A mobile learning definition for my Campus

A definition …. and a little history

I was preparing for a class on mobile learning for the faculty of my campus. Something to get them thinking or started with mobile learning. I was adding a PowerPoint slide on the definition of mobile learning from some sources on the Internet. The definition looked good….

It defined mobile learning essentially as distance or e-learning on a mobile device.

This simple definition seems to work but how practical is it for my campus?

I teach at a pretty good size community college (main and satellite campus) that is part of a county system of 10 campuses (yes, our District is very large by most standards but the campus is not). Our I/T infra-structure is very good. We have many opportunities for students and staff to access college computer resources from on campus (wired and wireless) and from home via the Internet. The mobile devices used by staff and students are quite powerful but not all students or staff have the financial resources for high end smart phones with application support and always on data connections. Most all have unlimited text messaging and many also have Internet connectivity with their cell phones. I think the mobile technology is typical for most metropolitan campuses.

Our faculty are suffering a little from technology shock (in total and not use mobile technology). A lot of money has been spent on technology but not all of the technology has lived up to the hype. As a result, there are many who may look at mobile technology as being a little "over the top" and something that is in the future and not today. Because of this, I know my best bet for mobile technology is with a teacher who has traditionally been an early adopter and supportive of new technology even with a few bumps and bruises. New faculty are also good candidates because they are typically techno savvy and are looking for a way to set them apart from more established faculty. Having said this and by giving you a little history.... Now from a practical standpoint, my definition...

A new definition – mobile assisted technology

Mobile learning technology on my campus will initially be rolled out as "mobile assisted technology". This means the mobile device will not be a primary or exclusive delivery mechanism. More likely for now, mobile devices will be used to supplement learning in one of a couple of ways. This mobile assisted technology can help the college in areas of student retention and active learning.

Student Retention

Community college student's multi task. They expect and require information to be available on-line and real time. They work on many things at the same time and they like it that way. Learning providers have to understand that this is the learning style they prefer. One way to support this is through the use mobile devices to provide syllabi, course calendars, course assignments via web pages browsable on a mobile device. With products like MLEX, one page can be used for both a PC or mobile display. The extra work for faculty to support a mobile component is marginal. The only limitation currently caused by providing mobile support is that the display size and technology supported in mobile browsers limit some page features (graphics size, animation, javascript). On-line, real-time, portable and mobile delivery of class information is quite feasible.

Active Learning

We often forget that most mobile devices are also computers. They also can support the recording and playback of audio and video not to mention digital pictures. I was walking across campus and a group of students approached me with a digital camera to record my response a their question they were asking students and faculty for use in their class. They were going to take my answer back to class. Discuss it with other students. Why not have a geology or botany class go out into the campus and take pictures of rocks and trees and catalog them with digital pictures? A cell phone is just the tool needed. For many active learning exercises, the mobile device is not the primary means of learning but an assistant in learning.

State of Mobile on my Campus

There is no scenario today on my campus where exclusive delivery on a mobile device is practical or essential. Distance learning is typically not an option for our campus which is a typical residential campus who just expanded into e-Learning just a few short years ago (I suspect very typical of many community colleges). But.... as hopefully my definition will demonstrate, mobile learning does have a place today in our toolbox for learning.

Any comments....

Freebies… Final Episode (for now)

I have dedicated this post and the previous two blog posts to free products that might be useful in getting a educator started with mobile computing via text messaging (SMS). Textmarks.com and especially twitter are very popular because they are mobile and because they are social media in nature (real time micro-communi

cation). 

This post explores something a little different then there previous two SMS tools. Many educators have been using (or are thinking of using) clickers in their classroom. A clicker is an infrared or radio device that allows a student to vote a response to a question posed by the instructor. These devices come with software that will display results to a screen and in some cases capture responses to be used in assessment. The biggest plus is that these devices help practice active learning which is an excellent way of getting the student actively involved in the learning process for that content area.

The down side of clickers is that they do cost money and they have a tendency to get lost or broken in the classroom. Someone has to distribute and collect the devices before and after each class. They can get stolen and lost like socks in an electric dryer. There is a mobile alternative.

PollEverywhere.com provides support for clicker via a cell phone (with text message support), a smart phone (via a browser interface) and a PC (via a browser interface). The instructor can work from the polleverywhere.com web site to display questions and output or can build PowerPoint slides which can be connected to the polling process (real-time with hardly any delay). The student can use their cell phone as a clicker (if they can send text messages and yes, charges may apply if the student does not have an unlimted texting plan).   If in a classroom with computers, the student can use the web interface via a browser and participate in the same surveys as others using a smart phone or cell phone. 

The product may be used for free in a limited format and there are educational discounts available if you are interested in bringing the product into a class or school. The free version which can only collect responses from 30 respondents has most of the feature set available for testing and certainty enough for a test run in a class. They have an excellent FAQ and blog. The web site is easy to use and well organized.

When the student is presented a question, they respond by sending text message to the polleverywhere.com gateway and the number that corresponds to their selection.

 

Surveys can by multiple choice, text and goal based. There are some report tools available with the free edition and even more with the paid edition. You can also have PollEverywhere.com create html for the poll questions or poll results to it can be placed on a web site or embedded in a another web page or blog.  This embedded web page survey would be the approach taken if the student had access to a classroom PC connected to the Internet.

Polleverywhere.com is free to try and another great tool to get starting with mobile learning in the classroom.

Next up on the blog.... Using MLEX to create one web page that displays on a PC or mobile device.

 

 

Using Mobile Freebies … continued

If you read my blog last post you learned about a free SMS gateway service called textmarks.com. Textmarks.com provides free mobile keywords that can be access by messaging 41411 with the registered keyword. From this keyword, a broadcast alert service could be utilized by students to subscribe to text messages related to one of my online classes. Whenever I had something to share with the class (class or assignment changes, a hint or help with a course topic), I can still update the class web page but also broadcast a text message with textmarks.com to all the students who opted into subscribing to my textmarks.com keyword. The jury is still out as to whether this will become a hit with students but given the popularity of text messaging, I think it has a better chance than some of the alternatives (email. Message boards, phone calls, etc.).

But there are still more options….! It is pretty hard not to pick up any magazine or newspaper (online or the real thing..real paper) where they are not talking about Twitter. Twitter is a personal micro-blog service (used by individual or by organizations as a communication and customer service tool) to shared information and communicate with others who are following you. A tweet is a single micro blog message that is published to the Twitter service. These tweets can be accessed from the Twitter web site or from tools which have been written to access the Twitter network (i.e. twhirl). There is a lot more to say in regards to Twitter but that is for a different blog (and there are all sorts of publications writing about it). We are more interested in some of the SMS text messaging services built into twitter.

Built into Twitter is the ability for you to select which people you are following that you want messages sent. Messages are not only to your Twitter account but also to the SMS capable cell phone/Smartphone you have registered with Twitter. Remember, whenever you are sending and receiving SMS text messages, charges could apply.

For your students to use Twitter as a way of receiving updates, you (1) will have to get you own (free) Twitter account (2) they will have get their own Twitter accounts and (3) configure their account to follow you. They will also want to (4) configure their Twitter account to receive text messages. Finally, they will (5) go into their following list and turn device updates on for your account. They can opt in or out whenever they would like by turning device updates off or stop following you in Twitter.

So here we are… another way to keeping students engaged by utilizing a free SMS tool found on the Internet. This post only talks about twitter as a broadcast / alert tool. It can also have other class room uses. Stayed tuned.

Next Post another freebie worth noting…. http://www.polleverywhere.com. (you cell phone becomes the clicker for surveys)

After that… a multi-part introduction to my mobile webpage tool called MLEX.