Personal Blogs

Thanks Vikki for your links on Twitter. I have read both of your articles and found them both very interesting.
However, I still don't get my head around using mobile devices in class. I do see the benefits in informal learning but for me there isn't  enough good rock solid evidence that this could work well in formal learning.

It is quite interesting to read that a so called 25% of the students performed better than the ones who hadn't used their cell phone for that particular purpose ( I believe it was an algebra test/assignment). But it still doesn't convince me that mobile devices in classrooms are useful tools for learners. Aren't they just a distraction..aren't students tempted to just send a text or play a game on their mobile in between doing their tasks or assignments.

Do you have any other experiences? we had an interesting discussion in the elluminate session. The Spanish teacher was mentioned as an example of how mobile devices could be used in formal learning...to be honest I found that example in the article quite weak...not a proper example or evidence that mobile devices are useful in education. Anyway..sorry for the rant! Trying to get my head around the TMA and the two technologies!

Mobile 2.0? Who creates the content...practitioners? students?

Cheers,

Eugene

A summary of our Elluminate session. Mainly from room 2 where I was allocated. If someone has something to add, please do:

Feedback: Also thinking  about the H800 theme of individual and collaborative learning. 

Room 1 (Brian, Ravi, Rose)

Difficult to find informal use In formal - transferring information to learners Spanish example - mobile learners took ownership by changing the nature of the task.  But this isn't easy to see at the moment. New technologies are developing fast - but is the learning or teaching developing as fast 

Room 2 (Allessandro, Corina, Eugene)

Opportunities in developing countries as mobile access is better than Internet? BBC example: hospitals sending out text messages to local doctors who can’t attend to an in service-training.

Ways of integrating mobile in formal learning is difficult. We felt that it was easier to use mobile learning in informal learning. It has greater opportunities to access information in addition or as a compliment of formal activities and resources.  In terms of process - mobile does provide greater control in the hands of the learner.  But formal learning is still in the hands of the institution.

Content consumption and content creation - learning starts with the expertise of tutors .  Why do learners need to create content ? Is it because of assignments made by expert practitioners. 

Ownership of learning: it is a process. Is what we need to learn in the hands of learners. We believe not.

Companies have big influence on the mobile market and therefore on education. Companies develop new technologies. This development is fast. Companies have influence on this process. It makes mobile devices so much easier to use in where the shift of ownership of learning might go faster than we think.

Cheers,

Eugene

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

1. The various interviewees in the paper – Interviewee A, B, C, etc. – whose account do you find most interesting, or most relevant to your own personal or professional life, and why? You could start at the section headed ‘Interview data’ about half-way through the paper.

- Interviewee E’s experiences are quite similar to my own when I had just bought my Smartphone: I used to look up specific pages for my phone. Nowadays, pages automatically switch over to so called PDA sites, so you don’t have to look for them anymore.

- Interviewee B and his PDA: I am never without it. I think Smart phones have replaced PDA’S at the moment. I am never without my smart phone. I have all my data stored in it: agenda, meetings, lesson planning, music, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses...

- I was also interested in interviewee I (teacher of Spanish) and his idea to integrate a school trip into his lesson by using mobile phones and text messages.

At the moment I don’t use any mobile devices as a learning tool unless Senteo counts as a mobile device (it can only be used with Smart Boards though, so I guess it doesn’t count as one)

2. Where would you place your own use of mobile devices in comparison with those of the alumni in the paper above? I don’t mean, ‘Do you do more than them, or less?’ After all, they varied considerably. But what are the similarities and differences, and is this connected with the fact that the data for the paper was gathered in 2005?

I do believe that some percentages may have varied lately in comparison with the research. Mobile phone companies have certainly changed their contracts. Flatrates, sms-bundles, data bundles etc. It has become cheaper to access the internet and I have to say with a reasonable speed. I use my smartphone (A Nokia E90) for almost everything: access the internet, using the OU forum and put my tweets on twitter, text messaging and even blogging.

So there might be a difference in usage at this moment. Even the use of laptops might have decreased. I know that I use my netbook more often (as it is lighter and easier to carry).

3. Which areas would you explore if you were carrying out research into mobile practices now?

- Use of Mobile Devices for accessing social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Are people purchasing mobile devices because they offer the possibility to access social network applications and this is seen to be "cool", or are people purchasing them because the really do want to use them for this purpose?

- Is the netbook really replacing the laptop and has it potential to become a standardised learning tool?

Cheers,

Eugene