mLearning

Mobile phones have rapidly been absorbed into the fabric of our day-to-day lives. They are now a key consumer item, a symbol of social capital and they connect their users to a mobile web with multiple applications. Mobile learning is a relatively new phenomenon and the theoretical basis is currently under development. Kearney (2012) presents a pedagogical perspective of mobile learning which highlights three central features of mobile learning: authenticity, collaboration and personalization, embedded in the unique timespace contexts of mobile learning. A pedagogical framework was developed and tested through activities in two mobile learning projects located in teacher education communities: "Mobagogy", a project in which faculty staff in an Australian university developed understanding of mobile learning; and "The Bird in the Hand Project", which explored the use of smartphones by student teachers and their mentors in the United Kingdom. The framework is used to critique the pedagogy in a selection of reported mobile learning scenarios, enabling an assessment of mobile activities and pedagogical approaches, and consideration of their contributions to learning from a socio-cultural perspective. Cognizant of the research gap in the theorization of mobile learning, Sha et. al., (2012) in their paper conceptually explores how the theories and methodology of self-regulated learning (SRL), an active area in contemporary educational psychology, are inherently suited to address the issues originating from the defining characteristics of mobile learning: enabling student-centred, personal, and ubiquitous learning. These characteristics provide some of the conditions for learners to learn anywhere and anytime, and thus, entail learners to be motivated and to be able to self-regulate their own learning. They propose an analytic SRL model of mobile learning as a conceptual framework for understanding mobile learning, in which the notion of self-regulation as agency is at the core. The dominant view that mobiles have no place in the classroom has recently been contested by educators, such as Parry, who suggest that mobile learning, and the literacies involved, should play an important role in education (Merchant, 2012). He argues for a more nuanced view of mobile technology, one that focuses on everyday social practices as a way of understanding the relationship between mobiles and learning. Using practice theory as a starting point, he suggests a way of mapping everyday mobile practices on to educational activity to illustrate potential areas for innovation and evaluation. A common issue among students' responses toward this type of learning concerns the pitfalls of mobile devices, including small screen, limited input options, and low computational power. As a result, mobile devices are not always perceived by students as beneficial tools for their learning. Such perception undermines the use of mobile devices in learning and dampens teachers' interest in adopting mobile learning.  (Ting, 2012). Ting provides a different view of mobile devices' pitfalls in learning and suggests that, relying unappropriate design, these pitfalls can be overcome to embrace a broader spectrum of mobile learning practice designs. Extra: Merchant, G. (2012). Mobile Practices in Everyday Life: Popular Digital Technologies and Schooling Revisited. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(5),770-782. Sha, L., Looi, C.-K., Chen, W., Zhang, B. H. (2012). Understanding Mobile Learning from the Perspective of Self-Regulated Learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(4) p366-378. Kearney, M., Schuck, S., Burden, K., Aubusson, P. (2012). Viewing Mobile Learning from a Pedagogical Perspective. Research in Learning Technology, 20(1). Ting,Y.(2012) The Pitfalls of Mobile Devices in Learning: A Different View and Implications for Pedagogical Design. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 46(2), 119-134. .

MOOC in 2012.

According to Wikipedia, a massive open online course (MOOC) is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the web MOOCs are a recent development in the area of distance education, and a progression of the kind of open education ideals suggested by open educational resources.
Though the design of and participation in a MOOC may be similar to college or university courses, MOOCs typically do not offer credits awarded to paying students at schools. However, assessment of learning may be done for certification.
Also Wikipedia shares that MOOCs originated from within the open educational resources movement and connectivist roots. More recently, a number of MOOC-type projects have emerged independently, such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX. The prominence of these projects' founders, contributing institutions, and financial investment helped MOOCs gain significant public attention in 2012. Some of the attention behind these new MOOCs center on making e-learning more scalable either sustainable or profitable.

According to Willey David MOOCS are Massive but not open, Open but not Massive, and they try hard not to be courses.

According to Educause’s ELI “7 Things You Should Know About MOOCs”, the first MOOC is widely thought to be a course titled “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge,” which was co-taught by George Siemens and Stephen Downes at the University of Manitoba, delivered to 25 tuition-paying students but offered at the same time to around 2,300 students from the general public who took the online class at no cost.

The  MOOCGuide finds 12 benefits of a MOOC

1. You can organize a MOOC in any setting that has connectivity (which can include the Web, but also local connections via Wi-Fi e.g.)
2. You can organize it in any language you like (taking into account the main language of your target audience)
3. You can use any online tools that are relevant to your target region or that are already being used by the participants
4. You can move beyond time zones and physical boundaries
5. It can be organized as quickly as you can inform the participants (which makes it a powerful format for priority learning in e.g. aid relief)
6. Contextualized content can be shared by all
7. Learning happens in a more informal setting
8. Learning can also happen incidentally thanks to the unknown knowledge that pops up as the course participants start to exchange notes on the course’s study
9. You can connect across disciplines and corporate/institutional walls
10. You don’t need a degree to follow the course, only the willingness to learn (at high speed)
11. You add to your own personal learning environment and/or network by participating in a MOOC
12. You will improve your lifelong learning skills, for participating in a MOOC forces you to think about your own learning and knowledge absorption

Possible challenges of a MOOC

1. It feels chaotic as participants create their own content.
2. It demands digital literacy.- Which in the digital age is still a persistent issue.
3. It demands time and effort from the participants.
4. It is organic, which means the course will take on its own trajectory (you have got to let go).
5. As a participant you need to be able to self-regulate your learning and possibly give yourself a learning goal to achieve. Researches show that with the development of blended learning, students still prefer a reasonable combination between face- to- face meetings and online learning.

If relate this information to information gained earlier, automatically comes the idea that this kind of innovation will require time and money to make it work. Also there will always be one who wants to earn money out of new ideas. (Or one who has to loose a lot of money because of new ideas). In next video see 0.26 " Innovation is turning ideas into money..."

 

Even though we'e reached a high level of humanism, there are higher values in the society that persist leading nations. Make education open will not be as easy as it seems. The expression " Elite education open for masses" is already in its deeper content discriminative and antidemocratic.

Indefinite amount of students will be the issue that will create further problems in the process. Taking in account that fact that students do not pay for it, there will definitely be a lot of student willing to do that. The question about quality& quality needs to be addressed then.

This idea then goes against the EU higher education policy and Bologna process, which students to have the same level after graduation in order to assure mobility throughout EU and outside EU and to assure quality of education.

Whether MOOC is a threat to the Higher Educational System worldwide, is being discusses.  George Siemens, the founder of the first MOOC, predicted during a speech about transformational change at Campus Technology 2012, "The top tier and elite universities will likely continue to have physical campuses; the midtier levels, on the other hand, are the ones that are going to suffer to the greatest degree."

As Washington post claims, lately MOOC providers include a fledgling nonprofit competitor, edX, which has drawn hundreds of thousands of users to free online courses from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. On Oct. 15, the University of Texas system joined them.

MOOC students, for the most part, aren’t earning credit toward degrees. Educators say that before credits can be awarded, they must be assured that there are adequate systems to prevent cheating and verify student identities. 

Burck Smith, chief executive of Straighter Line, which sells low-price online courses, contends that MOOCs are overhyped. He said universities that give their product away are likely to face challenges similar to those newspapers confronted when they launched open-access Web sites.
                      “Free content has never really been a successful business model,” Smith said.


For extra info see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/elite-education-for-the-masses/2012/11/03/c2ac8144-121b-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_story.html
http://nation.time.com/2012/09/04/mooc-brigade-will-massive-open-online-courses-revolutionize-higher-education/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/09/06/massive-open-online-course-a-threat-or-opportunity-to-universities/
https://sites.google.com/site/themoocguide/
http://mobiliteitenopenonderwijs.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/weer-mooc/
http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2436

Gamification. A new trend in Education

 

According to GamifyingEducation.org gamification is the use of game-like thinking and elements in places that aren't traditionally games. The use of game mechanics and dynamics like badges, leaderboards, and actions can be useful for improving motivation and learning in informal and formal settings.
As in the Oxford dictionary "gamification" is the application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service.
A new term emerged during research, and namely "Serious Game", which is according to Wikipedia a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.
The word "Gamification" was the word of the year 2011, and it entered the Educational field in 2012.
Implementing games use in Education leaded to a new instructional model GBL- game based learning or  DGBL- digital based learning.
A lot of theoretical research has been made  lately about gamification. But few implementation has followed. Discussions are made about advantages and disandvatages of using GBL.

Game being the root of "Gamification" it is relevant to know what the last one is. Among others "game" is:

- a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators.

- any activity undertaken or regarded as a contest involving rivalry, strategy, or struggle.

They say children and youth are ready for GBL, even though learners need a PC and Internet connection (material issues). But teachers, parents and governments are not ready for this change.

Games are interesting, catchy and highly instructional as I've experienced it myself. Entertainment is what we lack in days of full schedule, so I would tend to think that developing GBL models for grown ups would also give extra motivation and support for life long learning processes.
Paulo Coehlo (whom I read sometimes for entertainment) in the Romanian version of " Aleph", clearly expresses hatred for academic books. And I've noticed myself how boring those can be. Here is where GBL would be a great alternative that leads to academical success.

Extra info on:
http://gamification.org/
http://www.gamifyingeducation.org/
http://ibuchem.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/gamification-in-education-2012/
http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/squeezed-middle/
http://www.scoop.it/t/gamification-education-and-our-children/p/1733269509/get-ready-for-the-gamification-of-healthcare

Young Kids Learn Tech Skills Before 'Life Skills'

I guess the comment I placed under the article on toddlers and technology got me thinking ... and I did some research. According to a new ‘Digital Diaries’ study from Internet Security Company AVG,

"Small children today are more likely to navigate with a mouse, play a computer game and increasingly – operate a smartphone – than swim, tie their shoelaces or make their own breakfast."

The AVG Digital Diaries is a series of studies looking at how children's interaction with technology has changed. In one of the studies, researchers polled 2,200 mothers with Internet access and with children aged 2-5 in the U.S., Canada, the EU5 (U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain), Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The mothers were given a list of tech skills and a list of life skills and asked which ones their very young children had mastered. Some of the results are as follows:

1. More kids aged 2-5 can play with a smartphone application (19 percent) than tie his or her shoelaces (9 percent). 
2. Almost as many 2-3 year olds (17 percent) can play with a smartphone application as 4-5 year olds (21 percent)
3. There is no tech gender divide between young boys and girls. As many boys (58 percent) as girls (59 percent) can play a computer game or make a mobile phone call (28 percent boys, 29 percent girls)
4. European children aged 2-5 lead their U.S. counterparts in knowing how to make a mobile phone call (44 percent in Italy vs. 25 percent for the U.S.), playing a computer game (70 percent U.K. vs. 61 percent U.S.) and operating a computer mouse (78 percent France vs. 67 percent U.S.)

The study received quite some attention - and criticism.  One of the more recurrent commentaries was that "It's much harder to learn how to swim or learn how to ride a bike than move your wrist or press a button..." and that it requires a different set of skills to successfully ride a bike than to use a computer. 

A more profound study on the use of touch screen technology in early learning, undertaken as part of a study for the U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn Media Grant, the Michael Cohen Group contends that there is a compelling case for using touch screen devices as learning tools - but the study also places a lot of emphasis on the design of the learning app's that "...is as critical as the platform and needs to be intuitive in order to easily afford access."

According to the study, from a developmental perspective iPad usage can be organized in six ability and preference categories. These categories include: 

1. motor skills
2. approaches to exploration
3. game concept
4. generalization of skills
5. preferences for activities and designs
6. comprehension of App interface

The study makes some recommendations on application design, both from a usability and a content perspective and ends with an interesting overview table, including recommendations.

AVG's Tony Anscombe, meanwhile, recommends finding a healthy equilibrium between tech and tradition, and urges parents to exercise what he calls their "digital responsibility." Anscombe thinks that today's parents "need to look at making sure that we give our children a balanced life and a mix of both life skills and technical skills." I couldn't agree more.

Digital textbooks open a new chapter

Recently, I came across this BBC article on education and ICT. In the article, Gary Eason explores South Korea's (SK) announcement that:

South Korea, one of the world's highest-rated education systems, aims to consolidate its position by digitising its entire curriculum.

By 2015, it wants to be able to deliver all its curriculum materials in a digital form through computers. The information that would once have been in paper textbooks will be delivered on screen.

The arguments of the South Korean Minister of Education to support this initiative is that it will allow students in remote rural areas access to more and better information and that "... allow students to leave behind their heavy backpacks and explore the world beyond the classroom".

South Korea however is not a universal example. The penetration of technology and the ICT skills of SK teenagers should make the transition relatively easy, says the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD).

In the United States of America (USA), the government is also looking at making more and better use of ICT, but not from an educational starting point. For President Barack Obama and his administration ICT could help lessen the burden on a very stretched education budget. Obama's "Digital Promise", announced in September 2011, involves a new national centre to advance technologies that could transform teaching and learning. The USA will first evaluate what works and what doesn't before making major changes.

Eason rightfully asks the question whether more technology also means better results, both for the students and the teaching/learning process. And he points to the fact that the role of teachers in this digitalisation is important. They will require more training on the use of digital learning aids, for themselves and their students as part of the curriculum.

"The sad truth is that students can learn just as badly with a class full of computers, interactive whiteboards and mobile technology as they can with wooden desks and a chalkboard." ICT teacher David Weston, founder of  'Informed Education'.

I agree with Weston that the methodological approach to teaching is what makes the difference and that ICT in itself does not offer an improvement of children's motivation, knowledge or results. In the end, an e-book is a book; the content is what is important, not the carrier. A good book, with an approach that helps children and students to acquire new skills in a meaningful and motivational way is a good tool. Whether on paper or on LCD. 

I do believe that ICT offers new ways of presenting meaningful content in a novel way, but '3-dimensional content' with hyperlinks that lead off in all directions pose a serious challenge for curriculum developers, methodologists, pedagogues and authors alike.

Microsoft in 2019

When Microsoft was established in 1975, hardly anyone believed that it would be a dominating company. But even though the enterprise is considered "evil" by some, its owner, philanthropist Bill Gates, wants to donate 95% of his wealth to charity. This fact wouldn't come as a surprise to those who will see the following video:

Presented at the 2009 Wharton Business Technology Conference by Microsoft's Business Division president Stephen Elop

Note how the video starts with the next generation, the kids that still haven't been born. The emphasis is on imagination, not only at home but in the classroom. What the company suggests we should expect is an intelligent computer, a superior touch-screen that will be of great value in school. The idea of Microsoft's future operating system is what Google Translate stands for today - quick automated translations from one language to another, of course such that are taken to another level.

A teacher is presented in the following scene. She is checking her schedule ('Firehouse Field Trip') and in a quick second we can see the students who have signed up for it.

Learning new things is made easier for business people, too. The graphics flexibility helps an architect with his new projects and the computer estimates the needed data. We are also shown how we can be guided during a flight, at the airport, etc.

The interaction between people shouldn't come as a surprise either - this futuristic Bluetooth use can even check previous communication history between people.

But... if you get too excited about this, maybe you shouldn't. A quite sceptical article by Fast Company (the world's leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership, and design) - "Why Microsoft's Vision of 2009 Just Doesn't Cut The Mustard" - calls the idea "uninspiring". The authors basically accuse the company of plagiarism ("Minority Report") and state that these technologies are already in development: "All of these technologies are under current development. And nearly every application of the tech shown in the video is already dreamed-up: Multi-touch gestures have been catapulted into the public's eye by Apple--it's why the iPhone is so very snazzy (and the iPhone's not much "dumber" than the device in the video.) E-paper is already in the best-selling Kindle, Fujitsu's trialing a color e-book, and touch-screen e-paper has recently been demonstrated. Ubiquitous "touch controls everywhere" have been foreseen often, and location-based tech--with cellphone widgets like NRU-- is just beginning to get off the ground.

So the video is set ten years hence, by which time all of this technology will have matured and be in common use. It seems all Microsoft has done is bunch it all up and applied the same--very "conventional" Flash-like--user interface to it all. And though, as Boutin notes, Microsoft's been careful to not smear everything with a Window's logo, that's the clear message of the video: "Microsoft will run everything."

However, even though it is impossible to predict what the future will bring, one person's ideas from decades ago might actually happen. Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" talks about how people have three walls in the living rooms that are actually TVs. Of course, at the time of writing (1953) computers weren't part of people's lives but maybe the author was on to something. Judge for yourselves:

(the video is from 2011)

Where does all of this lead education and its development? Hopefully people will pay more attention to countries from the Third World where technology would make life easier. Given the right amount of time and the possible interaction between people in the future, helping countries in need must be a priority. Unless, a fourth wall is turned into a screen in our rooms.