EDEL2003 Assessment 1 - Global learning futures

Mobile learning in VET is quite interesting, as most of our learners would have access to a smartphone, likely a tablet and less likely a laptop and/or PC.

The devices I used to review the affordances of mobile technologies were an android smartphone, android tablet and laptop.

The smartphone and tablet were equipped with camera (photo/video), email, GPS, browser, calendar, contacts, Polaris office, SIM/WiFi, blue tooth and internal storage.

The apps which were explored using smartphone, tablet and laptop are:

• Evernote, exploration activity can be found here - Tangible Benefits of Evernote.

• Blogger, exploration activity can be found here - Characteristic the future of mobile learning

• Google Drive (incl slides/sheets/docs) - Tangible Benefits of GoogleDrive

• Dropbox, used for storage of photos and documents

• Movie Studio, only dabbled a little

• Tellagami, mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video

• iLanguageCloud, create word generated clouds

• Tappestry, learners can capture and track what they have learned and what they want to learn

In my exploration, I have 

• written blogs with both smartphone and tablet

• taken photos with a smartphone and saved them in Dropbox

• added voice recordings in Evernote

• used voice to text feature in Evernote

• screen recording of usability of an app with Laptop

• accessed images in Dropbox and added them to Evernote

• access Evernote, Blogger and GoogleDrive from Laptop to edit and enhance final works.

My discussion will be around three Features/Benefits of mobile learning, being:

1. Pervasive and ubiquitous
2. Portable - allow anywhere, anytime learning
3. Allows data to be recorded and learning processes captured wherever they happen.

My final task was to create an activity for a CIII Business unit, Participate in Environmentally Sustainable Work Practices. This file is stored in Google Drive. The link could be posted out to students, it does not require a password to access and can be viewed only.

The task is developed for all learning outcomes of the unit. It asks students to work collaboratively to complete a set number of tasks using a smartphone, tablet and/or Laptop. It also asks the learners to decide as a team which application they will use; Evernote or Google Drive. It describes the activity and the expectations of the learners. If students complete all activities successfully they will have achieved a competent result for this unit.

The first part of the activity asks learners to identify current resources usage. They will do this by taking photos, video or audio recording or a written account using their smartphone/tablet of current resource usage in a workplace. This will allow for portable, pervasive/ubiquitous and data recorded at location where it happens. Storage could in the application, on the device or DropBox.

The next stage is to share these photos in the chosen application, collaboratively work with team on identifying current usage, and report to management and staff on areas for concern, in the form of a notification.  This could take various forms, ie poster, email, leaflet, presentation, etc. 

Stage 2 asks learners to conduct some individual research and then share information with the team on workplace sustainable procedures with the final product being a report to management. Again this learning is portable - anywhere anytime; data can be collected recorded and learning processes captured as learners are identifying new learning and ideas, finally pervasive as it stretches across a group of people and ubiquitous as information can be shared from anywhere and everywhere at the same time.

The last stage of the activity asks for learners to develop a environmentally sustainable plan, based on the identified resource usage and information they have gathered in task 2. This will allow for data to be recorded in a central location by all team members, pervasive as learners are collaboratively working on the plan, portable as learning happens anywhere and ubiquitous as learners share their information and develop the plan from their location.

The facilitators role in this activity is to provide the context at the start of the course, guide learners as they experiment with their devices and team choice, intervene if and when required, provide feedback and ensure learners are working collectively as a team.

On reflecting on Koole's - A Model for for Framing Mobile Learning (2009), learners are completing their set tasks using their devices, collaborating with other learners and connecting with other people.

The exploring and design student activity considers many of Wong's 2012 seamless mobile learning features; formal and informal learning, personalised and social learning, across time, across locations, ubiquitous, physical and digital worlds, option for using multiple devices (if preferred), learners can rapidly switch between mulitple learning tasks (data collection, analysis, communication), knowledge synthesis and multiple pedagogy (mobile pedagogy, 21st century connecting and VET pedagogy).

The activities I have chosen for learners to complete are constructivist as learners actively construct their new ideas with each activity based on their previous and current knowledge; situated as it promotes their learning in an authentic context and culture; collaborative as the activities promote learning through social interaction and informal and lifelong as their learning is happening outside of the learning environment (Laurillard 2002).

Student activity

This activity was developed to enable learners to use devices and apps to develop a portfolio of works.

BSBSUS201A - Student activity

Tangible benefits of Evernote

Tangible benefits of Evernote

Following is my experimentation with Evernote.  There was quite a bit of opportunity to use my tablet, smartphone and laptop to produce my final product.  Depending on the actual task, I would switch from the various devices as is explained in my notes below:

• Screen recording
• Collaborating with others
• Audio recordings
• Web Clipper - annotate page
• Web Clipper - capture a web clip

Week 3 - Characteristic the future of Mobile Learning

This week I started to use my android device to review the course content.

I am also posting this blog using my device.

On reflecting on the Horizon report and Ubiquitous learning (Bomsdorf, 2005) a few things have raised my interest a little more than others. I have reflected on the points raised and identified how we can venture into devices in my context and the considerations made in my own learning.

• People expect to learn and study whenever and wherever they like with easy and timely access.  In my context this became evident about a year ago, what didn't become evident for me was the use of devices and Apps to enhance the learning experience. It is only throught my recent learnings I have discovered some of the Web 2.0 technologies and am excited about looking into some of the Apps which could be used.
• Technologies are cloud based, software works on any device. TAFE Online's chosen IMS is Canvas. I am still coming to grips with the IMS and cloud storage opportunities.  I have been mainly linking resources through Moodle or uploading to Equella repository. For Canvas, files are uploaded and stored in the Cloud.  
• Collaboration - changes the way projects are based.  sharing content, connecting with other learners and content experts, collaborating with learners on projects to develop final product.
• Abundance of information available - questions our role as educators. Educators role changes to a facilitator role providing guidance and direction. Learners become constructors of their own learning.
• New models of learning - hybrid learning (TAFE's blended learning) and solely online learning. Currently engaged in both hybrid learning and fully online.  Mobile learning have become more of a consideration most recent, as they have become more accessible and available. 
• Engagement: challenged based, tools and tablets to connect course material to learners lives. Allowing the learner to construct their story or evidence through on the spot learning experiences.  Ability to gather and collect information from various devices and to construct a story or project using a PC.

Tangible Benefits - Google Drive

My post today is through my Samsung tablet. I find it terribly difficult to use my device for continuous typing as I am a 80 word per minute typist.

I find it even more frustrating to edit as I never seem to get the cursor in the right place. Anyway here goes.

Tangible benefits of Google Drive

I have used Google Drive for many years. Ways in which I have implemented this tool with my learners are as follows:

• Through Adobe Connect, learners choose link and cohort work on a document sharing ideas and building an end product, with either pc or device. The choice of Adobe Connect as the portal was we are usually attending an online meeting and we break out to the activity and discussion at same time.
• Learners collaborating on tasks via pc or device.
• Learners submitting items by sharing. I add comments and learners develops  or modifies content. They will also comment accordingly.

Here is a link to some screen images of documents i have collaborated with learners

Worked on this document synchronously using pc and devices

Document shared by learner for feedback

One of the screenshots was taken using my Android tablet and the other using my android phone. Both images were stored in Dropbox.

This demonstrates the portability of Google Drive in this case with the added accessibility of Dropbox. Although images could have been stored in Drive, i wanted to test Dropbox as I had not used this before.

There is some difficulty with lag time for the synchronous collaboration activity due to network and/or wifi connectibility. 

It allows for learning by others in dispersed communities and isolated situations, as like our course, this was a fully facilitated online course. Learners were enrolled from many locations across Australia - pervasive.

Learners are able to share their learning experiences if and when they happen by uploading images, sharing documents or sharing links to other websites - ubiquitous.

Google Docs has made available word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications at no charge. These docs are available to both individuals and corporations alike. Many learners are now opting for this option rather than buying the full blown software packages. Editing is simple for both devices and pcs once you have loaded Google Slides, Google Spreadsheet and Google Word apps.

Mobile learning reflection

Week 2 - Mobile Learning and Globalisation

My initial thoughts on this topic were Mobile Learning, learners on the go, access content any place any time.  How can we accommodate this learning, with so many options available?

There is, of course, iPad.  Which is most favoured by schools, K-12 and many teachers.  

Readings have shown, Android is very close to being equal with the number of apps available. 

In discussion with groups of students (18 +), it is interesting to note, Apple products are not necessarily the preferred option.

I myself prefer Android.

In my context, VET, we are working towards mobile learning. The online courses I develop are purely in LMS's so therefore mobile access has not been much of an issue.  Trial and error has found documents, spreadsheets, etc for student downloads should be PDF, easiest to open on all devices and usually smaller file size.

Flash player has been the biggest issue, some devices are still unable to play flash files.

Cloud storage has become a saviour for adult education.  From my humble beginnings as a facilitator, storage has always been a disaster.  Our first storage media was floppy disk (most students wouldn't even know what these are now) to the revolutionary USB.  The problems students encountered were damaged disks, viruses, loss of files, the list goes on and on.  I have now encouraged my learners to use Google Drive, the main emphasise being workplace simulation, collaborating on documents as a team, etc.

My recent work has been in Canvas.  I find this LMS to be quite clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate.

I have learnt quite a bit about developing for devices over the last couple of months, but what stands out for me is to keep it simple and easy to navigate.  Devices are small whether it is a phone or tablet, there is also no mouse or keyboard to help us move around, therefore the learning environment has to be simple enough for the learner to use.

BYOD is becoming more and more the norm for e-learning and in the workplace.  As a designer or developer of e-learning, we have to be mindful of our learners' choice of device.  It cannot be acceptable to develop on iPad to find our students cannot access because they have chosen android.  To dictate the device to use is archaic.