Big Issues in Mobile Learning

Mike SharplesLearning Sciences Research Institute

University of Nottingham

www.nottingham.ac.uk/lsri/msh

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Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops LIVERPOOL, N.Y. — The students at Liverpool High have used their school-issued laptops to exchange answers on tests, download pornography and hack into local businesses…So the Liverpool Central School District, just outside Syracuse, has decided to phase out laptops starting this fall, joining a handful of other schools around the country that adopted one-to-one computing programs and are now abandoning them as educationally empty — and worse. New York Times, May 4th, 2007

Big Issues in Mobile Learning

Big Issues

• What is mobile learning?• Is mobile learning effective?• Evaluation of mobile learning• Conflict between mobile technology

and school• Ownership and copyright• Privacy, in an always-connected world

What is mobile learning?• Learning with portable technology

– Focus on the technology– Could be in a fixed location, such as a classroom

• Learning across contexts– Focus on the learner– Could use portable or fixed technology– How people learn across locations and transitions

• Learning in a mobile world– Focus on the mobile society– How to understand people and technology in constant

mobility– How to design learning for the mobile society

Is mobile learning effective?• Classroom response systems (Draper, Dufresne,

Roschelle)• Group learning with wireless mobiles and phones

(Nussbaum et al., Dillenbourg)• Classroom handheld simulation games (Collella,

Virus Game)• Mobile guides (Tate Modern, Caerus, Mobile

Bristol)• Connecting learning in formal and informal

settings (Butterfly Watching, MyArtSpace)

MyArtSpace• Service on mobile phones

for enquiry-led museum learning

• Aims to make school museum visits more engaging and educational

• Learning through structured enquiry, exploration, connection

School Museum Visits and Field Trips• Visits often isolated from classroom work

– “museums are informal learning environments where teachers usually have very little control over the ideas being implicated or the experiments that the students carry out “ (Guisasola et al., 2005)

• How to make the visit personal and relevant– Static displays, generic labels

• Structuring inquiry learning. Children need specific support in:– planning appropriate investigations – managing investigations– interpreting results(de Jong et al., 2006)

MyArtSpace

• Combines – physical space (museum, classroom)– virtual space (online store and gallery) – personal space (mobile phones)

• Museum test sites – Urbis (Manchester)– The D-Day Museum (Portsmouth)– The Study Gallery of Modern Art (Poole)

• About 3000 children during 2006

In the Classroom

Children and teacher discuss a ‘big question’ to explore, by collecting evidence from the museum visit

– E.g. “were the D-Day landings a success or failure”?

At the Museum• Students are given Nokia 6680

multimedia mobile phones

• Use phones to ‘collect’ exhibits by typing a two-letter code, – they then receive more

information on the exhibit

• Prompted to type their reason for collecting– encouraging them to reflect on

what they see at the museum

At the Museum

• After collecting an item – they are shown who else has

collected that exhibit

• Record their experience– photos, voice recordings,

notes

• All exhibits and recordings are sent automatically to a personal web space

Back at school• Personal website shows their notes,

recordings, pictures, exhibits • They can view other collections, and

items provided by the museum• They can organise their collections to

present to the class or share with their family

• Content is moderated to ensure privacy protection and appropriate use

• Teacher acts as moderator – can opt to publish student’s ‘gallery’

presentation on the web so that it can be seen by other schools, parents, general public

EvaluationLifecycle evaluation

• Micro level: Usability issues – technology usability, lab tests– individual and group activities

• Meso level: Educational Issues– learning experience as a whole– classroom-museum-home continuity – critical incidents: learning breakthroughs and

breakdowns • Macro level: Organisational Issues

– effect on the educational practice for school museum visits

– emergence of new practices – take-up and sustainability

Results• The technology worked

– Photos, information on exhibits, notes, automatic sending to website

• Minor usability problems• Students spent four times longer on a MAS visit (90 mins

compared to 20 mins)• Students enjoyed the experience more than their previous

museum visit• Encouraged children to make active choices in what was

previously a passive experience• Problems with re-creating context back in the classroom• Problems with engagement of museum staff• Business model?

Conflict between mobile technology and formal education • Social networking

– MySpace (“a place for friends”) – world’s 3rd most popular website (behind MSN and Yahoo)

– Bebo – social networking around schools

• In Europe and US mostly in fixed locations (e.g. bedrooms), but increasingly mobile, e.g. Playstation Portable

• In some other countries, e.g. Korea (Cyworld) informal online networking is already mobile

Conflict between mobile technology and formal education

• Disruptive devices“Mobile phones are not for use during the school day - particularly during

lessons. It is not only the person phoning or being phoned whose education is being disturbed - it is the progress of the entire class.” Doug McAvoy,Former leader, National Union of Teachers, BBC Online.

• Disruptive activities– File sharing, gaming, messaging– “exchange answers on tests, download

pornography and hack into local businesses”

• But… these are powerful devices, and valued activities

School invasion of the home

• Homework

• Parental access to the school intranet

• Assessment of non-school learning

• Pervasive monitoring of children’s activity

Mobiles to monitor childrenParents could soon keep a much closer eye on what children are up on their way to and from school thanks to a mobile monitoring system. Guardian Angel is a product which allows parents to map out the exact route a child takes to school. It will send text alerts to their mobile phone if the child deviates too far from that route or takes too long getting there. BBC News website 23rd March 2003

Watch with motherThe disappearance of Madeleine McCann has sparked new interest in hi-tech child monitoring equipment. But how far should parents go? Sunday Times, May 20th 2007

Ambient Mobile Assessment

utilises a new mobile services architecture to deliver interactive “smart” messaging automatically to send assessment questions and receive multiple choice responses via email or SMS which can then be auto-responded to with feedback, suggestions for further learning, or reinforcing targeted questions with full reporting capability. www.ambientperformance.com

Ownership of mobile learning

• Who owns the technology?

• Who owns the learning?– Control– Content– Communication

• User centred

• Personal

• Networked

• Portable

• Ubiquitous

• Durable

MobileTechnology

PersonalisedLearning

• Learner centred

• Individualised

• Collaborative

• Situated

• Ubiquitous

• Lifelong

• User centred

• Personal

• Networked

• Portable

• Ubiquitous

• Durable

Mobile Learning

• Learner centred

• Individualised

• Collaborative

• Situated

• Ubiquitous

• Lifelong

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