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
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
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