- How, specifically, are you bringing or might you bring Mobile 2.0 into your own learning and/or teaching – using that latter term broadly to include support of various kinds?
In my opinion Mobile 2.0 will be used outside tradition learning spaces. As a learner I am already using my smart phone to either upload my blog or check my tweets and check forum messages. I am learning when it suites me (either when I’m traveling or when I’m somewhere where I think I would rather be learning).
I’m not sure at the moment how I would use it in teaching. As I have mentioned before, next week I am on a GPS day trip with my class. This will be the first time that I’ll be using a proper mobile device in teaching.
At the moment I don’t see how I can use mobile phones or smart phones into my class. I already use laptops into my class, but its purpose isn’t mobility, but flexibility. With the laptop they can sit outside of the computer area and work at their table. That is as far as mobile devices are being present in my class room. - How far does this involve using and accommodating learners’ existing practices, and how far does it involve them in adopting new practices or new devices?
Students in my class already use quite a number of mobile devices. Laptops, for example, aren’t new to them. When I introduced the laptops to them they were excited because they knew the devices from their own experience. They worked with it immediately. My assignments might differ from its usage at home. In that perspective it might be a new experience for them.
- How far, if at all, would any new practices/devices affect a sense of ‘ownership’ – the practitioners’ and/or yours?
I am not able to answer this as I don’t have any proper experience in this field. I like the quote from Irvine (2008) though: “it’s My Space and not Your Space, adults are told”.
I believe that students don’t see the potential yet of how “their” devices can be used in learning. They will not notice the learning moment: the students from the Spanish teacher hadn’t realised that they were actually doing some assignments. They thought it was a personal thing.
- When you read the interview data from the six practitioners – see the section headed ‘Experienced practitioners’ mobile practices’ – do you recognise the picture conveyed there? How far do mobile devices blur the distinction between personal and professional areas of your own life? Do you have a view on whether this is desirable?
Yes I do recognise the picture here. My netbook is provided by my employer. I use it for my work but I use it at home as well. It is connected to my personal network at home and I use it as an extension of my home laptop. I use basically all of my mobile devices on a professional and personal base.
However I have separate Flickr accounts; one private and a personal one. My Delicious account is used everything: personal, pleasure, learning, teaching. I’m organising my favorites by tags.
Cheers,
Eugene