eden ? ?? ??? 1 brendan tangney center for research in it in education [email protected] ? ??

EDEN ? ?? ??? www.cs.tcd.ie/crite 1

Brendan Tangney

Center for Research in IT in Education

[email protected]

www.cs.tcd.ie/crite/

? ?? ???

The University of DublinTrinity College


Mobile Technology?

e-Learning??

Teacher ProfessionalDevelopment???


Mobile Technology?

?


(e)Learning & Mobile Technology

“It is inevitable that every student will have a portable wireless device. ……. Ubiquitous computing will be a widespread force in schools by the end of the decade or sooner.”

Bull et al. [1] (National Technology Leadership Summit)

“Handheld devices are emerging as one of the most promising technologies for supporting learning and particularly collaborative learning scenarios.”

Hoppe et al [2]

Handheld computers may become an increasingly compelling choice of technology for classrooms

(Roschelle [4], Soloway et al [5], Tinker & Krajcik [6]).


De ja vu all over again???

Increasing evidence that, despite significant despite significant investment in RTD and in infrastructure projectsinvestment in RTD and in infrastructure projects, both the e-learning market and the implementation of public funded e-learning programmes have not not delivered any significant returndelivered any significant return

“The net will carry education as it does music to the backwoods, isolated farms and into the mountains of Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. The limitations of "the little red schoolhouse" will pass away; the country schoolteacher will be reinforced by college professors and other specialists. The net will be an institution of learning as well as a medium for entertainment and communication.”

New York Times, February 24, 1923 On the expected use of Radio in education.


So what are e-mobile researchers doing?

COOTIES: Developed by Center for Highly-Interactive Computing in Education, Michigan.


Example II

Savannah – NESTA FutureLab in Bristol, UK.

Using mobile, GPS etc. simulate being lions collaboratively hunting for prey on the savannah.


In general


Pedagogical Underpinnings [11]


What works well

Collaboration. “The mobility of these devices also opens up the potential for inter-group collaboration. Children can walk around, maintaining the flexibility of interacting with many other children, rather than limiting their collaboration to those on the computer beside them” Danesh et al [7].

Contextual. It is widely recognised that physical contextualisation of learning, through field trips and similar methods is beneficial to the learner. This type of contextualisation provides the learner with hands-on, real world experiences, promotes positive attitudes to the learning topic and motivation towards the subject (Michie [8]). Because the learning takes place in rich physical environments, filled with real world objects and connections, the presented concepts/ideas are meaningfully contextualised, Falk [9].

Constructionist. “Flexible access to technology will provide tools to help children construct knowledge throughout their daily activities”, Inkpen [3]


Mobile technology to mediate learning

“Teacher”

Student Content


TCD Applications Collaborative, Constructionist and Contextual


Txt IT - Collaborative, contextual

Making use of the pervasive nature of standard mobile phones – this application uses text messaging to enable “Out of band” communication between the pupils and lecturer during, and after, class.

1 2 3 4


SortIT Collaborative, Constructionist

SortIT is an interactive tool that encourages learners to collaboratively construct their own understanding of ‘sorting algorithms’.

For any non-trivial data set the sorting is best done by collaboration.

Aided by a number of logging functions, learners can then make a record of the sequence of instructions they used to sort the set.

Originally designed for Computer Science classes but equally applicable to any “classification” problem.


uDrumSteps – Constructionist (collaborative)

uDrumSteps, a mobile version of DrumSteps a novel software tool for percussion composition. Based firmly on the constructionist theory that learning occurs “especially well when the learner is engaged in constructing something for others to see” (Papert [10]), uDrumSteps enables learners to create, manipulate, edit and save original pieces of percussion music through an intuitive interface.


Empowerment Digital Narrative - Constructivist, contextual, collaborative, learning

•Mobile technology can empower users to be creative, imaginative and productive in ways which were not possible heretofore!

•Using XDA smartphones, learners collected images and sounds in various contexts to create their own film. Using phoneblogs to store and upload their media, they then used desktop applications to edit the final product.


ChallengesChallenges

Borderless & inclusive learning: ChallengesChallenges What our children need to learnWhat our children need to learn in order to aspire to these

emerging societal paradigms? How can we change school educationHow can we change school education in order to facilitate this

orientation? How can we cater with the School TeacherHow can we cater with the School Teacher of the Borderless

and Inclusive Learning? How can we serve the evolution of the Teacher of the Open Classroomof the Open Classroom?


Teacher Professional Development ???

Barriers : usual suspects, time, assessment, tech support etc. etc.

Mobile devices discouraged in many schools.

C3 type projects do not sit well in many school systems.

Often we do not practice what we preach. Dog food factory owner!


Desirable Characteristics for Teacher Professional Development ???

Need “simple, well-honed technology, and rich pedagogically developed social practices” Roschelle [4].

Project based learning Project based assessment Emphasis on demonstration Group work Timetable in chunks and in flexible

teaching spaces Technically rich environment On-line environments to support

delivery and promote collaboration Emphasis on developing innovative

IT facilitated learning experiences Emphasis on research/evaluation C.f. M.Sc. in IT & Learning @

TCD w.cs.tcd.ie/courses/mscitedu

The School Teacher of the 21st Century

•Digitally literate•Collaborative worker•High learning potential•Adaptive to varying learning profiles/patterns•Knowledge builder & communicator•Animator & Researcher


References

[1] Bull G, Bull G, Garofalo J & Harris J, Grand Challenges: Preparing for the Technological Tipping Point. May 2002, Learning and Leading with Technology.

[2] Hoppe H.U., Joiner R., Milrad M. & Sharples M., Guest editorial: Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education. September 2003, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

[3] Inkpen K., Designing Handheld Technologies for Kids. May 1999, Personal Technologies Journal.[4] Roschelle J., Unlocking the learning value of wireless mobile devices. September 2003, Journal of

Computer Assisted Learning.[5] Soloway E., Norris C., Blumenfeld P., Fishman B.J., Krajcik J. & Marx R., Devices are Ready-at-

Hand. April 2001, Communications of the ACM.[6] Tinker R. & Krajcik J. (eds.) (2001) Portable Technologies: Science Learning in Context. Kluwer

Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. [7] Danesh A, Inkpen KM, Lau F, Shu K and Booth KS, Geney: Designing a collaborative activity for

the Palm handheld computer. Presented at ACM Computer Human Interaction Conference 2001, Seattle, WA, 2001.

[8] Michie M, Factors influencing secondary science teachers to organise and conduct field trips. 1998 Australian Science Teacher's Journal. Journal 44 (4)

[9] Falk J., Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning : Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. 2000, AltaMira Press

[10] Papert, S. The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. 1993, New York, Basic Books.

[11] Bryan Patten, Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez, & Brendan Tangney. Designing collaborative, constructionist and contextual applications for handheld devices. To appear in the British Journal of Educational Technology.


Who is doing what ?

The Next Small Thing - Handheld Computing for Educational Leaders http://www.intel.com/education/articles/next_small_thing.htm

The m-learning project http://www.m-learning.org

Mobile Phone/SMS/Instant Messaging Research http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~nalinik/mobile.html

Microsoft Education - Pocket PC Applications http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=PocketPCApps

The Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org/

Ubiquitous Computing, "Laptop Programs", and IT in Higher Education http://www.ucalgary.ca/~grossman/ubiqhome.htm

Ubiquitous Computing - Futures for Preservice Teachers and Teacher Educators? http://www.iste.org/jcte/pdfs/te183074tho.pdf

Concord Consortium nonprofit educational research and development organization. http://www.concord.org/

eden ? ?? ??? 1 brendan tangney center for research in it in education [email protected] ? ??

Documents

general slide

learning topic

institution of learning

elearning market

elearning mobile technology

emobile researchers

significant investment

significant return