Diskusjon.no - mLearning forum

Aleksander · Site Admin Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Posts: 7

Welcome to phase 3 of the mLearning study. The results from phase 2 are based on answers from 14 respondents. We have rated the "Top 10 lists" as follows:

#1 is worth 3 points
#2 - 5 is worth 2 points
#6 -10 is worth 1 point.

The results can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.diskusjon.no/mlearning/phase3.html

In phase 2, Question 3 - 4 the increased flexibility believed gained from mLearning is the favourite alternative. This as well as extending the classrooms to the real world and studying at new places are changes predicted.

- Which advantages and disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?
- Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?
- Are there any particular places that can improve the teaching and learning experience?

Sartre · Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Posts: 3

Which advantages and disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?

From my viewpoint as a teacher I see most advantages. As a tutor, I am terribly busy and often away and on travel. Being able to work and communicate gives me much better opportunity to use spare time. I can comment on assignments whether in the airport, on the plane or at my summer house. I know what workload waits for me and get no surprise when coming back. I do not experience that students expect quicker feedback than in Internet based learning generally, but of course they may become positively surprised with quicker feedback also during vacation and holiday time.

Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?

One may of course think of many. Such as field study in biology or zoology, or studying in museums etc. But from my viewpoint is is the generelly increased flexibility of time and place in distance learning that is the real increase in quality

Are there any particular places that can improve the teaching and learning experience?
Again - of course, there are subjects where place of study may mean a lot, as mentioned above. It might be a real advantage both to access materials and communicate when on the spot of your object of study.

Wittgenstein · Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Posts: 2

- Which advantages and disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?

I think the major concern is fragmentation and rapid shifts in context in which this learning takes place.

The concept of free agent learners is not well established. It is difficult to handle to many issues at one time when the underlying model of how many training instituttions are operated is being challenged simultanously. So I think there is a great need to split between learning at the workplace and within academic institutions. Issues are different i presume.
I also think it is important to tie the mlearning concept to the taxonomy of learning to describe more precicely what type of learning on expect to take place.

One subject is fragmentation of content. If content is broken down to small ganulas, how can you ensure that they are combined in a meaningfull way by the learner? Version control is a topic in itself. If learners are more loosely attatched to both the teacher and the learning institution, how are you going to asess their work and results? It is easy to focus on the benefits of the new technology and forget the underlying learning model of old learning institutions, and also enterprises. For our sake we have found that the most promising use of mlearning is in support of work processes and stricly focused on performance improvement. Sale force automatisation has been one topic, another is field technicians.

- Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?

As I stated, I guess it will be the workplace. Support of work processes is really at the core of the topic. How can learning institutions provide mcontent that is relevant in this context?

Aleksander · Site Admin Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Posts: 7

Nietzsche · Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 1

Which advantages and disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?

According to the results of a couple of R&D projects I have been involved in, both students and teachers appreciated the flexibility that mobile devices provide. The results were more positive than we expected. It seems that people of those project groups had found out a way, which worked pretty well, to organise their doings and to use mobile technology in an effective way. In group interviews they argued that they had fingered their devices so eagerly during the day that they had got more leisure time. They even speaked about enhanced quality of life! Actually, this kind of rational and convenient way to organise your doings was the most appreciated element of mobile learning according to our results.

On the other hand, I am right now dealing with a research in which experices of university teachers concerning the use of ICT in teaching is investigated. It seems that one of they key issues is time management. It seems that people who has used to do their job (teaching or studying) in a traditional way are not equipped with skills to organise asynchronic working. This is defininitely not a new finding. However, it was interesting to notice that teachers really need support for time management.

- Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?

Whatever places. That is the very idea of mobility. Interestingly, it has been argued that so called non-places (airport terminals, hotel rooms ...)are very suitable for concentrated working: There is nothing other reasonable things to do, so it is easy to concentrate to work with your device. In general, people work mobile in places such as public transport, cafes, lecture halls during lectures (I have empirical evidence of that) and home (the most common place being a sofa while watching televisiion) etc.

- Are there any particular places that can improve the teaching and learning experience?

Places which deal with the subjects that are taught or studied, i.e. the real context.

Aristotle · Joined: 14 Nov 2002 Posts: 1

Due to a bad dialup solution at this inopportune time (long story), brief submission.

I think the move will be to continuous, on demand, and individual learning. Systems will support your development. The 'teaching' role will be replaced by learning mentors and subject-matter experts who know learning too.

This will surround information resources and small learning suites of objects (including cool interactive assessments both formative and summative). There will be trusted providers who can push appropriate and quality content in conjunction with a learner's own development plan.

Fragmentation is good, but one of the learning goals will be to improve one's own learning ability.

Aleksander · Site Admin Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Posts: 7

Question 4 asked about your view on how mLearning would change the working situation of a teacher. Rated at #3 in the top-10 list states: “More rapid answers to the students’ questions will be demanded”. (Same sum as 2nd. place "Classrooms can be extended to the real world")

Pythagoras · Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Posts: 1

- Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying)?

The flexibility of mLearning will make it possible to learn almost anywhere. The learner and the teacher may choose the best place themselves. Some people need quite surrondings to be able to study, other people can study anywhere. mLearning gives the individuals the oppurtunity to choose when and where they want to learn.

- Are there any particular places that can improve the teaching and learning experience?

I think real life and real experiences are the best teachers. If we can bring the students closer to real life situations with the help of mLearning then the learning experience can be inproved a lot.

Parmenides · Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 3

- Which advantages and disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?

The main advantage will be that learning (hopefully) is rethought in many ways. The use of new technology in education have a history of changing (however rarely fundamentally) the pedagogical assumptions made by everyone involved.

- Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?

This points to the misconception that learning is something that takes place in the classroom. We have seen the role of the teacher change (mainly in higher education) in the latest years . Hopefully the idea of using mobile technology will be one more catalyst in this change. Learning takes place mostly outside the classroom. The focus in research on school-learning is the result of many things: It is easier to study learning in a clearly defined place, Learning in the workplace has so many aspects besides the actual learning activities, Political directions in funding and so on. Learning actually takes place in other places than the classroom, hopefully mLearning will support this instead of moving the classroom around.

- Are there any particular places that can improve the teaching and learning experience

Any place that today is stimulating to the individual. It all depends on the interest and the passions of the learner.

Sartre · Joined: 26 Nov 2002 Posts: 3

Aleksander wrote:Have you any experience with mLearning as a real life teacher or is this just therory and what you expect will be the change?

One of the changes for the teacher was expected to be just this, rated #3 on the "Top 10" list from Q4 is "More rapid answers to the students' questions will be demanded" Which got just as many points as the #2 alternative "Classrooms can be extended to the real world"

Yes, Aleksander, I have plenty experience as a mobile teacher (at least if you include teaching via Laptop PC and mobile phone). For at least 5 years I have communicated with my Internet students with this kind of equipment. This means that the students were not necessarily as mobile as their tutor. During the last years I have taught 3 different courses via Compaq iPAC and mobile phone (also mobile students).

I believe it is important to note the difference between most e-learning courses and NKI courses on the internet. Our courses are not small unit learning, they are real academic studies or courses at vocational and secondary level involving long texts, exercises and assignments based on cognitive reflection at reasonably high level. This is a large difference from learning small chunks of information on lower and factual cognitive level. This means that students are generally not expecting instant feedback from a computer or tutor.

Concerning rapid answers, there is not necessarily a difference between such courses on the Internet generally and m-learning courses.

Concerning Aleksanders question on flexibility and students tendency to postpone studies, my answer is that this challenge is not different from most distance learning courses based on the assumption that students are autonomous learners.

Descartes · Joined: 14 Nov 2002 Posts: 2

Which disadvantages do you see with this increased flexibility?

The flexibility and the equipment used for m-learning may reduce the quality of the information exchange. It may increase the number of “quick and dirty” comments…simply because you just spend a few minutes available at the bus to write a comment. Neither the setting, nor the equipment is supportive of high quality, reflective comments.

Which new places, outside the classroom, may be suitable for mLearning (both teaching and studying) ?

It may be a paradox, but I believe m-learning is most useful at home…simply because I spend much of the time available for learning/teaching….at home. So, I would appreciate to be a more mobile learner/teacher at home…reading articles in bed, answering e-mails in the garden, checking contributions to the discussion forum while I eat breakfast in the kitchen etc. I would prefer to do this, using a tablet PC with wireless, high-speed access to my private local area network.

Plato · Joined: 25 Nov 2002 Posts: 1