Of note in the exemplars for the hybrid/flexible learning theme is the Ara midwifery programme's networked-distributed model.

All in, a good update on where the sector is at with digital technology approaches towards tertiary education. 

AVETRA - Day 2

 Day 2 begins with a welcome to Country. Dr. Lizzie Knight provides a overview of Day 1 and introduces the first keynote.

Keynote 4 is with Dr. Geethani Nair, the Chief Innovation Officer with Digital Skills Organisation. She presents on 'building a resilient workforce: The critical role of prioritising skills in VET'. Overviewed the Australian VET sector and its challenges; need to innovate at VET for dynamic industry demands; and opportunities on the horizon for the sector. Reminder of how VET covers community-based adult education, private RTOs, government and non-government enterprises,  TAFE, VET in schools etc. Some perspective of VET as broken but perhaps it is crumbly - fragmentated, eroded, dysfunctional :( The introduced a case-study from Sri Lanka. Has less than 1% of government budget in VET, in the bottom 20% for labour market efficiency and low in quality of education. Skills shortage etc. with low productivity, mainly in low/unskilled occupations and 1/4 of population employed overseas (majority in low skill occupations). In contrast, Australia focuses on VET are to assure active citizenship and community engagement; opportunities for under-represented groups and an inclusive and equitable society. Challenges include declining enrolments, low completion rates, employer satisfaction could perhaps be higher, student satisfaction quite high, and quality indicators indicate 20% could do better, and funding forecasted to decline. 

There are increasing skill gaps due to changing landscape of work and rapid technological advancement. To keep out requires agile and responsive skilling sector, new pedagogical models and teacher capability. Innovative VET needs to 'hit the industry bullseye', maximise relevance an transferability, and ensure mobility of skills. Adopting a skills-based approach (skills taxonomy) one way - from transferable skills across roles and industries, skills analysis of workforce, clustering for maximising tranferability and mobility, and skills development reflecting the evolving demands of industry. Application over acquisition, skills standards into clusters, skills developed close to action and skills for jobs - stackable, accreditated + non-accreditated. Explained skills pathways to job roles - pathway to job, job specific skills mapped to credentials/micro-credentials, blend accreditated and unaccreditated micro-credentials, training delivery could be skills, competency or curriculum based. In doing, learners are helped to stay ahead, have the ability to stack job roles, align micro-credentials to full qualifications, have rapid adaptation. Case study of cyber analyst role with alignment to digital skills standards. Curriculum with cyber core (info security, security infrastructure, security ops), cyber assessment, and cyber development. Completed through work-integrated learning. Shared mapping of digital job pathways. Opportunities to improve, increase, enhance, strengthen, improve and increase various key platforms of VET. 

Keynote 5 follows with Professor Rae Cooper who is the Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations at the Australian Research Council - University of Sydney Business School, presenting on 'ceilings, walls, floors and gaps: The architecture of gendered inequality in work'. Gender equity also related to equity for all others. Overviewed the architecture of difference and discrimination; the gap between aspiration and practice, and meeting these needs and filling the gaps. The pervasive and enduring architecture of gendered difference - stratification (glass ceilings), segregation (glass walls), undervaluation and bad jobs (sticky floors), hours disparity (paid/unpaid work), 'bad flex' (good flex is in short supply), and disrespect (harassment and bias still pervasive). Over 40 years, women stay in the workforce (post child birth) at high rates (40% return in 1960s and 80% now). Australian women best educated in the world, than at any point in history and better educated than men -50% now have a degree. Women at work want respect, security, decent pay, balance between work and care and flexibility. However, there is still a gap between what respect, security, work balance (53% gap) flex they want and what then would like going into the future and there is still a gender pay gap. Australian women are educated, engaged and ready to participate. However workplaces are not yet meeting their needs. Mutual benefits for women, government and business from filling the gaps and dismantling the gendered architecture.

Concurrent sessions begin after morning tea.

I present on our 'mobile learning' project with 'Applying mobile learning towards digital inclusion for vocational education learners'. The data comes from a study with Alan Hoskin to find out how trades students coped with the pandemic in 2021, the devices they were able to access, and their experiences of remote/emergency learning. As with other studies going back 2 decades, mobile phone ownership predominated amongst the participants. Yet, our LMS is PC/laptop centric, making the mobile learnning experience, much less fluid and userable. Therefore, there is still a need to design for mobile learning, in particular, holistic design across all facets of learning - communications, student support, pastoral care, learning activities and assessments, to assure a consolidated mlearning experience. 

Then Kylie Taffard from the ConCove presents on 'constructing women: investigating the influences on career development educators when advising young women on construction trades' and overview of her PhD thesis. Summarised research process - to understand trades academies and gendered occupations - with constructions trades as the context. Detailed her model - the opportunities and influences of gender socialisation and stereotypes; occupation stereotypes and segregation. These impacted on learners career decisions; career development educators focused on student interests; trades women also appreciated sympathetic career development support. Theory of career choice assumes self-efficacy but if this was tapped on, career choice much more aligned. Perceptions of the industry played a part, some saw the need to leave their femaleness to enter a male dominated industry. School culture contributed to perceptions of how to behave as a female and peer values often can be challenging. Family connections often helped pave the way into the industry. Career developers often had to help young people mediate their career aspirations with family expectations. Need to ensure support provided to young people if they pursued non-traditional career choices. Career developers themselves had challenges, working with other teachers who had biases with regards to gendered career choice, having to work through too much information on the range of careers available, heavy workloads, lack of support from school leadership etc. Summarised recommendations. 

Followed by Professor Antje Barabasch, from the Swiss Federation University of VET, on 'how industry responds to new challenges for training apprentices in Switzerland'. Overviewed the school and VET system, with 70% of school leavers selecting - from a wide choice of options - apprenticeships as a post-school education option. Detailed the apprenticeship training process - in-company training, training centres and industry training (to cover the gaps). Summarised a project on 'innovative approaches to apprenticeship training'. Rationale is the changes in work and new conditions for work and learning. Across 6 years, 7 industry case studies have been derived- telecommunications, public transport, postal service, retail, pharmaceutical etc.  Stressed the need for 'transversal skills', support learners' enthusiasm and motivation and the roles of relatedness, competence and autonomy to support these. Shared innovations and examples to extend apprenticeship through mobility and exposition; responsibility and entrepreneurship; preparatory course and special training, and supporting creativity. Recommended conditions for success in innovations in VET - management commitment, leadership, trainer autonomy, openness and flexibility, culture shift, time for evolution to take place, and support of intrinsic motivation. There are challenges as well - apprentices' focus on social aspects, work environment is competitive, and stress and authentic learning at work. 

After a working lunch with the research dissemination sub-committee,  three presentations follow:

Dr. Warren Guest on 'VET learners as curriculum co-designers: examining the realities, opportunities and prospects'. Focused on curriculum design process and how apprentices see themselves in the process. Apprentice case study shared for exemplary and not as model workplaces. On paper, the enacted curriculum and training plans spell out things to be accomplished. However, workplace sub-cultures, apprentices' agency, expansiveness or restrictiveness of workplace etc. mean consistency between workplace/ learning sites will always be variable. Suggested the co-designing of the curriculum especially with regards to mode of training delivery (on/off job, who with, decision based on cost/time/availability), the structure of training delivery (how long, when, where), assessment arrangements (to work for apprentice), elective units (or relevance to the apprentice aspirations) and competency based completion timeframe (negotiated / flexible). Training plans, although supposedly apprentice-led, now mainly employer-led. So what is the apprentices' experienced curriculum? Investigated apprentices agency and understanding of the process. Development of occupational and vocational identity is important to establish the motivations and direction for their apprenticeship journey. For the experienced curriculum, apprentice knowledge augments engagement, off the job develops vocational belonging, gradual skills development leads to deeper knowledge depth, business needs prioritised over learning needs, and learning preferences are rarely considered. 

Then, John Blake from Eastern College Australia on 'engagement strategies that support retention of learners in higher education'. Model of student as being central to education. The class (teachers and peers) are wrapped around to provide immediate support and whole of school also required to provide positive support as well. Study to address high attrition rate of student with external students even more likely to withdraw. Summarised reasons for attrition and a content analysis to unpack solutions. Affective categories (mentor, support, belonging, communication, teacher-presence, feedback, collaboration etc.) seen to be most likely to assist. Multiple strategies, as all these categories intersect and intertwine, synergised to the context, useful as interventions to improve engagement to prevent attrition.

Last presentation from Dr. Karen O'Reilly-Briggs who presents on aspects of her ISS fellowship - report now published -  with 'VET school teachers in Norway and Finland: what Australia can learn from Nordic models of VET in schools'. Briefly summarised backgrounds of Norway and Finland - from an educational perspective. In Finland, Universities of Applied Science provide more practice-based education, school-based VET has improved prestige and young people view VET positively with 50% of upper secondary school students study a VET pathway. VET teachers must be qualified before teaching, and only a fraction of applicants able to enter the programme. For Norway, school VET integrated into general education. 51% of students are VET students and 80% on 2+2 which includes two years of school which is generalised and two years of industry-based learning. Two pathways into VET teaching - 3 year Bachelor or practical pedagogical pathway (1 year plus 4). In both countries, VET teaching well respected, have VET streams in schools and require higher qualifications before entry into VET teaching.

Panel discussion on building institutional research capability, chaired by Professor Michelle Simon follows afternoon tea. Panel includes Professor Sarojni Choy (Griffith University), Professor Michelle Simon (Western University University), Professor Stephen Billett (Griffith University), Dr. Henry Pook (Holmsglen Director of Centre for Applied Research and Innovation) and Dr. Joy De Leo (Manager, Research and Data Analytics, NCVER). Each shared their perspectives and recommendations as to how to build research capability in their own context. 

A plenary session closes the conference. 

Overall, a good re-acquaintance with conference presentation and networking. The conference committee was able to bring in a good range of keynotes, updating on important aspects of Australian VET policy. We need a similar event in Aotearoa NZ :) 

Coping with COVID-19 - the Mobile way - book overview

 This is a timely addition to a plethora of studies/articles/books on how various educational sectors, coped with COVID-19 in the last 2 years. The book reports on case studies from China, which is still keeping the virus at bay with a 'zero COVID' approach. 

The book is edited by Dr. Xiaoge Xu and published in 2022 by Springer. 

After an introduction by the editor, there are five sections. The chapter introduces the frameworks underpinning the the book's approaches and provides short overviews of each chapter.

The first section - coping with COVID-19: the WeChat way has three chapters.

- 'You wait for me for a moment': mobile usage of the elderly female adults in China to cope with COVID-19 by Zhen Troy Chen and Xin Pei. Studies an under-researched demographic for mobile phone use and especially relevant in the current situation, whereby social connection is challenged but of utmost importance in helping individuals maintain mental well-being. 

- COVID-10 fake news and older adults: predicating news credibility evaluation, by Xiaoxiao Zhang. Follows on from the previous chapter and studies how older adults, evaluate the multiple sources of information they receive through mobile access to information. Found digital skills, literacy and social media use were the major influences on how individuals perceived the validity and credibility of online content.

- Coping with COVID-19: The WeChat way by Stephen Adriano-Moore and Yimeng Cai. An interesting study of how medical staff coped, whilst assigned to mobile / temporary treatment centres, used WeChat to develop and maintain social cohesion through challenging work.

The second section focuses on 'reporting on COVID-19, the mobile way.

- Predicting news engagement in Douyin: The case of COVID-10 coverag, by Qumo Ren. Douyin is China's version of TikTok - a mobile platform for sharing short videos. Found that high-visual-modality and solution-embedded news, increased social engagement (number of likes and comments).

- Reporting COVID-19 via crowdsourcing: The US vs China with Shixin Ivy Zhang, Jing Meng and Ranna Huang. Highlights the importance of mobile devices in crowdsourcing of 'just-in-time' news. Chinese 'real-name' authentication discouraged and reduced the chance of users producing 'fake news'.

Then a section on Coping with COVID-19: Information disorder and personal privacy.

- Typology and governance of information disorder related to COVID-19 in China by Yusi Liu and Lu Zhu. Defines, discusses and evaluates the various ways information can be viewed through various lenses.

- Public health vs Personal privacy during COVID-10 in China with Zhijing Zhang. Details the many initiatives, used by the Chinese government, to prevent and control the virus. Discusses the ethical concerns around citizen privacy and issues around data protection and security.

Followed by a section on Coping with COVID-19: The survival efforts.

- Digital transformation or new digital divde 2.0? Yiwu lady bosses embracing MSC technology to survive the pandemic by Chenxiang Elaine Ji. A case study on mobile social commerce and its influence on micro-entrepreneurs/micro-enterprises.

- Mobile marketing and innovation: Saviours for toursism during the pandemic bu Yi Wang, Yangyang Jiang and Cenhua lyu. A comparative study, pre and post -COVID 19 on mobile marketing strategies and processes.

- From epicentre to hero city: How Wuhan survived the pandemic written by Zizhen Wand and Stephen Andriano-Moore. Reports on how the city of Wuhan, turned the negative image around through the publicising of specific people whose bravery assured the safety of others.

The last section is of relevance covering 'beyond COVID-19: collaborative mobile learning and mobile workplaces.

- Collaborative learning during the pandemic: The role of mobile devices by Nancy Xiuzhi Liu and Zhen Troy Chen. Evaluated how learners acquired the skills of translation through collaborative learning.

- Mobile workplaces for the construction industry in the post-COVID-19 era with Georgios Kapogiannis, Tianlung Yang, Ahmed Mohammed Alkhard and Azzam Rasian. Reports through two case studies, the work to create mobile working environments when the workforce is not able to physically congregate. The use of mobile devices and the creation of a mobile work environment are key. 

Overall, the chapters report on many studies, undertaken to better understand the challenges and initiatives undertaken over the last few years, as society, education and work, grapple with swift change and the need to continually cope with moving from f2f interactions, towards undertaking most communication via digital means. The studies provide a window into how one country, still enmeshed in keeping the virus at bay, has deployed mobile technologies and the implications wrought on individuals and society at large.

Shifting to an Android phone

The Windows phone issued by my work, which I have been using for many years, has now been retired –RIP. A month or so ago, I resurrected my son’s old Samsung Galaxy 5 and have now sorted out some of its ins and outs. The phone is already dated as it was released five years ago. However, I am finding it adequate for the things I use a phone for. 

Porting across and updating any app with a cloud based storage option has been easy. Using my google gmail account name means all the apps in the google ecosystem, recognise who I am and there is a seamless shift across to gmail, youtube, google photos, blogger and any apps attached to this account. Ditto with facebook, whatsapp etc. Uploading postings on to facebook and inaturalist have been straightforward as well.

Galaxy store does not seem to have a good search function and I have switched to google play or use chrome browser to download other favourite apps.

One function I am learning how to use is to track my weekend tramps using the NZ topo maps app. Still experimenting and will report progress in a future blog.

Another function I will need to put some time into, is the AR/ VR via mobile phone. My work with our students still indicates a digital divide, with many of our students studying in levels 1 - 4 not having access to a laptop, PC or WiFi at home. Almost all have a phone, with many only able to afford the most basic smart phone. Therefore, there is still a need to ensure various 'blended learning' initiatives, are still mobile phone capable. 

Inge de Waard's blog

I bumped into Inge de Waard at several mlearning conferences in the past. The last one at least six years ago. Time flies! At that time, she had just started the PhD journey and has now just completed her viva.

Inge's blog - @IgnatiaWebs - has been a good way to keep in touch with happenings in the mlearning research scene. Especially since I have had to put my energies into vocational education research with mlearning as an adjunct.

Her posts always lead to extra exploration of various concepts, resources and the work of other leaders in the field. So, a good 'go to' place for updates and to keep up with the ever changing mlearning scene.

One of the real gems with technology focused blogs, is the historical recording of how various types of technology evolve. In the case of @ignatiaWebs, the history of mlearning is archived. Mainly due to the Inge keeping a focus on the topic. She posts strategically with posts around here various presentations and publications as well.

So, always something to learn from others. This blog meanders across several topics as my research interests shifts horizontally across 'learning a trade' type topics. I need to start putting up overviews of recent presentations and publications as well. Something I will start doing this year.

Iphone 10 years old this month - has mlearning become established in education?

This NZ article, provides a historical overview of the evolution of the smart phone and its impact of the technological landscape. In ten years, we have seen phone companies come and go. However, the continuing influence of smart phones on the world has been and continues to be far reaching. The article, as with this other one from the BBC, describes the iphone as a key transformative technology for the last decade. The smart phone has afforded access to a powerful computer to over 2 billion people. As reported in another article, peopleare enamoured by smart phones and we are emotionally attached to them as the conduits to social media.

On the teaching and learning side of things, the advent of the smart phone must surely be one of the most important contributors to mobile / mlearning initiatives. With the smart phone, ready access to the internet via WiFi, the untethering of knowledge, content and the ‘sage on the stage’ approaches to teaching and learning accelerated. Tablets have added another dimension to the ways in which smart phone technology may be leveraged. 

Many of the ‘cutting edge’ applications discussed at mlearn in 2006 – 2010 are now common place. A recent NZ project, provides salient examples of the breathe and scope of mlearning in the NZ tertiary sector. However, the potentialities of mlearning are still largely untapped. In large educational institutions, two barriers have taken time and patience to surmount. The first is the security aspect around institutional IT systems, the second the provision of adequate and robust WiFi. BYOD is one way to move through the IT security challenge but BYOD use hinges on ease of access to WiFi. Blended learning and the integration of TEL via mlearning to support active learning through inquiry, project or problem-based learning becomes normal.

Learners having access to a wide range of resources now require skills to evaluate and collate material. To be able to bricolage, one has to know what, where and how to look for information and then to critically appraise the material and incorporate into informing how to solve an existing or new problem. Learning shifts from learning content to learning how to think. Teachers, especially ones assisting learners to learn a specific occupational, need to now be able to help learners learn how to ‘become and be’. Therefore, there is an important shift in pedagogical focus, from learning how and why to learning how to extend beyond the here and now. 

mlearn newsletter - catch up on mobile learning news

Unable to get across to Sydney this week for the annual mlearn conference :(

As a consolation, caught up with the mlearn newsletter to see how the mlearning community is progressing. The newsletter had several good overviews on mlearning. Summary of a two below:

1) Professor John Traxler (8 minutes) presents on challenges going intothe future of mlearning.  Need to move into sustainable mlearning. Discussed the requirement to move into a BYO environment and the importance of providing students with skills to critically evaluate the information they will need to continually access when they leave the gated community of education.  Still reluctance amongst educators, maybe in the formal, pre-tertiary sector to free students from the closed school learning management system. Etiquette in how to work with mobile phones within an educational contexts.

2) Marcus Specht, Welten Institute (16 minutes)  video

Learning design / instruction design for augmented reality – important to ensure augmented reality object is appropriate to context. Example provided is a museum guide whereby the museum objects are connected to audio commentary (through QR codes for instance). Use of infrared sensors to be able to locate user so that appropriate augmented information is provided – i.e. what is the person looking at. Vocational education example is of a head mounted camera providing virtual instruction (e.g. virtual projected hands of expert) on to machinery requiring maintenance or repair. Also covered wearable technologies and their potential for mlearning.

Paper referred to:

Dimensions of Mobile Augmented Reality for Learning: A First Inventory – 2012 - see pg. 117.

Also recent article in NZ Stuff on availability of hardware for virtual reality etc. for how well NZ is set up for implementation of educational VR.

National Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference - 2014 day 1

At the annual National Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference, at Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), Invercargill for the next 3 days. Looking forward to catching up with many NZ staff developers and gathering new ideas to share with CPIT colleagues.
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Day one begins with traditional Maori Mihi whakatau, welcomes from conference MC, Sally Dobbs - Academic and Relationship leader (SIT) and SIT CE - Penny Simmonds, Invercargill mayor, Tim Shadbolt. First keynote from Dr. Kerry Reid-Searl - Professor of Nursing from Central Queensland University, with an extension on her keynote from last year. This year, 'Anywhere, anytime: a simulation teaching strategy preparing learners for real world practice beyond the classroom walls'. Challenged teachers to try different and innovative ways to engage students with learning. Introduced the classroom in a small suitcase - based on -simulation - to have a realistic programmes with fidelity and believable. Did a role-play similar to one last year with an elderly patient. Extended on simulation with pedagogical framework - how relationship to 'person' and hearing his journey helps students learn respect and see things from a different perspective. Many dispositional skills including need to learning how to listen and empathise. Mask Ed simulations introduces 9 characters who carry through the 3 years of the nursing programme. Learners build up relationships with the characters, learning by stealth (the hidden educator).

After lunch, attend Aidan Bigham, Trudy Harris and Jackie Messam on 'course design for student centred learning,'. Changed brought about by move into new facilities. Modified OTARA to OSCAR - objectives, success criteria, context, resources. Learning spaces fully flexible with a central 'street' to use whole space or divide into smaller spaces. Team teaching with project based / student based learning. Need to prepare for teaching in a different format, not just concentrate on content. Learning activities are more important to work through than content. Learning around a one semester project to solve engineering problem. Problems based on real-world scenarios or a design brief to be completed by a 'client'.

Then afternoon tea, followed by my keynote on CPIT's experiences with technology enhanced learning (TEL) post-earthquakes with emphasis on our 'project surface tablet' titled - 'flexible and mobile delivery @ CPIT post-2012: Shaken, stirred and poured'. Presentation stressed need to plan, identity learning objective, select pedagogical approach, prepare students and teachers and  evaluate and improve as project progresses.

After keynote, a series of 3 sessions. Firstly, Terry Kapua from Waiariki (Rotorua) with 'mobile device education: tino rangitiratanga for learners'. Introduced an iPhone app to learn Maori allowing for pronunciation to be checked. Correct pronunciation provided. Learner records their version and sent best one to learning management system to mark it. Trialing with 80 students and learning pitfalls and ways to help meet the challenges.

Next, John Hitchcock and Gerry Duignan from Weltec on 'growing 21st century tertiary teachers through a career pathway model'. Discussion groups identified professional development as beginning, intermediate ( 1 - 4 years) and 'experienced' (more than 5 years) teachers. Pattern of -how can I be a teacher, how can I understand learning and for more experiences, how can I understand learners and what can I do to help learners learn?? Discussion on what is 21st century learning. From discussion, introduced an academic staff career framework to try to capture and frame professional / capability development for polytechnic tutors.

Last up today, Cath Fraser and Ruth Petersen with 'getting connected: principles and theories that mean any time anywhere works for students'. Introduced the Goalpost resource produced as an Ako Aotearoa resource for tutors. A just in time resource for new tutors to get them up and running and a follow-up from the Signpost resource  which was a first stop resource for people starting out as tutors in the NZ polytechnic, wananga and private sector. Two resources are supported by Teaching tips 1 and teaching tips 2 workshops to provide interactive sessions.

Conference that headed to the SIT downtown campus for a'night market' set up by students to showcase their work.

Acer Aspire Switch 10 - user review

Purchased an Acer Aspire Switch 10 while in Singapore a couple of weeks ago and have been putting it to good use while away (taking notes for blog), travelling and now at work.

The Switch 10 has had mostly positive reviews as evidenced with PC advisor and collation from endgadget. It is basically a slightly more elegant version of the Asus transformer. The price of the Switch 10 is attractive. For the price of Sing$599 you get a tablet running windows 8 and an easily attachable / detachable keyboard. The tablet can be attached to the keyboard either to emulate a laptop, or back to front to provide a screen to share or show /watch content. The 10 refers to the tablet’s 10 inch screen.

The Chiclet style keyboard is not flash but does the job. It takes a few uses to become attuned to the spacing of the keys but after a few typing sessions, touch typing is ‘re’-established. With Windows 8, there is a choice of touch or keyboard interface which can be disconcerting at first. Again, an hour or so of use and routines readjusted to input text via attached keyboard but respond to all others via swipe / touch.

The tablet boots up quickly (especially when compared to the Surface RT) and the apps I usually use run well. I found migrating all the apps through the Microsoft account to be painless. Just enter details during the set up and presto, all the apps etc. from previous Surface Pro transferred across. Each app does require uploading to activate and some (like games) bring you back to the very beginning (sigh). Access to files etc. stored on the cloud via dropbox (my photo archive), onedrive (work files), kindle (100s of books) and overdrive (Christchurch llibrary books / magazines / audio books) was hassle free. One USB port provided although nowadays I tend to go on the cloud and only save essentials like presentations to USB as last resort backup if WiFI is not available. Only mini HDMI so will need an adaptor to connect to larger screen or data show type set up or install miracast.

With the keyboard, using PC based software proved to be straightforward. Having worked with a Surface Pro for some time, the migration between apps and ‘desktop’ productivity tools no longer a novelty. For work, I prefer the familiar windows environment to the iPad which I use mainly for reading and web surfing. Web surfing on the Switch 10 using IE or Chrome is also uncomplicated. When out and about, finding and connecting to Wifi  is clear cut.

The tablet comes loaded with Acer specific Apps but these can be easily shifted away from the start screen or deleted altogether. My main gripe is the provision of only one camera – facing forward – which makes it less useful for some of our tablet projects utilising the video capability of the tablet to improve practice-based learning. We have found sitting the tablet on a table with the screen facing away from the person to be videoed, provides a less intimidating prospect than if the person has to ‘talk’ to the screen. The power connection on the right side of the table is also a bit of a pain when you are using the tablet while it is charging as it tends to fall off easily.

Overall, a tidy and effective package of tablet cum keyboard if you require a light / small piece of hardware to surf the web, read books and work on documents on the go.

Handbook of mobile learning - summary and overview

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.

5^th 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.

Mobile pedagogy - book summary

Disclaimer – I have contributed a chapter in this book.

Book summary of just launched book in the ‘advances in mobile and distance learning series’ published by IGI Global titled ‘mobile pedagogy and perspectives on teaching and learning’. The book is edited by Douglas McConatha, Christian Penny, Jordan Schugar and David Bolton (all based at West Chester University , Pennyslavia, USA) and contains 15 chapters collected into 3 sections.  Brief summary of each chapter below:

Section 1: Current demonstrations and developments in the field of mobile pedagogy

1) Towards a mobile pedagogy by Scott. E. Hamm, Jason, Drysdale and Diana Moore. This chapter reports on the uptake of mobile learning at Abilene Christian College through a range of projects including students’ access to pre-lecture resources on mobile devices; distance learning / remote teaching using mobile devices; introduction of ipads and its impact on the college’s LMS; use of Twitter; audio as alternative to text-based feedback; and using games. Koole’s framework to study the device (useability), social (social technology) and learning (interaction technology) aspects was used across the various projects to evaluate the various projects and form recommendations to improve mobile learning implementation.

2) The second chapter ‘ student development of E-workbooks: A case for situated-technology enhanced learning (STEL) using net tablets’ by Selena Chan with Katrina Fisher and Peter Sauer (Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology), an extension of our project for Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub. Basically, leveraging off affordances of mobile and situated learning with constructivist and multimodal / multi-literacies focus to deploy net tablets (ipads and toshiba thrive android OS tablets) for students to develop their own workbooks or to complete competency based assessments.

3)  Podcasting and pedagogy also from a New Zealand author, Ross Kendall (Wintec, Hamilton, NZ). Uses Engestrom’s expansive activity model to assess the efficacy producing podcasts. A small group of sociology students (level 5) interviewed experts (on sustainability). The students then consolidated their learning through a project to report the outcomes of their interviews, including how they planned , carried out and conducted the sessions.

4) Then a chapter on ‘communities of communication: using social media as medium for supporting teacher interpersonal development’ by Laurie Stone Rogers.  The chapter discusses potentialities and recommendations for various stakeholders (community, administrators, policy makers, teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers). In particular, to encourage the use of social media to provide teachers with the opportunity to overcome isolation, feelings of loneliness and lack of community. In so doing, to improve teachers’ support as they work through an ever challenging time of change.

5) ‘ebook readers for everyone: FATIH project, is from Turkey with Nilgun Ozdamar Keskin, Furat Sarsar and Michael Sean.  A good overview of the historical evolution of ebooks, their advantages and limitations. The chapter also provides a review of recent ebook projects from around the world and then details the FATIH project, the largest educational technology project in Turkey covering 40,000 schools and launched in 2011 to run through to 2014.

Section 2 has 5 chapters on the themes ‘research, theory and practice with mobile pedagogy in differentiated instruction’.

6)  Mobile learning for all: accessibility considerations for mobile pedagogy by Luis Perez and Ezzard Bryant (University of South Florida). Introduces the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and it’s key principles to make digital resources accessible to all. A degree of flexibility is recommended to cover the myriad contexts of modern technology use. The UDL support of iOS and Android OS are then summarised. Case studies of application of UDL to challenge based learning, including apps used to help students participate in learning activities (brain storming, reflection, data collection, presentation, project management and collaboration) are provided. A good chapter to inform ‘disability’ support services in the education sectors and beyond.

7) Mobile learning applications and differentiated instruction with Shelley A. Jackson, Sharla Snider, Nicole Masek and Joanne Baham (Texas Women's University). Differentiated instruction is defined as being based on teachers being able to adapt instruction to student differences. Examples are provided of implementation of differentiated instruction through instructional groupings, multiple levels of kinds of materials and tests, learning assignments, assessment and evaluations.

8) Then Terese Cumming (University of New South Wales, Australia) continues the theme on ‘does mobile technology have a place in differentiated instruction’. Presents the advantages and challenges of using mobile technology in classrooms. Recommends the process of implementing differential instruction through planning, selecting appropriate ‘content’, undertake processes for teacher planning, contextualise according to ‘product’ (problem based learning, layered curriculum rubrics) and learning environment.

9) Ann Orr and John Conley (Eastern Michigan University) write on ‘mobile technology and differentiated learning: meeting the needs of students with significant disabilities’. This chapter covers assistive technologies and how tablets, with their intuitive interface, variety of access options and possibilities for individualisation offer opportunities for enhancing learning for students with disabilities.

10) M. Liu, C. Navarete, E. Maradiegue and J, Wivagg (University of Texas -Austin) close the section with a chapter on ‘a multiple-case study examining teachers’ use of Ipod touches in their pedagogical practices for English-language learners’. An overview of mobile learning applications that assist English language students with case studies of 3 US of A schools. The challenges of incorporating the technology are discussed along with solutions and recommendations.

Section 3 covers ‘implications and innovative applications of mobile pedagogy.

11)  New demands of reading in the mobile internet age are covered by Byeong-Young Cho and Lindsay Woodward (Iowa State University). Covers the changes on-screen, web-based, small screen and digital / multimedia content impacts on learning reading. The change in how information is presented changes our ‘textual landscape’ and our textual conceptions need to learn higher-order strategies to identify, understand and evaluate web based resources. Recommends reading strategies required to deal with the mobile internet context include being able to constructively and responsively read; realise and construct potential texts; identify important ideas and learning across multiple texts; monitor the process of selecting and understanding texts; and evaluate different aspects of text.

12)  Then ‘iteach literacy with ipad devices: preparing teachers for effective classroom integration, with Diane Santori, Carol Smith and Heather Schugar (West Chester University). Two case studies are presented to discuss the many challenges and potentials through introducing ipads to pre- and in-service teachers for literacy instruction.

13) ‘Journalism and media: From mellowed pedagogy to new mobile learning tools’ is covered by Pamela Walck and Yusuf Kahyango (Ohio University). Studies how mobile technology has changed the way media organisations have changed the way they operate and contrasts to the uptake and deployment of mobile technology in a university preparing undergraduates to work in journalism. Media professionals have been rapid adopters of mobile technology and teaching institutions struggle to keep up with the range of methods now possible.

14) An African example with Mawuadem Koku Amedeker (University of Education, Ghana) with ‘stuck in neutral: why technology hasn’t made major inroads into education in Ghana’. Reports on efforts in Ghana to introduce technology into schools, stymied by lack of professional development support to teachers. Recommends ensuring teachers are ready to integrate ICT into learning before launching hardware focused initiatives.

15) Last chapter a pertinent ‘an ROI Ed-Biz approach for deploying mobile pedagogy with Professor Douglas McConatha. Introduces the CADRE model to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of introduction of technology into education.

All in a coverage of mobile learning potentialities through real case studies. Of interest is that many of the projects use tablets as the mobile device. Teacher capability also mentioned in many chapters. Without teacher buy-in and understanding of the pedagogical implements of introducing / deploying technology enhanced learning (TEL), the promise of TEL to contribute to educational change (for the better) will never be fully realised. 

CPIT lunch time PD session: Mobile learning apps

The CPIT Centre for Educational Development (CED) and the Learning Technologies Unit (LTU) has been running a series of professional development sessions this term. Today’s lunch time session was on mobile apps. Almost 30 tutorial and learning support staff attended. Katrina Fisher provided some examples of the work she has been doing following completion of the Ako Aotearoa net tablets project. Included is the work on developing video content supported by quizzes and glossaries that students access via Moodle. Shifting content from tablet to Moodle opens access to web enabled hardware.

Sam Hegarty then provided a show and tell of several useful iOS apps.He started with evernote as a good option to upload content on to the cloud and access through a range of devices and operating systems.

Nearpod was met with great enthusiasm. This app allows a teacher to share the image on their screen with other iOS devices. The app includes options for quizzes, sketching, polls and picture/website/video sharing. Something we will need to test with a large number of tablets through a CPIT wifi site. The app seemed to run in a timely manner during the demo when there were about a dozen devices accessing the site.

Socrative was recommended by one of the staff as a multi-platform alternative although it did not have quite all the options that were available on Nearpod. Its main objective is to be a ‘student or audience response’ system.

Educreations allows a recording of a lesson in the form of whiteboard notes and audio. Photos can be attached and annotated. Basically a screen capture plus voice recording of a short interactive ‘learning presentation’. 

By a nice coincidence, Derek Wenmouth’s blog today was on Bring your own device (BYOD). This was one barrier raised by staff – the expense of obtaining tablets and the lack of support for non-windows OS devices at present. Therefore, an important next step is to establish institutional BYOD policy that is visible to staff and students, providing clear guidelines on what is institutionally supported.

Core session on Mobile learning in the cloud

A well-attended session at this morning's CORE breakfast series, presented by Paul Rodley, ICT director from Christ College, a private boys high school in Christchurch. The presentation concentrated on aspects of cloud computing after a brief overview of ICT use in education.

How can educators capture learning using technology when technology keeps on changing so quickly? Work on the actual use of technology and adapt hardware as they are updated. Examples of using mobile technology concepts include location based technology, domination of ebook, cloud computing in schools, bring your own device classrooms, online collaborative learning, rise of the tablet, on-line class management, social media in education, snack learning, mobile learning in workplace learning.

Provided case studies used at his school including using tweeter in a economics classroom, ipod touch with ebooks in English class, ipads with English and Geography classes, using QR codes to access information, teacher generated ebooks with embedded videos and align mobile access to LMS (moodle),

Stressed importance of surveying students to work out how and what sort of technology they are using as this changes quickly from year to year. Also to enable teachers to make use technology including building confidence and providing sufficient support.

Encouraged access to cloud computing as one way to provide equitable use via a variety of devices. Examples include using mediacore for storing videos, myportfolio (Mahara), eTV for archiving NZ based TV programmes and the public cloud (youtube etc.) Lucidchart and diagram.ly for doing diagrammes, aviary (flash based) for editing and storing multimedia, Google docs, plus socrative to quiz students and poll everywhere (both accessible by multiple devices),

Possibilities include ipads as an interactive white board (for $5 to $10) - we have been testing doceri which cost US$50 per PC - teamviewer allows control of several devices, booktrack for soundtrack for books.

Used page three of addiction to angry birds infographicto provide challenges to teachers for keeping up with technology and using ICT to enhance student learning - keep it simple, rewarding, realistic and have fun :)

Literature informing tablet based interactive etextbook project

I have been doing a catch up on literature that forms the foundation of the interactive etextbooks on tablets project. The four theoretical approaches to learning underpinning the project are mobile / mlearning, learning as students make meaning (constructivism/connectivism), situated learning in simulated workshops/workrooms and leveraging on multi-literacies and multimodalities.
 Some recent material to explore in deeper depth over the next few weeks pertinent to each approach, and to add to existing literature include the following.

mobile learing - The Joint Committee for Information Systems (JISC) have put out the recent wiki document covering an overview of mobile learning, strategies, pedagogy, technical considerations and case studies. A sort of one-stop shop to find out about what is mobile learning and how to implement into educational settings.

Also of interest is mobile usage and Derek's blog provides a cartoon to bring together data on how American's are always connected via their mobile devices.

Constructivism - George Siemen’s work on connectivism has been introduced as a concept that updates constructivism into the information era. A recent presentation (on sensemaking and wayfinding)provides a summary of some of his recent thinking including how connectivism builds on and extends traditional teaching/learning approaches into the digital era (slide 10).

Situated learning and multi-literacies/ multimodalities - A recent post from Artichoke, provides much food for thought plus ideas to follow up on. She discusses the challenges of assessment for learning in the digital age and provides an example from a NZ primary school context,  with usual caveats and provisos.  All in, the above provide me with ideas on how best to structure the literature review section of the report and to make the links between mobile learning and the affordances mobility/mobile hardware/multimodal apps, provides for students to record their learning within simulated work environments.

Inspire tech at wintec on 18april

A bit late with this one as Easter intervened and I lost access to the internet for a few days while out of Perth. So, here are notes taken at the very well organised and inspirational Wintec professional development event for staff.

Merran Davis opened the proffessional development progrmme after karakia. Teaching quality program led by Julia Bruce has an objective to raise cababilities in using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Staff interested but at least half of staff not confident with using IT in teaching. So inspire tech organized, a two day PD program.

Keynote to start things going with Mark Nichols now Executive Director for Faculty at the Open Polytechnic. His work on elearning summarised well in his e-ako series. Topic extend, enhance, excite, engage and above all educate. Mark spoke about the importance of pedagogy and how technology can enhance learning. Covered understanding learning, is extend, enhance, excite and engage the focus? How does technology help? Eleaning can be defined as pedagogy empowered by technology.

Cautioned about the seduction of technocentrism whereas sound pedagogy utilizes appropriate technology suitable to subject, content and student. So not content but process important.

Should elearning move into a deeper realm. Where to? Social media learning? Does information availability make education redundant? How can elearning be unlocked? How can information be useful for education? Introduced the following books that discuss the pluses and minuses of digital revolution.

Google and the myth of universal knowledge - Jeanneney 2007
Here comes everyone - shirky 2008
Cult of amateur - Keen, 2007
Dumbest generation - Bauerlein 2009
Shallow generation - what Internet is doing to our brain - Carr 2010.
Mcneely 2010 makes the link with short term memory as stimulus working memory and information but long term memory as education. Perhaps, stimulus - excite and info - enhance, excite engage not main aim of education! What is our role as educator? Helping to form mental schema, transform perspectives and help them become xxx.

Some guides offered.

Diana Laurillard - conversational framework of learning - dialogue leading to a particular goal. Education is an alignment of the understanding between student and teacher.

Mezirow 2000 -  transformative learning from whist we know to how we know. Adapted by king 2009 into four steps.

Mark provided five principles for learning application
Focus on end not the means
Aim to be conversational
Keep the subject at the centre
Emphasis feedback and conceptual understanding
Be shamelessly transformative.

I faciliated two workshops at this event. The one in the morning as a general introduction to Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 possibilities. A change to evaluate a range of e tools for helping to enhance student learning. After lunch, a workshop on mobile learning tools. Both sessions attended by keen tutors, so I hope they will follow through and introduce at least one form of IT into their teaching practice next term.

updating on mobile learning and web 2.0 / 3.0

Doing preparation for a workshop / presentation at Wintec next week, for their staff development day – Inspire.  There will be two workshops, one of Web 2.0 and moving on to Web 3.0 and the other on mlearning. The main objective is to provide tutors with some tools they can start 'playing' with and for them to match one tool to their teaching context and hopefully try it out with their students.

As updates, have looked at the following over the last two weeks.

Found Shelley Terrel's site via one of the posts on the MobiMOOC course. The site has some good examples of mlearning using podcasts etc. mainly in the context of language learning.

Also some new web 2.0 sites on carl anderson's site with access to one of his latest presentations on mlearning as being a disruptive innovation  and another with ideas for new additions to the digital backpack.

We have the technology and the pedagogy, but will education change?

I think that there is little doubt we have the technology (an example extolling the ipad from Graeme Brown – Handheld Learning) and mobile learning is about here (as per Oz/NZ Horizonreport for 2010 via Derek Wenmouth’s blog).

We have also have the pedagogy pitched about right – inclusiveness, participative learning etc. need for critical thinking skills etc. and bringing it together with constructive or curriculum alignment and sumarised in this slideshare (Biggs & Tang, 2008) 

But are our classrooms, institutions and IT departments ready?? As the horizon report summarises,

‘even when technologies are strongly promoted, professional development is still crucial’ and ‘there is a mismatch between pedagogy and the design of emerging technologies’ – which is becoming less of a challenge as with say the ipad’.

Two technologies to become mainstream within a years are ebooks and mobiles.

Ebooks are not pervasive in our polytechnic environment. Many of our students and some of our tutors are not ‘natural’ readers. There is also resistance to reading ‘off the screen’ with many people  printing off items to read, rather than reading on screen and storing the digital copies for later reference. I have lost count of the number of people I have introduced pdf readers with annotation tools (like FoxIT) but few have taken up the challenge. True, there is a learning curve and the need to relearn years of acquired skill through reading hard copies. However, the advantages of digital make the effort worthwhile. I now find articles easily, whereas in the past, I would have to fossick into my card catalogue and hunt down the article either in the library or through boxes of printouts. Now, most journal articles are archived in various folders under the references section of each project. I can use Endnotes to find the article and once the article found, use the search function on the pdf reader to find the relevant section. Usually takes all of 2 minutes compared to at least 15 – 20 minutes for the manual option or a couple of days for the library option if the article is at the university.


For the adoption of mobiles, concerted efforts to bring down the cost of mobile web access will be required OR better access to WiFi within out institutions. Without either, access to the www will be stymied and that makes mobile access slightly superfluous. The small screen of pdas, ipod touches and phones have always been a barrier to the uptake of mobile. Tablets like the ipad make web surfing a joy and reading off an ipad is much more 'book like' although annotation etc. needs to again be learnt.

So will need to work on both the above. An interactive text book approach using the advantages provided by tablets will be an interesting way to tap into both ebook and mobile technologies. The pedagogy underpinning the project will be aspects of using the interactive text book as a resource for both constructive and participative learning. So something wot work through and investigate more deeply.

Ipad - convenience and mlearning tool

The mobility of netbooks / ipad along with Wifi has changed the way in which my family interacts. Both my ‘kids’ (one 22 , the other 25) are currently back at home. The younger establishing herself into work after completing uni. last year & the older back home a month ago, after a 6 month break in Thailand and a couple of years working in Melbourne. He is now back at Polytechnic doing a Cert. in Fitness course. Most evenings, we are gathered around the TV, each with netbook (2 eee PCs), ipad or ipod touch (2 of them), surfing the web, playing games, reading etc. while the 6pm news does its best to bring our attention back to things happening in the big wide world. The husband now has the daily newspapers all to himself but does borrow the ipad for his bit of web surfing as well, he finds the ipod touch screen too small. So besides comments on what is happening on the news, we also share sites we are surfing, latest videos, music, compare scores on games (Scramble2), plan movies to see or walk/tramp/ski trip over the weekend. In the past, we tended to each be busy at our computers & four to five years ago, just before both of them left home, they had TVs in their rooms. We actually now interact socially much more in the evening then we used to!!


From the education focus, I have never been a great fan of teaching in computer suites. The students ‘hide’ behind their computers and group activity, peer interaction is difficult when the physical barrier of a large computer screen prevents people from seeing each other properly. Access to WIFI and encouraging students to make use of laptops/netbooks/ipads presents teachers with a much better physical environment which can be flexibly reorganised to enhance learning activities taking place in the classroom. Untethered web access leads to mobility and the opportunity for students and teachers to centre learning on the tasks at hand.

The classroom then becomes a true learning space as access to information relevant to the lesson is much more easily sourced. This information can then form the basis of learning moments for students and teachers.
Here and here are comprehensive lists of links to various ipod touch/ipad apps – many educational including a good list from Rasmussen college. Also an example of an interactive book in the digital form of a well loved NZ book - Hairy Maclary of Donaldson Diary with a video trailer.

Update on mlearning resources

Doing a catch up on mlearning resources this morning. A copy of paper presented at efest / teaching and learning conference at Ucol in October last year now archived along with several others via Ako Aoteoroa. Ones pertinent to mobile learning include Kathryn McCallum’s paper on ‘student characteristics & variables which determine mobile learning adoption’ and Thom Cochrane’s & Roger Bateman on their mLearning journey.

In addition, Thom has provided an overview of the Unitec mlearning projects in developing eportfolios using social networking sites using mobile phones as one of the many interesting projects to enhance student learning in the Ako Aoteoroa ' good' practice ebook.

Always good to check up on web based educational resources on Jane Hart's site.  There is a compendium of mobile learning tools which provides a good list for use with iphones/ipod touches, blackberrys and windows mobile phones.

A more theorectical aspect on mobile learning, which I have recommended our library purchases is a book on mobile learning:structures, agency & practice edited by Norbert Pachler, Ben Bachmair and John Cook. There is a preview of this book on Google books.

Mobile learning is no longer seen as being something which is still emergent.  There is now greater recognition of the advantages in investigating the use of mobile technology in enhancing learning opportunities for students. Part of this is the greater access everyone seems to now have to mobile phones. Using increasingly sophisticated mobile phones does assist educators in becoming more familiar with the use of this form of technology and awakens awareness of it's possibilities for learning.

Pockets of potential report

Here is a great report Via Derek Wenmouth on using mobile tools from the company that brought us Sesame Street .

This is an American report to try to nudge the American government into greater support for mobile learning. It provides a good overview of projects that have taken place in Europe & Asia along with many guidelines on how to leverage mobile learning into education along with the reasons why. Most of the projects reported use handheld devices (pdas, game consoles) instead of mobile phones but the overall intent of the project is to provide greater access for learning opportunities to all children regardless of the digital divide. Handhelds are one way to provide access to the internet & learning objects without having to set up the infrastructure required by desktops.

It provides a succinct (albeit American viewpoint) on mobile learning & its promises, pitfalls and real potential. Key & challenges in mobile learning are summarised. There is an ‘update’ on the relevant market trends and innovation that have brought mobile learning closer.
There is also a good summary of the goals of mobile learning including “understanding that mobile learning is an unique element of educational reform; developing mobile learning by building learning interventions; promoting mobile learning by engaging the public and policy – makers in defining the potential of mobile devices for learning; Preparing teachers and learners for mobile learning by providing training on how to incorporate mobile technologies; and stimulate mobile learning by generating new support for digital learning.

That an organisation that has promoted pre-school education for decades is now involved in advocating mobile learning is really a promising sign that mobile learning is becoming mainstream. President Obama has been reported as being attached to his Blackberry & his election campaign made astute use of mobile technology to connect with & involve his supporters. All of which leads to better appreciation by naysayers of the power of mobile phones to bring about social change. Is education then not about change in attitudes as well?