The Power of Mobile Learning

Mobile Learning can be defined as any learning experience which employs some type of hand-held or mobile electronic device. If you listen to audio books or presentations on an iPod or other mp3 playing device, you’re actually using Mobile Learning. It’s not an interactive form of Mobile Learning, but it’s Mobile Learning nonetheless. Recently I’ve been exposed to many ways to apply mobile learning in interactive and engaging ways in a classroom and outside a classroom. Though postings in this blog I hope to keep a steady update of any of the examples I see or find.

You may ask… why should we even bother with making learning mobile? Aren’t we just being a slave to technology by following a trend? Research shows that more people are using devices like cell-phones, PDA’s (personal digital assistant), and multipurpose mp3 players (like the iTouch or iPhone) as personal computers. People are looking for and demanding ways to bring the internet with them where ever they go. Recently, on a trip outside the country, I actually used my mobile device to access maps and directory information when I was lost. I also used it to check on consumer ratings of hotels, shops and restaurants before I chose them. I was using the net to make choices and informed decisions in a live environment. Imagine the power of being able to provide students with access to information as they learn on a fieldtrip, in a lab, with each other in a random discussion, in a classroom.

To me well-designed learning experiences using mobile devices in Learning have several benefits:

• They engage students and connect them to each other in a way they find engaging and familiar
• They allow students to learn anywhere or on the spot; therefore, they can engage in real-time learning that happens in environments outside of the classroom
• They can access and interact with live information online
• They promote social and group learning as well as inquiry

Examples of Mobile Learning

Chris Dede, of the Harvard School of Education, notes that mobile wireless devices allow you to impose the virtual world in the real world. This summer at the Distance Learning Conference in Madison, Wisconsin I watched a presentation by Chris Dede (see below link to presentation). He shared an example of a field activity done by a class of middle-school kids designed around improving lacking test scores in Math and Literacy. Each team of students had a hand held device with the assignment, clues and access to resources. The assignment was to solve a mystery involving a possible alien invasion. The students were actually engaged in using mathematical skills and knowledge around ratio and proportion as well as figure out the meanings of Latin and Greek words (the aliens apparently landed on earth last about 2000 years ago interacted with the some of the prominent civilizations of the day. As a result, they only spoke Latin and Greek.) The students walked together in a group around their school grounds solving the problems from the mystery. They really appeared to be engaged in their learning, and they were working together as a team to solve the problems they had placed before them.

Dede also described an enhanced visit to Washington D.C. in which students with handheld devices could tap into historical information and details about the monuments, and sites they visited around the city. Mobile learning has some practical classroom applications as well. Recently, I met a middle school teacher who actually provided asssignments and activities for homework that students and parents could access via their cellphones.

But Mobile Devices Promote Cheating…

A digital device is a way to stay connected with not just the Internet but a wide body of information and contacts as well as your peers. Some educators don’t trust mobile devices because they believe they encourage cheating on tests and assignments. While it’s obvious we don’t want students cheating on tests, why not give them opportunities outside of the testing environment where they can ‘cheat’ and learn using their devices to scan the net during some classroom activities? I like Dede’s example of an enhanced field trip because in this example students are extending their learning and satisfying their curiosity and need for information on the spot.

It’s true that the internet contains a large body of questionable resources; but isn’t that true of the sea of printed information that exists in the world? In response, we should be teaching students valuable ‘Information Literacy‘ skills which allow them to discern what’s good and what’s not.

My Mind Map on Mobile Learning

Resources:

• Chris Dede’s Presentation at the Distance Learning Conference 2007
• Ubiquitous Computing: More than Handhelds
• Youth’s Use Cell Phones as Mini PC’s
• Young People Use Cell Phones As Computers
• Mobile Learning blog