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Today was the first full day of the mLearning MOOC. I’ve had mixed success. A MOOC is attended by a global audience. Not all webinars will coincide with ones time zone. I for example would have had to be awake at 2 am for the opening session and skip work in mid afternoon for the second. Synchronous learning does have its problems. Which brings me to today’s question: what is mobile education?
On this day an attempt was made by MOOC attendees to define mobile learning. Difficulties were encountered in no time – the semantics became convoluted as we tried to accommodate aspects of technology, mobility and learning.
My conclusion is that “mobility” is best defined in reference to the learner, not the devices. Mobility in learning is independence from traditional structures of education. This new model allows self paced, self prescribed curriculum that is accessed at the time and place decided by the learner. The devices used are ancillary here, merely the means to an end.
Angela Murphy on 30 Aug 12The rapid spread and penetration of mobile devices to every layerof society has confronted the educational community with many newopportunities and responsibilities. As mobile computing and its disruptiveaftermath enter the education arena, the challenge becomes how to harness thepotential in ways that are beneficial to the educational community at large andthe learners in particular. This paper outlines the initial conception, designresearch methodology followed and the development of the definitive MobileLearning Curriculum Framework as a first attempt to systematically andcomprehensively explore, where and how mobiles could appear withineducational provision. The curriculum framework is underpinned by three broad learning objectives; to acquire domain knowledge, to develop sufficientand appropriate skills to enable mobile learning practice and to understand the role and impact of domain knowledge in the relation to the applicationcontext. To this end the curriculum framework is presented as a modularsolution for adaption to accommodate differing contexts dele BOTHA 1 , Jacqueline BATCHELOR 2 , John TRAXLER 3 ,Ignatia DE WAARD 4 , Marlien HERSELMAN
