Identifying Emerging Issues in Mobile Learning Essay

The workingshop series was funded by the UKs Joint info Systems Committee (JISC) as part of the Emerge familiarity within JISCs own Users and Innovation interrogation programme. This exploration pore on identifying acclivitous issues for the sector arising from the change magnitudely likely openhanded eggshell exercising of Smartphvirtuosos, personal organizers and camera borders by produceers in HE and FE, two on campus and in the work ho subprogram adhesive friction. This was carried out through scenario generation development three assorted incomings prediction tools in three workshops.The following issues were identified as world the most likely to appear in the incoming of runny teaching phoebe bird years from now the increasing exercise of just in epoch and as and when necessary training. the need for al focuss on low-priced connectivity and advocate. incr god turn out for an approach to teaching and breeding that is more than cooperative than did actic. concerns over scalability teaching communities ar divided over whether there is a role for busy devices in signifieral teaching, in particular in large groupings and lectures. oncerns over the merging of in the flesh(predicate) and vocational information and practice.The strong pair off between affordances of expeditious devices and knowledge opportunities in work initiationd and experiential breeding across the board. increased peer to peer networking and collaboration. the need for inclination specifications for a secure online all-purpose data repository chafeible by contrary browsers according to device at hand. Other emerging issues for wandering(a) learning in HE and FE include both honest and practical implications.These include cultural barriers and resistance to change amongst lecturers and associated teaching professionals. Examples are fears for the erosion of lecturers in the flesh(predicate) time concerns over security related to the increasin g amount of information and number of images to be stored and privacy issues related to the ease with information kindle be captured in a twine of locations. in that location is in any case the opportunity to reconsider discernment practices, personalitying the process of development an assignment rather than simply marking the product. star last issue, one that is in need of urgent attention, is the need for the development by assimilators and take into account of agreed practice, establishing how runny devices are to be role responsibly in institutions before inconsiderate social occasion or ignorance of their potential to enhance learning results in banning a valuable learning tool. Ac screwledgements The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by members of the Adding a Mobile Dimension to article of faith and Learning network who played a major part both in the scenario development activities at the workshops on which this paper is establish and to the revue of the scenarios generated.We are in addition grateful for the financial support from JISC via the Emerge participation for this proletariat. 1 Introduction This report details the scenarios developed in a series of preaching workshops exploring visions of how nomadic technologies and devices will influence the practice of users in high teaching (HE) and upgrade Education (FE) in the future quintuplet years hence. The workshop series was funded by the UKs Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) as part of the Emerge Community within JISCs own Users and Innovation research programme.This circulating(prenominal) exploration focuses on identifying emerging issues for the sector arising with the increasingly likely large scale use of Smartphones and liquid phones with the capability to record both video and audio by learners both on campus and in the body of work in HE and FE. These devices baffle occasion surface established throughout the student c ommunity, a survey of 177 students at the University of Southampton found that 94% were regular users and owners of wandering phones (Davidson and Lutman 2007).This dovetails with data from Ofcom (2008) which shows that mobile phone ownership in the 15-24 age group of the UK population is stabilising at around 95% and students to come will be even more experienced in their use. For example, older students in schools that ostensibly ban mobile phones are now regularly cosmos allowed to use the cameras on their phones to record special events or experiments in lessons to friend them revise. What is mobile learning? The vault of heaven of mobile learning has been ontogenesis fast as a research topic over the past eight years and accordingly ideas of what merely mobile learning is pay off also developed.Winters (2006) noned how various groups researching mobile learning pee use definitions that fall into four categories one mobile learning as technocentric, where learning is see n as some(a)thing that makes use of mobile devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones two defined by its relationship to e-learning, where mobile learning is seen as an extension of elearning three as augmenting formal command and four as learner centred, enabling the possibility of lifelong learning.These does not address the unique selling point of mobile learning which is swell up linked to the capability of the mobile learner moving between tralatitiously separate con text editionbooks much(prenominal)(prenominal) as the work place and the teaching base supported by handheld technology that they kitty work with interactively to capture, access and store quantities of information in polar multimedia formats. Thus mobile learning can be best described as the processes (both personal and public) of coming to know through exploration and conversation across duple contexts amongst people and interactive technologies (Sharples, Arnedillo Sanchez, Milrad & Vavoula 2007).Mobile learning in post-compulsory education in the UK A presentation from Traxler & Sugden (2007) places the current state of mobile learning in the UK as consisting of appreciable numbers of small scale trials and pilots taking place over fixed periods of time. Confirmation that the practice of utilize mobile technology to support learning in post-compulsory education is not yet embed in current practice within institutions was demonstrated during the search for forward research for this paper, where no on-going large scale uses were found.From currently forthcoming sources there is little or no indication as to the finale to which mobile devices are world use in Higher and Further Education. Findings from interviews conducted by Bird and Stubbs (2008) with mobile learning innovators in ten Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were surprisingly consistent with most respondents reporting that they experienced or expect to experience the same kind of issues. These were mostly in the form of barriers to establishing and sustaining an m-learning innovation in a university 2 environment.Issues which dominated were skills gaps (in IT support and especially academic staff and somewhat unexpectedly students who despite being glowering users ), lack of technical support (IT armed go provision), procurement and accounting policies establish around PC usage, inclusion issues due to cost of devices and/or data, honorable and legal issues, quality assurance especially with respect to data ownership, sustainability (all projects were found on external funding), device limitations, standards churn, privacy and security, and lack of a cause of death finish for the context.Interviews with users trialling PDAs at the Open University (Pettit and Kukulska-Hulme, 2008) indicated that the wireless infrastructure was widely regarded as a critical factor in influencing adoption of the device. Most document reviewed for the current investigation refer red to theoretical speculation close to future potential, differents discussed projects outside of the UK in Europe or East Asia, however, in the remaining 20%, an impressive break away of pilots with different handheld devices was described.These indicate that there is considerable potential for engaging and supporting learners via mobile technologies. These pilots point to greater use of context relevant information especially images and video in learning and to greater collaboration enabled by easily portable, handheld devices connected to the earnings via wi-fi or broadband. The following examples indicate the range of activities tested and are include by sector. Higher education Lecturers have evaluated a range of devices from multi-function PDAs and Smartphones to primary texti pass along (SMS).In one of the first examples of the use of PDAs in an undergrad spateting Ramsden (2005) successfully tested giving undergraduate Economics students at the University of Bristol access to VLEs and course materials via internet-enabled PDAs. As well as enabling access to course resources any time, anywhere, having the PDA allowed the students to hold doubt and answer sessions via the online discussion board during lectures which they found this peculiarly helpful.The University of Birmingham has evaluated the use of PocketPC handheld reckoners to offer nonuple mobile applications to university students in the form of a mobile learning organiser. The main uses were for issues of time and course worry and access to course materials. Other functions included the ability to communicate via e-mail and instant messaging and to organise notes. The participating students made good use of the calendar and timetable facilities as well as communication tools and were keen for more content to be delivered in this manner. (Corlett et al, 2005) At LondonMetropolitan University the reclaimable Learning Objects (RLO) Centre for Excellence in tenet and Learning (CETL ) works on the design, development and use of learning objects some(prenominal) of which run on mobile phones. Smith et al (2007) discuss the motivation they have seen in students (sports science in this case) to learn via subject specific learning objects (programs) such(prenominal) as Flash animations of muscle groupings and movements that run on their own or loaned mobile phones. Other animated tutorials, language learning for example, include multiple choice quizzes (Tschirhart et al, 2008).In an some other study manipulate, Pachler and Bradley (2008) found that loaning graduate(prenominal) students Nokia N91 phones to make notes and take images for upload to web based media board such as Lifeblog and tribals Mediaboard led to blurring the boundaries between study, work, and personal time and between formal and informal practice. In the Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) CETL at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester applications aimed at Geography students are bein g developed for PDAs and yellow journalism PCs where the PDA screen is held up towards the real scene to offer excess information about that scene, augmenting reality for the user (Priestnall and Polmear, 2007). For example, trials of a PDA application designed to teach the geomorphology of the Lake District, NW England showed that students the students learned to appreciate the power of geocontextualised visualisation to support their understanding of landscape processes (Jarvis et al, 2008).The University of Nottingham has apply mobile phones and akin(predicate) software to enable group blogging as a tool to support Chinese students in the process of enculturation as they get apply to a raw society and to enter the local community. The learners showed a limpid interest in flexibility of time and space that potentially extends antennas of the group blog to deeper insight of local culture. (Shao, Crook & Koleva, 2007). Other examples use simpler devices and text messaging.The Mobiles Enhancing Learning and Support (MELaS) project saw the University of Wolverhampton test using text messaging with first year undergraduates in five departments aiming to enhance the student learning experience. In all 27 staff successfully interacted with 938 different students through at least one of one way (staff to learner) communication, formative assessment with feedback, and a collaborative learning discursive tool (Brett, 2008).In another study sports education students at the University of Bath reported that SMS messages to their mobile phones from faculty were found welcome in assisting them to learn time worry skills and as an extension of the tutors voice beyond the tralatitious lecture environment. This helped to reduce the perceived psychological distance between students, their peers and tutors (Jones, Edwards & Reid, 2008). SMS messaging has been trialled in lecture theatres too.Elliman (2006) reports successfully using a system that allowed students to p rovide feedback by SMS on their level of comprehension during a lecture. The system displays a histogram showing understanding level which is continually updated during the lecture together with comments and question in a scrolling subject field of the screen. At Brunel University, first year undergraduate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) students found that revision podcasts, downloaded to their personal digital media players were popular and perceived as more effective than revising from traditional textbooks (Evans 2008).In a review of podcasting to support distance learning in the Open University, UK Minocha and Booth (2008) conclude that audio technologies such as podcasts can not only support mobile learning but also entice, motivate, inform and reinforce. Further Education Mobile technology has been used in a number of colleges as a means to bring new learning opportunities to students who might otherwise not have access to college education. many a(prenomina l) of these projects have been funded by the Learning and Skills Council under the MoleNET initiative or by the JISC e-Learning Programme.At Pembrokeshire College, an mlearning trial project was carried out from 2005-7 to support NEET students (NEET not in education, employment or training) with reentry to education, training or work. Giving students access to PDAs helped to engage them and improve communication with a difficult to run into group. The use of SMS messaging enabled the teachers to keep in touch with this very short group of learners and helped identify opportunities for learning as when they occurred. (Pembrokeshire College 2007).Similar projects working with NEET learners have also been carried out at Accrington and Rossendale College, Tower Hamlets College and tungstenon College (MoLeNET 2008). 4 Having the capability to learn anywhere by means of handheld PDAs allowed Dewsbury College and Bishop Burton College, West Yorkshire to provide learners in outreach cen tres and workplace learning environments with similar access to learning resources as their peers on the main college campus (JISC 2005a). Mobile phones have also been found useful to help in location based learning.The City of Southampton College has been assisting ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) students to improve their opportunities for meaning(prenominal) language interactions. Visiting locations within the city to help get to know their locality, students were asked location specific questions answered through SMS messaging and posting images to an interactive website. The project found that such techniques enhanced the students literacy and numeracy skills and helped to engage hard to reach learners such as those from the multiethnic Southampton community where many students have English as a second language (JISC 2005b).As in Higher Education bulk text messaging services to support managing learning have proven popular with most students. There are those for whom this sort of service is particularly useful. Derwen College (JISC, 2008a) found that their students who have varying degrees of physical disabilities and learning difficulties responded well to reminders to students for things like surgery and other appointments, dinner times and class notifications. unbiased text based interaction was also used at Lakes College West Cumbria (JISC, 2008b) who piloted the use of iPod nanos to provide multiple choice revision quizzes for Construction students, many of whom have learning difficulties and struggle with paper-based revision processes. The iPod quizzes proved popular with both student in the cohort making use of the iPods during the revision period. The use of handheld devices to record or view multimedia to support learning is also proving popular.At Southwark College students are using low-priced, pocket-sized camcorders to overcome some of the technical and organisational barriers to using video in the classroom and for recording express of learning (JISC, 2008c). Examples included recording students oral presentations in English which were then used by the students for practice and reviewing with each other and Level 2 students in Art and Design recording technique demos and talking about their work to inform Level 1 students hoping to progress.Other projects, such as My Podcast at New College, Swindon (Warren, 2008), involve podcasting with lecturers creating both audio and video podcasts that students can download and play on handheld PDAs or MP3 players for revision or extra support with a topic wheresoever they happen to be, in the workplace, at home or in college or moving between the two. Work Based Learning Both HE and FE institutions place students training for professions, whether medicine, building, teaching or hairdressing etc. in the workplace for a significant proportion of their course. Students, often at considerable distance from their teaching bases, need online access to course materia ls and other context specific information, to communicate with their tutors and to produce records of their progress and assignments for assessment. Mentors in the workplace need to authenticate and support this student learning. A number of pilots have been set up to test how mobile technologies can successfully be used to support students on work placements.For instance, mobile devices have been used to give instant hands on access to information that would be difficult to carry around on the job. At the James Cook University Hospital in 5 Middlesborough, 5th year medical students tested the use of PDAs providing access to formulae, clinical guidelines, electronic portfolios and other web-based materials. They found portable access to these facilities useful, as was the ability for supervisors to sign-off log books using their normal signatures on the PDA. (Cotterill et al, 2008).Reynolds et al (2007) found that a PDA proved to be a convenient and versatile mode of access to onlin e education for dentistry students at Kings College, London. The 12 students were most constructive about being able to make notes for individual study, to keep a diary of their commitments to teaching sessions and to having on the spot access to online support materials, particularly videos. Teaching is another profession where students need access to a wealthiness of information. Wishart et al (2007) found that when student teachers trialled the use of PDAs in school they deemed the calendar or diary to be articularly supportive.Email was also used, primarily to maintain contact with other students and the university tutor, and the web browser was used to access information both in class and for personal reasons. some(prenominal) students used spreadsheets to record pupils attendance and grades and most, in this pilot involving 14 trainees, used the word processor to make notes from meetings and on lesson observations for essays. However, the prevailing sociocultural modality where mobile phones are often banned and PDAs a rarity meant that trainees often felt uncomfortable using their device on school premises.In FE mobile technology has been used in the work place for just in time problem solving, such as through the Hairdressing Training programme developed by the University of Manchesters data centre, Mimas, and now used by 500 students at Stockport College, which offers step-by step guides to hairdressing techniques for styling, colouring and cutting (Smith, 2008) Also PDAs have been found to be useful in connecting work based learners in FE who may otherwise be isolated from learning opportunities.Such devices have been used to assist apprentices in remote boorish locations in Lincolnshire to give flexible learning options and to build achievement and egotism (Lambourne, 2008) and to provide learning and social networking opportunities to caution workers in schools and nursing establishments in the Bourneville area of Birmingham (Brown, 2008).Fi nally, one of the largest trials of mobile technology in the workplace, currently ongoing with around a 1000 students in five universities in Yorkshire, is that being run by the Assessment of Learning in Practice Settings (ALPS) CETL1, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning that focuses on assessment and learning in practice settings and involving nursing and allied health care practitioner trainees.Initial indications (Dearnley et al, 2008) showed that both students and lecturers were positive about a range of benefits having a PDA enables however, introducing mobile technology into the clinical setting will require a significant shift in culture and a significant level of training and support. 1 http//www. alps-cetl. ac. uk/ 6 Summary firearm the above mentioned projects demonstrate the range of learning activities that have been trialled in UK institutions, juvenile advances in the abilities of the mobile devices themselves offer the chance to deliver new services to learners that have not yet been tested.The 2009 Horizon Report notes how the adoption of impertinent interfaces (like the iPhone), the new ability of mobile devices to download applications and to be location cognizant through GPS signals, all offer new opportunities for learning. With the addition of broadband-like data connections, the demarcation line between what is a mobile phone and a portable computer are being ever more blurred (New Media Consortium 2009).It is in this technology context that the workshop participants came together to imagine future scenarios for the use of mobile technology in learning, drawing on their wide experiences of preceding(prenominal) research projects and contemplating how developing mobile technologies could open up new opportunities for connecting learners and teachers. 7 Methods Developing Future Scenarios In this project three different tools were used to support future predictions.The first used for the workshop focusing on the practice o f users in Higher Education (HE) in the future five years from today was the Cognitive Foresight toolkit available from the UK Government discussion section for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Office of Science and Technology, 2005). It was developed for strategic futures planning and provides guidance on different techniques that can be used in the different stages of developing future scenarios and the ways they can be combined.This first workshop employed number one wood analysis to build internally consistent future scenarios from an assessment of the way current trends and drivers are influencing the present use of mobile technologies in HE. source the workshop participants brainstorm a range of drivers for the currently observable trends. conterminous scenarios are produced by taking the drivers identified as having the highest importance and highest trespass as orthogonal pairs of axes and visualising up to four scenarios that match the chosen combinations.This rul e is illustrated in the example below. More of Scenario Decrease in Increase in Less of The second used the Futures Technology Workshop manner (Vavoula and Sharples, 2007) to hear at future scenarios in work based learning. This is a structure method whereby people, in this case with experience in the specific area of the use of mobile technologies in education, envision and design the interactions between current and future technologies and an activity.Through a series of structure workshop sessions they join forces to envisage future activities related to technology design, build models of the contexts of use for future technologies, act out scenarios of use for their models, re-conceive their scenarios in relation to present-day technologies, add up problems with implementing the scenarios exploring the gap between current and future technology and activity. The workshop method was edited slightly within the time constraints of the day so that the structured sessions co mprised i. i. Imagineering brainstorm on desired future learning activities. Modelling in groups, producing models that demonstrate the envisioned activities, complete with related props. 8 iii. iv. Retrofit developing a role play for another groups scenario using only current technologies. Futurefit Requirements listing requirements for the future technologies that have to be in place for the scenario to be realised.The third workshop on future scenarios in Further Education (FE) followed a method devised by FutureLab, an educational thinktank aimed at transforming the way people learn that focuses on the potential offered by digital and other technologies. This method for developing scenarios uses non-specific images of people of different ages in different locations printed on cards as a stimulus to thinking. The workshop used cards such as these shown below from the Building Visions for Learning Spaces eon of cards.The workshop participants are then asked to envision first a ra nge of learning activities that could be happening within the image and the people obscure in them, then the anticipated outcomes and the technological resources that will be needed. One of these activities is then chosen by each of the groups for fuller development into a future scenario. In each of the above three cases the workshop was set up to start with two initial keynote presentations designed to hurry thought and discussion from recognised experts.These keynotes (found under workshops 8-10) are available from the Adding a Mobile Dimension to Teaching and Learning web site2. These were followed by a series of discussion activities informed by the futures prediction method being used and facilitated by the research team. A discussion workshop is a recognised method of collaborative knowledge construction through discussion and debate amongst peers or experts. The workshops were run as focus groups with the facilitator encouraging discussion and debate and following a qualit ative, phenomenological research approach.