Transcript Pedagogy and m-Learning

Pedagogy and m-Learning
PERMANAND MOHAN, PH.D.
SENIOR LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING AND
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
ST. AUGUSTINE
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
What is Mobile Learning?
 Learning across multiple contexts,
through social and content interactions,
using personal electronic devices
(Crompton, 2013)
Opportunities of m-Learning
 Mobile phones provide relatively inexpensive
opportunities for learning; mobile devices are
widely used around the world
 Can make use of time spent waiting,
commuting, etc. since it enables anytime /
anywhere learning
 Rich variety of multimedia supported (sound,
text, pictures, and video files)
 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth provide opportunities for
collaboration while out in the “field”
How Best to Use m-Learning?
 Consider a typical mobile learner:

Learner is commuting

Learner is waiting somewhere

Learner is in a classroom with his/her teacher

Learner is at home
How Best to Use m-Learning? (Cont’d)
 m-Learning content and activities can be developed:

To support the teacher in the classroom

To support the teacher outside the classroom

For independent learning

For informal learning
How to Achieve Learning Objectives?
Pedagogy
Content Types
m-Learning
Content and
Activities
Learning
Objectives
Mobile
Learner
How Best to Use m-Learning?(Cont’d)
 Consider typical types of content:

Text

Pictures and graphics

Audio

Videos

Simulations and learning games
Understanding Learning Objectives
 Consider typical learning objectives in the cognitive
domain:

Knowledge and comprehension

Application and analysis

Synthesis and evaluation
 Outcomes in the affective (attitude) and psychomotor
(skills) domains are not considered
Understanding Learning Objectives:
How They Relate to Content
 Knowledge and comprehension


State the formula for the area of a circle
Give the mathematical formula for the area of a circle, paraphrasing it
in your own words
 Application and analysis
 Calculate the volume of an irregular shape
 Given a physics word problem, determine the strategies that can be
used to solve it
 Synthesis and evaluation
 Apply and integrate several different strategies to solve a physics
problem
 When you have finished a problem, determine the extent to which the
problem was solved as efficiently as possible
The Real Challenge
How to take content and learning
objectives from a syllabus and design
suitable mobile learning experiences so
that the learning objectives are efficiently
achieved?
Points to Note for m-Learning
Developers
 In designing for m-learning, it is easy to lose focus and
think that the technology, by itself, can achieve the
desired learning objectives.
 However, it is the instructional design used in
conjunction with the features of the mobile device that
will lead to successful learning.
 Thus, instructional design principles must be
considered when designing content for m-learning.
Put Another Way …
“Designing for mobile learning is not
only about mobile devices.”
Donald Clark
Scientific m-Learning Workshop
June 4, 2012
What is Pedagogy?
Pedagogy is the art and science of how
something is taught and how students learn it.
It includes how the teaching occurs, the
approach to teaching and learning, the way the
content is delivered and what the students
learn as a result of the process.
Pedagogy involves creating an educational
process that will lead to knowledge transfer to
a new learner.
Common Pedagogy: Direct Instruction
More Recent Approaches
 Constructivism
 Social constructivism
 Learning by doing (problem-based learning, active
learning, etc.)
 The father of learning-by-doing pedagogy, John
Dewey, suggests: “They (teachers) give the pupils
something to do, not something to learn, and the
doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or
the intentional noting of connections; learning
naturally results.”
Affordances of Mobile Devices
 Four C’s (Quinn):
 Consumption
of content
 Interaction with compute capabilities
 The ability to communicate with others
 Capture of our contexts (via video and/or audio,
orientation, location, time, and increasingly more
data
Four C’s (Quinn)
Pedagogical Strategies
 Different types of strategies based on the
four C’s:
 Strategies
that involve consumption of content
 Strategies that involve using the compute
capabilities of the mobile device
 Strategies that involve communicating with
others
 Stategies that involve the capturing of our
contexts and sharing with peers (e.g., using GPS,
accelerometer, camera, recorder, sensors, etc.)
MobileMath
 MobileMath is mobile learning application
for high-school algebra.
 It was developed in 2009-2010 by Vani
Kalloo as a research project at the University
of the West Indies supervised by me.
 It offers the learner multiple strategies for
learning algebra on a “feature phone”.
MobileMath Screenshots
Evaluation Studies
Study 2:
Were taught algebra in
a previous term:
Used mobile learning
with teacher support
Study 1:
Study 3:
Were taught algebra
while exposed to mLearning
Used mobile learning
to complement
traditional teaching.
Were taught algebra in
a previous term:
Used mobile learning
on their own
Three
Evaluation
Studies
(20 students each)
Results
Pre-test and Post-test
20
18
16
No. of Students
14
12
10
Bar graph illustrates the
8
students who passed:
6
• Group 1 increased from 9
4
to 14
2
• Group 2 increased from 2
0
Pass
Fail
Pre-test
Group 1
9
10
Post-test
Group 1
14
5
Pre-test
Group 2
2
18
Post-test
Group 2
7
13
to 7
Results (Cont’d)
Group 1
Group 2
Average % Increase
8.8%
10.2%
Duration
14.4 hours
58 hours
Frequency
514
861
Results (Cont’d)
Frequency of Use of Each Feature
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Lessons
Examples
Quizzes
Tutorials
Games
Fun Facts
• The bar graph shows the number of times each feature was used by the
students of all three studies.
• It highlights the fact that the Games feature was used the most.
Results (Cont’d)
 Amazingly, there was no difference in the performance of
students in Study 3:

Experimental group: teacher + mobile application

Control group: same teacher
Results (Cont’d)
Number of Times MobileMath Was Used Per Day
250
200
150
100
50
0
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Now, it is true that …
“Students need to concentrate and
work, concentrate and work …”
Enrica Salvatori
Scientific m-Learning Workshop
June 5, 2012
Can we achieve the desired learning objectives with this
kind of m-Learning behaviour?
Questionnaire
Questionnaire Responses from Studies 1, 2 and 3
The mathematics games and learning
activities on the phone were easy to
use
The mathematics games and learning
activities on the phone helped to
improve my skills
strongly agree
agree
neutral
If I use these mathematics games and
learning activities on a phone for a
longer period of time, it can help me
improve my skills
disagree
strongly disagree
I found it useful that I can learn
mathematics on a phone anywhere
and at anytime
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Suggestions from the MobileMath
Evaluation Studies
 Mobile learning is best used after students are taught
the main concepts in the classroom.
 Multiple strategies should be offered so that the learner
has options.
 Games should be included as most students find it
appealing.
 Teacher support should be provided to continually
encourage the learner to use the application.
Concluding Remarks
 Mobile devices provide many opportunities for
improving learning and retention
 However, they should only be used as part of a
pedagogical process that will result in the transfer of
the desired knowledge and skills more efficiently and
more effectively than other approaches
 There may be other approaches, perhaps not
involving mobile devices, that could be equally
effective.