Top 10 Reasons for Mobile Learning

1. Stop Turning Out Technology Disadvantaged Alumni
By using older technologies (like portal-based systems) students are being taught with archaic technologies. Yet they are using cutting-edge technology for all other parts of their lives (instant messaging, sharing music, online gaming, etc). This is the experience of students using Blackboard discussion boards after using blogs and text messaging.

2. The Network Ate My Homework
When depending on server portal solutions, like logging into a university portal, there are always network problems (network went down half way through my quiz, etc). By sending information directly to a student’s mobile device (or a teacher’s), there is no system to crash or network traffic overload to stop the information from being transferred.

3. Services Not Available
This is also known as server overload, we see it at the beginning of every semester or late at night before a large assignment is due. The only solution to this problem in the old system is to add more and more servers to the data center. However, when you add more servers, more people will use them and the problem will never be solved. By transferring information directly from mobile device to mobile device there is no problem with overload, even during peak times. All you have to have is someone making sure the network is working (and that responsibility can be give to a professional service provider like Comcast).

4. Cost to Re-format Content for Online Use
When materials are stored on web portals, all of the content must be converted into webpage files (HTML). Based on a project done for the US government, there is a 60% addition to cost by having to convert everything to HTML.* The good of a “gateway” LMS is that it is a common place to get media. The bad is that converting the original format of the content to the gateway’s preferred format (ie. a word document, a video, etc.) requires a lot of time and effort. The better way is to get the files “downstream” directly instead of uploading, just to download them again (creating a “gateway” bottleneck).

5. Poorly Informed Campus Community
A major problem with using traditional websites or portal environments is that they require students to check in to see if something has been updated. This can take a lot of time and it is very easy to miss details. This should not be the responsibility of the user anyway. Instead, by using a mobile paradigm a notification would be sent directly to the user (like an aggregator for a blog).

6. Speed Learning Impossible
Network latency guarantees 50% reduction in students consumption rate. This can be seen in an example of a teacher who had been given broadband but still had to download everything on the computer due to the lag time on the network.

7. Learning System Educed Labor
Systems that force students and teachers to upload and re-enter content into the learning systems are a great waste of student and instructor time. A prefect example of this is the time it takes to enter dates into the Blackboard course calendar.

8. Partial Brain Learning
Creativity is limited when teachers and students must comply to learning system methodology to conduct learning activities. An example of this would be forcing teachers to use the tools in LiveText even though they do not allow for the flexibility they need for a successful learning experience.

9. Disadvantaging the Disadvantaged
The portal solution, and the forced repeated downloading it requires, makes it very difficult for students with slower connections to receive the information. “The people who need education the most are those who are least capable of having a broadband link.”

10. Cost and Impact of Wasting Bandwidth
Bandwidth is wasted when the same information is downloaded more than once by the same user. An example of this would be a student checking the course syllabus every couple of days. The document hasn’t changed, yet the student must download it to view it because it is stored on Blackboard and not sent to the student’s local machine.

University of Iowa Library, uses the lynda.com services to provide access to a multitude of technology information. It’s obvious they grasp the concept of online instruction and prove that through The Seven Principles of Online Instruction.

http://www.anatomyarcade.com/

http://learnscratch.org/

http://www.bjiao.com/tel7001/book/Games.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/west/

http://www.gamesforchange.org/game_categories/education/

There are such great resources available to teachers with technology we have now. What better way to increase knowledge by building upon past experiences, than with games. I hate to admit that most of the ones I played were often quite a challenge. I guess that’s my excuse to practice.

In ETCV 510 – Learning Theory for Instructional Design, we’re discussing constructivism and the impact in plays in the classroom. The idea is that learning is constructed by building upon previous experiences. As learners we add upon our current foundation of knowledge as we progress to the next level.

Of course I must put a library spin on every topic in this program.  ALA Tech Source writes about Rock On! Celebrating the Library and Learning. A group of students from Pitt Library grad school ran into some challenges as they took on the project of creating a video for National Library Week. They were forced to build upon their prior knowledge as they ran into many struggles during the process. They demonstrate constructivism in action as they learned to jump through the hurdles of copyright, effective marketing strategies and the film-making process.

The above graphic comes from Wired Librarian, who does a great job explaining the importance of constructivism and technology integration in a school library.

 

Google Calendar has been necessary for my survival in school. It acted as a nagging parent interrupting my t.v. time, always laying the guilt on thick so I would get my homework finished. The ability to sync the calendar with my iPad and Blackberry has been a lifesaver. I used this by scheduling reminders for meetings, sharing information with other users and setting up recurring appointments. I haven’t used this product in my library position yet, but I’m sure if our department used this to schedule meetings, goals, etc we would all benefit from the increased organization. Other tips can be found below.

Overdrive Reader: Check out downloadable books from from your local library for free. A library card is required.

Teacher Tube: Formatted similarly to YouTube, this site provides educational videos for teachers and librarians.

TedTalks: Non-profit group designed to share ‘ideas worth spreading’. They provide online access to talks focusing on a variety of topics in entertainment, technology and design to inspire and educate.

Dropbox: Set your files free to float in the cloud, or share with colleagues and friends.

Twitter: Keep up to date with library news in 140 characters.

Offline Pages: Save the web pages you’re reading as you go about your day, in case you lose your wifi connection.

GoodReader: A great pdf viewer, if you’re not a fan of using iBook.

Wikipanion: For those generic quick reference questions that don’t require thorough verification of information.

Moodboard: For those librarians involved in design or prefer a visual when working with subject guides.

Keynote: For creating and sharing presentations.

Scott Brown, http://www.socialinformationgroup.com/ has created a presentation on mobile apps for handheld librarians:

I guess I should tear myself away from Amazon and spend some time in the app store.