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12th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2013)
- Conference date: 22-24 Oct 2013
- Location: College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, Doha, Qatar
- Volume number: 2013
- Published: 01 October 2013
21 - 40 of 40 results
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A HTML5 Based English Learning System for Learning English on Mobile Devices
More LessAbstractThis research paper explains the development of a mobile based system for learning English as second language for iPhone, iPad, Android Phones, Android tablets, and other smart mobile devices. This is a multi-disciplinary type of research consisting of 3 distinct components or phases. First, HTML5 and jQuery Javascript library was used to develop this multimedia based learning system that delivers a lesson in text, pictures, and audio format. The multimedia based lessons were placed on a server that could be accessed by any PC or smart mobile phones and tablets that support JavaScript library with access to WiFi or 3G networks. Second, thirty English lessons were developed for this system, the English lessons were developed with the assistant of some English lecturers. Finally, university students at Assumption University tried out this system using their mobile devices for a period of 6 weeks. A survey questionnaire was used to evaluate the effectiveness, usability, and students’ satisfaction of this system. This paper explains development process of the mobile based mobile learning system and its outcomes.
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Using mobile technologies to promote learning and youth employment: a partnership approach
More LessAbstractInformation and communications technologies (ICTs), including mobile technologies, are having a dramatic impact upon societies in the Arab region. With the rapid upsurge in use of mobile technologies throughout the region, patterns of usage have shifted from making phone calls and surfing the internet to using social media tools for societal change. The Najjahni mobile platform in Tunisia represents a multi-level partnership to develop mobile education applications that has now reached over half a million young Tunisians. This paper provides an overview of the success of Najjahni, and the critical partnerships that have made such a project possible.
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Challenges against the successes of mLearn in Bangladesh
More LessAbstractMobile learning is a recent phenomenon in the Bangladeshi education system. The ongoing English in Action project has been at the forefront of promoting the use of mobile technologies for English language training in Bangladesh, and has been one of the primary examples to demonstrate the potential of mobile devices in the classroom, and teacher professional support. This paper will discuss the challenges that have arisen in the promotion of mobile learning in Bangladesh, as well as the successes as highlighted by the English in Action project. Moreover, it will offer a brief glimpse into the work of the project and its mechanism for spreading mobile learning in typical Bangladeshi context.
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M-learn lessons learnt: Bangladesh perspective
By Zaki ImamAbstractM-learning is a form of distance learning in that it provides a communication tool( the mobile phone) to bridge the distance between the providing institution and the learners and facilitates 2-way (synchronous and asynchronous) interactivity between teacher and the learner (McWilliams et al, 2007). M-learning allows the remote teachers to stay in frequent contact with teacher educators, to ask questions and discuss issues as they adapt new teaching practices. This programme has been initiated by Ministry of Education upon requested by ADB, Manila to implement technology based training programme for reaching remote and disadvantaged areas. M - learning has been piloted by teacher educators of Government Teachers’ Training College in one district (Barisal, located in the southern part of Bangladesh) and later extended to four districts to train teachers of remote schools of Patuakhali, Sandwip, Hatya and Thakurgaon districts. Regular 14 day and 5 day follow-up face-to-face inservice Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training was adapted as a two day face-to-face orientation, followed by a 6 week programme with regular conference calls to support classroom practices. Findings of the programme are very promising for adapting new practices. The CPD training by using mobile phone became very successful for increasing teachers and student’s competence level. Government of Bangladesh and Development Partners are very keen to maximize the use of technology in CPD for teachers especially for addressing female teachers and reaching training facilities to remote areas.
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Jam Today – Embedding BYOD into Classroom Practice
More LessAbstractAn underlying assumption of the BYOD (bring your own device) approach to classroom learning is that technology is naturally embedded into the wider life of the learner. By not only allowing, but requiring, school students to bring their own devices into the classroom, teachers in BYOD schools are acknowledging that 21st century education must reflect 21st century society. However, bringing learners? devices over the threshold of the classroom is just the beginning of the story. The challenge for educators is to find ways to successfully embed personal technologies into the teaching and learning process. This is not simply a case of substituting one tool for another, or even enhancing current practice with digital tools. Rather, it requires a fundamental modification and redefinition of practice. Such radical changes to classroom practice cannot happen overnight. They require appropriate policies, preparation, infrastructure, motivation and reflective exploration. This paper reflects on the experience of a New Zealand school which is at the forefront of the BYOD movement. Based primarily on the public voices of the classroom teachers, this paper seeks to examine how BYOD has been tailored to suit disparate subjects, different teaching styles and the choices made by teachers in how they feel technology enhanced learning can work best for them and their students. This paper explores how the school has been moving through the pathway of substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition, and shares experiences that may be informative to others embarking on similar projects.
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An Interactive Mobile Learning Method to Measure Students performance
Authors: Khaed Hamdan and Yazid Ben-ChabanAbstractThis work focuses on miscellaneous means to measure students� performance which requires hard work, commitment, collaborative and organizational skills, true communication and engagement. Using Mobile Learning and other technology is often challenging to students� capabilities and sometimes intimidating, especially for those who have never used it before. In this study, we will discuss how students� classroom use of the Mobile Learning can make a significant improvement when it is well integrated and adopted in students personal skills such as; using organization, communication , assuming responsibilities, critical reading and writing, , problem solving, class engagement, increasing learning interest, emphasizing communities contribution and self evaluation. We will also discuss students� struggle which is not academic, but rather a lack of individual and personal skills. We will discuss students� environment, delivery mode and the associated learning process that show a significant improvement in students� way of learning. This study is a sample of U.G.R.U. IT students selected in Fall Semester 2012 by U.A.E.U. Instructors.
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The Dawn of Creation with Mobile Learning Technologies and Language Learning Pedagogy
More LessAbstractThe learning design with mobile learning technologies, particularly the iPad, affords the creation of learning products. Combined with task-based language learning and project-based learning pedagogy, mobile learning technology can be utilized with great effect. This short paper will describe the nature of creating learning products with pedagogy including task-based language learning and project-based learning. Student examples from an English as a Second Language classroom setting and self-reported teacher journal entries will be used to illustrate. Stemming from the teacher observations noted in the journal entries, there are two fresh perspectives on the creation of learning products. The pedagogy of task-based language learning and project-based learning afforded the creation of learning products throughout the learning process culminating in a final learning product.
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Augmented Reality, Multimodal Literacy and Mobile Technology: An Experiment in Teacher Engagement
By Jan ClarkeAbstractThe use of AR in education has already been found to be valuable although its use presents technical and management difficulties. The reality is that teachers often need to be enticed by a tempting range of potential benefits before investing precious time and effort in new technology. Challenges can cloud vision of greater potential. This ongoing project, essentially an experiment in encouraging professional learning, is proving successful in engaging educators with leading edge AR technology. Such an activity can provide a multi-dimensional catalyst for addressing a host of demands that face typical Australian teachers, particularly integrating mobile devices and multimodal texts in teaching and learning. The project – incorporating the location-aware FreshAiR app, Quick Response codes and image-triggered Aurasma – has been undertaken voluntarily by some Independent Schools in Western Australia. It includes developing teacher skills with AR (and other apps) and the development of a “model” AR tour (excursion/field trip). The experiment has generated trans-national collaborative conversations, positively impacting on both professional practice and app design. Participating schools have already provided valuable feedback that supports and expands existing research and perhaps generates some new ideas. The AISWA project has been funded by the Australian Government Quality Teacher Program.
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Device Neutral Assignments for Mobile Learning in an English Language Classroom
More LessAbstractThe cloud of skepticism around mobile devices and their use in education is rapidly dispersing. Educators have come to embrace mobile devices as powerful tools that enable continuous, lifelong learning. The type of mobile device makes little difference to the educational process since all types have capabilities that enhance learning. Hence, adopting a BYOD/BYOT (Bring Your Own Device/Technology) policy in the classroom can shift the focus from the device to the learning outcomes. Device neutral assignments are assignments and lesson plans that can be completed on any device. It comes as a solution for the multi platform challenge in a BYOD policy. This action research is intended to examine how Device Neutral Assignments can be used to integrate mobile learning into English Language classes where students are using their own mobile devices. Some language assignments were redesigned according to DNA guidelines. Description the assignments is provided along with the results and observations of the completed assignments.
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Quality of sms-learning as a rapidly growing m-learning mode for foreign language learning
Authors: Majid Fatahipour and Mahnaz Ghasemi NajmAbstractm-learning breaks away with the traditional education by focusing not just on developing mobile applications but also sms-learning (using regulated text messages) which is useful and engaging for learning English. Yet there is little research on the quality of sms-learning. In this paper, we view m-learning as an ever-present opportunity for learning in what Stead (2012) describes as today's blurred boundary between work and play. A service platform provider, the National Mobile Company of Iran, has enabled several private service providers (SPs) to use text messages for educational purposes. A contribution to the field is integrating theories of linguistics and m-learning. While learners benefit from extensive reading practice at their own pace (Day and Bamford, 1998), the four elements of m-learning proposed by Ray (2004) is a basis for measuring quality. The data comes from semi-structured interviews with three important SPs with 268 active subscribers to their English learning services. An survey was also conducted on the views of over 120 users on pros and cons of these services which found that although sms-learning is very engaging with informal tasks that impact learning (as theorized by Cross, 2007), it has to meet several challenges (e.g. meeting various requirements of learners and learning context, administrative hurdles/costs) to respond better to the users' expectations and learning needs. The quality is concluded as average because the services provided by the SPs were not strong in terms of personal sphere and context sensitivity although they were satisfactory in terms of efficiency and providing interaction.
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Integrating Multimedia in ODL materials and Enhanced Access through Mobile Phones
More LessAbstractThe aim of integrating multimedia in ODL materials and enhance access through mobile phones at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT), is to enable students who are scattered throughout Tanzania and outside the country overcome the challenges of accessing course materials. Currently OUT has a Learning Management System customized from MOODLE, known as Open University of Tanzania Learning Management System (OUTLeMS) which can be accessed through http://elms.out.ac.tz.
Implementation of the project to deal with this challenge involved customization of mTouch U software now called Open University of Tanzania mobile Learning (OUTmLearning - mlearning.out.ac.tz) that enabled activities of all 150 ODL courses including forum, assignment, glossary, resource details and charts available in OUTLeMS be accessed through mobile phones. In one complete ODL course (Multimedia Technology and Applications - OIT 208) in addition a video of a sign language interpreter has been added in one module within the course.
In situations with problems of internet and electricity power supply, these developments enable students in both urban and rural areas especially in remote parts including those with visual, hearing and physical impairment use mobile phones to access course materials while pursuing their studies. Females students faced with social constraints like taking care of the family are empowered to deal with difficulties of studying by being able to view study materials anywhere and anytime on their mobile phones.
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Preparing Mobile Learning Strategy for Your Institution
More LessAbstractThis paper offers a practical guide to the creation of an m-learning strategy for an educational institution. It provides steps and recommendations for a successful and sustainable m-strategy. This summary of lessons learned includes a brief account of successes, failures, and barriers experienced by a mobile learning practitioner.
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System Architecture for Device and Content Independent Communication Including 3D Imaging
Authors: Razia Sultana, Andreas Christ and Patrick MeyrueisAbstractNetwork landscape of recent time contains many different network technologies, a wide range of end-devices with a large scale of capabilities and power, and an immense quantity of information and data represented in different formats. Research on 3D imaging, virtual reality and holographic techniques will result in new user interfaces (UI) for mobile devices, will increase their diversity and variety. In this paper software architecture has been proposed to establish device and content format independent communication including 3D imaging and virtual reality data as content. As experimental validation the concept is implemented in collaborative Language Learning Game (LLG), which is a learning tool for language acquisition.
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Targeting FRAME: A new tool for mLearning design
By Robert PowerAbstractVarious attempts have been made to offer advice and guidance to mobile learning (mLearning) instructional designers. However, there is still a distinct need for guidance that is concise, theoretically grounded, and applicable across a wide variety of instructional design types and purposes. The Framework for the Rational Assessment of Mobile Education (FRAME) model developed by Koole (2009) meets these requirements. This paper proposes the development of an interactive online tool based upon the FRAME model that will allow educators to effectively reflect upon their mLearning instructional design decisions and target areas for design improvement.
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Supporting Interaction in Learning Activities Using Mobile Devices in Higher Education
Authors: Wesam Shishah, Gail Hopkins, Elizabeth FitzGerald and Colin HigginsAbstractMobile devices are personal, portable and being increasingly used to assist students’ learning that creates new educational opportunities for students at university. Adopting mobile technologies to various educational activities that students are practicing in Higher Education (HE) is a key challenge yet one that could create powerful opportunities to support academic learning. This research will investigate how students at university use mobile devices with respect to engagement and interaction in various learning activities. It will study how students in HE engage with learning tasks and what social interactions occur when they are trying to achieve their academic goals. Also, the tools/software that support their academic goals in different learning settings or activities will be considered. This paper shows the background of the research to promote students’ interaction in various learning settings (including both different physical environments and different activities) using mobile learning support system.
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iPads for Innovative Knowledge Creation
Authors: Rana Tamim and Linda ColburnAbstractAcademicians, researchers, and practitioners agree that computer technology has an important role to play in the classroom, with the main ingredient for successful technology integration being pedagogy. The more recent trend receiving attention is mobile learning, particularly with the hype that the iPad is getting and its strong push to access educational systems as the 21st century tool for learning. The current poster will report preliminary results assessing the success of two project-based interdisciplinary collaborative activities that were implemented with 41 undergraduate education students at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. The design made use of various theoretical frameworks including constructivist learning theories, student-centered principles (APA, 1997; Laurillard, 2002; McCombs & Vakili, 2005), motivational theories (Greeno, Collins, & Resnick, 1996; Hickey & Zuiker, 2005), project-based learning (Blumenfeld et al., 1991), and cooperative and collaborative learning theories (Bruffee, 1993; Johnson & Johnson, 2008). The project was employed in two courses, namely Early Childhood Mathematics and Science and Literature for Children and Adolescents. In addition to course specific assignments, students completed the following two collaborative iPad-based assignments across both courses:
- Arabic Scientist/Mathematician Biography: students had to make use of the basic principals of writing biographies to design and develop a media product to teach young children about an Arab scientist/mathematician. For this assignment, the students were given full freedom to decide on what form of media product they want to present their biography with.
- E-book fairy/folk tale: students had to create e-book for a fairy/folk tale for young children that teaches or addresses mathematical concepts such as numeracy, shapes, patterns, and measurement.
The poster presentation will offer preliminary findings based on the data collected from interviews conducted with the students after the completion of the courses. Interviews probed students� perceptions about lessons learned, successes, challenges, and suggestions for future iterations of the courses. Moreover, a number of the projects will be actually showcased during the poster presentation by some of the students. In their presentation, students will discuss their own experience with the iPads, the applications they used, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
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Why ethical issues in researching mobile learning are a concern and ways forward
More LessAbstractThis poster paper presents the scenarios produced by members of the International Association for Mobile Learning to support researchers in considering how to address ethical issues that may well arise during mobile learning projects. Ethical issues in researching mobile learning are a concern as: - handheld devices provide multiple opportunities for access to personal information including images and location; - their portability creates issues with boundaries such as those between college or school time and home time; - they link to both real and virtual contexts and - the full range of their capabilities are often poorly understood. In addition, the classic approach of adhering to a fixed code of ethical conduct such as those published by the American or British educational research associations or having your proposed methods first evaluated by an ethics committee does not deal well with the ever changing contexts that so often arise in mobile learning research. Ways forward centre on professional development for researchers to ensure they are fully aware of their responsibilities for the protection of participants data, their privacy and personal information even when the participants themselves share such information widely through social networking and other online tools. To this end six scenarios for use in researcher training or with interested students were generated by a group of experts at Mlearn 2012 in Helsinki and have been made freely available on the International Association for Mobile Learning's website at http://www.iamlearn.org/ethical-issues-mobile-learning/research-planning for wide dissemination. Each scenario addresses specific issues that may become a concern as outlined below. Scenario: Where do you stop? Issues addressed: Boundaries between formal and informal learning situations, public or private spaces, home and school or college environments, real and virtual contexts etc. Scenario: Whose story is it? Issues addressed: Maintaining the need for anonymity versus respecting participants' desire to self-publish and their need for a digital identity. Scenario: Who Pays? Issues addressed: People who are differently able / less educated /come from different cultures etc. and what this means regarding costs e.g. for devices to access internet and cultural pressures. Scenario: Who does it belong to? Issues addressed: Ownership and author rights - whose data is on the mobile or on the server, who owns it, what about any images it contains? Is the owner the person taking the picture or is it the person in the picture? Scenario: Whoops-a-daisy! Issues addressed: Risk analysis - the unexpected consequences of complexity caused by following up people using mobile devices in a wide range of contexts and the need to proceed iteratively and flexibly. Scenario: What does 'informed consent' really mean? Issues addressed: Participants' awareness (or lack thereof) of their own device's capabilities, what data is being logged etc., informed consent and opportunities to listen to participant voice. More details on ways forward for using scenarios such as these with students and/or practitioners will be reported here at MLearn 2013 with Trish Andrews and Laurel Dyson (Andrews, Dyson and Wishart, 2013). Lastly, in addition to specific training, these scenarios can also be used to promote conversations with senior management around the ethical issues that are of concern to lecturers, teachers and researchers in order to support the development of any appropriate local policy and practical responses.
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Action Research for Sustainable Mobile Learning: Perspectives from the Field in Dharavi, Mumbai
By Laura HakimiAbstractThis research seeks to understand how a widely available and relatively affordable technology - the mobile phone - can be used to help disadvantaged young people in the urban slum of Dharavi, Mumbai, to improve their English language skills. In partnership with a technical organisation and a local NGO, and employing the principles of action research, this study is researching the extent to which a piece of learning software for mobile phones can sustainably enhance the learning of participants enrolled on a local NGO's educational initiative. With fieldwork currently underway, this poster presentation will seek to present the study's aims and preliminary findings, and discuss some of the methodological challenges associated with action research.
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Mapping Mobile Learning in Space and Time
Authors: David Parsons, Jae Lim Ahn, Ahreum Lee, Kiburm Song and Miyoung YoonAbstractMobile learning has been a topic of research and development for 20 years. Over that time it has encompassed a wide range of concepts, theories, designs, experiments and evaluations. With increasing interest in the subject from researchers and practitioners, a comprehensive, yet accessible, overview of mobile learning that encompasses its many facets and features can provide a useful snapshot of the field. Although there have been many reviews of the mobile learning literature, these have tended to focus mostly on the nature of the work from a research perspective. Further, they have focused on a specific subset of the overall literature. Some review articles have, for example, confined themselves to a particular type of mobile learning, such as mobile language learning (e.g. Viberg & Gronlund, 2012). Others have focused on a specific conference series (e.g. Wingkvist & Ericsson, 2011) or subset of journals (e.g. Pollara &Broussard, 2011). In contrast, we have attempted to provide a more generic overview, and analyzed a large number of articles on mobile learning according to their main themes, concepts and concerns. These articles have come from a representative range of journals, books and conference proceedings. This poster provides a full-landscape view of the field of mobile learning in the form of a mind map. Whilst this approach to visualization is relatively subjective, it is a qualitative approach that allows us to find creative associations between ideas, as opposed to some other approaches that simply present quantitative data (Davies, 2011). It also potentially supports additional services such as certain types of information search (Beel &Gipp, 2010). Through an iterative process of refinement, we have applied the main analysis categories of research, learner, learning, content, design and technology, with a range of subcategories and representative exemplars. In addition, we contextualize the key developments in mobile learning in a timeline, in order to trace its evolution as a field of research.
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Media Synchronicity Theory: Towards a Rigorous Evaluation Framework for M-Learning Artifacts Learning Artifacts
More LessAbstractDigital learning occurs through communication where learners and teachers exchange information and share knowledge. From the pedagogy point of view, the most important characteristic of the information exchange is the human aspect; a factor that e-learning scholars conceive in regard to usability and accessibility of e-learning technology (Michelinakis, 2004). Evaluation tools are needed to promote and rise quality of artefacts and smooth-en the information exchange ways when learning takes place. There are no rigorous evaluation frameworks for mobile e-learning platforms (Georgieva, 2006). In this study we envision Media Synchronicity Theory (MST) as a potential framework for evaluating mobile learning artifacts i.e., mobile devices and learning content management systems.
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