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Article: Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:16:31 +0000

Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning: the moving finger writes and having writ, John Traxler, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, No 2 (2007). Abstract excerpt: Since the start of the current millennium, experience and expertise in the development and delivery of mobile learning have blossomed and a community of practice has evolved that is distinct from the established communities of ‘tethered’ e-Learning. This community is currently visible mainly through dedicated international conference series, of which MLEARN is the most prestigious, rather than through any dedicated journals. So far, these forms of development and delivery have focussed on short-term small-scale pilots and trials in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim, and there is a taxonomy emerging from these pilots and trials that suggests tacit and pragmatic conceptualisations of mobile learning.
What has, however, developed less confidently within this community is any theoretical conceptualisation of mobile learning and with it any evaluation methodologies specifically aligned to the unique attributes of mobile learning.
Some advocates of mobile learning attempt to define and conceptualise it in terms of devices and technologies; other advocates define and conceptualise it in terms of the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning, and in terms of the learnersâ€™ experience of learning with mobile devices.
The paper explores and articulates these issues and the connections between them specifically in the context of the wider and sustained development of mobile learning.

More papers on this subject: the June edition of International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning is fully dedicated to Mobile Learning.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Article: Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning

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MLearn 2007 – 6th International Conference on Mobile Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 28 May 2007 22:21:57 +0000

6th International Conference on Mobile Learning (MLearn 2007). This conference will appeal to a wide range of audiences who are interested in enhancing learning, designing content and developing systems for mobile devices and wireless networks. The following objectives serve to define and guide the structure and foundation of the MLearn 2007 Conference:

To promote the development of mobile learning
To stimulate critical debate on & research into theories, approaches, principles & applications of mobile learning
To share local & international developments, experiences & lessons learned.
To promote networking & business opportunity development.
To encourage the study & implementation of mobile applications in teaching &learning.
To stimulate & assist personal professional development & the development of new skills for educators.
To provide a forum for education & knowledge transfer.
To facilitate dialogue, sharing & networking between diverse cultures with regard to the optimum use of emerging technologies.
To bring together providers of technology & services with educators and instructional designers.

MLearn 2007 will be held at Melbourne Exhibition & Convention Centre, Melbourne, Australia, from 16 to 19 October 2007.

Thoughts Aside: International conference on mobile learning emphasized the significance of the technology platform, covered in the 350-018 certification and forming the basis of another online certification 312-49, designed to promote employee development and the on job accomplishments. Hundreds of the employers showed their interest in quantifying and improving on their employees’ skills (312-50) through mobile learning resources. The online learning and testing system aimed at developing the competency model as taught in the 350-001 certification has been used by thousands of the clients including the industry icons.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

MLearn 2007 – 6th International Conference on Mobile Learning

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EQ: Are You Ready for Mobile Learning?

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:07:20 +0000

Are You Ready for Mobile Learning? by Joseph Rene Corbeil and Maria Elena Valdes-Corbeil, EDUCAUSE Quarterly, Vol. 30, 2007. ‘Frequent use of mobile devices does not mean that students or instructors are ready for mobile learning and teaching. From the Conclusions: ‘Are distance-education students and faculty ready to make the jump from e-learning to mobile learning? What does it mean to be ready? To answer these questions, we examined the mobile devices that students and faculty were already using, as well as the activities they engaged in while using these devices. In most cases, both students and faculty already participated in a variety of mobile computing and communication activities at work and for recreation. They were not, however, integrating mobile technologies into their teaching and learning activities.’

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

EQ: Are You Ready for Mobile Learning?

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Handheld Learning: Mobile Technologies in Teaching and Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 18:46:29 +0000

Handheld Learning promotes the use of mobile technologies and mobility to enable transformational improvements in teaching and learning through conferences, online knowledge sharing, consulting, teacher training and the provision of innovative software.
Handheld Learning was formed in 2004 by Graham Brown-Martin who had envisaged the use of mobile computing devices for learning by children since the mid-1980â€™s when one of his companies was awarded a grant to develop one. The active shareholders include the former Chairman of Sony Europe and President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Chris Deering, Sega Europeâ€™s former Chairman and deputy Managing Director, Frank Herman and Virgin Interactive Entertainments former President, Tim Chaney.
“Our vision is simple: Within the next 5 years every learner will have access to a mobile digital companion that may be used as a powerful learning tool.”

Handheld Learning Forum

Tags: Handheld Learning, Mobile Learning

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First International Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies (PLT 2007)

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:42:47 +0000

PLT 2007: 1st International Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies, Catania, Italy, 24 and 25 May, 2007. ‘Handheld technology and pen-based input devices (e.g.,Tablet PC, PDA, Origami-UMPC, digital pen and paper, graphic tablets, pen-mouse) provide novel opportunities to develop: a) More natural interaction and collaboration; b) Multimodal, multi-party feedback and communication and c) Mobile learning.
This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners interested in any aspect of design, development, deployment and evaluation of the next generation of pen-based learning technologies. We seek original contributions that will advance our understanding of how to make optimal use of PBLTs, and that will elucidate the relationship between pen-based interfaces and pedagogy, learning tasks, and learning settings.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

First International Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies (PLT 2007)

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mGBL – mobile Game-Based Learning at eLearning Papers

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:59:51 +0000

mGBL – mobile Game-Based Learning: perspectives and usage in learning and career guidance topics. ‘mGBL – mobile Game Based Learning is a research project with the aim of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of learning and guidance in the target group of young people through the development of innovative learning and guidance models based on mobile games.The project idea is based on the fact that mobile devices are currently increasingly widespread, and mobile phones in particular represent what young adults, with different levels of education and culture, have in common. Moreover, several research projects have shown the potential of game-based learning, and the project seeks to further exploit that potential by means of the pervasiveness of mobile technologies, by developing a new paradigm of m-learning usage and interaction with regard to the classic e-learning models.’

eLearning Papers – a new online publication on e-learning. ‘In 2002, the elearningeuropa.info portal was launched as a European Commission initiative to support education and training through all kinds of multimedia and technological tools. Since then, the portal has encouraged the use of high quality educational contents and dialogue and cooperation for the use of new technologies in the educational field.
A lot has happened since then, and new requirements and challenges have emerged in the areas of education and technology. Having promoted discussion among e-learning practitioners in Europe and gathered a large repository of e-learning contents, we are now launching a digital publication entitled eLearning Papers, a exclusive platform providing articles, interviews and good practices related to e-learning.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

mGBL – mobile Game-Based Learning at eLearning Papers

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Using Mobile Phones for Podcasting

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:40:49 +0000

Podcasting with mobile phones by Joe Dale: ‘Mobile phones can be a useful tool for those wishing to record or listen to podcasts on the move. By signing up to the web services below, recordings can be configured to be automatically sent to either a specified email address or uploaded to a subscriber’s account and then posted on a blog. Likewise, you can listen to podcasts away from your computer by ringing a dedicated number and supplying the necessary access information. Please note these services are free, but the phone calls you make using them are not.’

Podlinez – Podcasts. On any phone.. ‘Podlinez is a free service that lets you listen to podcasts on your phone. Enter the RSS feed URL for a podcast in the box above to get a phone number you can call to hear it, or browse our directory for a number to try. If your favorite podcast isn’t already in our directory, you can add it immediately and it’ll be available to call within minutes.’

Fonpods: Podcasts on Demand!. ‘Fonpods was founded to provide convenient, cost-free mobile access to digital audio content through the simplest, most ubiquitous consumer device – the phone. Fonpods proprietary technology gives consumers a simple way to access their content and at the same time dramatically enhance the distribution channels for podcasts and other digital audio content. Fonpods eliminates the management and provisioning complexity for a user accessing podcasts and other digital audio content by simply providing this access through their mobile, fixed-line, or VoIP phone. In doing so, Fonpods significantly increases portability of podcasts without the need for additional expensive consumer devices and provides the opportunity for “on-the-go” and “impulse” access to podcasts.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Using Mobile Phones for Podcasting

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Futurelab’s Create-A-Scape: Free Resource for Schools

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 23:14:46 +0000

Create-A-Scape. ‘The Create-A-Scape website is provided by Futurelab, with the support of the DfES and HP Labs, to enable teachers and students to create mediascapes as easily as possible and to find all the resources they need to make them in one place. We hope that you find everything you need to create your mediascapes, including all of the software, step-by-step guides, and inspiration to get you started in using them in school. Create-A-Scape was inspired by Futurelab prototype research projects which demonstrated the enormous potential of mobile technology for learning. Futurelab identified a significant need for a tool of this type among educators and, with support from the DfES and HP Labs, turned the idea into a learning resource that is freely available to everybody.’

Technorati Tags: Create-A-Scape, mLearning, Futurelab, Educational Mobile Technology

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Futurelab’s Create-A-Scape: Free Resource for Schools

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Education 2.0

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:01:05 +0000

Education 2.0 – more than just e-learning. ‘Smart buildings and tech-savvy teachers boost learning. Universities and colleges are looking at how technology can improve their teaching and bring their content to wider audiences. And it’s not just about sitting students in front of PCs to type up their essays either. It’s a broader issue exploring how technology can change the way teaching is done, how learning can be extended beyond the college gates and whether new buildings can have technology embedded in them to create a better learning environment.’

ZDNet Education IT: Education 2.0. ‘I read Marc Wagner’s post regarding mobile data protection with interest, since a gift 2 years ago to our school had provided most of our teachers with laptops. These laptops are, by and large, highly utilized and often contain a variety of very sensitive data. These data can include grades, special education documents, discipline documents, letters to parents, and even union-related or administrative materials. In Marc’s article, he talked about using Internet technologies to access files stored securely on a school network or server. While this represents a best-case scenario, many schools, especially in the K-12 arena, may lack the resources in terms of systems administration and/or bandwidth to support VPNs or other remote access technologies.’

NoahBrier.com: Education 2.0. ‘Education is a very big issue. While we’re all busy talking about 2.0, America’s children are being taught like the computer has yet to be invented. If we think making change in the media/tech world is hard, try your hand at education. Trust me, I have a mother whose job it is to find ways to help schools connect with students the system’s disenfranchised.’

Web 2.0 in Education

Technorati Tags: Education 2.0, Web 2.0, Web 2.0 Education, Educational Technology

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Education 2.0

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Portable Learning – Experiences with Mobile Devices

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:18:46 +0000

JIME Special Issue: Portable Learning – Experiences with Mobile Devices. ‘From the Editorial: This special issue of JIME brings together several papers that were produced following a symposium on Portable Learning – Learner and Teacher Experiences with Mobile Devices held in June 2005 at the UK Open University. There is considerable interest in how mobile devices of various kinds can support learning in different contexts ranging from their use in formal settings such as schools and universities through to more informal settings. The area of mobile learning is a very busy one with a regular stream of conferences and workshops. However, as with all technologies in their early days, there is a real need to distinguish the hype and rhetoric from the empirical evidence and reality of use. The symposium papers were grounded in the developing literature and in empirical work. They focused on user experiences and often explored the potential in terms of scenarios of use.’ (PDF)

Using Mobile Technology to Create Flexible Learning Contexts. ‘This paper discusses the importance of learning context with a particular focus upon the educational application of mobile technologies. We suggest that one way to understand a learning context is to perceive it as a Learner Centric Ecology of Resources. These resources can be deployed variously but with a concern to promote and support different kinds of mediations, including those of the teacher and learner.’ (PDF)

Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME)

Technorati Tags: mLearning, Portable Learning, JIME

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Portable Learning – Experiences with Mobile Devices