Derek E. Baird :: Barking Robot

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 enivronments, 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

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

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)

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)