Maximising Learning by Getting Mobile

Learning has been debated throughout the decades; beginning in the times when students sat absorbing information to today, where students learn through interaction, multimedia, distance education, and so on. This blog discusses the next step in developing tools for education called mLearning and what this new style has to offer students and teachers across all sectors. Although this can be stated as the next tool for education, Mellow (2005) was discussing this topic back in 2005, however, even today in 2011 mobile learning is still not widely known or understood.

MLEARNING DEFINED

MLearning has been described as mobile, miniaturised, and media based learning. This description denotes the fact that this type of learning explicitly relates to mobile phones/devices which are miniaturised enough to fit in your pocket along with housing a variety of media based applications (Mellow, 2005; E-Learning Council, n.d.). Mellow (2005), states that the iPhone is a great example of mLearning as it incorporates the aspects of a phone with texting capabilities, alongside the musical applications of the iPod, together with the attributes of a PDA. Mellow was looking into the future of iPhones back in 2005, since then we have all been witness to the incomprehensible abilities a simple phone can do. There have also been further developments in creating the iPhone 4 along with the Sansung Galaxy and the Blackberry Storm. Other mobile endeavours that can be used within education also include the iPad and iPad 2. The iPad2 incorporates augmented reality software which Horizon has stated to be one of the educational tools to be looking for in the next 2-3 years. Technology is moving faster than anticipated back when it was first rearing its head with radio and colour television. Teachers of today can no longer sit back and expect students to take in what they are saying, the social networks that today’s students spend their lives entrenched in are now the places where teachers need to be using as educational tools to reach their students.

FLEXIBLE EDUCATION

In today’s world of fast passed living, education needs to be flexible; not simply to keep up with the times, but to empower students in their own lives (Forrest, Pope & Gatfield, n.d., para. 4). Teachers need to educate within a new realm of social media, wireless internet, and easily accessible data. The idea that students need to come and sit in a room for 8 hours a day listening to a person up the front lecture them about e=mc2 is no longer suitable. Educators have tried to leave technology out of schools and universities for years but slowly, they are realising that this technological trend isn’t going away and each generation will have a new and wonderful ‘gizmo’ to occupy their time. However, all is not lost for the educational world. Some have embraced the technological boom and discovered the educational positives that technology brings with it.

So how does mobile technology increase flexibility in education? There are several aspects to focus on. Mobl21 is an organisation which was developed in order to help educators use mobile technologies. They have outlined 7 ways in which to use mobile technology within education. Sometimes it’s as simple as swapping paper for mobile in sending out assessment tasks and hand outs, ‘providing visual guides’ for remedial students, multiple choice tests for study, quick reference links, communicating information through diagrams and formulae in a simple and easily accessible tool, and even supplementary material can be accessed from a phone (Mobl21, 2010). The list is endless on how mobile phones can help education become flexible. This is especially beneficial for those students who might be struggling, or who excel in general classroom topics, for those who need to work, active students and those who find writing difficult. Students of today still want to learn like students of the past, their lives however, are altering and the education they receive needs to cater for the changes students are facing.

A TOOL FOR EDUCATING

So where does all this technology, compacted into one device leave educators? Looking at a device which can be used as a tool to engage students, interact with them, develop deeper understandings of topics through media based examples, and broaden communication through texting and email along with much more. Geddes (2004) states that there are 4 key advantages to mobile learning and 3 ways of using mobile learning to communicate with students:

Now that teachers know the advantages and some of the positives and negatives of the above systems, they also need to know how mobile learning is being used. There are several website that have been created to help educators use mobile media; we will look at what some of them have to offer below.

· StudyTXT

This type of learning is where students are sent text messages to help them study, whether it be through multimedia messages, web links, multiple choice questions and so on. This type of texting is part of the push system where the institution would pay for the text messages and students would receive as many as are sent.

· Mobile Phones in Education

The University of Wollongong has put together a website which discusses the pedagogies of mobile media and how educators can use mobile phones, iPods and PDAs. Some of the ways they have stated include texting; image and video capture; record interviews, historical songs, guides, learn new languages; as well as deconstruct or construct texts.

As seen from these above two sites, there is a range of ways to use mobile media in education. It is vital that educators learn the different advantages to using mobile media in order to broaden the learning dynamics. There is not better way of becoming more aware of your students than using the tools that they use every day for socialising and fun as part of your learning journey together. Watch the following slideshare clip regarding mobile learning and feel free to go to the links provided below as they are all helpful tools for you as you start your mobile learning journey.