One of the issues I have with academic research in education is that a great deal of time is spent arguing over definitions, drawing distinctions and creating terminology, and almost none explaining phenomena or identifying causes (it’s almost as though educational researchers today reject causation as equivalent to behaviourism). Case in point: this summary of research on mobile learning offered by Graham Attwell. We get, for example, “John Cook (UK) develops the idea of mobile phones as mediating tools within augmented contexts for development.” We have “Diana Laurillard (2007) has highlighted the mobility of digital technologies in providing ‘opportunities for new forms of learning because they change the nature of the physical relations between teachers, learners, and the objects of learning.‘“We have “Margrit Boeck (2010) says mobile devices are: making learners mobile.” We have “Nial Winters (2007) suggest[ing] we have to address three mobilities in mobile learning – learners, technology objects, and information.” And more, of that ilk. Nonsense! Not in the sense that it’s all wrong, but in the sense that it’s all meaningless. Call me a positivist if you must - but please, no more conceptual schemes, terminology, or definitions. (Hits Today: 40 Total: 481)
According to Stanislas Dehaene at the INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France, “The intriguing possibility that our face-perception abilities suffer in proportion to our reading skills will be explored in future research”.
17 November 2010: Mobile eLearning - mLearning for language enhancement
Associate Professor David Kennedy (Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China)
This session looked at learning activities that can be conducted via mobile devices (mobile phones, ipads etc) with a particular focus on second language learning courses, the role such devices can play in an overall course design and the challenges faced when implementing mobile learning projects.
Numerous studies argue that students and learn languages more effectively using mobile tools, but there is little empirical evidence in Hong Kong that such devices can be effective, in spite of the 184% mobile ownership, and over 9000 free wireless outlets for university students across the territory. This study approached the task using a multi-faceted approach. Initially a second year language course with learning outcomes that focused on the ability of students to present in English (their second or even third language) was examined, and changes to the curriculum were made to better support a greater range of learning outcomes, and more explicit evidence of actual competencies. Students were provided with the latest iPhones, and qualitative and quantitative data was generated.
The Web is dead - long live the Internet!
“Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.”
10 Nov 2010
The Future (of Learning) will be Telepathic and Telekinetic - a PowerPoint presentation by Inge De Waard
“Electronic books are expected to replace traditional textbooks in universities in two to three years’ time, according to the New Media Consortium’s authoritative Horizon Report, a comprehensive annual study of developments in e-learning. At ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2010, Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium, will discuss the very latest findings of the Horizon Report 2011, before the official release in January. The annual report is based on the views of hundreds of technology experts in education, museums, business and creative industries. Here, Larry Johnson takes a broader look at the technological trends in this field.”
“Online education is best known for serving older, nontraditional students who can not travel to colleges because of jobs and family. But the same technologies of “distance learning” are now finding their way onto brick-and-mortar campuses, especially public institutions hit hard by declining state funds. At the University of Florida, for example, resident students are earning 12 percent of their credit hours online this semester, a figure expected to grow to 25 percent in five years. “
