Global Learning Futures: a comparative review

Script for Digital Story

In the digital era, we live in a knowledge society, with existing and newly created knowledge available at our fingertips with the just the click of a mouse, 24/7. The ability to collaborate, communicate and create using digital technologies are essential skills for learners in this era. It is possible to generate knowledge and share this globally via multi-modal platforms and collaborate to develop shared knowledge. One of the most important characteristics of the digital world we live in is the ability to communicate with and benefit from others across the globe. Individuals are now in a position where they can share knowledge in business, education and personal arenas. This concept of globalisation 3.0, where individuals are able to meaningfully access, create and contribute to the creation of new knowledge, is being enabled by greater access to mobile devices and mobile education. That mobile learning is ubiquitous: that it is permanent, accessible, available immediately in our daily lives, adaptable and interactive, (Bomsdorf, 2005) means that we are well placed to enter into this new era, but there are lessons to be learned from other contexts about how to get there.

UNESCO works with governments and individuals to harness the tangible benefits of mobile devices in communities across the globe. At the UNESCO Mobile Learning Week in 2011, the following points were shared to help frame discussions around how mobile technologies can be used to improve education access and outcomes for global communities, regardless of location.

·     Mobiles are part of our culture and society. There is no “technology free” society now, so why would we strive for a “technology free” education?

·     It is productive to frame these conversations about learning and not about technology; the technology exists only to benefit the learning. Learning deserves center stage, the actual technologies out date quickly.

·                 Ten years ago only specialists were ICT literate; today we all need to be.

·     It is necessary to take into account that mobile technology is not a neutral tool: users act   differently with different technologies.

·     Connectivity has become a new human right. If you deny a child connectivity, you might be   denying him or her access to the textbook of the 21st century.

In order to take advantage of global access and promote communication and collaboration with school communities around the world, sharing the learning journey can benefit us all. Sunnyside Unified School District is a very proactive school district in North America. In 2008, the District Superintendant, who was new to the area, recognised the need to address the poor academic results and increase the number of graduating students, to improve the future for the students in this area. In a low socioeconomic area, with a high Hispanic population, it was described by John Hopkins University (Pratt, 2013) as one of the nation's "dropout factories". In 2013, graduation numbers have doubled, standardised test scores have improved and students are more engaged, with the result that the student dropout rate has decreased. For a district that has 80% of its students from low-income families and one of the lowest levels of per-student funding levels nationally, impressive changes have been implemented. Sunnyside is now known as a tech-savvy school district that is collaborating with other school districts to promote the implementation of one-to-one programs, and in doing so, is continuing their digital journey with other school districts to continue the innovation.

As the initial aim of implementing a mobile technology program at Sunnyside Unified School District was to increase the percentage of students graduating from high school and continuing on to a tertiary education, this initiative targeted Year 9 students, providing them with a laptop that could be used at home and school. The ‘Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage’ program utilised a novel approach: students needed to fulfill the requirements of regular attendance, improved achievement, involvement in extracurricular activity and display of a positive attitude to be eligible for the program. At this stage, there was also recognition that one-to-one technology device access would prepare students for the demands of 21^st Century learning, which is essential for all levels of education, but the focus was to implement the program in the secondary sector as a small trial. Community and corporate funding was secured to purchase the devices and upgrade internet access, with local support to provide cheap home internet access. Without this support, the students would have been limited to using the devices at school or at the local library, and so not being able to take advantage of 24/7 access.

Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) adopted 9 key implementation factors to student achievement, identified by Project RED, an independent research group that was established to investigate how technology can transform learning. Supportive leadership, daily use of search engines, online collaboration and virtual field trips were elements of this process. Open Educational Resources were accessed by many teachers as there was no digital curriculum aligned to Common Core Curriculum State Standards (equivalent to National Curriculum Achievement Standards in Australia). Teachers were allowed to decide on which learning management system they would utilise as this was thought to encourage teacher ownership. Teacher professional development courses that were provided focused on the technical features of the hardware and software. The school leadership team modelled the use of technology in the school environment and provided teachers with support to develop their skills. Planning for program implementation was focused on the near future with only the most essential elements being planned for. The project yielded positive results with the number of graduating students increasing from 598 to 821 in two years and students displaying greater engagement (Pratt, 2013).

Once it was apparent that positive changes were occurring, SUSD wanted to keep the momentum going and to take the next step to enable sustainable integration of technology to prepare all students to use mobile technology effectively and productively. A more strategic approach was undertaken with research examined and long-term planning to consider all aspects of implementation. A One-to-One Program Framework was developed to guide the school's approach and ensure that the school and wider community supported the school's vision to "Successfully prepare all students for their future" (SUSD, 2011). Over the next school year some significant changes occurred. Moodle was chosen as the school learning management system to provide better management, monitoring and integration rather than allowing teachers to use different LMS. Two district-level Technology Coaches have been placed in the three local high schools to support teachers and students as it was identified that even though the secondary students could utilise the technical features, the transformative elements weren't being integrated. Regular and strategic Professional Development is provided to all staff to develop and promote the digital pedagogy needed in the one-to-one learning environment. OER are examined with greater rigour to ensure they address the Common Core State Standards. In order to continue the journey with support, they joined the League of Innovative Schools, a group of school leaders that share challenges and successful strategies so that innovation can continue and problems are solved. The District needed to be creative in order to fund this program. Corporate sponsors, such as Intel, helped to kick start the program and continue to provide financial and program support. Educational grants have been sourced and combined with school funds. Diligence, perseverance and passion were required by the school leaders to secure the various funding sources, but without them, the school's vision to prepare students for their future wouldn't be able to be implemented. SUSD’s one-to-one program has yielded positive impacts on student retention rates and results and is now addressing the longer term goals of developing creative, collaborative, global citizens.

In my teaching context there is the recognition that, in the digital age, it is essential for young people to develop the capability to use, create and collaborate using information and communication technologies in order to prepare them for life beyond school. The Australian Curriculum identifies the ICT capabilities across the curriculum areas, but also provides a Technology curriculum to ‘ensure that all students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live’ (ACARA, 2014). As the pace of technological development increases and global access to information and resources becomes easier, a major challenge is to provide our students with the skills to develop the capacity to be responsible and active participants beyond the local community. The Digital Strategy 2014-17 outlines the goals to provide direction for ‘…better educational outcomes through improved delivery of high quality, cost effective, contemporary ICT’ (DETE, 2014). The goals focus on all parties involved (students, teachers, staff and partners) to ensure that all groups will be afforded the benefits of contemporary ICTs and acknowledges that strategies and tools will need to evolve along with the digital environment. This state strategy complements the ICT capabilities and Technology curriculum of the Australian Curriculum by outlining the focuses of being given access to digital technologies regardless of location, using them to create and collaborate in a personalised learning context, using safe and ethical online behaviours while recognising that BYO programs may be the best way to provide this access.

From my personal immediate context, mobile technologies are being utilised on a small scale predominantly as substitution tools and to augment some learning experiences. Schools are purchasing small numbers of mobile devices (predominantly laptops and Apple iPads) for use by small groups. These enable small groups or classes to engage in learning tasks that are collaborative, engaging and creative. But in the current situation, the majority of these learning experiences are undertaken in isolation from the rest of the curriculum and don't communicate and collaborate on a global stage.

At an institutional level, services and resources are being continually developed to promote and enable the integration of digital tools and resources into the curriculum. A secure online learning space provides a platform for teachers and students to access, save, share and collaborate on learning tasks. As online security is paramount and the responsible use of social networking platforms is promoted, access to many of these types of sites is restricted. So that students can still benefit from the collaboration that occurs with this domain, the secure online platform is now incorporating many of these features, such as blogging and discussion boards. Teachers are provided with an array of professional development resources, live and on-demand, that develop technical skills as well as the development of teaching strategies that can promote creativity and deeper learning. Even though teachers have access to these resources, the change in teacher pedagogy and the restructuring of learning tasks to take advantage of the power of mobile learning is a slow process. For real change to occur there needs to be a concerted effort by school leaders and managers to support and model the integration of digital pedagogy, with teacher professional development to occur within the learning environment itself.

Fullan and Langworthy (2014) have identified the need to change pedagogical models to enable deeper learning to occur through the creation of learning partnerships among students and teachers, the restructuring of the learning process to allow for the creation and use of new knowledge, harnessing the power of digital tools and resources that accelerate this process. The teaching strategies that are being advocated are not new, but the use of digital tools and resources create an environment that can promote their development. The role of the teacher when this shift in pedagogy occurs becomes one of activator of the learning process rather than as facilitating access to content and control over the learning process. Hattie (Fullan, 2012) calculated the effect size of these 2 categories of teachers on student learning, using over 1000 worldwide meta-studies. The ‘Teacher as Activator’ category had a significantly greater impact with an effect size of .72 in comparison to .19. It needs to be noted that an effect size of less than .40 has no benefit beyond expected academic growth. If digital tools and online resources are predominantly used as substitution tools and to supplement the conventional teaching strategies, with the teacher continuing to be in control of the learning process, the development of the skills needed to become creative and active learners in a global community won’t occur. Fullan and Langworthy state that ‘Meta-analyses of the impact of technology on learning outcomes confirm that, up until now, technology use has had a below-average impact on learning relative to other interventions.

One of the biggest challenges that many developing nations face with regards to mobile education is access to online materials and networks that facilitate learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide access to content that otherwise might not be available and so provide an excellent resource for these contexts. Many MOOCs that are now available are created using the model of providing access to content with little provision for networking or formative feedback (Lane, 2012). These MOOCs provide a suitable platform for giving access to educational materials to isolated communities or developing nations. Fullan and Langworthy (2014) recognise that MOOCs in this format are valuable for supporting traditional learning goals, but they do not leverage technology to further the acquisition of 21^st Century skills that are now considered so important.

The original MOOCs as designed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, George Couros and Dave Cormier (Lane, 2012) had the intent of creating socially constructed knowledge in a networked environment with exploration and discussion more important than the content on its own. This design leads to deeper understanding with the participants taking more control of the learning process. Even though MOOCs provide a better platform for higher education, the principles can be used to create similar online learning environments in the secure network of my teaching context.

Other forms of Open Education Resources offer resources that can be shared and knowledge created collaboratively. These resources range from being complete open online platforms through to open source software. The benefit of open source software is that it allows for richer and deeper learning experiences especially in the area of project based learning and authentic tasks.  ‘Contributing to open source projects provides students with opportunities to use software more complex than office productivity software, and gives students meaningful and authentic audiences for their work using that software’ (Moyle, 2010).

The intent of several curriculum units across most primary school year levels is to explore the local area and its features and through the grades build on this knowledge to explore the impact of human colonisation through to exploring Australia’s connections with other countries. By connecting and sharing ideas with classes from other countries, the curriculum goals can be achieved while interacting with an authentic context and developing global citizenship. Both contexts would benefit from these types of interactive projects.

‘What is your place like?’ is an online collaborative project designed to connect students from different corners of the globe by sharing what they learn about their own environment using mobile tools while at the same time learning about different places to broaden their own horizons. Using a secure edublog site, student groups would be given a variety of tasks to complete and respond to using Web 2.0 tools.

Students would create a ‘travelling avatar’ using buddypoke or voki who will travel with their work online. Students would introduce themselves using Photocard app by taking an image that reflects their ‘place’ and write or dictate a message. The use of brainstorming apps would be used to develop questions about the local environment. Students would use search engines to investigate their local area and answer these questions. Collaboratively they would decide on locations that are of importance and reflect the current or past of this area. Images of these places would then be taken using a mobile device so that they can be represented on maps. Google maps would allow them to locate these places. Photomapo app would be used to create a postcard displaying the image with a map as it uses location services. The use of persuasive writing tools would be used to write about the chosen location, with all of these artefacts uploaded to the edublog. Responsible and ethical online behaviour would be able to be developed by supporting the students to learn about and respond to the buddy classes creations. An online meeting using skype or similar tool would be organised for the students to meet and share and reflect on their experience.

Engaging online projects like these enable Achievement Standards to be met while using multimodal tools for authentic tasks. Global mobile learning in action.

UNESCO, 2011, UNESCO mobile learning report, retrieved 10^th August 2014 from http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/ICT/pdf/UNESCO%20MLW%20report%20final%2019jan.pdf

Bomsdorf, B. (2005) Adaptation of learning spaces: supporting ubiquitous learning in higher education, retrieved 17^th September 2014 from http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2005/371/pdf/05181.BomsdorfBirgit.Paper.371.pdf

Pratt. T, 2013, Bridging the digital divide for low-income students, retrieved 28^th August, 2014 from http://www.digitalpromise.org/blog/entry/11-learning-24-7-at-sunnyside-unified-school-district

Project RED, 2012, Success Stories, retrieved 28^th August 2014 from http://www.projectred.org/resource-materials/success-stories.html

Intel Corporation, 2011, Leading the way to sustainable 1:1 eLearning, retrieved 29^th August 2014 from http://www.susd12.org/sites/default/files/Intel-eLearning.pdf

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2014, Australian curriculum: technologies, rationale, retrieved 15^th September 2014 from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/rationale

Department of Education, Training and Employment, 2014, Digital strategy: 2014-17, retrieved 15^th September 2014 from http://deta.qld.gov.au/publications/strategic/pdf/dete-digital-strategy-2014-17.pdf

Lane, L. (2012) Three kinds of MOOCs, (Blog post), retrieved 17^th September 2014 from http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/

Fullan, M & Langworthy, M. (2014) A rich seam: how new pedagogies find deep learning, London, Pearson, retrieved 13^th August 2014 from http://www.michaelfullan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3897.Rich_Seam_web.pdf

Moyle, K. (2010) Building Innovation: learning with technologies, Australian Council for Educational Research, ACER Press, Victoria

---

Considerations of Mobile Learning - Assignment 1

Education 3.0 is a connectivist, heutagogical approach to teaching and learning.  The teachers, learners, networks, connections, media, resources, tools create a unique entity that has the potential to meet individual learners’, educators’, and even societal needs.  Many resources for Education 3.0 are literally freely available for the taking. (Gerstein, J. 2013)

Mobile learning makes it possible to make Education 3.0 a reality rather than just a goal by providing the tools and connections that give learners the ability to take more control of their learning journey in a global context. Learning can become more personally meaningful and engaging with students being creators of knowledge rather than just consumers of knowledge. The table below shows how the use of mobile learning platforms can progress the evolution of the changing educational environment. By enabling learning to occur anywhere, anytime and with anyone, learning can be truly connectivist, autonomous and self-determined.

Moravec, J. 2008

In my personal teaching context, there is the recognition that digital pedagogy needs to be embraced and that mobile learning platforms are one mechanism to further this. There are challenges, such as teacher knowledge and up skilling as well as the investment in suitable hardware and infrastructure. The challenge of teacher capability is being addressed by considerable energy being devoted to Education Queensland's secure online Learning Place, with resources and professional development opportunities being offered and the showcasing of progressive schools. As schools gain access to greater capacity bandwidth, they will be able to take advantage of digital learning environments. Now we need to harness the capability of the digital natives, our students, to move towards Education 3.0.

The Mobile Learning Infokit identifies tangible benefits of mobile learning. I have explored the following 3 considerations:

• portable-allows anywhere, anytime learning
• bite-sized e-learning resources can be delivered to learners 
• promotes active learning

Haiku Deck was used to create a synthesis of mobile apps that address the above benefits and considerations of digital pedagogy.

Mobile Learning Considerations - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Portable-allows anywhere, anytime learning
The use of an app called Slomocam can be used to video students involved in a physical education activity such as a soccer match. This recording can then be viewed in slow motion to enable an analysis of player positioning and team strategies while making learning more personalised and authentic.

Bite-sized e-learning resources can be delivered to learners

An excellent and student friendly app is Explain Everything that can be used to create tutorials for later viewing or that can be uploaded to a LMS to 'flip the classroom'. Native functions of iPads are maximised within this app, as the touch screen capability and inbuilt microphone are used to create instructional videos. The design of this program is very intuitive so that it can be used with relative ease by both teachers and students. Explain Everything can be used to demonstrate how to use other apps, as in this artefact, where a video tutorial is created explaining how to use Snap Seed to edit images with different effects before students use the app independently or collaboratively to edit images to be used in a class project. 

Promotes active learning
When students are involved in activities whereby they are engaged and assimilating knowledge and skills, they are more likely to remember the content and skills and be able to transfer this to new learning situations. This process of active learning can be achieved when students design and create digital stories.
Adobe Voice is a web-based application used to create digital stories. With the provision of various templates, a wide range of clipart and copyright free images accessible within the app, it provides a user-friendly interface that can be used by the youngest students right through to experienced professionals. A great advantage of this app is the access to copyright-free images. It is possible to easily locate suitable images without needing to be concerned with copyright or attribution, so students can quickly create visually stimulating stories. At this stage, the stories need to be accessed online, so thought will need to be given as to the best method for sharing the digital presentation. One suitable method is to email the link or make it available in a blog (or similar tool) for sharing.

Demonstrating Learning Adobe Voice Digital Story

Digital pedagogies move the focus from ICT tools and skills to a way of working in a digital world.

(Education Queensland, 2008)

In order for the benefits of mobile devices to be realised in an educational context, it is necessary to ensure the focus of mobile learning is on how the learner uses the device and the opportunities they can provide rather than on the actual device. For this to occur, teachers need to change their pedagogy to ensure that learning is personalised, authentic, collaborative and considers the global context. By utilising the native features of mobile devices, considering these benefits and limitations and choosing apps carefully, while ensuring they are appropriate for the learning context, it is possible to harness the seamless benefits of mobile learning. That is, of being able to smoothly move from and between learning experiences and contexts. (Looi et al, 2010 cited in Gruber, Cooper and Voigt, 2012)

NB: All of these artefacts were created using an Apple iPad. The blog post was created on my laptop. I have Blogger installed on my iPad but it doesn't have the full functionality of the computer platform, so I made the decision to still use my laptop to prepare my blog post while embedding or uploading my iPad created artefacts.

Gerstein, J. (2013) Education 3.0 and the pedagogy (andragogy, heutagogy) of mobile learning, retrieved 31st July 2014 from http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/education-3-0-and-the-pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy-of-mobile-learning/

Moravec, J. (2008) Toward society 3.0: a new paradigm for 21st century education, retrieved 31st July 2014 from http://www.slideshare.net/moravec/toward-society-30-a-new-paradigm-for-21st-century-education-presentation?type=powerpoint

Education Queensland. (2008), What are digital pedagogies? - digital pedagogies - digital pedagogies professional learning network, retrieved 20th September 2013 from https://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=41886 

Gruber, M, Cooper, A and Voigt, C. 2012. Seamless learning (u-learn), retrieved 3rd August 2014 from http://www.learningfrontiers.eu/?q=category/tags/seamless-learning

Exploration of Mobile Affordances-Evernote

For the past several years I have used Microsoft OneNote to save and manage emails for work purposes. This has worked well as a personal collation tool as it has allowed me to save important messages with all of the contact details of the message while being able to group related information into sections within notebooks. I only used the most basic function of this productivity tool, but it served my needs. As it is a Microsoft program, the integration with the other Microsoft programs that I use on a regular basis (Word/PowerPoint/Publisher/Outlook) enables the use of these document types within OneNote. The best advantage though for me has been being able to quickly save emails for later reference. OneNote also has very limited functionality on Apple and Android devices.
When exploring productivity functions on my mobile device, an Apple iPad, I chose Evernote, as I had it installed but hadn't taken the time to work out how best to use this program. As a tool that works relatively seamlessly across different platforms, it is an excellent tool for collecting, organising and interacting with documents, websites and notes that can be used for research, document planning and creation. Some functions only work to the full extent when being used on a computer, but the ability to use the same collection tool on different platforms, that allows for creative ways to create and annotate notes and always being able to access the same material by syncing Evernote, makes this a very powerful tool, even the free version.

Tangible learning benefits of mobile device in context

Feature/Benefit of mobile learning	Analysis of mobile device - selected function
Personal, private and familiar (reduce perceived barriers to learning)	Allows for personalisation of learning journey by capturing and organising a variety of content
Pervasive and ubiquitous	Compatible with a range of devices and easy interface with internet sites
Fit into the lives of learners (allow for productive ‘dead’ time - e.g. when travelling or queuing)	Anywhere, anytime learning on various mobile devices, ability to use voice recognition
Portable - allow anywhere, anytime learning	Access to notes, documents 'on the go' from computer or mobile devices when synced across all platforms
Immediacy of communication (including speech and data-sharing)	Notebooks can be shared for communication and collaboration
Allows access to learning by those in dispersed communities and isolated situations	Basic Evernote is free, compatible with PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. Can be accessed offline or online. Some features only function with online access
Contextualisation through location-aware features such as GPS.	Use of geotagging to assist with searching and access of notes according to location
Allows data to be recorded and learning processes captured wherever they happen.	Notes can bet created, added to using a variety of modalities including text, audio, images as well as annotation of websites with live links
Access to mentors, tutors and others learners on-the-move.	Collaboration is possible by sharing notebooks and emailing directly to and from Evernote
Perceived as an acceptable way for learners to receive reminders and chasers - and to manage their time	Learners can set reminders for themselves. Assists with time management as research materials and document access can be located in one place
Bite-sized e-learning resources can be delivered to learners (especially useful for basic skills or work-based learning)	As the main purpose is note-taking and collation of resources, leathers can save a variety of learning material within Evernote with monthly storage capacity upto 60MB for the free version or 1GB for Premium subscription
Abstract (representational) and concrete (environmentally-situated) knowledge can be integrated.	Theoretical information can be accessed easily while the mobility of various devices makes it possible to access this information and apply it in real-life contexts
Peer-to-peer networks make learning more student-centred.	Shared notebooks enable peers to interact as long as a network connection is available
Promotes active learning	Notes can be created on the go so that learning is continually being enhanced
Enable new learning environments	Evernote allows links and connections to be recorded that can be integrated into other learning environments rather than actually creating these environments
Increases accessibility for learners with special educational needs	Ease of use with voice recognition software is one feature of this benefit
Encourages reflection in close proximity to the learning event	Notes can be typed or recorded orally at time of learning event. These notes can then be shared in various ways: email, sharing to other collaborative tools, elaborated on with web clipper allowing live websites to be accessed
Reduces technical barriers to e-learning	Ease of use (similar to actual notebook) and other digital features promotes use of Evernote as supporting digital tool

Wes Heberlein shared some excellent videos by Steve Dotto about Google Drive in his post during the previous semester. I was so impressed by Steve's insights into the benefits of this cloud based application that I watched some of his videos about the affordances of Evernote.

The main features of Evernote that make it a really powerful tool are:

• Free account with 60MB of free storage per month (1GB per month with paid subscription)
• Voice recognition to capture notes or memos with speech to text although a mobile connection is required for this feature to work
• Email documents directly to Evernote with an email address automatically linked to the account. This is useful for archiving emails, itineraries, bookings, documents adding tags for easy searching
• Document photo capture enable easy access to hard copies of documents, but especially useful for capturing hand written notes from meetings
• Web Clipper: clip part of or whole websites and saves directly into Evernote with live links, images and videos. Web pages can be annotated in Evernote. Video links open the website in a new browser page. The free web clipper tool only works on the computer program, but once saved in a notebook, all of the other features of this application work across all platforms
• Geotagging of notes to enable easy searching of notes by location and date

One feature that I had to find a work around for, was that when opening a Word document in Evernote on the iPad it isn't possible to edit this document (it can be edited when using the computer version). In order to be able edit documents on the iPad, it can be opened in QuickOffice, edited and then emailed back into Evernote.

Evernote provides an excellent way of collecting and organising notes and materials in a ubiquitous manner while keeping up with the changing demands of mobile learning.

Dotto, S. 2012. Dotto Demo-Introduction to evernote. Retrieved 17th July 2014 from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/an-introduction-to-evernote-video.html

Gralla, P. 2014. OneNote Vs Evernote: A personal take on two great note-taking apps. Retrieved 13th July 2014 from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247097/OneNote_vs._Evernote_A_personal_take_on_two_great_note_taking_apps?taxonomyId=86&pageNumber=3

Mobile Pedagogy: iPad Affordances

The availability and prevalence of mobile devices has grown so much in the recent past, that a majority of students that we teach will have some personal experience in their daily lives with some form of these devices. Whether this be with iPods, iPads, smart phones or another tablet device. They come to the educational environment already knowing how to navigate and utilise mobile devices. There are many educational benefits to using these devices in the school environment, but there is a need for a pedagogical change to maximise the potential of these benefits.

“If you change the technology but not the method of learning, then you are throwing bad money after bad practice.” (Davidson. C, 2011)

In order to address the change in pedagogy, it is first necessary to identify the affordances of mobile devices. This then allows links to be made to ways to harness the potential of these devices for 21^st Century learning. As I predominantly use iPads in the educational environment, this is the mobile device that I have created an overview of with regards to its technical features, affordances and limitations.

Davidson, C, 2011, Pointed response to NYT article on iPads in schools, retrieved 1^st July 2014 from http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/pointed-response-nyt-article-ipads-schools

Why Mobile Learning?

In the current climate, Education Queensland is investing in mobile learning via the use of predominantly iPads. Many schools have purchased iPads for the use of teachers and students. The Learning Place is providing significant opportunities for teacher professional development to develop the skills and knowledge to utilise these devices across a range of curriculum areas. The Australian Curriculum is also being developed to provide learning tasks that utilise the benefits of digital tools, with a variety of mobile devices being encompassed in these tasks.

In saying this, there are still many classrooms and learning environments that are not taking advantage of mobile learning. Teachers will need considerable support and time to embrace this form of technology. Significant money is being committed to improving access to stable broadband infrastructure to enable regular and widespread internet access in school settings, but many educational settings are a long way off achieving this.

It is recognised that mobile learning is going to be a part of every school setting and that with technology evolving at an ever increasing pace that schools will need to embed these practices to provide students with skills needed for future life skills. This will take time, professional support and monetary commitment to make this happen. There are lighthouse schools that are taking on the challenge and showing the way. By sharing these success stories, teachers can be shown what is possible if they step outside of the box.

NB: this post has also been shared in the Topic 1 Discussion Forum