We’ve been getting lots of activity from our posts on mobile Web.

Mobile Learning:  A Springboard Discussion |  Fear of Mobile Learning |  ML Podcast (iTunes)

It’s something that higher education is already behind in.  The best Web sites have created mobile versions for a group of users growing at an over 100% rate each year.  Look at the big guns:  ESPN, CNN, Yahoo and Google.  Even social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.  There are very few higher education sites with mobile versions.  Try it.  Search for m.harvard.edu.  m.um.edu.  m.berkley.edu.  The best site I can find today is Duke.  Check it out:  m.duke.edu

Traditional Web sites are not going to be cutting the mustard any longer.  The business world moved from HTML to XHTML/CSS, to CMS, and now mobile with custom applications.  Higher education is probably at the XHTML/CSS and/or CMS stage.  Conclusion?  Higher education is behind the curve on this trend.  Unfortunately, the rate that technology grows, we don’t have much time to catch up.

The Experts

Cameron Moll wrote a great book titled, “Mobile Web Design“ that addresses some of the basics.  Brian Fling has also been evangelizing the mobile Web for over five years back when the Motorola Razr was cool.  There are tons of resources from his presentations as well as links from fellow mobile evangelists.  In looking at those sites, the conclusion will be that these developers are not involved in higher education.  True.  They are building for business.  True.  Should I read what they have to say because I work in higher ed?  Yes.  Why?  Because what they are talking about in the business world in real time is happening quicker in higher education than we give credit to.  Case in point:  Do a focus group of ten students on campus.  See what kind of devices they use.  Find out if they have data plans attached to their devices.  You may be surprised at what you find.

The Web is moving at a fantastically quick pace.  We need to keep up.

Migration

Our university has a Jenzabar portal.  We switched from IBM a few years ago.  The portal is fully integrated with our database and systems.  The university has been going through a business process redesign for a number of years to integrate and streamline all services to the portal.  It’s been mildly successful.  Our network and software teams have been working hard to create custom portlets and Web services to serve a number of sub-groups in the institution.  However, one gap in service is the concept of moving the site to mobile devices.

There are a few developers who are building plug-ins and testing for ways to make Jenzabar portals mobile.  But nobody has one working yet that I am aware of.  Wordpress has some developers who have created mobile plugins (Carrington Mobile) and others.  Many sites write a custom CSS file for mobile and print versions.  Higher ed is still catching up with what cutting edge Web developers have known for a few years.  We have to build sites that are standards-compliant with clean validated code.  If higher ed is building these huge monolithic sites, shouldn’t they be accessible to any device?  Not just IE, Firefox, and Safari?  Not just 1024 or 800?

Next Step

I’m going to write next week on higher education’s pattern of innovation (or lack thereof) and how it relates to leadership.  Our PLC had a great discussion on this (which we should have recorded).  I’ll bring some hightlights and ask for your feedback.  But for now, where are your sites?  Do you have mobile versions?  Is there a plan?  Who’s asking the questions?  Post feedback.  Get into the discussion.

Random Resources

• Megan Fisher :: Designing Web Interfaces from Future of Web Design, May 2009  |  Presentation
• Brian Fling :: Mobile Design Blog |  Visit
• W3C ::  Mobile Web Design  |  Download PDF
• Jakob Neilsen :: Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998  |  Visit
• Cameron Moll:  Mobile Web Design  |  Visit

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
  
• Download PDF of this article

Additional Resource

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

“Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators: A Guide to RSS and More”, by Quentin D’Souza

Summary

While D’Souze’s guide is not technically a research article, it provides an excellent starting point for discussion on the application of Web 2.0 applications to teaching and learning in higher education.

The number of Web 2.0 applications freely available to educators is unknown, but likely numbers in the thousands, if not more. This guide focuses primarily on Web 2.0 tools and services that contributed to the rise of Web 2.0. This includes RSS (Really Simple Syndication), blogs, social bookmarking, wikis, and podcasting. RSS syndication plays the most prominent role in the guide. D’Souze views RSS as the “glue” which connects various Web 2.0 tools, providing automation and efficiency in managing and assessing student work, as well as group projects.

In addition to the suite of applications mentioned above, the author provides brief overviews of additional Web 2.0 applications such as video sharing (e.g. YouTube, Jumpcut, etc.), e-portfolios, RSS aggregators, collaborative documents (e.g. Google Docs, Zohowriter, etc.), collaborative spread sheets (e.g. Google spread sheets, Numsum, etc.), to-do list managers (e.g. 43 Things, Ta-da lists, etc.), online note taking (e.g. Notemesh, Mynoteit, etc.), online presentations (e.g. Gliffy, Mayomi, Google Presentations, etc.), online calendars, and newsgroups. The guide is written from the view of a K-12 educator, but provides plenty of ideas for use of the tools discussed in a higher education setting.

Commentary

Our discussion revolved around the practical and cultural challenges facing higher education faculty who may want to integrate Web 2.0 tools into their courses. Issues that topped the list of challenges included: faculty work load, selecting the appropriate Web 2.0 tool, student privacy, and assessment.
A major obstacle to faculty adoption of any new technology is the associated learning curve as well as the perceived return on investment of their time and effort. Part of the core mission of our department is to help and support faculty in developing proficiency with new tools and offering guidance in the appropriate application of the tool to the teaching and learning process. We generally agree that simpler is better, and would encourage faculty to use only the tools that provide the greatest benefit to student learning outcomes, and that do not require unreasonable effort to manage. It may be beneficial for faculty if we develop a taxonomy of Web 2.0 tools, connecting the tool to categories of learning strategies, or cognitive outcomes (ala Bloom’s).

By law universities are required to protect student privacy, and the use of Web 2.0 tools on the internet will require careful planning and development of “rules” guiding how students refer to themselves, and each other in the online environment. This can be easily accomplished by providing clear, written instructions for online writing and interaction, and employing students, or student groups to monitor and report/enforce communication guidelines. It may be possible to make conformity to communication guidelines part of the overall assessment process for each assignment.

Assessing work performed using Web 2.0 tools may present a challenge when the work performed goes beyond a typical individual writing assignment. For example, creating a wiki, or group assignments using a collaborative tool, or integrating images or video into a creative assignment. Development of a rubric for more complex assignments represents a fair amount of pre-course time and effort by the instructor. If there is one major omission in D’Souze’s guide, it is in the area of assessment. He provides no indication of the types of learning outcomes addressed by each tool, nor and discussion of the implications of assessment work load or methodology.

In spite of this omission, the guide does provide instructors with valuable information on how the tools work, and how individuals can set up each of the tools for personal experimentation.

R. M.

D’Souze, Q. (n.d.). Web 2.0 ideas for educators: A guide to RSS and more. Retrieved October 1, 2008 from http://www.teachinghacks.com/files/100ideasWeb2educators.pdf

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