Deep learning : enriching teacher training through mobile technology and international collaboration

This article presents results from an international collaboration between college students and pre-service teachers in Norway and the UK. This research is part of a large, international project exploring and developing the interrelationship between mobile technology and teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning. Data was collected for this study through an on-line survey of 37 pre-service teachers followed by six semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The data analysis revealed the themes of collaboration, authenticity and professional learning through the use of mobile technology in the data. The collaboration enabled the use of the affordances of mobile technology to enhance the pre-service teachers' professional learning and the data suggested that this enhanced their emergent conceptions of teaching and learning

Mobile Game Based Learning: Can it enhance learning of marginalized peer educators?

This paper describes an investigatory project to pilot an SMS based game to enhance the training of peer educators of MSM (Males having Sex with Males) groups in India. The objective of this research was to increase the efficacy of the MSM peer educators by bridging the gap between the training needs and their real life experiences. An SMS based game was designed using participatory approaches as a learning support, upholding their real life experiences in game form. The game was designed on an existing platform which provides text role-play games accessed through SMS messages. This paper examines the learning benefits. The findings show that after the intervention the peer educators had better understanding of peer education and organizational support. They also learnt to think critically

The Sense-it App: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning

The authors describe the design and formative evaluation of a sensor toolkit for Android smartphones and tablets that supports inquiry-based science learning. The Sense-it app enables a user to access all the motion, environmental and position sensors available on a device, linking these to a website for shared crowd-sourced investigations. The authors describe the four investigations with the toolkit: environmental noise, sunlight levels, air pressure and rainfall, and the speed of lifts (elevators). These show a variety of methods to initiate, orchestrate and conclude inquiry-based science learning. Two of the missions are in the context of a study to develop a community of inquiry around weather and meteorology. The others are intended to engage members of the public in practical science activities. Analysis of the missions and the associated online discussions reveals that the Sense-it toolkit can be adopted for engaging science investigations, though the practical issue of calibrating sensors on personal devices needs to be addressed

‘It’s Almost Like Talking to a Person’: Student Disclosure to Pedagogical Agents in Sensitive Settings.

This paper presents findings of a pilot study which used pedagogical agents to examine disclosure in educational settings. The study used responsive evaluation to explore how use of pedagogical agents might affect students’ truthfulness and disclosure by asking them to respond to a lifestyle choices survey delivered by a web-based pedagogical agent. Findings indicate that emotional connection with pedagogical agents were intrinsic to the user’s sense of trust and therefore likely to affect levels of truthfulness and engagement. The implications of this study are that truthfulness, personalisation and emotional engagement are all vital components in using pedagogical agents to enhance online learning

A student-generated video careers project: Understanding the learning processes in and out of the classroom

Copyright © 2018, IGI Global. This article describes how in recent years, the multimedia recording capabilities of mobile devices have been used increasingly to create a more active, learner-centred educational experience. Despite the proven value of student-generated multimedia projects, there are still gaps in our understanding of how students learn during them. This article reports on a project in which first-year information technology students interviewed IT professionals in their workplace and video-recorded the interview to enable sharing with their peers. In order to understand the statistically significant increases found in students' learning, student diaries and reflections were analyzed qualitatively. Factors found to contribute to learning included: the iterative nature of student activities; the multiple, evolving representations of knowledge as students proceeded through the project; the importance of the workplace context in engaging students and enhancing learning; the affordance of mobile technology for capturing and sharing this context; and the collaborative and metacognitive processes fostered by the project

Designing an educator toolkit for the mobile learning age

Copyright © 2018, IGI Global. Mobile technologies have been described as ‘boundary’ objects which enable teachers and learners to transcend many of the barriers such as rigid schedules and spaces which have hitherto characterised traditional forms of education. However, educators need to better understand how to design learning scenarios which genuinely exploit the unique pedagogical affordances of mobile technologies rather than replicating existing patterns and modes of behaviour. This article describes the design and development of a mobile learning toolkit for educators to realise this vision. It presents the theoretical underpinnings for the toolkit and describes the development of different tools, instruments and resources. The main aim of the toolkit is to help teacher educators and teachers build knowledge and understanding of more diverse mobile pedagogical approaches

The Use of Reusable Learning Objects to Enhance the Delivery of Veterinary Education: A Literature Review

The increased demand from learners in higher education to access resources flexibly has resulted in considerable development in the use of Reusable Learning Objects (RLO) via a blended learning format across the sector. This critical review sets out to identify what is currently known about RLO and how those concepts can be applied to veterinary-related degree courses. The review provides an insight into an aspect of blended learning which is currently limited in terms of published research. The effect of computer confidence, students' choice to use and the impact on student performance are some of the variables which have been measured to date. The approach to RLO by students from different courses may vary, but prior experience of technology, alignment of content and availability of technical support are some of the key drivers for usage and reuse. A positive effect is likely to occur following RLO use because those students have adopted a process of active engagement, which the authors know can bring about a deeper approach to learning

Using Mobile Devices to Facilitate Student Questioning in a Large Undergraduate Science Class

Asking scientific questions is the first practice of science and engineering listed in the Next Generation Science Standards. However, getting students to ask unsolicited questions in a large class can be difficult. In this qualitative study, undergraduate students sent SMS text messages to the instructor who received them on his mobile phone and via Google Glass. Using observations, coding of texts, and interviews, the researchers investigated the types and level of questions students asked and the perceptions of the instructor and TAs on how the messages were received. From the findings of this study, it is evident that students asked a wide variety of question types and levels. It would appear that important distinctions between voice and text questions are that: (a) a shy or insecure questioner can remain anonymous; (b) questions can be asked in an interactive, but not interruptive manner; (c) there is no time limit to answering questions; and (d) the record of questions on the instructor\u27s phone can be used to guide revision of lecture notes for future semesters

Assessing mobile mixed reality affordances as a comparative visualization pedagogy for design communication

Spatial visualisation skills and interpretation are critical in the design professions but are difficult for novice designers. There is growing evidence that mixed reality visualisation improves learner outcomes, but often these studies are focused on a single media representation and not on a comparison between media and the underpinning learning outcomes. Results from recent studies highlight the use of comparative visualisation pedagogy in design through learner reflective blogs and pilot studies with experts, but these studies are limited by expense and designs familiar to the learner. With increasing interest in mobile pedagogy, more assessment is required in understanding learner interpretation of comparative mobile mixed reality pedagogy. The aim of this study is to do this by evaluating insights from a first-year architectural design classroom through studying the impact and use of a range of mobile comparative visualisation technologies. Using a design-based research methodology and a usability framework for accessing comparative visualisation, this paper will study the complexities of spatial design in the built environment. Outcomes from the study highlight the positives of the approach but also the improvements required in the delivery of the visualisations to improve on the visibility and visual errors caused by the lack of mobile processing