Week 4 Post: Mobile Learning Technologies in Adult Learning

Last summer I spent some time, as I am now, in front of my lap top typing away, or seated somewhere reasonably comfortable reading about how I can develop my teaching practices; we were doing the 6174 class at the time.  Although the fact that my friends and family were often down at the beach while I was attending to my school work irked me from time to time, I was nevertheless thankful for the technology that allowed me work just about anywhere there was electricity and (wireless) internet.  In this week’s discussion we talked about the benefits of using mobile technology in education.  Specifically, we focused on learning on-the-go.

            Certainly, portable technology allows students to take care of their studies in multiple locations.  At the same time, it allows teachers to come up with creative learning activities that allow students to apply what they have learned.  In fact, Park (2011) talks about how mobile learning (m-learning) can be used to design activities that incorporate PBL (problem based learning): The teacher sends “loosely structured instruction … [and the students] … work together in a group as they solve the given problem and try to achieve a common goal” (p. 93).  Here we have what looks to me like a very effective combination of m-learning and learning that incorporates problem solving.  Indeed, lauding the virtues of PBL, Nilson (2010) tells us that solving problems gets learners to practice several higher-order skills such as organizing, prioritizing discussing, recording, negotiating, decision making, and several others.  Therefore, when coming up with activities for learners, we need to create engaging activities that get students off of their butts and out there doing something.

            In addition to getting students to do more in order to learn, using mobile technology allows teachers to design tasks that are authentic.  Ginsberg and Wlodkowski (2009) tell us that an authentic task “directly meets the human need to use what has been learned for more effective daily living” (p. 279).  When students realize that a task is catered to help them learn something that is important for their lives, as opposed to something that they have to repeat on a test, they will be more motivated to perform well on it.  All the while, they would be using technological hardware that is more than familiar to them.  In fact, these days, it is reasonably safe to say that smartphones and tablets are extensions of our younger students.  As such, activities that incorporate these devices will no doubt attract students’ interests.  For example, the video about the school in Wolverhampton (Learning2Go, n.d.) seemed to indicate that the students were more engaged in and out of class due to the use of technology in almost every aspect of school life.

            As a language teacher, I am interested in getting my students to produce spoken and written language, and to be able to comprehend what they read, listen to, or watch in the target language; English, in this case.  In past discussions and blog posts, I mentioned applications such as stumbleupon.com, which exposes students to web pages, in English, that include content that the students are interested in.  These web pages usually contain articles, but occasionally, learners can stumble across sites with video or audio.  Either way, what if I want learners to produce language?  We know about blogs and how they allow students to share class work and ideas through writing.  Well, the ComicBook! app (see link below) is a tool that lets the user do anything with photographs.  This can make class presentations much more fun than the usual PowerPoint.  I would especially use this app with low level / beginner learners.  Too often, the applications and technologies I have been researching over the last four weeks catered more to higher level learners, but this app is perfect for simple presentations.  For example, describing people is a staple of any beginner language course.  Learners have to describe physical appearances and personalities.  Often, students are asked to bring photos of whomever they are describing, usually a family member.  With ComicBook! these presentations can be a lot more fun, as students creatively play around with the photographs they have chosen, turning the people in the pictures into heroes and villains.  

            Having said that, with the latest devices and ComicBook!, this activity can be a lot more fun.  First, students take photos of each other using their devices, then they manipulate these pictures, and finally, they use the funny pictures while describing the people in them.  The only down side about this app is that it is not free.  Also, it does not seem to work well with devices other than iPhones and iPads.

            Another app that is designed for users of Apple products is popplet, which can be found at www.popplet.com.  This app is useful for organizing ideas into mind maps.  Mind maps are especially helpful for language learners in terms of helping them to learn vocabulary.  With popplet, they can create word-webs, which are mind maps of words that are similar or synonymously identical.  Not only that, learners can also make mind maps of grammar tenses, either by focusing on how some tenses are similar, or how they are completely different.  Here, I am opting to use popplet as studying and reviewing tool.  We talk a lot about alternative methods of assessment, but for the time being, a lot of schools are sticking with traditional pen and paper testing.  Popplet can help learners organize their notes.  Also, students can use their mind maps to study vocabulary and tenses wherever they are.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/comicbook!/id436114747?mt=8

References

Ginsberg, M. B., & Wlodkowski, R. J. (2009). Diversity & motivation: Culturally responsive         teaching in college (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Learning2Go. (n.d.). Retrieved May 30, 2012, from https://www.wolverhampton-engage.net/sites/anonymous/Learning2Go/Pages/default.aspx 

Nilson, L. B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Park, Y. (2011). A pedagogical framework for mobile learning: Categorizing educational applications of mobile technologies into four types. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(2), 78–102.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.