esra wali institute of education, london knowledge lab [email protected]
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Are they doing what they think they’re doing? Tracking and triangulating students’ learning activities and self reports. Esra Wali Institute of Education, London Knowledge Lab [email protected]. Introduction. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Are they doing what they think Are they doing what they think they’re doing? Tracking and they’re doing? Tracking and triangulating students’ learning triangulating students’ learning activities and self reportsactivities and self reports
Esra Wali
Institute of Education, London Knowledge Lab
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
IntroductionIntroduction
Mobile learning is mainly investigated in the literature through investigating learners’ utilisation of portable devices in different learning settings (e.g. Hennessy, 2000; Waycott, 2002; Corlett et al., 2005).
These methodologies relied on students’ self reports as the main source of data.
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Research in mobile learning requires studying students’ learning activities that take place in different context.
Researching mobile learning requires a methodology that enables:
Collecting data that represents students’ activities in different contexts (e.g. formal and informal).
Collecting detailed description of students’ activities in these contexts.
Collecting data about the context (physical and social) where learning activities take place.
Triangulating students’ self reports
IntroductionIntroduction
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Higher Education institutes Implement campus wide laptop program
Students and instructors are provided with laptops
Laptops were used to accomplish routine activities (e.g. learning, communication, administrative)
Does not implement such program
Students mainly using handouts
12 participants
The studiesThe studies
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Research methodologyResearch methodology
Questionnaires
Observations
Log files
Interviews
Collect students’ self
reports
Triangulate students’ self reports and collect
descriptive data
Clarify and validate the
collected data
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
ExampleExample Questionnaire: using the laptop to engage in learning activities
and communicate with others in formal and informal settings
Observations and log files: validated the self reports and provided more information. The laptop was used to engage in learning activities directed towards the same objective at the classroom, home and another classroom.
Interviews: provided more information about the purpose of the learning activities
The spaces where the student was in were determined based on the: Observational notes Log files: (a) conversations through instant messaging software
and (b) comparing the time logged in the log files with the student’s timetable
Interviews
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Challenges and concernsChallenges and concerns Ethical concerns
Students’ informed consent to install system-monitoring software and observations in different contexts
Students’ anonymity and privacy
Ethical and practical challenges
Getting the university’s agreement
Getting students’ consent to participate
Technical problems
Methodological challenges
Log files
Observations
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
ReflectionsReflections The methodology enabled studying mobile learning
through investigating learners’ activities in different contexts.
The methodology enabled studying the relationship between context (physical and social) and learning activities
Students’ self reports were generally honest and correct, however, they lacked detailed description of learning activities.
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MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London
Questions?