Accounted Learning: a Wolf Oriented Approach to Mobile Learning

Accounted Learning: A WoLF oriented approach to mobile learning.

Abstract: This article is concern with how Teaching Assistants(TA) account for their mobile learning experience through our project Moodle and also from evidence embedded within their portfolios towards the award of foundation degree in education. We develop and establish a systematic elaboration of how the teaching assistants go about the business of gathering evidence through a narrative description of particular events and situations of using mobile devices. We try to also show the challenges they encounter of a personal, institutional and environment nature. We elaborating on features of mobile learning most appealing to our study cohort and discuss the likely appeal and analytical strength of an emerging framework to support mobile learning in the work-based context.

Keywords: work based learning, learning design, accessibility, communication, organizational policies

INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade there has been growing interest in the pedagogical potential offered by handheld devices.Mobile learning, as this is now commonly known has grown as an extension of the elearning frontier from a minor research interest to a set of significant projects in schools, workplaces, museums, cities and rural areas around the world (Sharples, 2007). Some have argued that this wave of interest in the educational potential of handheld technology is a deliberate effort aimed at ‘domesticating’ mobile devices for educational purposes (Bachmair 2007. p. 106). Combined with web 2.0 technologies, mobile devices are also seen as offering new learning possibilities which represent a dynamic change in the strategies employed by learners and their production/consumption of learning products (Conole et al 2008).It has been noted that there is a dearth of studies looking specifically at students use of technologies and a failure to adequately acknowledge learners’ perspective in the development of tools, pedagogy and teaching practices(Sharples et al 2005). Calls have also been made for studies that capture the diversity of how students are using technologies in formal studies as well as eliciting students’ perspective of technologies (Canole et al 2008). The findings reported in this paper reflect the above concerns and provide systematic evaluation ofevidence from a case study of how students use PDAs as personal learning management tools in a work based context.

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND OF WOLF

WoLFwhich stands forWork-based Learners in Further educationis a collaborative mobile learning project between Leicester College and the University of Leicester (UoL) funded by JICS. The aim of the project is to investigate how Pocket PCs (PDA) can support the development of portfolios by Teaching Assistants (TAs) on a foundation degree programme in Education at University of Leicester.This accord with the vision of National Government and also the local East Midlands Learning and Skills Council. To this end WoLF is designed to achieve the following objectives transferable to similar learning contexts:

1. A Pedagogic Model and ‘proof of concept’ that can be reused and retried in different work-based learning contexts and disciplines
2. Resources for practitioners for designing reflective learning activities using work-based learning scenarios of pocket PCs to capture evidence
3. Guidelines for integrating the use of Pocket PCs into institutional VLEs within disciplinary and institutional specific contexts as part of e-learning strategies.

Unlike other work place learning schemes, learningfor the foundation degree by Teaching Assistants occur in many different spaces, for example, in weekly face–to-face sessions with tutors; through practice and observation while at work; private studies at home, in learning resource centres and elsewhere. WoLF thus falls within the adult, work based, informal and lifelong approaches to learning and is underpinned by the notions of the autonomous and self directed learner who learns from experience of real world situation.

THEORETICAL BASIS OF WOLF.

Over the past decade there has been a growing body of literature on mobile learning. In what follows relevant literature from the wider body of existing research is highlighted to provide contextual background to this paper. Different writers have suggested how existing theories of learning could be applied to take advantage of mobile technology in the educational context. For example a review carried out by Naismith, Lonsdale, Vavoula, Sharples (2004) on mobile technologies has provided useful examples of how mobile technology can be deployed in the educational context from the theoretical lenses of the behaviourist, constructivist, situated and lifelong learning perspectives. In essay derived from a sociocognitive engineering design perspectiveTaylor, J et al (2006) have suggested a dialectical approach to mobile learning and have presented a task model base on this view. In a paper aimed at theorizing about mobile learning Sharples, Taylor, and Vivoula (2006) have also put forward aconversational framework of mobile learning.The value of their framework lies in the need to emphasise cultural factors such as control of the learning by the learner, the role of context and also communication. The work ofNyíri (2002) and Bachmair (2007) perhaps stand out in their attempt to show how a communication and everyday media use and learning couldprovide the basis for how mobile devices can impact positively on learning. Turning our attention from theoretical perspectives to issues of learning design, which is of relevance to this article, various studies exist whose findings are relevant to this paper. At a general level, the work of Diego et al (2008) on the London Pedagogy Planner, that of Conole et al (2008) from the JISC funded LXP project, that of Falconer et al (2007) base of Mod4L, and LADiE (2006) highlight important issues which are relevant to how mobile learning design could be characterized. For example the LPP offers the kind of blended learning designs lecturers need and also identifies issues relevant to modeling learning design.The Mod4L project provide examples of generic learning designs which can be applicable to mobile learning such as social-constructivist learning design, case based learning design, practice based learning design, reflective learning design, and cognitive scaffolding design. The value of the Mod4L designs if that itemphasizes the roles of both teachers and student in the design process. LADiE has put forward a reference model which addresses the questions of learning activity authoring and learning activity realization.Arguing for the need to rethink pedagogy for the Digital Age Beetham and Sharpe (2007)have insisted on the need for learning design to investigate the needs of users and the modeling of solutions that best meet these needs.Shifting our attention to mobile learning specifically, the work of O’Malley et al (2003) has focused at the fine-grained issues in mobile learning, teaching and tutoring and put forward guidelines which directly address the question of pedagogically usefully learning activities that can be supported by mobiles technologies. Of particular interest to our study are the issues of cost, roles, support for teachers, services/applications and security and privacy. Addressing big issues in mobile learning Milrad (2007) has also proposed a scenario based design for mobile learning that focuses on settings, actors, goals/objectives and actions and events. One question that has also captured the attention of mobile learning designers is the question of evaluation. The subject has been taken up by (Taylor 2007) andVavoula (2008). Taylor has suggested that consideration needs to be given in mobile learning evaluation to access to data, learner control, personalization, learner involvement in the design process and self evaluation of what counts as mobile learning.Vavoula (2008) has drawn from recent work on Myartspace (OOKL) and highlighted challenges faced by mobile learners.She strongly argues for alternative measuring outcomes in mobile learning evaluation that focus on processes which indicate that learning may be happening set at three levels in three stages. Micro level evaluation focuses on the users’ experience of the technology (usability and utility factors), the meso level is focused on the users learning and educational experience i.e. cognitive learning, breakthroughs and breakdowns, and a micro level evaluation focused on organizational issues such as the impact on learning and teaching practice and sustainability. The three stages of the evaluation process are the design, implementation and deployment phases. Other related issues relevant to issues of learning design in mobile learning have been highlightedelsewhere. For example Stead (2006) has talked aboutpersonalization, adaptation, engagement, self evaluation and reflection; Winters (2007, p. 7 - 8)has drawn attention change in physical relations between teacher and learner, learner generated context, and learner generated understanding; Jones, Issroff & Scanlon (2007) have highlighted the affective issues, Becking et al (2004) profiling of learners, Walker (2007) learning conditions, Rainger ( 2005)accessibility and user control factors, and Kukulska-Hulme (2007) usability factors.oSpecific case studies which reflect some of these issues can be found in the work of McFarlane, Roche and Triggs (2007), Rekkedal and Dye (2007), Kukulska-hulme and Traxler (2005), and Smith (2003).Taken together the above studies and critical essays suggest that there is growing evidence of the impact mobile devices can make on the ways in which students learn and highlights the nuances of the specific ways in which these devices are impacting on learners.What is also evident from the above is that there are differences in understanding held, emphasis on what should count with no consensus in sight. They also point to the many challenges faced both by practitioners and learners within this mobile learning habitat and the interlocking issues that characterize learning in the mobile age.

RESEARCH APPROACH AND DATA GATHERING METHODS

WoLF was designed to explore current issues faced specifically by work based learners learning within the Further Education and Higher Education sector. We wanted to elicit an account – accounted learning as we have dubbed it in our title. WoLF was thus designed to answer the following research questions directly connected with the ability of Teaching Assistants to learn in a mobile fashion.

1. How do Pocket PCs open up opportunities for TAs to develop learning portfolios base on systematic recordings of classroom activities and reflection in practice?
2. Secondly how do TA’s integrate the varied learning activities that occur in different places by mapping learning in one space onto learning in other space?
3. What challenges, if any, does this present to Teaching Assistants?

We adopted an action research approach whose characteristics weredeemed appropriate tothe objectives of this project. As a research method, Action Research combines action and research with the intention of improving practice, focusing on practical issues identified by participants with the view of bringing about practical improvement, innovation and change of a social practice(Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2007). Its emphasis on progressive problem solving by involving people connected very much with the aim and objectives of this project. We followed a living theory approach of action research (Whiteheads and McNiffs 2006) as opposed to the participatory action research of the Paulo Freire common within international development.Data gathering were from two main sources following ethical guidelines as follows:

1. Semi-structured interviews with TAs and project staff
2. Secondly tracking TAs’ use and knowledge sharing viathe project moodle.

The combination of methods provided rich empirical accounts of user experience. The semi-structured interviews provided case studies of individual learners experience of mobile learning i.e. activities carried out, situations faced, challenges overcome and strategies devised for the future. The project moodle was used to gain knowledge of the wider context of using the PDA and provided rich accounts of day to day events as they occurred, how the PDA impacted on the learning experience and what lessons were learnt which could be shared with other colleagues on the foundation degree programme. Sampling was based on purposive and opportunity sampling methods driven by the convenience of access to TAs registeringfor the UoL Foundation Degree throughLeicesterCollege.Data analysis was carried out using Decision Explorer, a cognitive mapping software. As a data analysis tool, Decision Explorer supports a subjective view of knowledge in which individual beliefs, assertions; attitudes and values are considered valid and hence provide evidence for research (Eden & Spender 1998). The purpose of the analysis was to enable detailed modelling of the views, experiences and feelings of the research participants. The analysis also focused on generating individual maps of how, why, where and when the PDAs were used. It further identified emerging patterns of use within the dataset and categorized these patterns in relation to contextual factors.

KEY FINDINGS

Our findings show that there are different dimensions to the experiences of learner’s when using mobile technology. Three broad overarching themes emerged from our data analysis which is discussed here. They fall under learning context / environment i.e. the situations/settings that generated learning activities; learning managementi.e. how learning activities are planned, generated and shaped; and knowledge sharing i.e. how ideas and experiences are made available to others. At the end of each themes we identify the challenges faced, the interventions that were required or made and the perceived value / usefulness of a given outcome.

Learning context and environment

We found that TAs initially expressed positive feelings when first issued with the PDA. Many welcomed the possibility of using a PDA to enhance the learning experience and to support development of their portfolios.

- When I got it (PDA) I was quite excited

- i can find many reason of how it will help me in my assignment

We also found that TAs’ use of the PDA as a learning mediated device wascharacterized both in actual terms i.e. definitive usage and also in speculative terms i.e. contemplative usage. We found that actual usage of the PDA occurred mainly in the classroom and was driven mainly by practical activities with children.We also found that the majority of respondents’ use of the PDA was linked to science based activities with children.We need to quickly point out that a likelihood exist that the focus on science subjects was not deliberate due to the fact thatthe interviews coincided with course work on technology and science.

- I have taken a couple of photos for the 4 to 5 weeks science experiment

- I have taken photos of them drawing skeleton

The main challenges which were reported when using the PDA in the classroom was the affordances of the social space and question about security of the device

- With work with children we are generally on the floor, kneeling down, bending over and it can slip out of my pocket.

A high proportion of what was reported as usage of the PDA was speculative in nature in terms of the potential of the PDA to help generate future learning activities.

- I want to start a 4 week experiment on growth, so I am going to grow plant and take photos of the process

- [Going shopping] I could just pull my PDA take some pictures of them [children] shopping,

A notable contextual factor which emerged was how the PDA compared with other devices made available to TAs within the school and home environments. Our study found that the PDAs compete with personal mobile phones, cameras, video recorders, interactive white boards and laptops.

- I still tend to use my laptop instead of using that

- we are used to using digital camera's and the digi blue visual recording

-I have tried the phone, and I do prefer my little phone because it’s smaller

Accessibility issues were also mentioned asimpacting negatively on the use of the PDA, including access to internet facilities at home, difficulty of installing software needed to synchronise PDAs with a PC, cost of connecting the PDA to the internet and time pressures both at school and home which inhibited use. For example on the home front some reported competition for access to home computers. Another factor which emerged was technophobia i.e. the perceived psychological difficulty of using the PDA.

-There is too much energy and strain. I don’t need it; I like to make my life simple

This raises questions about the psychological (pre)conditions of using mobile devices for learning.Respondents also pointed to a number ofrisk factors which affected effective use of the PDA. They include security of the PDA, cost of using it, fear of losing it, possibility of being attacked by thieves, and virus attack when synchronised to a PC. Of particular concern was the reported financial burden of having a piece of equipment which was not insured.(It was suggested to TAs to obtain insurance cover through their home insurance). A related factor was ownership of the PDAs which remained the property of LeicesterCollege.

- For me I am a youngster, I don’t really do insurance

- I have got enough insurance payment now I don’t want another insurance

- to carry it is an extra thing because it doesn’t belong to me you get scare