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Web Resources

• TLT:  “Using Twitter in Higher Education”  http://bit.ly/115xu
• Academic Hack:  “Twitter for Academia”  http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
• E-Learning Blog:  “Twitter Tips for Teachers and Educators”  http://www.dontwasteyourtime.co.uk/twitter/twitter-tips-for-teachers-educators/
• Organizational Leadership Journal:  “Twitter: A Tool for Academia to Connect, Share, and Grow Relationships”  http://strategicplanner.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/twitter-a-tool-for-academia-to-connect-share-and-grow-relationships/
• eLearning Technology:  “Twitter Conference Ideas”  http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2009/01/twitter-conference-ideas.html
• JSOnline:  “Professors Experiment with Twitter as a Teaching Tool”  http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/43747152.html
• Blog by Carol:  “50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education” http://cooper-taylor.com/blog/2008/08/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-education/
• Educause:  “7 Things You Should Know About Twitter”  http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7027.pdf
• Web 2.0 Teaching Tools:  “Twitter Tweets for Higher Education”  http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2007/08/twitter-tweets-for-higher-education.html
• Georgia Public Broadcasting:  “Twitter for Education”  http://www.tienetwork.org/content/view/302/
• Wired How-To Wiki:  “How to Use Twitter”  http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Twitter
• OnlineColleges.net:  “50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom”  http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/
• Twitter for Teachers Wiki:  http://twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com/
• Read Write Web:  “How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom”  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_one_teacher_uses_twitter_in_the_classroom.php
• University Business:  “10 Twitter Tips for Higher Education”  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_one_teacher_uses_twitter_in_the_classroom.php
• The Chronicle of Higher Education:  “A Professor’s Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom”  http://chronicle.com/blogPost/A-Professor-s-Tips-for-Using/3643
• Twitter Fan Wiki:  “How to Use Hash Tags”  http://twitter.pbworks.com/Hashtags
• Wild Apricot:  “Intro to Twitter Hash Tags”  http://www.wildapricot.com/blogs/newsblog/archive/2008/03/11/an-introduction-to-twitter-hashtags.aspx

Presentations

• David Hopkins:  “Twitter in Education”  http://www.slideshare.net/hopkinsdavid/twitter-in-education
• “22 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom”  http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5649046/How-To-Use-Twitter-in-the-Classroom
• Joel Heffner:  “Twitter for Teachers”  http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8228545/twitter-for-teachers

Video Resources

Twitter in Plain English from Common Craft:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

The Twitter Experiment:  UT Dallas:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8

Twitter Will Kill You:  David Crowder Band  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZWLMdGqu8g

LectureTools started as a framework to investigate new methods for adding to class discourse by engaging students in text-based, image-based and simulation based responder questions. It was tested in a few classes last semester according to the university and it will soon be made available to their faculty at large. Developed by a professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences named Arthur F. Thurnau for use in a large lecture class, the tool is designed to create greater student engagement with lecture materials and discourse.

In a statement put out by Samson on behalf of the university at large, “Students learn better by being actively engaged in the lecture, offering their own feedback and discussing with their peers, as LectureTools allows them to do. We’re utilizing all the students’ propensities and abilities to multitask.”

In your experience, can you speak to either the validity of this statement or its unsoundness?

As our office has been researching mobile learning, we decided to discuss it and record the discussion to see what happened.  What we discovered sounds like a typical reserach paper at the end.  The whole “additional research is needed in order for us to …” statement.  From our initial reading, we discovered that the definition of mobile learning is still not solid.  Mobile learning could mean a mobile device like a Palm or clicker.  It could also mean a mobile phone.  Different schools are using the term “Mobile Learning” to mean different things.

As we investigated those pathways, we began to notice that there are very few academic articles or research that are pointing to one particular pathway to success in mobile learning.  We also began to notice a trend that mobile learning, because it’s a relatively unknown technology in education, can cause fear and backlash in faculty.  However, students are asking for it.  The landscape is changing.  And it’s up to us to read, research, discuss, and figure this out.  Sooner rather than later.

Listen

We decided to record the conversation with our iPhones.  The audio was recorded wtih the Bias iPro Recorder for the iPhone.  Read review.  Download App.  Feel free to listen to the 1:04:17 podcast in iTunes U.  |  Podcast

Recources

Here is a list of some of what we’re currently reading about mobile learning:

• Baird, D. E., & Fisher, M. (2006). Neomillennial user experience design strategies: utilizing social networking media to support “always on” learning styles. Journal of educational technology systems. 34(1), 5.
• Huang, Y.M., Kuo, Y.H., Lin, Y.T., Cheng, S.C. (2007).  Toward interactive mobile synchronous learning environment with context-awareness service.  Computers & Education. 51(2008), 1205-1226.
• Kaufman, R.  (2005).  Defining and delivering measurable value:   a mega thinking and planning primer.  Performance Improvement Quarterly.  18(3), 6-16.
• Park, Y. & Brill, J. (2007). Emerging Technologies to Support Engaged Learning in the Interaction Age: Taking a Pedagogically Disciplined Approach to Innovation. In T. Bastiaens & S. Carliner (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2007 (pp. 1748-1756). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
• Prensky, M (2009). What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone?  Almost Anything!  Retrieved April 4, 2009, from http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=83
• Trotter, A.  (2009). Students turn their cellphones on for classroom lessons.  Retrieved April 17, 2009 from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/07/16cellphone.h28.html

Feedback

What do you think about mobile learning?  Are you implementing any solutions, pilots, or tools?  Read any good reserach?  If so, what are you reading?  What are you implementing/testing?  Post comments below.

It is not surprising that the discovery was made by Duke students taking an introductory film class.  These students organized the “First Ever Twitter Film Festival” where students watched short YouTube clips that were embedded from 39 movies.  The students then spent time tweeting their thoughts about the  clips being viewed.    While I no longer consider YouTube an emerging technology,  I do consider it a tech fad that has proven its worth as well as some of its pit falls.   Although Twitter has been around since 2006, it is still an emerging technology because  it has only permeated all industries and popular culture within the past year.

Kudos  to the Instructor for being flexible enough to allow  students a  sound and creative way to use and reflect on web generated and augmented content in a concise way within the context of a community of practice.

As a teacher/technologist/designer/builder, I wonder with so many pieces of technology available, what should my approach be?  I know some teachers are afraid of emerging tools.  But I also wonder if that fear is a barrier to student learning.  As I research the landscape of tools that teachers, school districts, and higher education institutions fear the most, mobile phones may be at the top of the list.  But should we as educators fear them?

Mobile Phone Breakdown

Mobile devices are growing at an astronomical pace.  Statistics today show that there are about 7 billion people in the world today.  Roughly 1.6 billion people are connected to the Internet via a computer (World Internet Statistics, 2009).  But about 4.3 billion people have mobile phones.  More than two-times the population has a mobile phone over a computer connected to the Internet (Murph, 2009).  These are staggering numbers considering opportunities in education.

Corporations have caught on to this trend and are capitalizing.  By providing mobile resources for their employees to access from laptops on the road or their mobile devices.  With the advent of the iPhone, many companies are rushing to create applications that allow their employees to access information from the company  (Choice Hotels, 2009).

Higher education is trying to keep up.  Duke University and Abeline Christian University are two top schools with mobile Web sites as well as iPhone applications and infrastructure delivery mechanisms, which connect their students to learning.  Recently Blackboard, Inc., the largest provider of online course development and management, released a widget to Facebook and an application for the iPhone.  This is evidence that Blackboard is trying to bridge the gap to students where they are and not force students to come to them.

The Reality of The Numbers

In K-12, however, on average, there is a large gap in the amount of computers per student in most classrooms.  Most K-12 districts do not have use for any learning management system (LMS) to connect students outside the classroom.  Technology is being encouraged, but not necessarily being resourced.  With the larger gap in the computer to student ratio, there is a smaller gap for students who have mobile phones.

Students are learning using multiple platforms.  They use their phones now more for text and productivity than they do for actual phone calling.  A mobile phone has become tool.  Education is catching up to this idea.  Most school districts as well as higher education institutions have what is commonly called an “Acceptable Use Policy” for technology.  This is a contract for students and faculty to abide by to keep technology use fair and safe.  The majority of school districts have a ban on mobile phones because of the potential distraction they present.  Some more progressive districts are moving toward a “Responsible Use Policy”, where teachers use tools students use and teach them how to use them responsibly. What this means is teachers will need to adopt new teaching strategies which leverage these newer technologies.  Instead of  wasting their energy “fighting their preferred delivery system”, teachers should be “working to ensure that (our) students extract maximum understanding and benefit from the vast amounts of cell-phone-based learning of which they will, no doubt, soon take advantage” (Prensky, 2008).

The Transition from Fear to Transformational Learning

Teachers need to begin to understand how these tools work and how they can integrate them into their teaching.  This pattern has always been in education.  There was a fear of the Internet in classrooms years ago because of the inappropriate content Online.  Now most every district and every higher education institution has a staff to manage IT and Internet traffic.  In higher ed there is still a debate on the use of laptops in the classroom for fear that students will misuse the tools.  They are too much of a distraction.  Now they are an integral part of the learning process and a standard tool for students.  Across the country the stance has been to ban the tool instead of teach appropriate use with the tool.  Today, however, laptops are commonplace in higher ed and leaking down to K-12.  Mobile devices are the next domino to fall.

Mobile learning or “M-Learning” is still in it’s infancy.  There have been several studies that support the implementation of mobile learning in the classroom and how it increases student outcomes. In a study conducted by Dr. Cathleen Norris and Dr. Elliot Soloway, student outcomes increased by 13% over students who did not use a mobile device  (Traylor, 2009).  Learning is changing, and students need to be equipped.  Dr. Norris explains:

“The way we learn and what we learn is changing, and that is really the majority of the issue around 21st Century Skills. Children need to learn how instead of what. How do I find this information? How do I determine from this Internet what is valid information? How does this fit into everything else that I’m reading? How does this merge with my textbook? It’s the how. Again, it’s helping the child take the wealth of information that’s out there, assimilate it, and determine what’s a valid source, what’s real information” (Traylor, 2009).

Many teachers look at the mobile phone the same way they look at the laptop, PA systems, or even telephones.  They interrupt learning.  Teachers need to be empowered to look beyond the immediate barrier to the educational opportunities they could have speaking the language of the digital natives.  It definitely takes time and effort.  But the payoff is when students take a turn and begin learning.  Mobile phones should be thought of just like other tools in the classroom like books, whiteboards, or even writing implements.  They are tools to help accomplish a learning objective.

Closing Thoughts

As a new teacher and educational technologist, I see tools and teachers interface.  Some well; Some not so well.  But what I’m learning is that it’s really about the student.  It’s about helping them get to the destination of what they need to learn by whatever means necessary.  If it requires laptops, I feel like it’s my job as a teacher to understand how to use and teach with the laptop.  If it’s a mobile phone, I feel like it’s my job to understand how to use that tool and leverage it to teach to my students.  Regardless of what the tool is, it’s my responsibility as both a teacher and learner to interface with my students, as well as technologies, to bridge the gap and help them learn.

References

• Choice Hotels (2009). Choice Hotels – now available through your iPhone.  Retrieved April 11, 2009, from http://www.choicehotels.com/ires/en-US/html/Mobile
• Internet World Statistics (2009).  Retrieved March 28, 2009 from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
• Murph, D. (2009). UN Report: 6 in 10 People Worldwide Use Cell Phones. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.switched.com/2009/03/03/un-report-6-in-10-people-worldwide-use-cell-phones/
• Prensky, M (2009). What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone?  Almost Anything!  Retrieved April 4, 2009, from http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=83
• Traylor, S. (2009).  The Future Is In Your Hand  -  An Interview with Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway.  Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://www.techlearning.com/article.aspx?id=14752#article1
  
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Additional Resource

Visit Dr. Soloway’s and Dr. Norris’ blog on these and more topics:  http://blogs.districtadministration.com/techdisruptions/