PERMANAND MOHAN, PH.D.SENIOR LECTURER

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES

ST. AUGUSTINETRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Pedagogy and m-Learning

What is Mobile Learning?

Learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices (Crompton, 2013)

Opportunities of m-Learning

Mobile phones provide relatively inexpensive opportunities for learning; mobile devices are widely used around the world

Can make use of time spent waiting, commuting, etc. since it enables anytime / anywhere learning

Rich variety of multimedia supported (sound, text, pictures, and video files)

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth provide opportunities for collaboration while out in the “field”

How Best to Use m-Learning?

Consider a typical mobile learner:

Learner is commuting

Learner is waiting somewhere

Learner is in a classroom with his/her teacher

Learner is at home

How Best to Use m-Learning? (Cont’d)

m-Learning content and activities can be

developed:

To support the teacher in the classroom

To support the teacher outside the classroom

For independent learning

For informal learning

How to Achieve Learning Objectives?

Content Types

m-Learning Content

and Activities

LearningObjectives

Mobile Learner

Pedagogy

How Best to Use m-Learning?(Cont’d)

Consider typical types of content:

Text

Pictures and graphics

Audio

Videos

Simulations and learning games

Understanding Learning Objectives

Consider typical learning objectives in the

cognitive domain:

Knowledge and comprehension

Application and analysis

Synthesis and evaluation

Outcomes in the affective (attitude) and

psychomotor (skills) domains are not considered

Knowledge and comprehension State the formula for the area of a circle Give the mathematical formula for the area of a circle, paraphrasing

it in your own words

Application and analysis Calculate the volume of an irregular shape Given a physics word problem, determine the strategies that can be

used to solve it

Synthesis and evaluation Apply and integrate several different strategies to solve a physics

problem When you have finished a problem, determine the extent to which

the problem was solved as efficiently as possible

Understanding Learning Objectives: How They Relate to Content

How to take content and learning objectives from a syllabus and design suitable mobile learning experiences

so that the learning objectives are efficiently achieved?

The Real Challenge

In designing for m-learning, it is easy to lose focus and think that the technology, by itself, can achieve the desired learning objectives.

However, it is the instructional design used in

conjunction with the features of the mobile device that will lead to successful learning.

Thus, instructional design principles must be considered when designing content for m-learning.

Points to Note for m-Learning Developers

“Designing for mobile learning is not only about mobile devices.”

Donald ClarkScientific m-Learning Workshop

June 4, 2012

Put Another Way …

What is Pedagogy?

Pedagogy is the art and science of how something is taught and how students learn it. It includes how the teaching occurs, the approach to teaching and learning, the way the content is delivered and what the students learn as a result of the process.

Pedagogy involves creating an educational process that will lead to knowledge transfer to a new learner.

Common Pedagogy: Direct Instruction

More Recent Approaches

ConstructivismSocial constructivismLearning by doing (problem-based learning,

active learning, etc.)The father of learning-by-doing pedagogy,

John Dewey, suggests: “They (teachers) give the pupils something to do, not something to learn, and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results.”

Affordances of Mobile Devices

Four C’s (Quinn): Consumption of content Interaction with compute capabilities The ability to communicate with others Capture of our contexts (via video and/or

audio, orientation, location, time, and increasingly more data

Four C’s (Quinn)

Pedagogical Strategies

Different types of strategies based on the four C’s: Strategies that involve consumption of content Strategies that involve using the compute

capabilities of the mobile device Strategies that involve communicating with

others Stategies that involve the capturing of our

contexts and sharing with peers (e.g., using GPS, accelerometer, camera, recorder, sensors, etc.)

MobileMath is mobile learning application

for high-school algebra.

It was developed in 2009-2010 by Vani

Kalloo as a research project at the

University of the West Indies supervised by

me.

It offers the learner multiple strategies for

learning algebra on a “feature phone”.

MobileMath

MobileMath Screenshots

Evaluation Studies

Three Evaluation

Studies(20 students

each)

Study 1: Were taught algebra in a previous term:

Used mobile learning on their

own

Study 2: Were taught algebra in a previous term:

Used mobile learning with

teacher supportStudy 3:

Were taught algebra while exposed to m-

LearningUsed mobile learning to complement

traditional teaching.

Results

Pre-test Group 1

Post-test Group 1

Pre-test Group 2

Post-test Group 2

Pass 9 14 2 7

Fail 10 5 18 13

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

Pre-test and Post-test

No.

of

Stu

den

ts Bar graph illustrates

the students who

passed:

• Group 1 increased

from 9 to 14

• Group 2 increased

from 2 to 7

Results (Cont’d)

Group 1 Group 2

Average %

Increase8.8% 10.2%

Duration 14.4 hours 58 hours

Frequency 514 861

Results (Cont’d)

Lessons Examples Quizzes Tutorials Games Fun Facts0

200

400

600

800

1000Frequency of Use of Each Feature

• The bar graph shows the number of times each feature was used by the students of all three studies.

• It highlights the fact that the Games feature was used the most.

Results (Cont’d)

Amazingly, there was no difference in the

performance of students in Study 3:

Experimental group: teacher + mobile

application

Control group: same teacher

Results (Cont’d)

29 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 0

50

100

150

200

250

Number of Times MobileMath Was Used Per Day

“Students need to concentrate and work, concentrate and work …”

Enrica SalvatoriScientific m-Learning Workshop

June 5, 2012

Can we achieve the desired learning objectives with this kind of m-Learning behaviour?

Now, it is true that …

Questionnaire

I found it useful that I can learn mathematics on a phone anywhere and at anytime

If I use these mathematics games and learning activities on a phone for a longer period of time, it can help me improve my skills

The mathematics games and learning activities on the phone helped to improve my skills

The mathematics games and learning activities on the phone were easy to use

0% 50% 100%

Questionnaire Responses from Studies 1, 2 and 3

strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagreestrongly disagree

Suggestions from the MobileMath Evaluation Studies

Mobile learning is best used after students are taught the main concepts in the classroom.

Multiple strategies should be offered so that the learner has options.

Games should be included as most students find it appealing.

Teacher support should be provided to continually encourage the learner to use the application.

Concluding Remarks

Mobile devices provide many opportunities for improving learning and retention

However, they should only be used as part of a pedagogical process that will result in the transfer of the desired knowledge and skills more efficiently and more effectively than other approaches

There may be other approaches, perhaps not involving mobile devices, that could be equally effective.