It’s Presentation Time – Educause ELI Spring Forum
I have been preparing two presentations for the Educause ELI Forum on Mobile Learning. One presentation is a short 10 minute summary on mLearning Assessment and update of some slides I prepared for the Distance Education Conference at the University of Wisconsin – Madison I did this past August. I cannot say there is more research but there is a better framework since I have had more time to reflect on what I uncovered then and an opportunity to spend more time on mobile learning. I hope to have the presentation placed in SlideShare for anyone interested.
The second presentation is the one that may not make the conference. It is a back up keynote presentation I have been asked to put together in case of technical issues that could potentially arise with another speaker (I will make it available in SlideShare one way or the other). In my presentation, I make a claim that mobile learning for most public higher ed. in the US is really mobile assisted learning. Mobile learning and its unique pedagogical elements (learn anywhere at any time, exploration, collaboration, etc.) can enhance learning with tools that other technologies or traditional learning cannot do as well. In my presentation, I present the idea of mLearning really being just another technology tool for the classroom. Unless you are delivering content for distance learning, most students will be using mobile technology for some aspect of their learning. They will be using “mobile assisted learning” and not implemented learning entirely delivered via a mobile device.
Whereas much has been done abroad with mobile based learning, in the United States at least and with public institutions like community colleges, the expense of smart phone devices and carrier support is too expensive for most students. That coupled with the fact that most colleges have extensive PC labs and wi-fi capability, most students do not opt for the expense of a monthly data contract and the additional cost of smart phone hardware. Although it seems that everyone has an Apple iPhone, Google Android phone or Blackberry, it does not pan out in antidotal data/experience or from surveys done by groups like Educause in their 2009 ECARS Study on Student Information Technology. Sometimes I feel like the iPhone U’s get the big press but it is colleges like my own that really need to establish their mobile learning identity. This blog has talked to this in the past and will continue this thread hopefully with examples of low tech (less than a Smart Phone) mobile learning exercises.
In: Issues on Mobile Learning, Uncategorized, Using Mobile Tech
on March 6, 2010 at 5:56 pm
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I really enjoyed your presentation last week. Well Done!!