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Research Strand Abstracts

The Peer Review Committee for reviewing abstracts submitted to the conference comprised leading academics and researchers in the field of mobile learning:

  • Professor Mike Sharples, Univeristy of Nottingham
  • Professor John Traxler, University of Wolverhampton
  • Professor Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, The Open University
  • Seb Schmoller, Chief Executive of the Association for Learning and Technology, and a Governor of The Sheffield College
  • Dr Vanessa Pittard, Director of Evidence and Evaluation, Becta
  • Andy Black, Technology Research Manager, Becta
  • Dr Jocelyn Wishart, University of Bristol
  • Dr Giasemi Vavoula, University of Leicester
  • Dr Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez, Trinity College, Dublin
  • Dan Sutch, Senior Researcher, Futurelab
  • Claire Bradley, Research Fellow, London Metropolitan University

And also comprised LSN’s researchers working in the field of mobile learning:

  • Jill Attewell, Programme Manager, MoLeNET
  • Dr Carol Savill-Smith, Senior Researcher, MoLeNET
  • Rebecca Douch, Researcher, MoLeNET

Below are the abstracts accepted for presentation at the conference:

 

Best Practice in Lifelong Mobile Learning

Robert Farrow, Agnes Kukulska-Hulme, Alice Peasgood, John Pettit

Open University, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

MOTILL, which stands for “Mobile Technologies in Lifelong Learning: best practices”, is a one year project. The key concepts in MOTILL are Lifelong Learning and Mobile Technologies. The MOTILL project brings together evidence to investigate the impact of mobile technologies on learning activities which transcend, for example, age, social status, economic level, gender or ethnic origin.  The widespread use of mobile technologies in all EU countries offers an opportunity to develop policies aimed at participation and social inclusion. The MOTILL project aims to promote this type of integration.  Although the education community has indicated that mobile learning is likely to be an important part of future lifelong learning strategies, national policies have yet to take significant steps toward integrating lifelong learning and mobile technologies.  In this presentation we contextualise the MOTILL project from both European and UK policy perspectives before describing the range of support that mobile technology can offer lifelong learners. We go on to outline the evidence base being developed by the project – including the Scientific Annotated Review Database (SARD) and the Best Practices Collection (BPC) – and the ways in which this could support developing initiatives. The final part of the talk is given over to critical assessment, including words of caution about the idea of ‘best practice’ and the challenges surrounding the attempt to influence education policy in the UK.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of their colleagues in the MOTILL project. A full list of those involved may be found at http://www.motill.eu. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. The information published reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

KEYWORDS

Best practice, lifelong learning, education policy

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Robert Farrow works as Research Assistant on the Mobile Technologies in Lifelong Learning (MOTILL) project. Prior to joining the Open University he taught philosophy at the University of Essex, where he recently completed his PhD thesis. Robert's research interests are primarily in ethics, social and political philosophy, and pedagogy; his PhD work is concerned with the normative idea of 'social pathology', particularly as explored in contemporary critical theory. He is currently working on the relationship between autonomy and technology, and the role of autonomy in lifelong learning.   Robert is an Associate Member of the Higher Education Academy.

 

The use of video cameras as a teaching and learning tool

Julia Dando

Cornwall College, St Austell, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Following on from our first year MoLeNET project Cornwall College wanted to look at whether it was possible to improve the performance and achievement of learners directly as a result of using mobile technologies and also how easy it was to embed these technologies into the curriculum.

Focusing on the use of video cameras as a review and assessment tool the project targeted several curriculum areas to study the effects of using the mobile technology. The main areas of focus were teacher training, learners with moderate learning difficulties, and work-based learners. A number of video cameras were distributed to staff working in these areas and they were used extensively over a period of approximately 3 months.

Staff were interviewed towards the end of the project to feedback their findings. There was an overwhelming positive response to the use of the video cameras, particularly with the learners with moderate learning difficulties. Examples of significant improvement were observed, particularly in terms of perception and understanding of non-tangible concepts such as the meanings of aggressionorteamwork. The use of video as a review tool also encouraged learners to self-evaluate and was considered very successful in doing so.

The majority ofstaff and learners involved in the project reported that embedding the use of video cameras into the curriculum was relatively easy in most cases and that the learners enjoyed using them and benefited from their use.

KEYWORDS

Video cameras, embedding, improving performance

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Julia Dando has been involved with ILT and eLearning for around 14 years and has been the eLearning Development Manager at Cornwall College for the past 5 years. She has been involved with numerous regional, national and International projects and initiatives and was an NLN ILT Mentor for 2 years with Becta. Julia also has extensive experience as a project manager and has been managing the MoLeNET projects at Cornwall College over the last 2 years.

 

Going Wild with XDA Mantles and Wild Knowledge

Michelle Brabner, Sandra Taylor, Tim Crowther

Ashton Under Lyne Sixth Form College, Ashton Under Lyne, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The ‘Learning in the Mobile World' project at Ashton Sixth Form College during the Molenet 2 programme involved 32 staff and over 180 students with allocated mobile devices.  All of the students involved were full time 16-19 learners, studying courses ranging from Level 1 to Level 3.

The whole student population benefited from the installation of the wi-fi network across the entire college campus (in excess of 2000 16-19 yrs students). Specifically Level 3 Public Services students used XDA Mantles with Wild Knowledge applications to record evidence of some of their practical work for a unit on the National Diploma course. Two groups of Level 3 year 1 students were involved in the project - one being a control group - and the devices and software being used with the group having the most challenging students. The Wild Knowledge applications used were WildForm and WildMap. The form application was used to create a data capture form for the evidence for each of the orienteering points visited. The map application was used to create the map and reference the orienteering points to be visited.  At each point on the map the form was attached to allow for the recording of their visit to that point.  Ashton Sixth Form College was the first to use the Wild Knowledge Software with students for orienteering tasks.

Of the students in the test group, 100% passed the assessed unit in which the devices were utilised, compared to 94% in the control group. It is anticipated that, after external moderation in the test group, 69% of the students will achieve grades of MM or above. This compares to 50% in the control group. In the previous academic year 5% of students failed to successfully complete the unit, and 26% achieved MM or above.

The data therefore suggestsan improvement in achievement across both of the groups, with a greater improvement in the sample group that utilised the XDA Mantles with the Wild Knowledge software.

KEYWORDS

Wild Knowledge, Mantles, data capture

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Michelle Brabner is a Curriculum Director at ASFC and works closely with staff involved in e and mLearning. Technology is not her speciality; however innovation in teaching and learning is her passion.

Sandra Taylor is the ILT Co-ordinator for the college, and is highly regarded by college staff, students and the wider eLearning community as a driving force in e and mLearning development.

Tim Crowther is a dedicated IT and Public Services teacher, who is committed to developing engaging and motivating teaching materials drawing on new technologies. Tim was the ‘man on the ground’ using the Wild Knowledge software and XDA Mantles.

 

Covering the angles - a multi-pronged approach to staff development

Julia Duggleby, Dave Pickersgill

The Sheffield College, Sheffield, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

In our presentation we aim to describe the various approaches taken within the Sheffield College in order to ensure that staff were engaged in a short-term MoLeNET project; engagement that would very quickly enable them to use a range of m-devices.  Staff skills needed to be developed in two complementary areas:

  • The technical skills needed to use m-devices
  • The pedagogical skills needed to deploy such m-devices effectively in teaching and learning

Our MoLeNET 2 project brought almost 1000 devices into the college. There was take-up from 27 curriculum areas. The MoLeNET project also coincided with the early stages of a phased move to a new college building with a much improved technical infrastructure. Together, MoLeNET and the new build provided the focus that was required in order for change to happen quickly.

MoLeNET also involved research in the impact of the project, with one of the research questions addressing the m-skills development of staff.  At the start of the project staff completed a skills audit, and the development of staff skills was monitored and measured via case studies, interviews and questionnaires.

The presentation will disseminate the results of the findings into skills development, reporting on the skills gained, and also on the impact of the various approaches taken to staff training in a relatively short space of time. These approaches included events, drop-ins, master classes, an online community of practice, and one-to-one interaction. In particular it will look at the CAMEL (Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning) model of establishing a community of practice, and the role of peer support, both formal and informal, in the building of staff confidence and competence with m-learning.

Post-16 staff are inevitably busy, with full and complicated timetables, making effective staff development in e- and m-learning a challenge for institutions. This presentation will be of interest to both managers and practitioners as it will explore how it is possible to successfully develop the skills of a busy workforce in a short space of time.

KEYWORDS

CAMEL, eCPD, staff training

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Julia Duggleby works for the Sheffield College’s Online College, and was Lead Researcher for the MoLeNET 2 project. Since 1995 she has been involved in e-learning, particularly course development, and the skills needed to design and deliver e-learning.  She wrote “How to be an online tutor” (Gower, 2000) and is Secretary of the European Net-Trainers Association.

Dave Pickersgill managed the Sheffield College MoleNET 2 project, and is the college’s Senior Projects Manager.  He has over thirty years' teaching experience and is involved in a large number of developments.  He has delivered LeTTOL (Learning to Teach Online) for over ten years.

 

Mylearningtube: supporting learning with user generated video

Peter Kilcoyne

Worcester College of Technology, Worcester, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Worcester College of Technology has been working with other Herefordshire and Worcestershire colleges to develop and use a video sharing platform: www.mylearningtube.co.uk. This is a YouTube-type platform based on the open source product osTube.

Learners and tutors in the College have been provided with easy to use ‘Disgo’ camcorders.  These are point and shoot devices with USB connectors for easy uploading. Staff have been trained in the use of the camcorders, mylearningtube and Windows Movie Maker.Tutors have beenencouraged to create video-based learning resources themselves and to develop learning activities where learners can create and upload content. User generated content developed by learners has included videos of trips, evidence of skills, course evaluations and presentations.

The presentation will cover how the project was planned and implemented and will include a live demonstration of the camcorders and the www.mylearningtube.co.uk platform as well as examples of videos uploaded by both tutors and learners.

KEWORDS

Video, streaming, sharing

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Peter Kilcoyne has been Director of ILT at Worcester College of Technology for 3 years. Prior to that Peter worked for 6 years at West Midlands RSC as the ILT Curriculum Advisor. Before working at the RSC Peter has had 14 years experience teaching and managing in both HE and FE.

 

Use of mobile phones for spoken language learning: Australian and Irish case studies

Gavin Cooney

Learnosity, Drogheda, Ireland

ABSTRACT

The teaching of spoken language skills is generally considered to be difficult. There are many constraints to student learning:

  • Teachers only have a very limited amount of time to spend with each student in one-on-one scenarios
  • There is limited ability to 'record and review' for the benefit of both student and teacher
  • Students do not have the ability to review their conversations with teachers

In 2007, in an attempt to promote the use of oral Irish language, the Irish Minister for Education and Science announced a significant change to the proportion of marks awarded for oral (spoken) Irish in the State examinations. Further to this, Learnosity worked as technology partner in an exciting mobile learning project initiated by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) and the governing body for the Irish language (Foras na Gaeilge). One of the aims of the mobile learning pilot project was to ascertain whether ICT, including mobile technology, could facilitate school-based oral learning and assessment. This project was very successful, and continued in the 2008/2009 academic year (http://bit.ly/ncca).

This mobile language learning platform has since been deployed in a large-scale pilot project conducted by the Australian government, in the teaching and learning of the Indonesian language. Students involved in this project showed significant improvements in spoken language abilities. The results of this project (http://bit.ly/tlf-mall) will be outlined in the presentation.  With oral language fluency of the utmost importance to secondary language acquisition, these projects focus on verbal abilities, allowing students to use any phone to dial into a voice application, and answer a series of voice-based questions. It also allows students to communicate 1-2-1 in real time (using voice or text), allowing them to use the target language in role-plays based on real life scenarios.  This session will outline the findings of the Irish and Australian projects, as well as preliminary findings from various additional deployments in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, and Australia. This includes a deployment at the Open University in distance learning with French language university students. It is intended to give an up to the minute review, focusing on projects not previously discussed at conferences; notably the findings of the Irish government project.  The session will also include the opportunity to participate in a live hands-on demonstration of the learning tools.

KEYWORDS

Language, phone, speaking

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Gavin Cooney is founder and CEO of Learnosity, an award winning specialist e-learning solutions provider working with major public and private sector clients worldwide. Gavin worked closely with the Irish and Australian federal governments, to develop an innovative phone based platform used in the learning and assessment of spoken language skills. Gavin is passionate about both education and technology, and strives to continue to develop systems using the very latest technologies and learning and assessment approaches in a practical and scalable way. Prior to founding Learnosity, Gavin lectured Information Systems in University College Dublin.

 

Teachers’ motivation factors in the success of mobile learning: what we learnt

Marco Arrigo, Davide Taibi, Manuel Gentile, Giovanni Fulantelli, Luciano Seta, Onofrio Di Giuseppe

Italian National Research Council, Palermo, Italy

ABSTRACT

Many researchers have proven that motivational factors can play an important role in the success of a mobile learning experience. Although in looking at the literature this aspect is generally considered from the students' point of view, we have noticed, through two years of mobile learning experience in Italy, that motivational factors also influence the teachers' involvement and the results of their work. In particular, we have studied how the use of mobile technologies influences teachers’ work considering their behaviour as non digital natives in a digital native environment.

In our project called MoULe (Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning), we identified two main phases in which the teachers were involved. Firstly, during the design phase, teachers participated in the definition of the educational path that students follow during the mobile experience.  Secondly, teachers followed students during in-situ and classroom experiences.
None of the teachers participating in the project had experience in designing mobile learning experiences, moreover most of them had poor familiarity with new technologies, especially mobile devices, and with the possibilities that these devices can offer to support learning activities. For these reasons, in both phases, teachers were guided by researchers in learning new methodologies for mobile educational design and using innovative smartphones for education. Even in the second phase, which was closer than the first one to the traditional activities, they experienced some difficulties due to issues related to computer-mediated communication.

From our experience, we observed an initial inertia in the use of new technologies and some difficulties in the thinking of experiences and activities where the use of mobile devices could support learning. However, during the MoULe experience their approach to designing learning activities changed such that it incorporated  activities suitable for mobile learning.
At the end of the experience teachers expressed a positive interest regarding the project, with increased knowledge in designing mobile learning experiences, and also, they observed that students matched the prefixed learning objectives they designed in the first phase.

In conclusion, we have observed that some of the motivational factors are similar both for teachers and students - such as a desire to exercise control over learning aims, a feeling of ownership of the materials produced, a sense of enjoyment, and the chance to develop more meaningful dialogue within the class.

KEYWORDS

Mobile learning, teachers’ education, learning methodologies

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Manuel Gentile received a Laurea degree in Informatics Engineering from the University of Palermo in November, 2002.  He is a researcher at the Italian National Research Council, Institute for Educational Technologies. His main research fields include design, representation and management of learning resources, educational processes and ontologies, with particular focus on mobile learning and collaborative production, sharing and organisation of learning objects.  He is involved in several research projects both national and international and is contract professor at the University of Palermo.

 

Mobile phone appropriation and pedagogical mediation by students in educational contexts

Adelina Moura, Ana Amélia Carvalho

University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

ABSTRACT

In the last few years there has been an increasing interest in exploring the use of mobile technologies to support learning. Mobiledevices are particularly appropriate for supporting individual and collaborativelearning. Drawing on the premise that knowledge has neither place nor appointed time we focussed our study on the following questions:

  • What impact will mobile technologies have on individual and collaborative learning?
  • Could mobile technology help change the students' perception towards school and teaching?

To achieve the goals of this project we outlined the following objectives:

  • Analysis of the students' mobile phone appropriation as learning tools
  • Assessment of how the mobile phone mediates learning
  • Studying the mobile technology implications in learning: creating learning strategies and monitoring within and outside the classroom.

We carried out a study looking at how the mobile phone has been used in different learning settings as a learning tool within and outside a secondary school classroom, both in Portuguese and French languages. Drawing on study goals and the conditions for the implementation of this research, we opted for principally a qualitative research methodology, involving a range of data collection techniques (questionnaires, interviews, focus group, observations, and diaries).

This study includes four case studies that examine the use of the mobile phone in the following contexts: i) as a repository of learning content; ii) as a production tool for writing and reading and exploring multimedia features (audio, video and image; iii) as an SMS-based learning scenario.  The analysis of the four case studies focused on an understanding of two concepts: tool appropriation and tool mediation. In our study we pointed out how mobile phones were appropriated as a learning tool by students, and how they mediated (changed) the learning activities created to support it. The Activity Theory principles helped us to frame the analysis in our study. The Activity Theory was used in our analysis to help us to identify the socio-cultural factors that influenced the process of mobile phone appropriation and help to determine how mobile mediated activities introduced new possibilities.  To achieve the objectives we have outlined a set of educational activities that were developed during the academic year and extra lessons that were supported by students who own mobile phones. Outcomes showed that students' competences (writing and reading) in French language had benefited from mobile phone use and students' engagement in learning Portuguese and French languages was enhanced. We noted an increase in students' motivation in both individual and collaborative learning.

KEYWORDS

Mobile learning, appropriation, mediation

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Adelina Moura is currently enrolled at the University of Minho working towards a PhD in Education, focusing on Educational Technologies - Mobile Learning. She has a Master's degree in Education.  She also has a specialised Diploma in School Management as well as a Bachelor of Education on the Portuguese and French teaching, from the University of Minho, Portugal.

 

Using the world as an interface: augmenting contexts for development to absorb, transform and reuse information

Carl Smith, John Cook, Claire Bradley

Learning Technology Research Institute, London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Mobile technology has increased our ability to: capture, collaborate, socialise, appropriate, re-define, publish, and network, but formal teaching methods are now out of sync with what is happening in informal learning settings. There are a number of unique educational affordances of mobile devices, such as increased portability, functional convergence of technologies, social interactivity, context sensitivity, connectivity and individuality.  In terms of context sensitivity, an important affordance is that of digital augmentation, whereby contextual data is added to objects and activities to enable deeper understanding.

The CONTSENS project investigates the use of mobile wireless technologies for context sensitive education and training. The project involves a European-wide consortium and is funded by the EU Leonardo Lifelong Learning Programme. Context sensitive education and training refers to training material which is directly relevant to the training situation. Location based education and training refers to material which is directly relevant to the location in which the students find themselves. Using established technologies such as GPS and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and developing for newer technologies such as AR (Augmented Reality), and Mobile Positioning, training content has been developed for both context sensitive and location based delivery.

The project has developed a series of mobile learning applications that have been tested and evaluated. The first involved training urban planners by exploring their knowledge and understanding of urban education in a meaningful context. An urban area close to London Metropolitan University was used to explore how schools are signifiers of both urban change and continuity of educational policy and practice. The application provides evidence of how the organisation and re/structuring of urban space worked alongside educational discourses and policies. The intention was to examine the community from the past, in order to engage, understand and inform the present, as urban space and society becomes made and remade.

The second application focuses on the production of materials for training archaeologists. A series of reconstructed 3D models of a heritage site were used to explore the question of whether more can be learnt about a specific building or style of architecture if that building is itself treated as an interface. The units and the process of construction are imbedded into the models to enable real time excavation on site using GPS and AR. The subsequent process of data-mining hierarchies of evidence (intellectual transparency) in the quest for constituent parts, key narratives and evolutions of form was made possible.

In the presentation we will demonstrate the applications alongside the results from the testing and evaluation. The talk will conclude by exploring the generality of our approach for context-sensitive learning.

KEYWORDS

Augmented reality, contextual learning, data mining

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Carl Smith is a developer and researcher for the Learning Technology Research Institute. His recent work has concentrated on exploiting the various ways that computer-based modelling can be used in the design, construction and generation of RLOs (Reusable Learning Objects) and MLOs (Mobile Learning Objects). His primary research involves the investigation of these micro forms of learning from the point of view of their units of construction - to see across the whole range of constituent parts, schemas and key narratives involved in their successful development and application. His other research interests include pattern recognition and mixed reality.

http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/developers/smith/

 

Preparing for independence, progression and employabilty:the use of mobile learning technologies to assist learners to move on

Titilola Olukoga, Kevin Carrick

The Manchester College, Manchester, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The Manchester College was formed in August 2008 through the merger of The Manchester College of Arts and Technology and City College Manchester. The two former colleges had participated in the MoLeNET 1 programme as part of a collaborative project with two other north west colleges. MoLeNET 2 was seen as an opportunity to bring staff from the two merged colleges together in using mobile learning technologies to develop innovative approaches to helping our learners and the new college move forward.

The overall aim of the project was to utilise mobile learning technologies to encourage, stimulate and motivate a range of students in developing the higher level skills they needed to gain employment, move to higher qualifications and in some cases gaining self-confidence and life coping skills.

The project used a wide range of technologies in a number of different contexts for learning, focusing on four particular cohorts:

  • A Skills for Life Group where iPod Touches, Nintendo DS-Lites, PlayStation Portables, NetBooks, HeadCams / Recorders and MP4Players were used by learners and staff to generate personalised and small group learning experiences. Through the technology students accessed and generated resources to assist them with improving literacy, numeracy, communication and social skills.
  • An ESOL group, many of who were academically able but lacking in confidence in working in, and learning through, English. This group became authors and producers of resources to help each other to develop skills, as well as using devices to record themselves practising and improving their English language skills.
  • A NEETs group on the level 2 IT and Media programme that had been identified as having previous failed learning experiences. Similar courses in previous years had encountered poor retention and classroom behavioural issues. Through the use of mobile technology, learners were able undertake roles of reporters and researchers to obtain primary source information and produce materials and resources for their projects, enabling them to work and learn outside the classroom.
  • A level 3 IT Diploma group. The "newness" of this course cried out for the use of mobile learning technology and their contribution to the MOLENET 2 project did not disappoint. The learners and staff on the course not only designed and created new curriculum materials but also the way in which teaching and learning took place. Included in this was video streaming and podcasting of presentations to PS3s, and PSPs and iPAQs.

The successes of the project were captured through research using interviews with learners and staff, allowing the learners speak for themselves through MoLeTV (www.moletv.org.uk). In the words of one tutor "there is no going back"

KEYWORDS

Innovation, engagement, achievement

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Kevin Carrick is Head of Learning Resources at The Manchester College, with responsibility for ensuring learning resources centres, e-learning services and eCPD developments fully support the curriculum and business needs of the college.  He has experience in promoting e-learning through previous roles as Innovation and Development Manager with Buckinghamshire Adult Learning, ILT Development Manager with Amersham and Wycombe College and Advisory Teacher for Teaching and Learning Styles in 14-19 Education with Barnet LEA.  His special interest in learning and technology is to discover ways of enabling learners to achieve where traditional methods have failed.

 

In at the deep end?

Alan Graham MBA BA Ed (Hons) Dip. M

Gloucestershire College, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

1998 saw my first venture into using a handheld device specifically to deliver staff training. A small part of an order transfer system had just enough text space to offer ‘thought-starters’ to some 450 staff operating nationally in a retail environment. This raw approach to using mobile learning grew organically until as my career led me into Further Education specialising in Management Studies. During these years several students who were in the armed forces were called ‘overseas’ and, in order to enable them to complete their studies, I created my first websiteand developed specialist materials. Faltering first steps, and all cobbled together in a world where there was not a computer on every desk or phone in every pocket, but here was auditable depth in the learning, and depth in the assessment process.

Moving into this century, two intensive years working on the MoLeNET project as lead researcher has given me insights into handheld learning in the field on a personal scale that is frankly staggering. The role led to an in-depth examination, not only of the technology-based opportunities and the learning steps made but, also, in the quality of outcomes achieved. During the last six months I have become increasingly concerned about the usage of the devices from a cultural, tutor reliance and student learning perspective. The unease comes from these three areas, environmental culture, teacher observation variables and light touch assessment, together potentially providing a driver for surface learning.

To tackle the cultural perspective it seemed appropriate to question the acceptance of a technological solution in designing the broader learning environment as ‘best practice’ when a diversity of practice might lead to a better learning outcome. The environment should be a richer picture augmented and supported but not replaced by gee-whizzery? It was observed that the usage of a myriad of bits of clever plastic is smiled upon in teacher observation, and there seems to be a drive to shoe-horn a bit of ‘techno-claptrap’ into any lesson to tick a box. Is this the best reason to incorporate technology into a learning session? The students in turn reacted to the given environment and the designed-in potential flawed composition.  Therefore do these compromises have the potential to hinder the learning process?

The initial findings demonstrate that some technology based formative and summative assessment can be too instant, too light touch, not recognising the effort that goes before… if the ‘result is instant’ why should the student not indulge in ‘instant or shallow’ learning to deliver the result? Therefore the research hinged on the depth of the learning when reliance is placed on technology based learning; this will fuel the second stage of the research.

KEYWORDS

Depth, assessment, summative

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Following a successful 25 year sales and marketing career in Blue Chip companies Alan has now spent some twelve years designing and delivering Business and Management programmes in Further and Higher Education. Alan has embraced mobile learning since 1998 and has been involved with the Molenet project for the last two years.  He is particularly interested in the depth and transferability of learning where a potential over-reliance is placed on technology based teaching and learning.

 

The use of electronic voting systems (Activote) and the mimio interactive system for community-based ESOL/employability skills training programmes

Dr Elfneh Bariso

The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the findings of an action research project on the impact of introducing an electronic voting system and the mimio interactive system into community-based ESOL/Employability skills training programmes in London, UK. The training programmes were set up to develop the language and employability skills of unemployed adults to support them to secure employment. The majority of these programmes were delivered in community centresthrough partnerships between the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and various centres in the north and east of the capital.  In order to enhance learning experiences, the researcher/tutor, used e-learning resources includingan electronic voting system and the mimio interactive system in his lessons.In the meanwhile,the researcher/tutor conducted an action research project to assess the effectiveness of e-resources applied. This paper focuses on analysing the lessons learnt from the use of these twomobile devices.  Despite technical and practical barriers, the use ofthese interactive mobile systems appeared to increase learners' motivation, positive attitude to learning andparticipation in class activities.

This was a qualitative action research project that involved one-to-one interviews with learners and lecturers at the College regarding their use of the voting system and mimio system.  In addition two focus group interviews were held including four learner interviewees each.  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with colleagues who actively integrated the use of these new technologies into delivery of their lessons.  As an action research project, this study was planned and implemented by the practitioner-researcher in collaboration with the learners.  Data was collected from learners during or after participating in technology-supported face-to-face ESOL/Employability lessons and follow up eLearning episodes or autonomous learning online. Data was also gathered from programme reviews, course evaluation reports and a research diary.

KEYWORDS

Mobile learning, voting systems, interactive systems

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY

Dr Elfneh Udessa Bariso is an ESOL/Employability Skills Programme Course Coordinator for the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London.  He teaches on the programme and conducts research projects.  His current research interests relate to lifelong learning, widening participation, e-learning and personalised learning.  Dr Bariso’s recent publications are “Personalised elearning in further education” in Technology Supported Environment for Personalised Learning: Methods and Case Studies (forthcoming) and “Factors affecting participation in adult education: a case study of participation in Hackney and Waltham Forest, London” (Studies in the Education of Adults: Spring (2008)).