eLearn 2006 – Monday

Cool papers:

• A study on the collaborative learning cellular phones at the elementary schools (Tashiro) Miyagi University, Japan
• Digital Storytelling: Self-Efficacy and Digital Literacy (Li, Morehead) Oakland University
• Mobile Learning: A Review of Implementations (Barneveld, Shaw) Concordia University
• The Educational Implications of Synchronous and Asynchronous Peer- Tutoring in Video Games (Moshirnia) University of Kansas

Quick notes:

Cells
Cells are a kid friendly size, have cameras, GPS and all sorts of other features that can be leveraged for the classroom. It is also the case that kids are generally well motivated to use them (note this is a Japanese study). The cell phone can’t replace the PC, but for size and features, it’s getting pretty close to the mark. In Japan, cell phones are in 85% of homes, so it makes sense to try to use these very capable tools in the classroom. In the study, it showed that young students can certainly use the phone to help with their classroom and field based experience.

Storytelling
Storytelling hits on ideas of dual coding (Paivio, 1986), multimedia learning theories (Mayer & Moreno, 2002), freeing student’s capability of growth (Dewey) and shared experience (Vygotsky). The process of storytelling also makes the use of the various related technologies more relevant to the creators so they feel that they become more capable after the experience. This is the same that we found in our own experience.

mLearning
This could be called – JILL (just-in-location-learning), LBL (location based learning), LOD (learning on demand), JIT (just in time) or WINWINI (what I want when I want it), but it’s differentiated from eLearning by it’s use of wireless communications and ability to make use of learning opportunities regardless of location (often with a push technology), where as eLearning is supported by an array of tools and media. mLearning is done when there is down time, or when there are gaps to fill for the students and often as a support for an already hybridized classroom. Barneveld and Shaw advises that while the movement toward mLearning has started, pedagogical, technical, logistical, usability, and social constraints are still significant issues to be overcome.

S/A Peer Tutoring
First generation of tutors relied on strict rules and could not analyze the actions of the player or itself. Second gen systems started to use algorithms to shape the experience. These tutoring systems don’t really fit to what is out there right now. They are really only good at closed problems and even with semi-closed problems like chess, even super computers can’t do what even (or perhaps especially) children can do. Kids get creative with the games that they play, generating their own FAQs (especially Pokemon FAQs) and helping others in online games (MMOGs like Everquest, WoW and the like) with a seemingly undying passion. These tutoring systems are asynchronous, synchronous systems respectively and are almost time less and continuous. Moshirnia (who teaches Latin – how cool is that?) notes that game and school is the same in Latin. Extending this to modern language and schools, this suggests that learning to be scaffolding on any COTS game to detail content that may not even be considered in traditional channels of curriculum content.

In a nutshell:

So these are the four papers that I found interesting today and to try to get them into a common theme was a bit of a challenge. For the most part, this was a day about mLearning, or learning that is in a convenient context. This way, the gaming bit comes in as well. If we are wanting to use the tools that are common to students these days, we want them to forget that there is a barrier between the classroom and the “world”. Cell phones can be used to store and annotate photos that can be used to tell stories that can be sent back and analyzed by an instructional team and then when convenient, have fresh and relevant content pushed out that can then be written up like FAQs (like Toronto notes for Med students?) in a game or used to aid students in some manner of online, real time RPG.