Mobile Technologies in Lifelong Learning

THe collection of Best Practices in Mobile Lifelong Learning (m-LLL) is now available!  You can search the collection at http://motill.eu/index.php?option=com_bpc or download the e-book, which has a more detailed commentary, from http://motill.eu/images/motillbooklet_en.pdf.

Download your free copy of "Mobile Technologies in Lifelong Learning : Best practices" book - see Dissemination at

The Scientific Annotated Review Database (or SARD), one of the major research outputs from the MOTILL Project, is now available at www.motill.eu.

The SARD collects more than fifty expert reviews of scientific literature relating to the areas of mobile and lifelong learning. It also contains commentary on a number of policy documents in these areas. Each review includes recommendations for policymakers who wish to promote or support this kind of lifelong learning.

The SARD is free to access and we hope that you will find it to be a useful resource.

JISC inspires UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies, helping to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in education. The New JISC strategy for 2010 is focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of universities and colleges, and places technology-enhanced learning at the core of the learning culture of the future.

A significantly enhanced culture of technology-enhanced learning is expected to be one of the main outcomes of this strategy. Students now expect a fully functioning technology-enhanced learning environment with content and resources available online 24 hours a day. A growing community of part-time and overseas students, lifelong learners and professionals, is enabled by flexible learning, meaning that its development will help to drive growth in the sector. A rich technology-enhanced learning culture will therefore also make UK colleges and universities more attractive in the domestic and global markets.

Support for technology-enhanced learning will include guidance on ways to provide new and innovative services, advice on designing a curriculum, a series of national programmes, and development of technical standards to support sharing between systems and institutions. Use of mobile technology, including smart phones, and online networks that support learning, are part of this new landscape.

Read the full executive summary.

A recent article in the Times Higher Education Supplement outlines the ways in which mobile technologies are beginning to become much more widely used in the classroom. The piece challenges widely held view about the role of mobile technology in the classroom situation and notes that many schools have overturned bans on the use of mobile phones in schools in recognition of their untapped potential to support learning. Projects at Sheffield College approach this from a contractual point of view, asking students to sign up to codes of behaviour for proper use at the start of each year.

Suggestions for manging the use of classroom mobile technology:

* Identify and support champions – volunteer teachers who are prepared to take some risks.
* Initiate discussions about using mobile phones for learning (perhaps using pupil voice work) and survey ownership, device capability and the ways mobile phones are already being used in the school.
* Involve those who have responsibility for curriculum, student management and technical support to plan how they will be used.
* Provide hands-on, small-scale opportunities for teachers to try out appropriate uses for mobile phones.
* Encourage teachers to design activities that make the learning purpose clear and to anticipate management issues at the classroom level (such as rules and etiquette).
* Inform parents of the learning purposes for mobile phones and involve them in establishing appropriate ownership, management and ethical arrangements.
* Anticipate and address technical issues ranging from battery-charging to network access, security and data protection.
* Develop new school policies that shift the focus of attention away from the device to the uses, security and behavioural issues that are the real concern.

We are pleased to annunce that the MOTILL Project will be disseminated at the MoLeNET conference on 1st December 2009. http://www.molenet.org.uk/

We are pleased to annunce the Science Festival 09 that will be in Palermo from 4 to 13 Dicember.

Carly Shuler draws on interviews with mobile learning experts as well as current research and industry trends to illustrate how mobile devices might be more broadly used for learning. Examining over 25 handheld learning products and research projects in the U.S. and abroad, the report highlights early evidence of how these devices can help revolutionize teaching and learning. Pockets of Potential also outlines mobile market trends and innovations, as well as key opportunities, such as mobile’s ability to reach underserved populations and provide personalized learning experiences.

The report highlights five opportunities to seize mobile learning’s unique attributes to improve education:

1. Encourage “anywhere, anytime” learning
Mobile devices allow students to gather, access, and process information outside the classroom. They can encourage learning in a real-world context, and help bridge school, afterschool, and home environments.

2. Reach underserved children
Because of their relatively low cost and accessibility in low-income communities, handheld devices
can help advance digital equity, reaching and inspiring populations “at the edges” — children from economically disadvantaged communities and those from developing countries.

3. Improve 21st-century social interactions
Mobile technologies have the power to promote and foster collaboration and communication, which are deemed essential for 21st-century success.

4. Fit with learning environments
Mobile devices can help overcome many of the challenges associated with larger technologies, as they fit more naturally within various learning environments.

5. Enable a personalized learning experience
Not all children are alike; instruction should be adaptable to individual and diverse learners. There are significant opportunities for genuinely supporting differentiated, autonomous, and individualized learning through mobile devices.

Read the full report here or download the executive summary.

The MOTILL Project will be disseminated at the MoLeNET conference on 1st December 2009. http://www.molenet.org.uk/

The conference aims to…

• disseminate nationally the good practice, lessons learned, tips, tools and advice arising from MoLeNET to-date
• share research, and evidence of impact, from mobile learning projects including the MoLeNET programme
• demonstrate technologies, systems, learning materials and techniques
• provide an opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing
• encourage debate and inform strategic thinking about the future of technology enhanced teaching and learning

As well as following the MOTILL project on this blog or through the main portal, you can now also keep up to date through a number of Web 2.0 applications.  Here are some of the ways you can stay in touch.

You can also find more information on the project at the dedicated Open University pages.

An interesting article from boston.com describes the kind of generational shift that is taking place with respect to the uptake of new technologies.   The iPhone in particular in singled out for being intuitively accessible to infants, lacking a keyboard or mouse and being operated with a touch screen.

These “mobile kids” are the purest breed yet of natives to the wireless world where the rest of us are refugees. Their fluency with technology and expectations of instant access to everything will eclipse even those of their older siblings and cousins, the “digital kids” weaned on desktop computers wired to the Web.

But in addition to being irresistable to young children, mobile technology can actually promote their development. The article draws on Piaget’s model of cognitive development to show how mobile technology has advanced to the point where it can bring real pedagogical benefits.

“The future that we envisioned for so long is finally starting to happen,” says Warren Buckleitner, educational psychologist. “I’d love to bring Piaget back from the grave and give him an iPhone.”

Read the full article here.

Castle College in Nottingham are the beneficiaries of a sunstantial grant awarded by MoLeNET, the mobile learning network.

STUDENTS in Nottingham will benefit from £100,000 of new equipment – including Nintendo Wii consoles and iPods.

Castle College is hoping the gadgets will encourage 300 children from disadvantaged backgrounds to learn to use modern technology.

It will use £40,000 to increase its wireless internet capacity, so students can access the internet all over its campuses.

Up to £60,000 will be used to buy Nintendo Wiis, iPod Touch MP3 players and the new Nintendo DSi, which is a portable games console with a handheld camera.

Lyn Lall, Castle College’s development manager for new technologies, said: “Innovative methods and materials will make the learning experience more personalised and fun, which will result in increased engagement, retention and achievement levels of students.

The devices will be used as to support the development of literacy, numeracy and IT in vulnerable young people who are not in education, employment or training.  Read on here.

Here’s an interesting article about the development of contact lens technology towards a personal ‘heads up’ display which will display contextual information, translate in real time, relay information from the internet, and so on. Another interesting application of this kind of technology is biomonitoring. Just as a… blood test reveals all kinds of information about a person’s health, so the surface of the eye’s chemical composition can tell us about nutrition levels, blood glucose and other biomarkers. This information could be transmitted wirelessly and monitored in real time. So this kind of technology could be used to help individuals learn to live with a range of medical conditions.