Sony Ericsson Educational Practice with Mobile Phones Agnes

Sony Ericsson Educational Practice with Mobile Phones Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, 5 July 2009, Brest The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Session overview 1. Introduction: Why mobile learning? 2. Formal and informal learning (and the territory in between) - rethinking pedagogy for a digital, mobile age 3. Innovation among learners and teachers 4. Understanding yourself as a learner 5. Conclusions The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Introduction • • Mobile phones are personal tools that elicit intensely personal reactions! Mobile learning challenges us to look beyond the apparent limitations of small devices and the annoyance they can sometimes cause, to understand their positive role in: – connecting people – taking advantage of location – making learning more accessible Picture source: http: //www. whatsgottago. com/wpcontent/uploads/2007/12/angry_phone. jpg The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

What can learners do? • • carry around some study materials, to be able to revisit them frequently (e. g. for revision or practice) access new or additional content, such as podcasts or learning objects from content repositories build up a series of personal notes, observations, collections of evidence or reflections on progress help make or maintain connections between different contexts or sites of learning and practice organise personal learning schedules, keep track of deadlines, set reminders give feedback, opinions or answers in quick surveys and quizzes access or create location-specific content get quick information or support when applying knowledge and skills in situated problem-solving communicate with other learners or tutors, typically by SMS or instant messaging The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Formal and informal learning • • • Open University students combine work and study; learning in a number of places, or on the move, becomes a habit Informal learning and social interactions are increasingly recognised as important components of a person’s ‘learning life’ Often, learners just need a few ideas to get them started and they will soon find their own ways of using their mobile phone to support their learning, helping others in the process. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

References Kukulska-Hulme, A. (forthcoming) Charting unknown territory: models of participation in mobile language learning. International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation. Pettit, J. & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (forthcoming) Mobile 2. 0: Crossing the border into formal learning? In: Mark J. W. Lee & Catherine Mc. Loughlin (eds) Web 2. 0 -based E-Learning: Applying Social Informatics for Tertiary Teaching, IGI Global. Kukulska-Hulme, A. , Traxler, J. & Pettit, J. (2007) Designed and User-generated Activity in the Mobile Age, Journal of Learning Design, 2 (1), pp. 52 -65. Available online: http: //www. jld. qut. edu. au/ Pettit, J. & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2007) Going with the Grain: Mobile Devices in Practice. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET), 23 (1), pp. 17 -33. Available online: http: //www. ascilite. org. au/ajet 23/ajet 23. html The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age Chapter by Kukulska-Hulme & Traxler (2007): Designing for mobile and wireless learning • Characterizations of mobile learning include: ‘personal’, ‘spontaneous’, ‘opportunistic’, ‘informal’, ‘pervasive’, ‘situated’, ‘private’, ‘context-aware’, ‘bite-sized’, ‘portable’ eds Beetham & Sharpe, 2007 • This implies a conceptualization of mobile learning in terms of the learners’ experiences with an emphasis on device ownership, informality, movement and context that will always be inaccessible to conventional e-learning The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Rethinking pedagogy • In a chapter exploring new horizons in learning design, Ravenscroft and Cook (2007) suggest that nowadays educators are engaged in “a complex orchestration of content, tools and communicative processes” and that the nature of this orchestration… “… emerges ‘in action’, and so we should be aiming to catalyze or amplify effective learning processes towards favoured educational outcomes, rather than thinking we are ‘designing learning’. ” (p. 212) The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Favoured educational outcomes: active, selfpropelling learners? Degrees of participation: • Receive content • Take part in prescribed activities • Take part in proposed activities • Seek out new content • Share with others • Create own content • Create own activity The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Who initiates activity? Who manages it? Livingstone, 2001 – external vs learner initiation; external vs learner management Formal = externally initiated and managed Informal = learner initiated and managed Voluntary learning = learner initiated, ext managed Resource-based learning = ext initiated, learner managed The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Pedagogic models Mc. Farlane, Roche and Triggs (2007) identified three ‘emerging models of use’ of mobile technologies in schools: Teacher-directed activity The teacher has a very clear notion of how the device is to be used to achieve the learning objective and also largely determines the outcome. Teacher-set activity The teacher sets the task and the general outcome, but the processes and the format of the outcome are largely defined by the learner. Autonomous learning activity Learners do work unasked. E. g. , a learner decides to practise in their own time, or to access content not specified by the teacher but of curiosity and interest. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Participation continuum Kukulska-Hulme (forthcoming, IJMLO) identifies three models of participation in mobile language learning – reflecting trends towards collaborative and cooperative learning. ‘Specified Activity’ model At one end of our proposed continuum… the emphasis is on making content and activities available on mobile devices, with the expectation that learners will engage with the language learning and complete it. ‘Proposed Activity’ model In the middle… there are various resources and activities that are proposed to learners but which they may or may not take up; there also resources and activities that learners suggest and share with one another. ‘Learner-driven Activity’ model At the other end of the continuum… learners are entirely self-propelled and undertake activities such as finding and downloading language learning resources or even creating some for others. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

What this means in practice ‘Specified Activity’ model • you must listen, practise, test yourself. . . ‘Proposed Activity’ model • resources are made available for downloading, group blogs are available for sharing. . . ‘Learner-driven Activity’ model • learners identify their own needs and find/create resources The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Models compared • ‘Specified Activity’ model – is close to ‘Teacher-directed activity’. However, in the ‘Specified Activity’ model, the presence of the teacher is de-emphasized, and the learner is seen as moving between learning environments, e. g. in and out of the classroom, around a campus, between study and work. • ‘Proposed Activity’ model – bears only slight resemblance to Mc. Farlane et al. ’s ‘Teacherset activity’, since a proposed activity is only a suggestion; the onus is on the learner to make a decision as to whether or not to take it up. Furthermore, the ‘Proposed Activity’ model can include learners proposing activities to one another. • ‘Learner-driven Activity’ model – only partly overlaps with Mc. Farlane et al. ’s ‘Autonomous learning activity’, since the ‘Learner-driven’ model gives special mention to social interaction and communication initiated by learners and taking place among them, as well as with teachers. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Innovation among learners and teachers 1. Learner perspectives and practices – surveys and interviews to find out what learners do with mobile devices (2005 -9) 2. Teacher perspectives and practices – recent survey of what language teachers do with mobile devices (2009); unpublished, emergent practices The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

MALL - Teacher perspectives Motivation for using mobile devices: • Mobility/Anytime anywhere access • Variety/Novelty • Informal/independent learning (“exposure to target language in everyday lives”) • • Ubiquity (“All students have mobile phones”) Learner expectations (“learner preference”) Ease of use (“motivates boys particularly”) Skills development (“aural competence, information literacy”) The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

MALL - Teacher practices Examples of how mobile phones and mp 3 players are used by (mainly post-16 sector) teachers, with their learners: • • • to check word meaning for vocabulary/grammar practice flashcards to have vocabulary sent directly via SMS to show video material explaining vocabulary items for photographs, for websearches for listening to podcasts for listening and speaking for listening to materials out of class for making music and video material available to students The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology • for textbook dialogue listening • to download course materials from CD • for recording student pronunciation • for conversations • to preview content and for assessment • to upload own work/download feedback • to record own work • for role play • for polling/voting • for dial up to automated system and record responses to questions

MALL - Teacher perspectives Successes include: • • students are very motivated by getting MP 3 feedback students love using the devices for additional study of the target language increased participation in class using mobile phones to post e. g. photos more in-class, web-related participation It has been possible to involve most students in extensive listening exercises students with low attention spans were motivated by using mobile phones digital storytelling gave students a chance to show their skills in an alternative to the traditional essay • gives users access to “real” target language to improve their knowledge • increased student competency in vocabulary, grammar, fluency, increased confidence in speaking, increased motivation, more autonomous students • students video-recording themselves and evaluating their performance The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

MALL - Teacher perspectives Challenges include: • Students see mobile phones as being used for social purposes and find educational use inappropriate • reluctance to pay cost of using devices for learning purposes • some environments are not conducive to learning (e. g. trains) • constrained by users’ mobile phone capabilities • Screen and keypad size • speed of network • institution’s views of mobile technologies • some download dictionaries to their mobile phone and use them whenever they encounter a new word. They cannot use paper dictionaries. • sometimes students prefer games and the internet to books and writing • students like fiddling with devices and can erase content The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Understanding yourself as a (mobile) learner 1. Are you a successful learner? How do you learn best? 2. Do you use a mobile phone (or other mobile technology) to support your personal learning? The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Feedback/ conclusions from your discussion The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

Thank you! Institute of Educational Technology The Open University Milton Keynes United Kingdom www. open. ac. uk/iet The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology