Педагогические науки/5.Современные методы преподавания.

Тімкова Ю.М.

Sumy National Agrarian University, Ukraine

The Use of Mobile Learning in Teaching

Mobile technologies are widely-spread in the modern world. They can be used to increase access to authentic teaching and learning materials which could be used at a time convenient to teachers, such as when they are preparing lesson plans or while travelling to schools, colleges or higher educational establishments. Materials like this have a great impact on teachers’ own learning and their classroom practice.

Mobile learning research is conducted at different levels: a macro, meso and micro level. At the macro level, research focuses on how society and its institutions can support an increasingly mobile population. At the meso-level research is being conducted on how mobile learning technology can be coupled with other forms of learning taking place in organizations and schools. At the micro level, research aims for a clarification of the conditions necessary for mobile learning to be successful for an individual or a group of learners.

The current interest in mobile learning is led by two major developments. First there is the wide-spread penetration of mobile technology, combined with increasing technological capabilities, such as location detection, Internet access, and multimedia presentation (video, images, text and audio). This development offers the possibility to create learning environments in accordance with constructivist principles, in which the social context and self-management of learners are central. Combining different media in a learning context is in line with the “dual-channel hypothesis”. This hypothesis states that humans process multimedia information in separate channels is parallel. This means that people can process information from different sources concurrently, allowing them to create richer memory structures of the information in focus.

Mobile learning refers to the use of mobile or wireless devices for the purpose of learning while on the move. Typical examples of the devices used for mobile learning include cell phones, smartphones, palmtops, handheld computers, audio and video players, tablet PCs, laptops. The first generation of truly portable information has been integrated with many functions in small, portable electronic devices. Recent innovations in program applications and social software using Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., blogs, wikis, Twitter, YouTube) or social networking sites (such as Facebook and MySpace) have made mobile devices more dynamic and pervasive and also promise more educational potential.

We should admit that mobile technology has two comparable attributes. Scheduling and calendar applications are useful to increase an individual’s organizational skills and self-regulative (or self-directed) learning ability; whereas, real-time chat and data sharing applications support communication, collaboration, and knowledge construction. This shows that students can consume and create information both collectively and individually. Another unique attribute that mobile technology has is its ability to support effective face-to-face communication when students use the devices in the classroom. In contrast to using a desktop computer with several students, with mobile devices students do not need to crowd around one computer. In many empirical research studies and pilot tests, participants owned the handheld devices (even though it was temporary), and such ownership involved them more in the learning process.

A mobile learning activity is classified as 1) the learners have more psychological and communication space with their instructor or institutional support; 2) the learners are involved in group learning or projects where they communicate, negotiate, and collaborate with each other; 3) learning materials or the rules of activity are delivered from the predetermined program through mobile devices; and 4) transactions mainly occur among learners, and the instructor or teacher has minimal involvement in facilitating the group activity. This type might replace the traditional technology-mediated classroom group activity where students in a group or pair conduct given tasks or assignments.

Mobile technologies are also used in distance learning. Students who are enrolled in distance learning are offered downloadable resources (e.g., readings, audio or video lectures, presentation slideshows, etc.) and opportunities to interact with others in online discussion. The major role of lecturers is to establish the online discussion and upload podcasts to the learning management system. Learning activities and tasks based on a constructivist perspective were implemented and demonstrated; comments on this project describe the benefits of mobility. The responses of participants included these statements: “the ability to download lectures onto my iPod while I was travelling was really useful”, and “I downloaded lectures (audio version) . . . played them over my stereo via my laptop while I cooked dinner at home . . . this was invaluable as I had a very demanding job”. This feedback shows that mobile devices are utilized to make it possible for individual workers with busy schedules to learn at their preferred places and times.

One can create any projects based on modern mobile technologies. Some of them are: 1) an audio-based learning forum project (enabled learners to participate in an asynchronous learning forum on mobile devices, which replaced the text-based discussion online forum); 2) mobile butterfly-watching and bird-watching learning (supported outdoor mobile learning activities); 3) design projects and etc.

Thus, the study shows that the mobile application motivates students to use it and that the application offers sufficient learning opportunities to create a learning effect. The application has proven its worth as an addition to the formal teaching. It was demonstrated that time on task can be enhanced by providing the learner with an opportunity to learn in the informal context of his or her spare time.

References:

1.Crowe, A. R. (2007). Learning to teach with mobile technology: A teacher educator's journey. In M. van't Hooft & K. Swan (Eds.), Ubiquitous computing in education (pp. 127-144). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

2.Frohberg, D., Goth, C., & Schwabe, G. (2009). Mobile learning projects: a critical analysis of the state of the art. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25, 307-331.

3.Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2007). Mobile usability in educational context: What have we learnt? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.

4.Moore, M. G. (1973). Toward a theory of independent learning and teaching. The Journal of Higher Education, 44(9), 661-679.