Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

Australian Communications and Media Authority Report on Adult Media Literacy

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the national agency in charge of the regulation of television, Internet, digital media, broadcasting, telecommunications and consumer protection, has recently published the findings of its study on adult media literacy.

The objective of the study, Adult Digital Media Needs (pdf), commissioned by the digital media arm of ACMA was to better understand the needs and experiences of adult Australians who have limited experience and/or access using digital media and other forms of ICT.

The study also aimed to better understand where the digital media literacy gaps and find appropriate policy initiatives to help bridge the digital divide among Australians.

Here are some of the key findings of the ACMA Report:

• Usage patterns of different types of digital media tended to be highly individual depending on people's own needs, motivations and the situated usage context;

• Limited users of digital media indicated that their unmet digital media needs are largely associated with the Internet, as they perception that learning how to use the Internet is the key to enabling them to participate more effectively in Australian society;

• People in the study were inclined to use GPS and digital map features via their computer, rather than learn how to use similar features on their mobile phone or other hand held device.

Reasons for Limited Digital Media Use

• Use of new technology is not a priority;

• Participants stated that they were afraid to give up 'traditional methods';

• Research participants held the perception that technology was too difficult and would require them to make significant changes to their lifestyle.

One of the most striking things about the ACMA report are similarities between their findings and the  research conducted by Dr. Mercedes Fisher and myself on digital and social media user motivation, retention and self-regulation. In many ways, it appears that very little has changed in the five years since we completed our study. 

For me, the report boils down to the fact that people have to be guided to the realization that technology, especially social media, is really about relationships, not technology.

Furthermore, unless people are provided with a reason to use technology in a situated and meaningful context, they will fail to integrate or adopt the use of digital media and technology into their daily lives.

ACMA has put together a very interesting and well written report that should be of interest to anyone who works in the digital media space. Many thanks to Ben O'Mara for the heads up on this terrific bit of research.

Gen Y: Mobile and Ready to Learn

The use of mobile technologies in student learning environments is growing and represents the next great frontier for learning. Increasingly we will continue to see academic and corporate research invest, design, and launch new mobile applications, many of which can be used in an educational context.

How many people use mobile technology?

At the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel outlined the explosive growth of web-based and mobile technologies. According to Semel, there are 900 million personal computers in the world. But this number pales in comparison to the 2 billion mobile phones currently being used around the world.

Even more astounding is how mobile devices are increasingly being used as the primary way in which people connect to the Internet. In fact, Semel notes that 50% of the Internet users outside the United States will most likely never use a personal computer to connect to the Internet. Rather, they will access information, connect with online learning communities, and create content for the Internet via a mobile device.

A recent study by the Irish National Teachers Organization (INTO) found that students are using their mobile phones for just about everything--except making phone calls. According to INTO, only 20% of the 671 students surveyed report using their mobiles to make phone calls, whereas 81% report using their mobile to communicate via text or IM messages.

The INTO survey seems to dovetail with the results of a 2005 Pew Internet and American Life study on teens and technology. Like their peers in Ireland, American youth preferring using IM or TM for everyday conversations with friends.

Other key findings from the Irish National Teachers Organization survey:

• 96% of 11 & 12 year old students have a mobile phone
• 60% have a camera on it
• 72 % say they use it to access the Internet
• 20% use it to make calls
• 81% use it to send texts

Recognizing the growing connection between mobile media and youth, the popular social networking community MySpace teamed with Helio to provide a mobile version that includes access to Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and various Yahoo! services.

A 2005 study conducted by the United States-based Kaiser Family Foundation found that, although 90% of teen online access occurs in the home, most Gen Y students also have web access via mobile devices such as a mobile phone (39%), portable gaming device (55%), or other web-enabled hand held device (13%).

In order to create a better and more relevant learning environment for the digital learning styles of the Gen Y student, there is a need to integrate new pedagogical strategies that support the authentic use of technology to support and foster student motivation, collaboration, and learning.

The convergence of mobile and social media technologies, on-demand content delivery and early adoption of portable media devices provides higher education with an opportunity to leverage these tools into learning environments that seem authentic to the Gen Y students filling the virtual and physical halls of the 21st century university.

If you're interested in learning more about how Gen Y uses mobile technology, be sure to attend the 2007 MashUp in San Francisco. Among the many conference sessions is a panel discussion all about youth and their love affair with cell phones and mobile technology. Sounds fascinating!

This is exactly the kind of conversation that needs to happen--especially here in the USA where our use of mobile technology to support student learning (mLearning) lags behind that of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia.

Related Resources

• Looking Forward: Thinking About mLearning
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• Leonard Low + mLearning
• MoSoSo, Gen Y & Digital Learning Styles
• MobilED
• Totally Mobile

Online Community and Identity in Virtual Learning Environments

To those unfamiliar with the social dynamics of virtual learning environments (vle), the online classroom may seem like a neutral environment devoid of human interaction, structure, or emotion.

Despite these assumptions, online instructors and course designers should be aware that students will develop an identity within an online learning community that is both individual and collective.

As students collaborate they form social ties, which in turn, motivates them to establish an identity within the group via active participation and contributions to the collective knowledge pool.

While it may run counter to traditional learning environments, teachers in the online space must learn to "step back" and provide students with the "breathing room" required for them to create and form bonds within the online learning community.

In doing so, it allows students to learn in social setting with peers, remain engaged in the topic, receive interaction feedback from peers, and also meets their need for feedback.

In addition, collaborative and interactive projects undertaken in a community structure allow students to interact with other members of the class, identify who has a particular skill or expertise they want to acquire, and provides opportunities for them to model and scaffold this knowledge with their peers.

According to Papert, these types of virtual learning environments allow students to explore and negotiate their understanding of the course content and find ways for the learning to develop a sense of intellectual identity. Through this process learners become motivated on an individual level, as well as fostering a sense of accountability to the group to continue to participate.

The learner in an online community is constructing a base of knowledge on both and individual and group level. As their personal understanding of the subject deepens learners are motivated to contribute to the collective understanding and receive positive feedback from the group.

Anthropologist Lori Kendall, who spent almost two years researching the dynamics of online social identity and community, concluded that members of virtual environments have "intact social systems, and highly charged social relations."

However, unlike the electronic window of television, Kendall found that members of an online community feel that when they connect to an online forum, they enter a social, if not physical space (Kendall, 1999).

In this new digital age, we need to redefine our concept of what constitutes a legitimate “social system” or “social interaction.” In many ways, the effective use of social media to support instruction provides the same or better quality of socialization than a traditional classroom.

If we are truly to expand educational opportunities via online or distance learning programs, we will need to recognize and validate the existence of online communities, relationships, and interaction.

Gen Y: It's All About Them

To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It's All About Me
by JONATHAN D. GLATER >New York Times

"One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e-mail message asking for copies of her teaching notes. Another did not like her grade, and wrote a petulant message to the professor. Another explained that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.

At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance." more >>

Links

• New York Times Education
• New York Times Learning Network
• Generation Y, Millennials, and Learning

Emerald Insight: A grade for e-learning?

Information Professional's Knowledge Network: "Since 1999, when the term e-learning was seemingly coined, the demand for online education supported by social media technologies has soared dramatically, prompting teaching institutions to tailor their own e-learning education programmes.

In practice, the challenges of e-learning are far greater than converting traditional educational methods into electronic resources and its framework reaches beyond the educational content of the programmes.

Understandably, over the past five years, some institutions have been more successful than others in going the distance, so to speak, with their e-learning programmes."

Links

• Emerald Library Link
• Social Software & Online Learning
• Online Learning for Students with Disabilities

Looking Forward: Thinking about mLearning

"The fates guide those who go willingly; those who do not, they drag" ~ Seneca

In late 2005, Dr. Mercedes Fisher and I began a new case study looking at the ways in which mobile technology, coupled with (mobile-based) content, can provide students with a platform for active learning, collaboration, and reflection in higher education.

The future of education, beyond the integration of Web 2.0 technologies into the classroom, is the migration of social media and learning from the PC onto mobile and handheld devices.

The European Union, in addition to their ongoing mobile education research, is also actively working on implementing several mLearning initiatives.

Moreover, mobile-based learning may (finally!) provide a way to close the digital divide and provide educational access and equality for children in developing nations.

In a recent speech, Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel pointed to some trends in terms of Internet access and mobile devices:

• 900 million people connect to the Internet via a PC
• 2 billion cell phones, many of these are web-enabled
• 50% of those outside the US will connect to the web via a mobile or handheld device, NOT a PC

One thing is clear: The convergence of mobile technologies and student-centered learning environments will require academic institutions to design and implement new and more effective user experience strategies for use in mobile learning environments (MLE).

I'm looking forward to sharing more of our research on mLearning, including our final case study, with Barking Robot readers soon!

Update: Here's our case study! Fisher & Baird: Making mLearning Work

Related Resources

• The Mobile Internet Generation
• Learning 3.0: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
• BJ Fogg, PhD > Mobile Persuasion
• Mobile Learning & iTunes U
• YPulse > Mobile

Technology Encourages Active Learning

As e-Learning designers, information architects, and educators, we need to be aware of the symbiotic relationship between technology, knowledge transfer, and learning.

The Social Life of Learning

“Perhaps our generation focused on information, but these kids focus on meaning -- how does information take on meaning?" - John Seeley Brown

Recently I’ve been re-reading one of the seminal works on knowledge management and social learning--The Social Life of Information, by John Seeley Brown and Paul Duguid. Early in the book they point out that, “learning requires more than just information, but also the ability to engage in the practice.”

Brown/Duguid further illustrate the active nature of learning by outlining the (action-oriented) steps required for a “newbie” to effectively utilize, integrate, and understand a knowledge base existent within a Community of Practice (CoP) or learning community:

• Become a member of a community
• Engage in its practice
• Acquire and make use of its knowledge

When learners fail to be actively “engaged in the practice” they will, in turn, be excluded from the “local topography” of the practice, as well as the opportunity to “understand the CoP from the inside out”—both of which are crucial in the transformation of information into meaning.

Actively Constructing Meaning

“Shifts in students’ learning style will prompt a shift to active construction of knowledge through mediated immersion.”-Chris Dede

Constructivist learning, according to Dr. Seymour Papert, “is grounded in the idea that people learn by actively constructing new knowledge, rather than having information 'poured' into their heads. Moreover, constructionism asserts that people learn with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in constructing personally meaningful artifacts (such as computer programs, animations, or robots)."

Technology, especially for Gen Y, provides avenues that allow them to engage in a social, collaborative, and active learning environment. The theory of constructivist-based learning is even more powerful when placed in a social context, and dovetails nicely with The Social Life of Information concepts.

Gen Y, more than previous generations, approaches learning from a “what’s in it for me?” perspective. Students have grown up with digital and web technologies, and are used to picking and choosing how, what, where, and when they will learn. This trend has been dubbed the “Napsterization” of education.

Millennial students are “hard wired” to look at the smorgasbord of available technologies and then construct their own meaning based on their intrinsic learning goals and needs. In turn, these student directed learning styles have made the “drill and kill” teaching model less effective and relevant.

Technology as a Pathway to Learning

“Sharing knowledge is a lovely thing.” –Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef

Under this new “digital pedagogy” learners tend to construct knowledge via self-directed and collaborative project based learning (PBL) activities, using asynchronous message boards, weblogs, forming social search communities, and using synchronous technologies such as real time textual chat or web cam’s.

As students go through process of choosing, utilizing, and integrating technology—social search communities, klogs, making QuickTime movies, creating podcasts, interactive web sites, ePortfolio’s, Flickr, blogging, computers, multiplayer gaming, or programming Lego/Logo—into their projects, it provides opportunities for them to be actively engaged, as well as acquire, share, and make use of community knowledge.

In addition, technology and socially rich project-based learning environments help students develop critical thinking and problem solving skills—both essential elements for students to compete in a global knowledge-based society.

Constructing the Future of Learning

This shift in learning styles will have an impact beyond the walls of the classroom. As Seeley Brown points out, this trend has the potential to effect “not only to educators, but also…human resource departments, strategists, and marketing folks.”

One thing is clear, as millennials move from the classroom to the workforce, it will be increasingly important to deepen our understanding of these burgeoning digital learning styles and prepare educational and training programs (online and off) to meet their learning styles.

Links

• Seymour Papert {at} M.I.T.
• 2009 Game Based Learning Conference
• Seymour Papert + Yahoo! Video
• Research on K-12 New Media Literacy
• Logo Foundation
• John Seeley Brown on the Culture of Digital Learning
• Social Life of Information

The FrenchPodClass

Enseignez à vos étudiants le français avec un podcast! Use this podcast-based class to learn the French language and discover more about French culture.

Each podcast lesson has an excercise work sheet (pdf) which allows the students to learn French in a situated context through the use of grammar, vocabulary, movie or book reviews to construct a better understanding of the French language.

The course is divided into three sections: lessons, excercises, and links. The audio feed is available directly from the website, iTunes, or Odeo.

This is an exemplary use of social media in an educational context! As one FrenchPodClass student commented, " I love your podcast. It's been very helpful to me this semester as I learn French.... Keep up the great work! "

Oui en effet ! Maintenez le bon travail...

Links

• Le feed du Verbcast podcast (de Partners in Excellence) - Vraiment interressant pour aller plus loin dans la conjugaison des verbes francais.
• Le feed pour The FrenchPodClass

Science eMuseum

Did you know that the brick-and-mortar Science Museum (based in London, UK), also has an extensive array of web-based science education resources for both teachers and students?

Online Science Museum resources include: interactive exhibits, teaching materials, and science homework resources. In addition, the Science Museum Library features "collections form an enduring record of scientific, technological and medical change since the eighteenth century."

Also available on the website are Exhiblets, mini digital exhibitions which "use the Museum's collections to describe important events, discoveries and personalities in science and technology."

Students can use Exhiblets to learn about Amy Johnson--the first female pilot to fly from England to Australia. Or Garrett Morgan, the African-American inventor of both the gas mask and the first electric traffic signal.

This is an all-around great learning resource for teachers, students, or anyone interested in a wide variety science.

Links

• Online Exhibits
• Adult Learning Resources
• Exhiblets
• Teach & Learn
• National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) Resources

Social Media, e-Learning & Online Instructional Design

Online Learning Design That Fosters Student Support, Self-Regulation, And Retention, Campus-Wide Information Systems : The International Journal of Learning and Technology, (2005) Volume: 22 Number: 2

Authors Mercedes Fisher, PhD. Derek E. Baird, M.A.

Purpose: Investigating the social structure in online environments helps us design for and facilitate student (user) support and retention. Provides data showing how design and use of social media networking technologies provided collaborative learning opportunities for online students.

Design / Methodology / Approach: A study of computer-mediated groups that utilized social networking technologies and a web-based collaborative model in an online learning program. Participants were put into groups and observed as they used both online dialogue (synchronous and asynchronous) and social media technologies, such as blogs, as tools to support their learning.

Findings: The integration of web-based learning communities and collaborative group assignments into the course design has a positive influence on retention in online environments.

Research limitations / implications: The research was limited to the online student population at Pepperdine University, and did not include data or research from similar online programs at other universities. Future research should include data collected from students outside the U.S. to find out what role cultural mores, attitudes, and gender play in online learning.

Practical Implications: Provides curriculum design strategies that foster community, utilize social / participatory media, and support online student learning and retention through effective course design.

Originality / value: Current research on distance learning curriculum has focused on the instructor’s perspective. We feel that research from the student’s perspective can also yield some valuable insights for online course design.

Surgeons and Video Games

We Have to Operate, but Let's Play First: "The complex manual dexterity required to be a stellar video gamer and minimally invasive surgeon are strikingly similar, said Dr. Rosser, chief of minimally invasive surgery and director of the hospital's Advanced Medical Technology Institute.

More important, he is using video games to help develop and train a new generation of surgeons who may have unwittingly acquired an aptitude for laparoscopic surgery while wiling away thousands of hours playing Mortal Kombat, BloodRayne and the like." (via NYT)

Social Media, Gen Y & Digital Learning Styles

Journal of Educational Technology Systems
Issue: Volume 34, Number 1 / 2005-2006

Neomillennial User Experience Design Strategies: Utilizing Social Networking Media To Support "Always On" Learning Styles

Derek E. Baird and Mercedes Fisher

Abstract:

Raised in the "always on" world of interactive & social media, the Internet, TV 2.0 and digital messaging technologies, today's student has different media consumption expectations than previous generations. This net-centric generation values their ability to use the Web to create a self-paced, customized, on-demand learning path that includes multiple forms of interactive, social, and self-publishing media tools.

First, we investigate the formation of a burgeoning digital pedagogy that roots itself in current adult and social learning theories, while integrating social networking, user experience design strategies, and other emerging technologies into the curriculum to support student learning.

Next, we explore how current and emerging social networking media (such as blogs, iPod, RSS/XML, podcasting, wiki's, YackPack, Flickr, Twitter and other self-publishing media) can support digital learning styles, facilitate the formation of virtual learning communities, foster user engagement and reflection, and enhance the overall user experience for students in synchronous and asynchronous learning environments.

The data included in this article are intended as directional means to help instructors, interactive designers, media technologists and course designers identify social networking resources and other emerging technologies that will enhance the delivery of instruction while meeting the educational media consumption needs of today's generational learning styles.

We've saved the links for all the resources and references cited in this article on the social bookmarking tool delicious, which you can find here: http://del.icio.us/mashup.edu

Related Publications by Mercedes Fisher & Derek E. Baird

• Making mLearning Work: Gen Y, Learning & Mobile Technologies
• Social Software & Online Learning Design
• Social Media & Digital Learning Styles
• Handbook of Research on New Media Literacy at the K-12 Level
• Using Twitter to Engage Students in Learning

Adult Learning & Teaching

The Dublin Institue of Technology (DIT) has put together some exceptional data on adult learning and teaching. These resources are available in both MS Word and PDF format.

Here's a sample of some of the topics covered:

-30 Things we Know for Sure about Adult Learning
-Are they Learning what I'm Teaching?
-Adult Learning Strategies

The DIT has lots of great information on adult learning on their website. It's well worth spending some time reading through their database of research.

Portfolio of Social Media Case Studies

Crossroads Research Project: "Faculty Investigators have begun reflective case studies about their experiences with integrating technology into their teaching.

Some of the case studies take an "ecological" approach, considering an entire semester-long course. Others focus upon a single aspect of a course, like a specific assignment or project that incorporated new media technology. " (via)

Cognitive Approaches to Design

Cognitive Approaches to Instructional Design
Wilson, B. G., Jonassen, D. H., & Cole, P. (1993)
The ASTD Handbook of Instructional Technology (pp. 21.1-21.22)

Abstract

1. To introduce you to some innovative methods for doing instructional design (ID), such as rapid prototyping and automated design systems.
2. To survey some examples of training models based on cognitive learning principles, such as cognitive apprenticeships and minimalist training.
3. To offer a set of guidelines for designing cognitive-based training. (via)