Learning at the Speed of Mobile

Learning
at the
Speed
of Mobile
Michael Coghlan
VET Development Centre
Digital Learning Program
12/11/14

SUB-TOPICS
 mobile learning
 the mobility of knowledge
 multitasking
 horizontal and vertical learning
 changing role of the educator

OUTCOMES FOR
PARTICIPANTS:
 an appreciation of how Internet and mobile
technology has changed the nature of
learning
 an appreciation of why lifelong learning is
even more important
 ideas on the changing role of institutions
 some ideas on how to be an effective
educator in a mobile world

WHAT
IS
THE
SPEED
OF
MOBILE?

What are you thinking of when
you think mobile?
CC image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uscpsc/13104103473/sizes/q/

What are you thinking of when
you think mobile?
 Smart Phones
 Tablets (ipads, etc)
 Apps
 Netbooks
 Wearable computing? (Google Glass,
POV, Fitbit....)
 Drones
 ???
CC image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/uscpsc/13104103473/sizes/q/

Learning at the Speed of Mobile

SOME MIND-NUMBING AND
ALMOST MEANINGLESS NUMBERS

Mobile Learning is more than
Mobile Technology
Stephen Downes on Leonard Low (Uni of Canberra):
 “Low clarifies his thoughts on the definition of 'mobile
learning', concentrating more on social factors (ubiquity,
ease of use, appropriateness of use in public places,
cost) rather than on the device itself.”
Low wrote:
 “Mobile learning is, after all, about the mobility of
learning, and not merely the mobility of technology…but
how we achieve that mobility of learning must consider
the context of the learning, and not just the use of mobile
technology, if it is to achieve its full potential.” (7/3/07)

Trigger Point
 Dr Norbert Pachler (Mlearn Conference,
2007): Title: Thinking about the ‘m-’ in
mobile learning (co-authored with Gunther
Kress)

Agency has shifted from teacher to
learner; from teaching to learning

Mobility Non-Linearity
“non-linearity is damaging narrative”
 The Bugbear of Literacy (Ananda K. Coomaraswamy;
1949) resented the impact of the written word on the oral
tradition (and memory)
RELATED TRENDS
 The rise of the rock video and the prevalence of rhizomic
thinking
 The revolution of hyperlinking
 Multitasking (‘transmedia navigation’)

RHIZOMIC NATURE OF THE INTERNET

HORIZONTAL
V
VERTICAL
LEARNING

Horizontal Learning (multitasking)
Assignment
SMS
iPhone
Surfing
Watching
video/TV

Vertical Learning (single focus)
Assignment:
What were the
principal
factors that led
to the Indonesian
coup in 1965
and the eventual
downfall of
President Sukarno?
(5000 words)

Horizontal v Vertical Learning
The discerning eteacher:
 Acknowledges the nature and influence of
horizontal learning (multitasking)
 Knows when to encourage vertical
learning (single focus activity)

Fragmentation  lack of shared cultural
experience
IMPACT:
 The goal of schools to deliver a standard curriculum with common core
values is being subverted > ethical challenge
 “…we don’t have a common frame of reference anymore as to what
constitutes truth or beauty or logic or anything” (Sessums quoting Kelley,
Leyden)
 Subcultures (communities of practice, networks); individualised social and
cultural experiences; a ‘distributed’ culture that is often transglobal
 *‘diversification of cultural expression’; ‘channels’ (subcultures) provided by
YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc
 Technology  ideology (technology has become a social marker)
 Skills for success now achievable beyond the walls of education  rise in
importance of informal learning
*Jenkins et al

New Learning? No - different
conditions and environments
 a new habitus of learning (Learning 2.0?)
 Despite Prensky’s mantra that Gen Y brains are wired
differently, the physiology of learning has not changed
 But learning no longer confined to the classroom or
working with immediate peers
 Teacher no longer the sole source of content
 We now have a “decentralisation of resource provision”
 the blurring of social and academic spheres of activity

“The whole world has
become curricularised.” (Pachler)
Image courtesy of Nancy White

Shift from broadcast model to student
content creation (user generated content)
IMPLICATIONS:
 Not an entirely new idea - Jonassen: Technology as Cognitive Tools: Learners as
Designers (circa 1994)
 Assumed: students have phones, mp3 players, other media capturing devices; and
the skills to use them effectively (see English and Advertising class blog)
 These media capturing devices can be used anywhere anytime
 Where is the quality control? Who decides what constitutes quality? Is something
other than quality now more important? eg engagement, motivation, increased levels
of participation?
 To what degree should this be allowed? What % of course content should be user-created?
Are we talking about (core) units? Electives? Or just for assessment
purposes?
 Where does user-generated content go? Should it be public? Should
schools/colleges have to allow/sanction publishing of course content to public sites?
(Media on the Move project)
 Emphasis shifts from what you learn to how you learn

Agency is on the learner to turn
information into knowledge
 The new model supplies ‘stuff’; not
knowledge, which an individual assembles
according to their own interests
 Text WAS knowledge pushed; NOW text
is a resource that learner must make
sense of > self-knowledge

The Nature of Text
 Formally, text arrived as a settled, final,
coherent body of work from acknowledged
expert who was an authoritative source
 Contemporary text: contingent, multiple authors
(no authoritative source with attendant power);
provisional; [wikis, blogs, podcasts]
 We are moving from a world of stability > a world
of fluidity; from a world of canonicity > a world of
provisionality

Mobility =
 Mobility = fluidity = negotiation
(of meaning) > creation of knowledge
 Mobility implies a sense of incompletion
 Mobility in the sense that :
 The individual is always ready to be a ‘learner’ and to
turn the environment into a site for learning.
Continually in a state of incompletion and moving
towards completion (dynamic); mobile not only
physically but conceptually. The whole world has
become ‘curricularised.’

Non-linear
narrative
Students
Creating
content
Networks
creating
knowledge
Rhizomic thinking/
multitasking
Knowledge has no endpoint
Informal
learning
Lack of
shared
culture
Decentralised
resources

 Please add your thoughts to the wiki page
at http://whereisthem.wikispaces.com/mobilizethis

WHO’S LEARNING ON
MOBILE DEVICES?
laptop
mobile

WHO’S LEARNING ON
MOBILE DEVICES?

IS JIT (Just in Time) the
Answer?
CC image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/265279980/sizes/n/
‘PULL’ Technology

WHAT ARE PEOPLE
LEARNING ON MOBILE
DEVICES?
WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE BE
LEARNING ON MOBILE
DEVICES?

WHAT IS THE IMPACT
OF ALL OF THIS?
http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/

Learning in the 21st Century
 “ I have seen predictions that a student doing a 3
year course by 2012 will experience the situation
where most of the knowledge they have gained in
year one will be completely out of date by the time
they finish year 3.”
 “…the only sustainable approach…will be to find the
learning and teaching strategies which will ensure
that people embrace attitudes and behaviours
anchored in lifelong learning.”
 “It is becoming …an imperative for industry to have
staff who are lifelong learners and highly ICT
literate.”
Greg Black, CEO, education.au (Campus Review
16/10/07)
*
*

THE DECLINE OF THE
ORGANISATION

THE RISE OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
Original graphic from Travis Kemp – Uni SA

Organisations will need to adapt to the fact that web 2.0 citizens
will enter places of work and learning highly connected to a
network of peers that they rely on for entertainment, mutual
learning, and collaboration. They may expect to be able to make
use of these personal learning and social networks, and the
technologies that make these networks possible, in their places of
work or study. These web 2.0 citizens operate in a world that is
open and mobile, and they are unlikely to accept authority that is
automatically assigned to a position. Their world is flat and devoid
of hierarchy. In a world where information about their areas of
interest or expertise is increasing exponentially they will place
greater store on connected networks, which may extend beyond
classroom or workplace boundaries, and knowing where to get the
knowledge and information they need, is more important than
having that knowledge and information themselves.
http://flickr.com/photos/7447470@N06/1345266896/

How and where do teachers
and students acquire the skills
to operate effectively in this
type of mobile world?

FIRST - HAVE THE
CONVERSATION ABOUT
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT….

Acquiring the Skills
 Join an online community or email list
 Follow/ask questions/initiate discussions about your
interests and needs
 Start publishing or tracking blogs, podcasts, online
discussions (LinkedIn)
 Do an online course in multiliteracy
 Create social bookmarking and photosharing accounts
 Create media – start simple:
 Upload photos to Flickr or Instagram; comment on
others’ photos
 create Digital Stories (Moviemaker) and upload to
YouTube
 Use your phone or ipad to make short movies and
publish > web

Acquiring the Skills
 Search YouTube and other video repositories for
educational content and start using it in your teaching
 Give in and sign up with Facebook  Start
communicating with your learners there. And Twitter!
 Publish content to the cloud and enjoy accessing it from
multiple devices
 Throw away your credit cards and use CardStar
 Check in to flights using your phone
 Place yourself in the new habitus of learning – you
need to do it to understand and internalise the power of
networks; reading and observing will not achieve this
philosophical seachange

And then there’s:
 QR Codes
 NFC (Near Field Communications)
 Location Based Services
 IOT (Internet of Things)
 AR (Augmented Reality)

But still.....
Adelaide
Advertiser,
Nov 8th, 2014

Resources:
 Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century; Jenkins et al, 2006
 Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and
Learning 2.0; John Seely Brown, Richard Adler, 2008
 Media on the Move; New Practices Project, 2006
 URGENT: 21st Century Skills for Educators (and Others)
First; George Siemens
 Read, Write, Mix, Rip, and… Burn, Baby, Burn: Notes on
How Social Media Affects Conventional Teaching and
Learning Practices; Christopher Sessums, 2007
 Increasing Access Through Mobile Learning,
Commonwealth of Learning (various authors; 2014)

Resources:
 Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More
Successful e-learning Professional – Lisa Neal
 Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a
More Successful E-learning Professional – Stephen
Downes

THANK YOU
Michael Coghlan
NewLearning
michaelc@chariot.net.au
This presentation on the web via
http://www.slideshare.net/michaelc/
Add your thoughts to the wiki at
http://whereisthem.wikispaces.com/mobilizethis

Learning at the Speed of Mobile

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