LIKT seminar on mobile learning

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Mobile learning- learning anywhere, anytime(?)

• Björn Hedin• Royal Institute of Technology• Dept. of Media Technology• Stockholm, Sweden• [email protected]

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Today

• Overview of mLearning (mobile learning) in general

• Demonstrations and overview of some research I have done at KTH on mobile learning.

• Ideas on how to use mLearning in your courses today.

• The role of mLearning in the future?

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What is mlearning?

• Many different perspectives (from “Big issues…”)– Technocentric – Learning using mobile devices– Extension to eLearning – “Does not help in characterising the

unique nature of mobile learning”– Augmenting formal education– Learner-centred – leading to the definition…

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What is mlearning (2)?

• "Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location, or learning that happens when the learner takes advantage of learning opportunities offered by mobile technologies" (O'Malley et al 2003, and Wikipedia)

• Except for the word ”technology” a book would fit well into the definition.

• More recent: “The focus of their work is on mobile learning as communication in context (Sharples, 2005)”.

• A broader definition could also include support functions that makes life as a student easier.

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Why learning with “portable technology”? • Some arguments

– Study when you want - cf learning styles, mobile TV– Study where you want - can be used everywhere, doesn’t require a

table, electricity, can be used in bed…– Ownership - “everyone” owns a mobile phone– Always ”on” - no startup time required– Discreet - socially acceptable to do things with mobile phone in public

environments– Battery life - lasts for days

• The above applies to books as well, but a few factors are unique to mobile phones

– Ubiquity - everyone always carries their mobile phones– Features and convergence - increasingly more features: video and

audio playback, high-speed internet connection, high resolution displays, positioning…

– Content availability - don’t have to carry an entire library - all of the internet is available.

– Searching capabilities– Communication

• Still: mlearning will not be attractive to all, but some students

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What should mobile (higher) educational activities focus on?

• Providing content and activities for learning anywhere, anytime.– Not necessarily learning everything everywhere,

but at least something meaningful when you want to.

• Learning in context• To improve the “Learning infrastructure” using

mobile technology.• Simple to use, and low cost for university,

teachers and students. • Usable in all regular university courses = use

mobile phones and possibly low-tech.

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Examples of my day. A morning at the metro (1)• Organize my day

– Read email, mark important letters– Look over my calendar and my to-do-list and possibly make

preparations.

• Get updated on what’s new– Twitter, mark important tweets– RSS feeds from blogs, mark important entries– Possibly “retweet” relevant information

• Review my notes– Evernote– Google docs

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Examples of my day. A morning at the metro (2)• Occasionally

– See a TED Talks video– Watch/listen to a podcast– Practice Finnish vocables / Flashcards– Read an ebook

• Context based– Look up the Finnish translation of something– Look up something in Wikipedia

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Project 1: MUSIS

• Push media files to mobile phones• Students subscribe to different channels• Each channel can be used to send text,

audio and video messages. • Examples of channels:

– Fun (mostly video)– Lunch menus (text)– Course channels (text, video)– One minute tech tip (audio)

• Both scheduled messages and on-demand messages can be sent

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Message scheduling

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Instant message sending

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Client interface

• Messages downloaded in background, without user interaction.

• Notification beep when message successfully downloaded.

• Different icons for different channels (not for different media formats)

• Click on message to display or play it in phone’s external applications

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Video messages

• 500KB limit• 3GPP/MPEG4• Sample video messages

–Funny video clips (fun channel)–Course information (course channel)

• Students felt a bit embarrassed when watching video in public environments

• Not popular, but content used were of low quality.

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Audio messages

• Sample audio channels–Music–Daily idiom (education)–One minute tech tip (education)

• Difficult to hear in noisy environments

• Headset required.• Only appreciated when

audio gave added value, like language courses

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Text messages• Sample text

messages–Lecture introductions–Reminders and notifications–Lecture summaries –Lecture preparations like literature to read, assignments to do, problems to consider

• Instant feedback forms included

• Classroom response system

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Average level of interest in course related (text) messages

Very50%

Fairly34%

Moderately6%

Not10%

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Services suggested by students (42 suggestions, 6 education related)

Service Average grade

Message when some information is available, like exam results

5.0

Updated course schedules after changes 5.0

Examples of exam questions with answers 4.9

Tomorrow’s schedule 4.9

Tomorrow’s activities in a course 4.8

Project deadlines 4.8

Average grade for course related services 4.92

Average grade for for other services 2.95

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Main results, first phase

• Push messages to phones better than email due to instant notification. No delay and no computer needed.

• Low cost important. • Persistent storage of messages on a web portal wanted.• Text preferred by 92% over audio and video. Good for

skimming information.• Maximum 1000 - 2000 character long text messages. • Audio and video difficult to hear in noisy environments,

not high enough quality, embarrassing in public environments, headsets required and no extra added value for education.

• Simple user interface. 1-click preferred.

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Project 2: SMS + XHTML Mobile• Make a similar system usable in all courses today.• Only text messages.

– Works on “all phones”– Most appreciated media format according to results

from phase one

• Only use simple standard technology (php, apache, sms, blogs)

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Learning goals for phase two

• Students should be able to prepare for lectures using “Advance organizers”

– “Introductions” to lectures– Gives a basic cognitive framework with which to relate the

learning content of the lecture.– Ought to be ideal to read on the way to the university

• Revise material - important for learning– Available anywhere, anytime– Spaced repetition important for learning.– Review questions/sample exam questions - activates

students

• “Lecture packages” to fulfill these goals

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Lecture package - message and index• Message with

clickable link sent when new material is

• Leads to Index page for all messages sent in a course.

• Also available for viewing with a desktop browser via a blog.

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Lecture package - message and index• Message with

clickable link sent when new material is

• Leads to Index page for all messages sent in a course.

• Also available for viewing with a desktop browser via a blog.

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Lecture package - one complete package

Summary (advance organizer)

Keywords References Sample examquestions

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Results

• Appreciated and used, but mainly from desktop computers (90%)

• Summaries/introductions of lectures was most popular

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Project 3: Providing text based content on mobile phones• Background on text based content

– Easy to produce. Much content already available.– Low bandwidth requirements (around 150 KB for a

compressed 300 page book).– Random access to any part of the material.– Browsing/skimming/searching is easy.– Preferred over audio and/or video by 91% of the

students in an earlier mLearning study.• BUT - difficult to read longer texts on small screens.

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Solution: RSVP

• Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

• Display one word at a time in a rapid sequence.

• Can increase reading speed dramatically for trained users, with high level of comprehension.

• Demo

http://www.hedin.mobi/dsonline-demo/

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Prototype: Feedo RSVP

• Only requires phone with Java MIDP 1.0 -> usable on almost all new phones.

• Can read RSS feeds -> easy for teachers to produce and publish content.

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Perceived level of comfort for using the different methods(scale 1-7: Higher number->more comfortable)

Respondent RSVP slow Scroll slow RSVP fast Scroll fast Resp 1 3 5 2 1 Resp 2 5 5 4 3 Resp 3 5 6 2 3 Resp 4 3 4 1 2 Resp 5 4 7 5 1 Resp 6 5 4 2 4 Resp 7 5 5 4 3 Resp 8 4 6 6 5 Resp 9 5 4 5 3 Resp 10 4 6 2 4 Average 4.3 5.2 3.3 2.9 Standard Deviation 0.8 1.0 1.7 1.3

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Percentage of correct answers using the different methods

Respondent RSVP slow Scroll slow RSVP fast Scroll fast Resp 1 100 50 50 25 Resp 2 75 25 75 25 Resp 3 25 25 25 100 Resp 4 0 25 0 0 Resp 5 50 50 50 50 Resp 6 50 50 75 50 Resp 7 25 50 75 75 Resp 8 50 50 75 75 Resp 9 100 25 100 75 Resp 10 25 75 100 75 Average 50 42.5 62.5 55 Avg correct answers 2 1.7 2.5 2.2

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Positive aspects of RSVP

• Very fast, up to 3 times faster for some users.

• User must be focused.• No negative consequences for the limited

display size on a phone -> good for mobile phones.

• Good for skimming texts.

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Negative aspects of RSVP

• No spatial memory possible (“I read this far up on the right of a page”).

• Less “random access” than with spatially presented text. Difficult to navigate in the text.

• Difficult to handle pictures, formulas, tables etc.• Difficult to highlight, make notes etc. in the text.• Users not used to the technique (compared to 15+

years of experience with reading spatially presented text daily)

• High cognitive load.

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Teacher perspective: Publishing content• Publishing content by any kind of Content

Management System (or blog) capable of generating RSS-feeds.

• Parallel publishing (web, mobile web, RSS-reader, RSS-RSVP-reader)

• Any text-based content.• Notify students of new content by SMS

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Project 4: Lecture casting with enhanced podcasts• Enhanced podcasts - podcasts with

graphics, audio and synchronized chapters.

• Easily produced from a PowerPoint presentation (with suitable software)

• Used in two courses with a total of 75 students to pre-record lectures (and then again this year in three courses).

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Desktop view with iTunes - Demo

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Online on slideshare

http://www.slideshare.net/bjornh/slideshows

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3gp on mobile - small

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3gp on mobile - full screen

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Selected results - mobility• I would be very interested in watching lecture podcasts on an

iPod/mobile phone on 'waste time', like when waiting for a commuter train, traveling on a train or bus etc (given that I owned suitable equipment)

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2

9

12

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0 5 10 15 20 25

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither Agrees norDisagrees

Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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Selected results - usefulness

• I believe the podcasts were very useful.

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2

7

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree


Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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Selected results - compared to lectures• As a whole I prefer enhanced podcasts over

regular lectures.

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6

11

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8

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree


Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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Selected results - review lecture content• To be able to go back to parts of the lectures you

didn’t understand is very important.

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0

0

0

17

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0 10 20 30 40 50

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree


Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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Selected results - navigation

• To be able to go back and forth and ”jump” between chapters in a podcast is very important.

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0

1

0

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree


Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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Selected results - time- and place shifting• The possibility to access a lecture podcast without having

to be at a specific place at a specifict time (like a lecture) is very important.

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0

2

8

21

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0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Unanswered

Strongly Disagree

Disagree


Agrees

Strongly Agrees

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A quote on podcasts in general

• "Podcasts have big advantages when you work in parallel in several projects, and therefore have to skip some lectures. Podcasts covers something I believe is missing in several other courses; to be able to go back and review lecture content afterwards. Often you are not quite ready to absorb all the knowledge at a lecture with unknown content, therefore it is great that you can watch the content twice. Furthermore you can pause and complement with literature for a deeper understanding, everything in the peace and quiet of home, with a cup of coffee at hand, which is very rewarding for a student under pressure."

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podcasts in iPods

• 5 students owned suitable iPods• 3 stronglyagreed" with the statement "I believe it was very

useful to see podcasts in my iPod", and 2 agreed to the same statement.

• Of these five users, all used the podcast on waste time, like when travelling by bus or train.

• Three students also used them at home, two of which watched them in bed before going to sleep.

• On the question about what advantages they saw with watching podcasts on an iPod instead of a desktop computer, the mobility was as expected considered very important. One student said it "… could be quite tiring concentrating by a computer without doing other things at the same time" and one believed it was less tiring watching an podcast on an iPod for a long time, than watching the same podcast on a desktop computer.

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Podcasting summary

• Students appreciate the increased freedom.• Good to be able to review lectures later.• Mobility aspects are appreciated.• Navigation within lecture important.

• BUT• Not suitable to all kinds of teaching styles• Decreased interaction

• IMPLICATIONS• Usable in many/most courses with little extra effort.• Good tool for Open Educational Resources (OER)

– Allows universities to share content and courses.

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Recent projects

• Spaced Repetition• Good for memorizing (like

language learning, terms, anatomy, flora/fauna etc)

• Current desktop implementations. Extend to mobile and web domains.

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Location-based learning reminders• Application where students can ”tag” locations (KTH,

Home, Metro, Odenplan…) and register reminders to study when arriving/departing to such places.

• Inluced application to study chemistry on mobile phones• Low drain on battery (since non-GPS-based positioning)• Not very accurate• Appreciated by students, especially to find new

opportunities to study on ”waste time”

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Issues to discuss from ”Big Issues..”

• To be “innovative” mLearning applications “Should be transformative in nature, i.e. allow learners to achieve things they couldn’t have achieved before.”

• Learning in developing countries. http://www.nokia.co.in/A41427317

• “Technology can provide us with so much assistance that we forget how to do things ourselves”.

• “We have to be careful to design learning experiences with technology that enhance learning, rather than simply making it easier for people to do something”.

• “A key issue [in an application] is that its use is optional – it is possible to undertake the same learning objectives without it – and it is ideal if students desire it, rather than it being forced on them”

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• Motivating/affecting factors– Control over goals– Ownership/appropriation

• “She defines appropriation as the integration of a new technology into the user’s activities.

• Her analysis revealed a two way process in which the user adapts the tools they use according to their every day practice, prior expectations and preferences in order to carry out their activities and how, in turn the tools also change the user’s activities.

– Fun– Communication– Learning-in-context– Continuity between contexts

• When to relax? Increasing bad conscience for not studying?

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• How to handle conficts between personal informal learning and traditional classroom education

– “Children in general do not want school to intrude on their personal life. There is a danger that the enthusiasm of schools, and some parents to extend school by, for example, parent access to school intranets, bite-sized teaching and revision via SMS, and new technologies such as location-based tracking, may be seen by children as schools attempting to colonise and control their social world”

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• “One of the main assumptions we considered … was the fact that in the coming 10 years, whether educators want it or not, more and more students will bring computing devices (with wireless communication) into the classrooms”.

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• “On the pedagogical level, the idea of mobile learning is often associated with informal learning settings which could be triggered by situational affordances or could just take place whenever and wherever the learners want to. It is an issue as to whether this kind of learning yields the necessary degree of systematisation and coherence (or maybe these factors are over-estimated, based on existing justifications of institutionalised learning?).

• “Do we have a problem with fragmented experience and fragmented learning activities in technology enhanced learning? If yes, is the fragmentation problem a particular challenge for mobile learning scenarios? Do we have pedagogical strategies for de-fragmentation which could be supported by adequate technologies?”

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Discussion?

• What do you think?• Can mlearning be usable in

– Campus courses?– Distance courses?– Informal learning?

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In the unlikely event of spare time: Accessing web 1.0 on mobile phones

• Web sites often not adapted for mobile phones.

• Small displays• Complex

navigation• Unnecessarily

large files (pictures)

• Long download• Plugins sometimes

needed

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Approach 1: Do nothing• Almost impossible

to view page.• Much unnecessary

content (kth.se=184kB roughly equalling 3 SEK to download)

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Approach 2: Use mobile CSS• A bit easier to view

and navigate.• However, same

amount of unnecessary content still downloaded

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Approach 3: Use some technology and templates on server• Easy to navigate.• No unnecessary

content.• However, not

usable for pages in general.

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Approach 4: Use web proxy to adapt content

• www.skweezer.net• Easier to view and

navigate than approach 1 and 2, but more difficult than approach 3.

• No unnecessary content.

• Usable on all web sites.

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Approach 5: Use special web browser (opera mini)

• Roughly equal to proxy service, but generally looks better

• Also makes clever, but not always good, guesses about content.

• No unnecessary content.• Usable on all web sites.• Usable on most modern

phones.

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Access content: Dropbox

• Share synchronized folders between several computers.

• Iphone support to view files

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Access content: Evernote

• Store documents, text, voice and images

• Native iPhone client, relatively good web clients for Android (read only)

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Access content: Google docs

• Foo

LIKT seminar on mobile learning

Education

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