informal mobile learning mike sharples learning sciences research institute university of nottingham...
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Informal Mobile LearningMike Sharples
Learning Sciences Research InstituteUniversity of Nottingham
Giasemi VavoulaUniversity of Birmingham/The Open University
University of Nottingham
• LSRI: International Research Institute
• Member of Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence
• Member of G1:1 global network for learning with personal technologies
Informal mobile learning
Only reference to mobile learning in Encyclopedia of Informal Education www.infed.org is 1916!
A society which is mobile, which is full of channels for the distribution of a change occurring anywhere, must see to it that its members are educated to personal initiative and adaptability. Dewey, 1916, “Democracy in Education”
Informal learning (Tough, 1971) (Livingstone, 2001)
• Nearly all adults (95%) are involved in some significant form of learning
• Adults spend on average 15 hours per week on deliberate personal learning
• Almost everyone undertakes at least 1-2 major learning efforts a year. The median is 8 projects.
• Learning for career, hobbies, sports, community and voluntary work, household and survival
• Consistent across ages (above age 16), cultures, and social classes
• Less than 1% of adults’ learning projects are for formal credit
Vavoula’s study of mobile learning
• March-August 2004• Diary study• 44 participants registered
– 15 kept diary for 2 weeks (161 episodes reported in total)
• Definition of mobile learning– “Learning away from one’s normal learning
environment, or learning involving the use of mobile devices”
Recording learning in context
• Temporal context: e.g. date, duration. • Social context: e.g. other people, roles they
assumed.• Situational context: e.g. location, event • Educational context: e.g. learning method,
purpose (if any)• Activity context: e.g. learning topic, available
support • Historical context: how learning interleaves with
other, everyday activities.
Sample diary entry
Results
• 59% of the reported learning episodes were mobile
• 49% were not in home or office– 8 outdoors, 34 workplace, 10 place of
leisure, 3 friends’ house, 1 public transport, 23 other (e.g. places of worship)
Results
• Most learning was to enable activity (40%) and/or solve a problem (15%)
• Only 5% of mobile and 10% of non-mobile learning was related to a curriculum
Results
• Conversation was the main learning method of mobile learning (45% mobile and 21% non-mobile)
• Mobile learning involves more activity and interaction than non-mobile
Caerus: example of Informal Mobile LearningCaerus, in Greek mythology, was the personification of opportunity and favourable moments
• Informal outdoor learning• Automatic location-based
delivery of content and services
• Personalised multimedia tours, educational games, outdoor experiments
• Tell the stories behind the sights
• Physical navigation
CAERUS
Handheld Delivery
Desktop Administrati
on
Caerus, in Greek mythology, was the personification of opportunity and favourable moments
Desktop Authoring System
• Import map image• Scale map to GPS
coordinates• Associate
multimedia with regions on map
• Create tours linking map locations
• Create themes for personalised guides and games
Handheld client
• Map based on current location
• Select a theme• Multimedia content or
service automatically ‘pops up’ when you walk to a location
• Leave ‘virtual graffiti’, share impressions, create location-based blogs
Reconception of learning• Classroom learning
– Learning as knowledge construction– Supported by ICT– How to design and manage an effective learning
environment
• Mobile learning– Learning as conversation in context– Enabled by continual interaction with personal
technologies– How people artfully engage with their continually
changing surroundings to create transiently stable and effective sites of learning