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mLearning: It’s Not About Delivering Content to Mobile Phones

April 27th, 2012 by doug

mLearning : It’s Not About Delivering Content to Mobile Phones
mLearning, it’s one of those terms you see bandied about quite a lot nowadays but have you ever wondered what it could mean? Okay, so the ‘m’ in mLearning stands for ‘mobile’, just like the ‘e’ in eLearning stands for …. whatever.

So it’s easy to establish that mLearning is about using mobile devices, not just mobile phones but tablets and other handheld devices, for learning. So the first problem facing an education company is that they have all these electronic resources for learning available on the web, on old-fashioned DVD or CD or, even, on paper, all of which need to be re-purposed and packaged for delivery to mobile devices.

300px HTC Juno2 mLearning: Its Not About Delivering Content to Mobile Phones

A T-Mobile Shadow (a rebranded HTC Juno). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It seems a number of companies think that this is the first hurdle. I have come across a slew of seminars, conferences, webinars etc. which aim or claim to tackle the issues of delivering content to mobile devices. To my mind the problem is not how to deliver existing content to mobile devices because once you have overcome that problem, you are offering nothing new!

The problem with the approach is that it overlooks the features of mobile devices, features which the learner can use to aid their learning. The approach sees the learner as a passive end user to whom ‘stuff’ is delivered via their mobile device. I doing this, companies overlook the fact that most mobile devices can take pictures, record sound, capture text, create video and, of course, make phone calls … many can even locate themselves geographically. Not only can they do these things but they can also share and communicate them with other devices.

It is the existence of these features in the hands of the learner which is the real challenge of mLearning. They create new possibilities for learning and new opportunities for the learners, not just in a narrow geographic location, such as a school or a neighbourhood but nationally and even internationally.

If you think about it, the original mobile learning device was probably the book but with that you could only read and, possibly, make notes in the margin. Modern mobile devices are so much more versatile and offer the learner so much more. So why are we at danger of losing or overlooking this?

Practical Mobile eLearning Today: Real Solutions for Creating mLearning for Your Organization Right Now, Part 1.(blogs.adobe.com)
The age of mobile is now(elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
Mobile Learning: A Quick Start Guide(downes.ca)

Training: Transitioning from eLearning to mLearning (blogs.adobe.com)
This Week in mLearning Podcast – Thinking Mobile-First [Episode 3] | The Mobile Learning Revolution Blog (techcommgeekmom.com)
The Ethics of Mobile Learning – Troubling and Complex (moocblogcalendar.wordpress.com)
Mobile Learning – Let’s Get Started! (slideshare.net)

mLearning: Its Not About Delivering Content to Mobile Phones

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Tags: iphone, Learning, mLearn, mlearning, Mobile Computing, Mobile device
Posted in education, Handheld Learning | 1 Comment »

Microsoft’s Stealthy Strategy for Taking Over Education Technology?

April 24th, 2012 by doug

Image via Wikipedia

In the next 3 years or so, I would not be surprised if Microsoft were to become the dominant player in the education technology field.

Okay, so this post is going to be full of silly predictions like that.

I have sometimes argued that one thing we need for the future would be to have the same operating system, or at least the same User Interface, on our mobile devices as we have on our desktops. You will notice that I say mobile devices and desktops, that’s because I believe that in the coming years, laptops and netbooks will be hit by the rise of tablet and smartphone devices to the point where we shall have just desktops and mobile devices …. see I warned you about silly predictions!

Upto now, mobile devices have generally had a quite different operating system to desktops and other computing devices. So we see that Apple’s MacOS is quite different from their system on iPhones and iPads, similarly Samsung’s use of Android has been different from its use of Windows on its Netbooks. Some devices, such as those from Nokia or RIM have had their own operating system which has no equivalent in computers. True, we have seen a few laptops, such as some from Acer, which have had Android as a second operating system but this has generally proved unsuccessful.

So how does Microsoft fit into all this? To start, we know that Microsoft have the dominant role in Desktop operating systems with Windows. They also had a Windows mobile operating system, which was developed upto version 6.5 but this was quite a clunky system and perhaps the less said about it, the better! However, Microsoft have a new mobile operating system in the pipeline which looks much more promising. I’m not talking about Windows Phone 7, or 7.5 (mango), interesting though that looks, I’m refering to Windows 8 and its Metro UI which I have seen on both desktop and mobile devices. Windows Metro UI presents the user with the same UI on all their devices, which would be a great boon and could be particularly helpful in bringing on board any technophobic (sorry, I hate that term but you know what I mean) teachers… but could that be another silly prediction?

I say the UI would be the same rather than saying the operating system would be the same. That’s because I believe the UI would be coupled to a cloud operating system. This would have numerous advantages; it would mean that the memory of the mobile device could be devoted more to working the application being used rather than splitting it between program and operating system, it could also mean that the mobile device need only store the application to be used and not all other applications as well. This takes cloud computing to its next stage and would move us on from the simple use of the Cloud for storage and file sharing. There are, of course many other advantages of cloud computing which I shan’t go into here.

I daresay other companies, e.g. Apple, Google, are developing newer operating systems for both mobile and desktop devices, so Microsoft may not be alone in this. At the moment, though, it would seem Microsoft has a lead which it could convert to its advantage if it can release Windows 8 sooner rather than later.

I am aware that it is often argued that the use of education technology should not be led by developments in the technology but by the needs of learning. I am also aware that in the past it has been developments in technology which have spurred developments in educational practice. I have always maintained that the two, technology and pedagogy, need to work together. By having the same UI on our mobile and fixed computing devices, I feel we can help make the two work more harmoniously … another silly prediction perhaps? My feeling is that many teachers are put off technology because they have to ‘learn’ how to operate that technology and different devices and programs have, traditionally, required different skills and operating techniques. If we have the same UI then teachers, and other users, need only learn one way of operating and, once they have learned what they need then they can focus more upon the uses and application of the technology. It could also help breakdown the divide or barrier between teachers and pupils where the teacher feels, or knows, the pupils know more about how to use a computer than they do.

So could this all indicate a stealthy strategy by Microsoft or just a coincidental happenstance? Whichever way I feel it is the right approach and other manufacturers would do well to take note.

Windows 8 Brings Cloud Computing to Billions (cloud-computing.learningtree.com)
Ballmer: Windows 8 Heading to Smartphones [Update: No its Not!] (netbooknews.com)
Nokia Reveals Windows 8 Tablet Plan (informationweek.com)
Windows 8 Upgrade Planning Begins (informationweek.com)
What Microsoft’s 2012 Plans Mean for IT (news.dice.com)
Microsoft to release Office 15 beta in January (slashgear.com)
Samsung to make windows 8 tablets (thegadgets.net)

Microsofts Stealthy Strategy for Taking Over Education Technology?

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Posted in education, Handheld Learning | No Comments »

Blogging in School

April 17th, 2012 by doug

It appears that the subject of blogging in education is continuing to be a topic of discussion on Becta’s Research Network. A number of people are coming up with good ideas and there are some people who believe that it still has no place in education. Equally, there a re people who appear to express a ‘voice of reason’ by asking why should we adopt new technologies or new practices just because they are there, rather than because they have proven educational value.

I have always said that the power of blogging lies not in the blog but in the comments.

Hackers and spammers have long realised this, why do you think comment spam is so pervasive?

The educational potential of blogging in schools lies, it seems to me, not so much in the facility of the pupil to write their blog but in the facility it gives for other pupils and/or staff to add comments to that blog.

By blogging, the pupil is making digital notes of their learning and these, like written notes, can be of great value in aiding learning and recall, especially at examination or test times.

It is the facility to share the blog and to allow others to add comments that better befits the learning process. To illustrate what I mean, let us say that a pupil has written in their blog that they are doing an economic study of a particular country. Another pupil can then read this blog entry and add the comment that they, too, are doing a study of that same country and asks whether they can share their findings and co-operate together. Another pupil reads the blog entry and adds the comment that they have found a website which may be of relevant to the first pupil’s study and he adds a hyperlink. A third person reads the blog and adds the comment that he actually lives and works in the country concerned and asks whether his experiences might be of interest to the pupils.

So you can see that the comment facility in the blog has given the pupil a study buddy, a link to relevant information from another website and a possible first hand account.

Let us take the case further and let us now suppose that each of the three participants now add further parts to the blog, either by adding original items or by adding further comments. The blog then starts to take more shape and can be used to view how findings or answers were obtained. Let us suppose that one of the findings reported in the blog is inaccurate. A teacher can read through the blog and spot the inaccuracy, they can then add a comment and ask the pupil to recheck their finding.

It may also be the case that a pupil may be following a rather narrow line of enquiry in their study, the teacher has the facility to add comment(s) to try to steer the pupil into broadening their study into different aspects.

In order for all of this to take place, I am making a number of assumptions. Firstly, I am assuming that the facility to add comments is enabled, secondly, I am assuming that the ability to add comments is open to all and, thirdly, I am assuming that only the pupil has the ability to add original posts to the blog. This is actually the most common setup for a blog.

It is usually possible to disable commenting, though this does rather defeat any idea of co-operation. However, some form of restriction may be necessary to prevent abuse such as comment spam. It is possible for the pupil or staff member to have moderation rights, which means that they can decide which comments are published or not. Even without moderation rights, it is often possible to avoid comment spam by adding the requirement for the commenter to reply to challenge questions such as typing in a randomly chosen sequence of letters. This avoids much comment spam as that is often generated by automated bots.

It is always possible to allow the blog to be read and commented upon by anyone who comes across it on the blogosphere. This obviously allows for the widest amount of interaction and participation. However, it may be necessary to restruct access to only certain pupils or members of a particular school.

While it is usual for only the blog owner to have the facility to post original posts to their blog, it is often possible for the owner to allow posting rights to other people if they wish. It could be very beneficial if the teacher or tutor also has the right to post to pupil(s) blogs. With the teacher also having the right to post to blogs, then they can post new questions or new assignments, homework etc. for the pupil(s).

Well, for now, that is my view about blogging in schools. I do believe it has a value if it can be implemented succesfully. My enthusiasm for blogging is based upon its potential educational benefits rather than its technological availability or its current vogue.

If anyone would care to comment upon their views or experiences with blogging in schools, then please leave a comment ….. not comment spam please! LOL.

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Posted in blogging | No Comments »

Teaching and Assessment; Which Comes First?

April 10th, 2012 by doug

: Image by dougwoods via Flickr

Teaching and assessment, which comes first? To some, that may seem like a chicken and egg question, to others it may seem quite obvious and straightforward but let me explain why I am led to ask it.

The other day, I was very privileged to observe a group of teachers team planning. This is something not every teacher gets the opportunity to do, certainly, when I was a teacher I never got the opportunity to team plan; all my planning had to be done by myself alone. Even today, most teachers don’t plan in teams or get the opportunity to give it a go. Which is a great shame as it really can be an effective process.

While observing, what became evident to me, and this will surprise nobody, is that different teachers plan in different ways or have different approaches. In most cases, this can be a huge advantage because it means the planning process can tap into different people’s skills, knowledge and experiences. Sometimes, though, it can be a drawback if you have someone who plans in a particular way that doesn’t fit with the others in the team. One thing I observed is that most of the team planning involved some form of ‘brainstorming’ leading to the production of a mindmap or topic-web. This type of approach might not fit with someone who likes their planning done in orderly columns, rows and boxes. I know the compromise solution might be to take the mindmap and then rewrite it into a Word document or a spreadsheet but doesn’t that seem like doing the same planning twice?

Generally the planning sessions appeared to be going well but there were a couple of occassions where things went slightly awry based, it appeared to me, upon a person’s different approach to planning. In one instance, the team planning seemed to be going very well and were discussing the use of technology, particularly blogs, podcasts, video and their learning platform. This seemed to be too much for one person who suddenly interjected that they couldn’t see how this would fit into the assessment, they were particularly concerned about the use or creation of digital resources because these couldn’t be assessed or ‘fit into the boxes on the assessment sheet’ (almost their exact words).

As an outside observer, I couldn’t become involved in this discussion but I was quite shocked by this person’s statement and their approach. It seemed to me that this person wanted to plan and to teach toward the assessment criteria. Has this replaced ‘teaching to the exam’ or ‘teaching to SATs’ something we know happens but, which we also know, shouldn’t happen? The belief that we shouldn’t use digital resources or ask the learner to create digital material because it didn’t fit with the assessment, just seemed to be so wrong.

Should we be taking the assessment, in this way, and letting it determine what we teach and the way in which we teach? It does seem like a backwards way of teaching to me.

And yet…

… I think there may be a case for putting the assessment first. I am thinking, though, of assessment of the learners previous learning; the assessment of the learning that has taken place prior to the lesson(s) we are now planning. Surely it is important to consider this first as it will help us determine where the learners are, what they already know or have experienced and the ways in which they learn?

So I guess the answer to my original question; teaching and assessment, which comes first, is not so easy to answer.

Integrating educational technology into teaching (slideshare.net)
100 ways to use a VLE – #9 Peer Assessment (elearningstuff.wordpress.com)
Teach smarter not harder 0510 (slideshare.net)
Assessment and Evaluation (brighthub.com)
Norm-Referenced or Criterion-Referenced? You be the Judge! (brighthub.com)
Using assessment data (slideshare.net)
31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader — Day 10: Know the Data (ictineducation.org)

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Tags: assessment, lesson planning
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | 2 Comments »

Education Technology; Teaching Tool or Learning Tool?

April 2nd, 2012 by doug

: Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday, I read this great short blog post from @kylepace entitled Good Vs Great Teachers. In the article, Kyle criticises another author who appeared to believe that educational technology was a waste of time because it would never replace good teachers. All in all I would agree very much with Kyle’s response, which is basically that good teachers embrace the technology and what it offers, to become Great teachers.

I posted a tweet on Twitter, inviting my followers to take a look at the article but I also posed the question, does the article still look upon education technology as a teaching tool rather than a learning tool? The purpose of this post on my blog is to attempt to explain what I meant by that.

We’ve had computers in schools for around 30 years now. I’m still surprised when I encounter a colleague who still questions whether we should have computers in schools. I remind them just how long they have been around in education and, if I’m feeling particularly narked, I ask what my colleague has been doing all this time? (I wonder why I have no friends!)

As I say, we’ve had computers for around 30 years and, in that time, the nature of the technology and its uses have changed considerably. No longer is a computer a device which only one, or possibly two, people could use at a time when sat at a monitor screen. Nowadays, we can project computer images to large groups and classes via interactive whiteboards. The computer in the classroom is no longer the sole preserve of the teacher, who says who can use it and when. Now each pupil can have their own computer, on a desk, on their lap or in their pocket.

Originally, pupils could engage in the learning software that their teacher presented to them. Nowadays, pupils can locate their own resources and share them with peers. They can use computers to collaborate on projects and other learning work. They can create their own materials and display or broadcast them to an audience. Their audience, or their peer group, is no longer confined to the members of their own school, year or class group, that audience is now to be found beyond school or even national boundaries.

What is echoing in my mind, are the words I first heard from John Davitt, “we need to move learners from being passive consumers of technology into becoming creative users of that technology” . I feel that this shift has been happening over the years and needs to continue to progress. The technology is no longer just a tool for the teacher, it is no a tool for the learner.

I sometimes find myself saying to teachers, particularly those who have some reticence or lack confidence in using ICT, that it does not matter so much how you use technology, what matters most is how you allow and enable your learners to use technology.

So, for me, educational technology is a tool more for the learner than the teacher. That is not to deny the role that technology has in supporting the teacher in their work and in their approaches to learning but that it is the use of technology by the learner that is key to the future of education.

For me, a good teacher is one who uses technology in their work ( see my article elsewhere on good teachers and technology), a great teacher is one who extends that to encourage, support and develop their learners’ use of technology in their learning.

Technology Everywhere (slideshare.net)
Action plan for integration of technology (slideshare.net)
Students as Creators of Multimedia Instruction (boisebarbara.org)
SWGFL ICT Conferences – Torquay & Bristol (dougdickinson.co.uk)
Does ICT Improve Learning? (ictineducation.org)
New Technology and Outdoor Learning: Introduction (olliebray.typepad.com)
Outfitting 21st Century Classrooms with 21st Century Teachers (isteconnects.org)

Education Technology; Teaching Tool or Learning Tool?

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Tags: Author, Education, Information and communication technologies in education, Interactive whiteboard, K through 12, Learning, Technology, Twitter
Posted in Classroom Technology, Transforming Learning | 2 Comments »

Let’s Take the Children out of E-Safety

March 26th, 2012 by doug

The other day, I was talking to a friend and fellow teacher about e-safety. Which I guess may make us a bit ‘sad’ in that we cannot find anything other than education and tech to talk about in our spare time!

Anyway, in this conversation I recall saying that we didn’t have e-safety in my day. That not only made me sound like an old man but it also made me think what we used to have when I was a pupil. The nearest thing I could think of was Road Safety.

At that point, something suddenly clicked in my head, thankfully it wasn’t too serious do I didn’t have to see a doctor. It’s important to teach road safety so that children know how to avoid having accidents in the road. However, the effects of being run down by a vehicle on the road are much the same, serious injury or death, whether you are an adult or a child. Even adults have to observe road safety if they want to stay alive.

Surely the same applies to e-safety? The adverse effects of internet use can affect adults as well as children, so surely any e-safety policy and practices in a school should apply to adults just as much as to children? Surely, too, e-safety doesn’t only apply while in school, it must be true when working on computers from home or when mobile? So why is it that we consider e-safety to be something we just teach children?

Now, you may say, that adults have free will or freedom of choice and can choose to ignore e-safety advice if they wish. Well, that might be true but surely if they are going to choose to ignore it, they still need to know or be aware of the potential dangers?

Lollipop patrol hit by cutbacks (guardian.co.uk)
Own Your Space – Internet Safety and Security eBook from Microsoft (olliebray.typepad.com)
Why Should We Teach Internet Safety To Young Children? (isteconnects.org)
Google Family Safety Center [Internet Safety Resource] (olliebray.typepad.com)

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Tags: e-safety
Posted in Classroom Technology | 2 Comments »

The Teacher and The Prostitute

March 24th, 2012 by doug

This article does not condone prostitution in any form but asks whether someone entering the teaching profession could benefit from advice given by prostitutes into ways of selling themselves and their services.

Applying for my first few jobs as a teacher was really easy. All I had to do was look through the job ads, send off a CV and covering letter, fill in an application form and hope to get called for interview. At the interview, there’d be 3 or 4 people on a panel asking me questions, which I would try to answer as best I could. At the end of the day, or maybe a few days later, I’d hear whether or not I’d got the job.

Nowadays, of course, things seem rarely to be quite so simple. In applying for a new job, a teacher may have to go through several rounds of interviews, perform (I think that’s the best word) a demo lesson, and even hope that the pupils give a good report of him!

As if that weren’t bad enough, just recently I have noticed another new trend. Parents, and even students, have been asking to see the CVs of teachers in order to determine if the teacher and the school are good enough to teach their child! I kid you not, I have even seen students asking to see a teacher’s CV.

In the past, a school’s reputation and its ability to attract students was determined by its location and its name. Then, of course, results and league tables were introduced supposedly as a way for parents to tell a good school from a poor one. Well, I guess by now, parents and students have learned that such tables are not really good indicators. So now a school needs to attract students by advertising the quality of its teachers.

So it might seem only a short step away from the day when teachers will have to ‘sell themselves’ to schools, to parents and to students and hope that they are attracted by the services they offer.

So maybe the day is not far off when a teacher could take valuable advice from prostitutes as to the best ways of selling themselves and their services!

I Agree That Teachers Should be Paid According to How Much Their Students Learn (socyberty.com)
Requirements for a Teaching Certification (socyberty.com)
Are teachers rich or poor? (lookatvietnam.com)
2 more APS teachers resign rather than face panel (ajc.com)
What is it like to be an on-line Teacher? (skylearninternational.wordpress.com)
What about the “bad” teachers? (dmacteaches.wordpress.com)

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Posted in education | 1 Comment »

mLearning: It’s Not About Delivering Content to Mobile Phones

Microsoft’s Stealthy Strategy for Taking Over Education Technology?

Blogging in School

Teaching and Assessment; Which Comes First?

Education Technology; Teaching Tool or Learning Tool?

Let’s Take the Children out of E-Safety

The Teacher and The Prostitute

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