Practical Issues in Mobile Education

Practitioners interested in integrating mobile technology effectively into distance learning programs need to consider both the benefits and limitations of such devices. This paper outlines some major limitations of mobile devices and suggests strategies to mitigate them such as chunking information, using appropriate organizational techniques, reducing the number of required actions, and improving ease of use. Properly planned integration of mobile technology also offers some distinct advantages. Learners can benefit from a dynamic and flexible learning environment with anywhere, anytime access to people and information. Practitioners can use these features to help learners enhance their skills in assessing the relevance and appropriateness of information for use in practical settings

The Web of Identity: Selfhood and Belonging in Online Learning Networks

In this paper, the reflexive relationship between social interaction and understanding of self in online learning networks is examined. In keeping with constructionism, we acknowledge the significance of social interaction in learning and identity formation. It is through identification with and differentiation from others that individuals are able to establish their sense of self. Therefore, a sense of self is inherently connected to one's sense of belonging within a community (-ies). Building on the work of Goffman (impressions management) and Foucault (technologies of the self), a model of identity and community formation is introduced: the Web of Identity (WoI). According to the WoI model, community members rely on technical, structural, political, cultural, and idiosyncratic perspectives coupled with performance strategies in a continuous cycle of internalization, understanding, enactment, and revision of their individual identities. We discuss how individuals construct their identities through relational dialogue and interaction in which they express, share, and build upon their histories, practices, and goals. It is an ongoing reciprocal process that constantly changes both personal and collective narratives. The combined perspectives and strategies guide the individual's behaviour, but do not completely restrict it. The individual is free to choose how to perform and may choose performances that support or contravene accepted social practices. Ideally, this process guides the individual towards cognitive resonance, a process in which he/she behaves in accordance with his/her internalized conceptions of society and self. If an individual's actions do not resonate with social expectations, accepted practices, and self, the individual may modulate his/her actions or may cause shifts in accepted practices, expectations, or self identity. Such shifts filter through the WoI performance strategies. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research in identity formation in online learning networks. We recommend study of current social networks and learning management systems to identify existing mechanisms that permit expression of WoI strategies. In addition, we recommend research into how social software systems can be developed or facilitated to encourage strategy use. Since, it is through these performances that the individual enacts his/her identity, we wish to know how, in actual practice, strategy use will affect conceptions of self and community in educational environments

A Model for Framing Mobile Learning

The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model describes mobile learning as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, human learning capacities, and social interaction. It addresses contemporary pedagogical issues of information overload, knowledge navigation, and collaboration in learning. This model is useful for guiding the development of future mobile devices, the development of learning materials, and the design of teaching and learning strategies for mobile education.AU Press: http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/12015

Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) Model: Revising the ABCs of Educational Practices

The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model was originally developed as a basis for assessing the effectiveness of mobile devices for distance learning [1]. The FRAME model is the first comprehensive theoretical model to describe mobile learning as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, human learning capacities, and social interaction. It addresses contemporary pedagogical issues of information overload, knowledge navigation, and collaborative learning. It is hoped that this model will help to guide the development of future mobile devices, the development of learning materials destined for mobile learning, and the specification of teaching and learning strategies for mobile education

The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (Frame) Model: An Evaluation of Mobile Devices for Distance Education

Supervisor: Dr. Mohamed AllyMobile technology is a new and promising area of research in distance education. Currently, there are few if any descriptive models of mobile learning that can be used to develop appropriate pedagogical practices. This thesis has two main purposes: to develop a theoretical model of mobile learning and to use the model to evaluate a set of mobile devices. The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model describes mobile learning as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, human learning characteristics, and social interaction. The devices included in this study were equipped with wireless networking capacity, but varied in size, weight, processing power, interface design, portability, as well as input and output capabilities. This study is both theoretical and evaluative, relying on a small panel of experts to review the devices. During the first phase of data collection, the experts individually evaluated each device. In the second phase, they shared their observations in a face-to-face discussion. All questionnaires and discussion questions were based on the FRAME model. The study culminates in a discussion of some of the most significant factors likely to affect mobile device usability in distance education. It also outlines other areas of research suggested by the FRAME model

Book Review of Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating Research and Practice

Book Review of Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating Research and Practic

Mobile Learning in Distance Education: Utility or Futility

Can mobile technology improve flexibility and quality of interaction for graduate students in distance programs? This paper reports the results of an innovative study exploring the usability, learning, and social interaction of mobile access to online course materials at a Canadian distance education university. Through a system called MobiGlam, students accessed Moodle course materials on a variety of mobile devices. The Framework for the Rational Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME) model (Koole, 2006) was used to examine the complexities of this mobile system, its perceived usefulness, and potential impact on distance students. The researchers recommend further study of the balance between the controls and constraints of social technologies and the needs of distance students. Is there a way to achieve a balance so as to encourage adaptation to new technologies and a greater sense of “connectedness” among learners? As a result of the study, the researchers remain supportive of “device-agnostic” mobile tools that permit the greatest freedom of choice to distance learners.Acknowledgements: Thank you to Mr. Curtis Collicutt, Mr. Darren Harkness, and Dr. Fatma Elsayed Meawad for all your technical support

Revisiting methodological issues in transcript analysis: Negotiated coding and reliability

Transcript analysis is an important methodology to study asynchronous online educational discourse. The purpose of this study is to revisit reliability and validity issues associated with transcript analysis. The goal is to provide researchers with guidance in coding transcripts. For validity reasons, it is suggested that the first step is to select a sound theoretical model and coding scheme. Particular focus is placed on exploring the advantages of the option of a negotiated approach to coding the transcript. It is concluded that researchers need to consider the advantages of negotiation when coders and researchers are not familiar with the coding scheme

Mobile Learning: Solutions & Challenges

In this session, Marguerite Koole, Fatma Elsayed Meawad, and Inge de Waard will describe two mobile learning projects: 1. A project piloting a Java-based system called “MobiGlam”. Through MobiGlam, students accessed Moodle course modules on their mobile devices. Evaluations from this 2008 project highlighted some interesting challenges in the Canadian context. 2. A mobile learning project of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander von Humboldt, Lima, Peru. Twenty physicians, deployed in urban peripheral HIV/AIDS clinics in Peru, used Smartphones with portable solar chargers to access 3D simulations of interactive clinical cases, discussion forums, and quizzes.Elluminat

Dissolving the dichotomies between online and campus‑based teaching: a collective response to The Manifesto for teaching online

This article is a collective response to the 2020 iteration of The Manifesto for Teach-ing Online. Originally published in 2011 as 20 simple but provocative statements, the aim was, and continues to be, to critically challenge the normalization of education as techno-corporate enterprise and the failure to properly account for digital methods in teaching in Higher Education. The 2020 Manifesto continues in the same critically pro-vocative fashion, and, as the response collected here demonstrates, its publication could not be timelier. Though the Manifesto was written before the Covid-19 pandemic, many of the responses gathered here inevitably reflect on the experiences of moving to digi-tal, distant, online teaching under unprecedented conditions. As these contributions reveal, the challenges were many and varied, ranging from the positive, breakthrough opportunities that digital learning offered to many students, including the disabled, to the problematic, such as poor digital networks and access, and simple digital poverty. Regardless of the nature of each response, taken together, what they show is that The Manifesto for Teaching Online offers welcome insights into and practical advice on how to teach online, and creatively confront the supremacy of face-to-face teaching