Assessment 2 - Comparative Review

Local Context

The Australian government has recognised the digital divide within the Australian community and has taken steps to address the issues. The government lists people on low incomes, aged over 65, without tertiary education, or of Indigenous heritage as less likely to use ICT and have internet access.They are committed to supporting digital inclusion through infrastructure (NBN rollout) and presentation of basic ICT programs. http://www.archive.dbcde.gov.au/2008/01/social_impacts_of_ict/digital_inclusion. One current initiative is the Digital Hub program. This program 'is providing residents in local communities with free digital literacy skills training and support to help them realise the benefits of increased online engagement.' Other initiatives include delivery of basic internet and computer programs in partnership with Telstra to the over 50's age group.

Public libraries have a commitment to bridging the digital divide in the community and providing equitable access to resources and services for all members of the public. They do this by providing free internet access, information literacy, media literacy, learning programs and holding social inclusion events. Some public libraries present the over 50's programs and also have Digital Hub programs run by the library. Equitable access to resources ir provided through online databases, social media sites, e-books, e-audios all of which can be accessed remotely.  This includes the ability to access the catalogue from home (anywhere with an internet connection) to search, reserve or renew items. Increasingly public libraries are adapting to customers' needs by adopting many mobile technologies and interfaces for delivery of their services. Examples include Borrow Box for downloading e-books and e-audios to mobile devices, and making their website interface more mobile friendly.

Global Context

Public libraries resources are accessible now from anywhere in the world.  A local library customer can access e-books, databases etc while travelling overseas, accessing either via mobile devices or internet cafe.  The NSW State Library can issue membership cards to any member of the public and provide access to e-resources increasing the number of resources available, members are not limited to what is available in their own local library. Similarly in rural areas customers may not visit the library regularly but still able to access e-resources from home in many cases using mobile devices. The access is also 24/7. With the use of Skype libraries in non-metropolitan areas can have access to authors they normally wouldn't for author talks or story times could be transmitted via Skype to remote communities.  Many libraries have online reference chat or online ask a librarian facilities. E-Books and E-audios can be provided in other languages for LOTE clients or overseas partnerships.

Project Idea

My idea is for a public library to develop a program similar to the Tech Savvy program or basic Digital Hub programs but deliverable and accessible via mobile format. Once developed the programs could be used or disseminated to remote areas or clients with accessibility problems. This could be clients who can't attend the programs in person because they live too far away, or who have work commitments, it could be those with disabilities. The programs could be delivered by libraries to remote communities including remote areas in Australia or overseas such as Africa. Where necessary it could be customised to suit individual needs. I envision something with a user interface similar to the Better Beginnings website, easy to use and clients can access which area is relevant to them.  To ensure the project works there would also be one-on-one online chat or telephone support available from a staff member to replicate as much as possible the delivery of the face-to-face programs. The mobile program also has the potential to be pushed out via mobile library delivery services with added options of loaning e-readers or mobile devices for those on the delivery circuit. Funding could be applied for via government agencies or the Bill and Melissa Gate Foundation. The pedagogical approach for these programs would be instructivist in nature as they are basic ICT programs. However to ensure success and to reduce the feelings of isolation their would be strong networking and support in place.The library could set up a remote online learning community group or they could be delivered via a central remote meeting place ie community care centre. The programs would be delivered with a mixture of audio, text and web links or as with Better Beginnings have a mobile friendly website with its own app that hosts all of the program.  In the case of delivering the program for a group at a remote location a smartphone with projector capabilities could be provided so that it can be projected onto a wall. Included in the program would be information on how to access library resources. These could take the form of screen shots presented in slide form or animated tutorials. Translation tools could be enabled for LOTE clients. Although they would be  basic courses they could graduate to intermediate levels if successful.


References

Digital Inclusion. Downloaded 13th October from
http://www.archive.dbcde.gov.au/2008/01/social_impacts_of_ict/digital_inclusion

Digital Hubs Program
http://www.communications.gov.au/digital_economy/programs_and_initiatives/digital_hubs_program

Assessment 2 - My Journey

As part of Assessment 2 I  have elected to document my journey, the thoughts and experiences while undertaking research and tasks related to my assessment.

The main difficulty encountered was - what do I choose for the focus of my assessment?  My own context covered two main areas, potentially teaching university students library and information management courses totally online or presenting adult learning programs in a public library setting.  To qualify the project had be library related and must involve learning. I read the course notes to help establish which area would be relevant to my context: humanitarian, entrepreneurialism, organisational growth and expansion or global citizenship and cultural exchange. I believe the one that mostly fits my context is global citizenship and cultural exchange.

I had concerns that some projects might be considered patronising, so had to give careful consideration to the end result and the desired result of any project. In a local context public libraries are about empowering people and improving lives through provision and access of information and resources, rather than providing money. This would be reflected in the global context. In deference to public library policies the project must also subscribe to the principles of public library service, in particular the statement 'the role of public libraries is essential in developing an educated society through programs that improve literacy and information literacy including lifelong learning opportunities. Public libraries contribute to economic prosperity by helping people improve their skills and life chances'. (Australia Library and Information Association).

I researched several projects and gained inspiration from these ideas that were already in place. The Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award is an initiative that 'recognizes the innovative efforts of public libraries or similar organizations outside the United States to connect people to information through free access to computers and the Internet'. In 2007 the Northern Territory Library received the award for their innovative approach in bringing internet and computers to Indigenous Communities. Details of the project available at http://artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/northern-territory-library/programs-and-projects/our_story_version_2_project. Librarians Without Borders is an organization that works in collaboration with Rice University for the Libraries Across Africa project (LAA) to 'build libraries that provide customised digital and print content, with services localized to the community's needs.' (http://lwb-online.org/?page_id=2268).

An artist's concept of LAA libraries.

(Image: Libraries Without Borders)

http://lwb-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/OxfordStreetMockLibrary2.png)

Another interesting project was Better Beginnings run by the State Library of WA for remote communities in WA. http://www.itomic.com.au/case/better-beginnings/ . The Better Beginnings program has a module developed especially for indigenous communities. See at  http://www.better-beginnings.com.au/.


Forming Ideas

After the research some ideas I considered:

1. Consider a project similar to Library Without Borders but with one chosen remote community in Africa that have mobile access, one that may not have a library but does have a willingness to develop one. The concept would be similar to a 'Sister City' arrangement where a public library in Australia would provide access to online resources through membership of the library. By virtue of membership of the local library they would have access to more information then they might otherwise. In exchange the remote community would provide local information in the form of photographs, videos of cultural activities etc that could be used to provide in-depth coverage on the culture and history of the remote community (subject to culturally sensitive issues) . This could be used for research and school projects and with permission added to the local library website as authentic up to date research material. For the delivery of programs and online resources language barriers (if any) would need to be considered with the use of translation tools or access to e-books and e-audios in other languages. Information literacy and learning programs could be produced with the ability to be accessed via mobile devices. Skype facilities could also be put in place at a central meeting place.

2. Development of basic internet programs and information literacy programs to remote areas in Australia similar to programs already run by the library but adapted purposefully for mobile device use, ie the 'lite version'. Skyping of author talks held at the main library to other branch libraries, smaller libraries who might not have the benefit of noted authors attending.

3. Developing a university library & information course specifically developed for librarians in a remote area of a developing country. This would could be done in collaboration with public libraries in Australia who could be used as simulated models (work processes could be videotaped) and for networking and mentoring; MOOC providers for the basic instructional units (to reduce costs); but other units would be developed and presented by the university. The course materials and tasks would be totally contextual and developed to to meet their specific needs. The course would be shorter, compact but totally relevant. It would also be deliverable and accessible in mobile format.

These ideas were only in the early thought stages and further investigations might find them not to be viable options but I guess we have to start somewhere.

References
http://www.itomic.com.au/case/better-beginnings

 http://www.better-beginnings.com.au/.

http://www.itomic.com.au/case/better-beginnings/

http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=141461

http://artsandmuseums.nt.gov.au/northern-territory-library/programs-and-projects/our_story_version_2_project

http://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/statement-public-library-services.

http://lwb-online.org/?page_id=2268

http://lwb-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/OxfordStreetMockLibrary2.png)

MOOCS in the global learning context

One of the benefits of MOOCs in the global context is those that might not be able to afford to pay for study can have the opportunity to learn. The courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world and no pre-requisite study is needed. Lisa Lane, in her online teaching blog breaks MOOCS down in to three different pedagogical types: network based, task-based, and content-based. According to Lane (http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/) Network-based is based on socially constructed knowledge which I believe would contribute to global understanding. Many MOOC courses rely on peer-networking so the opportunity to discuss individual and related contexts with others in the field may help understanding across cultures and country as with the task-based type.

My context is a mixture of public libraries conducting learning programs for adults in their community, and for university students studying an information and library management course totally online. In my context public libraries are continually reinventing themselves to remain relevant and adapt to their community's changing needs. This added to challenges faced with rapidly changing technology I can see that MOOCs can be utilised by public library staff or library management students seeking to extend their knowledge in new areas or specialised areas that may not have been included in a university course curriculum.  These courses would most likely be short in duration.  An example of this would be 'Makerspaces' a concept in use in US libraries which Australian libraries may wish to (if they haven't already) adopt. See http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2012/12/what-is-a-makerspace-creativity-in-the-library.html. Another example would be a program on how to conduct a Skpe author talk.  I could see a potential for individual libraries who are innovators or are notably successful in particular areas to present individual short courses in their area of specialty through a collaborative world-wide library run MOOC course.

Some library and information studies units would fit well into the content-based, instructivist pedagogy (Lisa Lane online teaching blog). Universities could adapt this by assigning these type of units (an example would be an information literacy unit) and freeing up time and resources (Massive Open Online Courses, aka MOOCs, Transform Higher Education and Science p.2) to spend on units that would do better with individualised teaching and learning.  Some benefits of MOOCs in a global context is the access to a mulitude of resources including online libraries and books. Other advantages are that potential students can sample a course at no cost before deciding to commit to a full course, similar to single study units offered by universities but without the cost. In a global context for librarians in remote or isolated area I believe the same would apply, content-based, instructivist type units could easily be utilised by accessing MOOC courses but for most of their library studies I believe more contextual and individual study would be more appropriate, something I think would be difficult in a MOOC environment. From personal experience I think the dropout rate of networked based and task based library units would be high on a Massive Open Online Course. In remote areas there would be so many contextual and individual situations that could not be applied very well across a massive impersonal platform.

Although I acknowledge that network based MOOC courses can contribute to global understanding most of the networking and scaffolding is with other students.  Although this can contribute to effective learning tool I believe that is in conjunction with the mentoring and knowledge provided by teachers experienced in the field, rather than to replace it.

References

Three Kinds of Moocs. Downloaded 12th October 2013 from
http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/

MOOCs are a fundamental misperception of how teaching works. Downloaded 12th October 2013 from

http://computinged.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/moocs-are-a-fundamental-misperception-of-how-learning-works/

Massive Open Online Courses, aka MOOCs, Transform Higher Education and Science. Downloaded 12th October 2013
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=massive-open-online-courses-transform-higher-education-and-science


What is a Makerspace? Creativity in the Library. Downloaded 12th Ocotber 2013

http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2012/12/what-is-a-makerspace-creativity-in-the-library.html

Creative Commons Licensing

I have chosen to add Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported as the copyright licensing for my blog.  As this blog is used for learning and educational purposes I have allowed them to use, share or modify my work but only for non-commercial use and for them to licence their adapted or shared works under the same arrangements. I chose the ShareAlike option as I felt that if I didn't specify this then my own work could inadvertently end up being used in commercial works. In our learning context we encourage scaffolding and networking so for this reason I have allowed others permission to 'remix, tweak and build upon' (creativecommons.org) otherwise the potential for these aspects of learning is lost. My own learning has been greatly enhanced by the ability to 'borrow' from others or share their work.  Within my organisation there are limitations on information that can be posted on personal social media or websites that relate to the workplace. To comply with this most of my contextual reflections can be applied more generally to the  public library field rather than specifically to my workplace. At times I would have preferred to be able to share very specific anecedotes to demonstrate a particular point but my organisation's social media policy does inhibit my ability to be open to a certain extent. Many others in my field  are in the same position often clarifying on their personal sites that views were there own, not of their workplace.

References

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

EDEL20003 Reflection

For the purposes of my reflection my mobile learning context will cover my own learning as a student, workplace practices in a public library context and potentially teaching Library & Information Management students at University level.  In analysing I have compared functions with similar tasks I have performed in previous courses EDEL20001 and EDEL20002 and they have given me a benchmark to measure the ability and effectiveness of the mobile device functions.  In the previous courses I used blogs extensively for journaling and reflection and curation tools such as scoop.it and twitter. I have similar apps installed on my device. The device in use for my mobile learning is an android tablet.

The three considerations I will address that I believe have particular application for mobile learning in my context are: fits into the lives of learners; reduces technical barriers to e-learning; and allows data to be recorded and learning processed captured wherever they happen.  I did find that many of the considerations overlap, for example, portability overlaps with fits into the lives of learners and this will be reflected in my blog post.

Fits into the lives of learners

One of the best attributes of mobile learning is its ability to fit into the lives of learners by making use of ‘dead time’.  In my context that could mean sitting in the waiting room for appointments, in the lunch break at work, staying overnight away from home, at conferences, having a cup of coffee at a cafe or travelling and allows for greater flexibility and learner centred learning. The installed note on my device has a drive mode function that allows text or notes to be read aloud while travelling. ‘Dead time’ can be used to download information for study later; jotting down notes, thoughts  and reminders as they occur; editing or adding to documents , send links and emails;  and for reading study notes. Its portability allows for anywhere, anytime learning.  The ability to store and access documents in cloud storage via tools such as Dropbox adds to the anywhere, anytime capabilities.  One possible limitation is that as the device in use is an 8 inch tablet which may not support waiting in queues with the same ease as a smartphone nor as is it as portable, for example it could be awkward to carry when going for a walk.  In a library context the ability to download e-books and e-audios via Borrow Box means you can access these 24/7 wherever you are in the world.  This consideration works well for remembering, understanding, collaborating, and creating. In my personal experience I found some functions of the device such as Note, Camera, Blogger apps, Chat, Twitter app, Gmail and Borrow Box particularly work well for using in ‘dead time’.  It allows for the ability to switch between types of learning tasks (Wong 2012) including communication, data sharing (collaboration) and data collection. 

Reduces technical barriers to e-learning

Most of the native apps and installed apps automatically reduce the number of actions needed to perform tasks. For example Blogger apps, Twitter apps are set up so there is no need to log in, they have the ability to be shared easily with via other apps including email, blogger, twitter or cloud storage, most of the work is done for you.  The native note app has several templates to make note creation easier. The ability to synchronise data through cloud storage facilities such as DropBox allows for seamless learning (Wong 2012) allowing for learning across locations and across different devices. I chose Dropbox for its total ease of use that it allowed for many different formats.  However I did find it difficult to use my mobile device to create or modify my tangible benefits table in my chosen application Kingsoft Office software as I found it difficult to navigate around the table easily and it became terribly time consuming.  For this reason some of the more difficult documents to create I felt best created on my home computer but could still access on my device via Dropbox. I had chosen this software because it was its interface was similar to MS Office and documents could be created and edited offline.  I was able to navigate the table easily using Quick office but this app lacked some of the more creative features of  Kingsoft Office.  The Borrow Box app once installed was easy to use, linking straight to the library site and downloading was very simple.

Allows data to be recorded and learning processed captured wherever they happen

I felt this consideration to overlap with ‘contextualisation through location aware features such as GPS.  An example created in an earlier blog post was to take a photo out in the field. The camera and device both have GPS capability.  In a public library context this is ideal for local studies and can be used in conjunction with an app such as History Pin. Many libraries conduct walking history tours and this app allows information and photos to be brought up for any chosen location, any that have been uploaded to History Pin site. In my example I have taken photos of memorials to WWI and WWII soldiers that were killed in action and came from that particular small town.  On site I would be able to upload this to a History Pin site, add links to other related information and incorporate this into a document with information about the history and current information of the chosen small town.  If at a conference or workshop data can be recorded as they happen, videos or photos can be taken of real life work situations, events held at the library, or on study visits and practicums.  This allows for real-life learning, context aware learning, learning across locations where students are not tied to home or office and combines data from the digital and physical world (Wong 2012). It encourages learner centred independent learning, inquiry, and creativity thus allowing students to take their learning beyond the curriculum. 

Conclusion

While experimenting with different apps and features of the device I found what worked best for me was to using a combination of apps.  For my blog postings I used blogger, and bloggeroid and was also able to access blogger via the internet on my device. For creating word documents I used a combination of a native app and installed apps and often performed different word tasks across different apps as some performed some tasks better than others, so it wasn’t unusual for one document to be used across three different word apps and also created across several devices. Koole (p29) suggests that if users are not able to perform some tasks they may lose confidence in the device so ease of use and reducing technical barriers would be a main concern when choosing apps and tasks for mobile learning. I found some tasks to be time consuming and much easier to do on my laptop.  This may change with more familiarisation with the app or improved apps developed over time to overcome these problems. The things I really enjoyed when using my device was the ease of use for most apps especially the sharing and accessing capabilities, the intuitiveness and the ability to use it out in the  field for some real life learning.  I also enjoyed the input accessibility features including handwritten to text, ability to record voice memos, and the stylus pen.  One feature I found particularly useful was the screen capture tool which I found helped bypass a lot of technical difficulties that I might have otherwise experienced. 

 References

Mobile InfoKit- Accessed 30 September 2013

https://mobilelearninginfokit.pbworks.com/w/page/41751178/Why%20mobile%20learning

Koole, Marguerite L. (2009) A Model for Framing Mobile Accessed 30 September 2013

http://cguevara.commons.gc.cuny.edu/files/2009/09/A-Model-for-Framing-Mobile-Learning.pdf

Wong, L (2012). A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43 (1), 19-23. Accessed via Moodle.cqu.edu.au Edel2003 Topic 6

Tangible benefits table for mobile learning in context

posted from Bloggeroid

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