‘Because it wasn’t compulsory, I didn’t do it.’: challenges with supporting students using mobile technology

Debbie Holley* and Sue Sentance Department of Education

Claire Bradley, expert evaluator, Learning Technology Research Institute

Questions to debbie.holley@anglia.ac.uk

Our project: funded by ESCalate

• ESCalate - HEA funded education subject centre• Our bid was a small grant in the ‘Developing

Pedagogy and Practice’ series• Our interim report (August 2011)is available :

http://escalate.ac.uk/8140 • We follow Escalate and key bloggers and writers

on mobile technology via twitter, and so had access to the early call for funding

Context

• Anglia Ruskin University recruits trainees who live all over the East Anglian region

• Secondary PGCE trainees in ICT, Maths, English, Modern Foreign Languages, Science, Art

• 11 PGCE ICT trainees

The problem

• Trainees are unused to academic writing

• Trainees are full-time on placement

• Trainees feel isolated from the university

• Trainees struggle to find time for reading

• Trainees do not reflect on their reading

Our ICT trainees and their mobiles

• All have a mobile phone

• All use text messaging

• Some have internet access via phone

• Most have phone contract; some on pay as you go

• Some use Facebook

• Some use Twitter

The suggested solution

• Use mobile technology to help support trainees

• Why mobiles?

• How to support?

Why mobiles?

• 98% ownership of mobiles• 6.1 trillion texts sent in 2010 (only 96.8 billion

texts sent in 2009). • For every second that goes by, another 200,000

text messages will have changed hands • 95% of text messages are read• 75% of text messages are read straight away.

(statistics from James Lasbrey, O2, May 2011 & International Telecommunication Union, October 2010)

Our investigationPurpose:- To find out if mobile technology (eg

TxtTools software) could be used support our trainees on placement.

Approach taken:- Four key interventions 24 hours long, four

weeks apart- Each based round a reading for their

assignment (Curriculum & Pedagogy)

Extract from student messages

Focus Group in June:

– Large amount of feedback data collected– Considerable difference of opinion between trainees

on specific issues relating to timing and format of the interventions

– Invasion of free time (this only happened in the first intervention – after that the timing was changed so the messages went out at 9am, after one student complained in the questionnaire about getting messages in the evening).

– Because it wasn’t compulsory, I didn’t do it.– Already have too many different things to do.

What the trainees said…

• Positive points – academic benefits– Offered academic support– Did read readings that they would not have

done otherwise– Did use readings and comments in their

assignments– Did start assignment earlier (three trainees)

What the trainees said…

• Positive points – use of technology– Using mobiles more

convenient than PC-based system

– Liked to view others’ responses

– Good to be concise

What the trainees said…

Negative points – mostly about use of this technology– Conciseness was difficult – 160 character limit– Did not like forwarded messages being anonymous– Some concerns about invasion of privacy– Wanted to see complete thread of responses– “We already have too many other things to do”

What the tutor said…

Educational benefits- Encouraged trainees to read- Encouraged trainees to reflect on the reading rather

than just skim read- Encouraged concise writing and discouraged descriptive

comments- Trainees commented on each other’s comments- Compensated for lack of university sessions with

trainees to a small degree- Set the focus on their assignment- Informal assessment is that May assignments had more

critical reference to literature than January assignments

Conclusion

• Some academic benefits gained from intervention

• Insight into how mobiles could be used – list of requirements generated

• Scope to develop a more sophisticated tool that would address these requirements

Work still to be done:

• Complete focus group analysis

• Review and analyse student video diaries

• Consider taking project forward

• Any questions?