The value of mobile technology in teaching and learning;

In this society mobile technology is everywhere and growing fast; it has becomes hard to ignore the benefit of which it brings to teaching and learning. There have been many studies over the year and are still being run today, on the value of mobile technology in the education system. The role of the learner is changing fast and facilitators need to keep up; by adopting the modern world into the class environment, we can engage on different levels. Although there are always pitfalls with this radical teaching method, it is down to the facilitator to assess the way in which it is received. There are many studies on the effects of mobile learning and the actual advantage it gives the learner. ‘The Social & Mobile Learning Experiences of Students Using Mobile E-books’ journal (Kissinger, 2013, p. 153) is a fascinating study in to e-book learning within college students. Looking at multiple theories of cognitive behavior they stated:

Six conclusions were drawn from the study:

(1) Students expressed competence in their use of the mobile-books,

(2) Students expressed feelings of high self-efficacy when using the mobile e-books, (3) Students valued the use of the mobile e-books for their learning,

(4) Students were individualized and metacognitive in their learning with the mobile e-books,

(5) Students enhanced their learning socially and within situated learning opportunities, and

(6) The students and the instructor had divergent views on the value and utility of social, interactive textbooks. (Kissinger, 2013, p. 153)

This shows that facilitators must still be the guide throughout transition; without this leader the commodity would be inadequate and the importance would be lost.
   
The biggest value for me in terms of Mobile Learning is the versatility of it; take a look at these two projects The Ambient Wood and EnvironmentalDetectives, excellent ideas to encourage learners to work together but on a multi-sensory level and both approaching it in different way. There is also the Tate Modern using mobile technology it improve the gallery experience and take it to a new level. This is just skimming the surface of what is possible and it is just the beginning, with technology expediential growth rate who knows what the next five years will bring.

Works Cited

Kissinger, J. S., 2013. The Social & Mobile Learning Experiences of Students Using Mobile E-books. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(1), pp. 153-170.

Bibliography

Arcade, M. T. E. P. i. a. w. T. E., 2003. Environmental Detectives. [Online]
Available at: http://education.mit.edu/ar/ed.html
[Accessed 29 November 2014].

Kissinger, J. S., 2013. The Social & Mobile Learning Experiences of Students Using Mobile E-books. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 17(1), pp. 153-170.

Learning, E. w. p. o. P. a., 2003. Ambient Wood. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hcibook.com/e3/text/casestudy/ambient-wood/
[Accessed 01 December 2014].

My analysis of an application we were shown in class.

Google Docs is a free application I have used a variety of times, especially with my one to one support. I can access there uploaded files at anytime and anywhere, and we can work on them together. This application can also work in a classroom setting, where the individual student can work on document through their device and it can be displayed on the digital white board or projector. This is definitely a tool worth knowing about.

Google Docs allows you to upload and store your documents in the cloud system, making them accessible to you, allowing you to share and chat with peers.  All you need is a Gmail account and you are ready to go. It can be used in group work, as well as, individual work and can really take the learning experience to a more interactive level. A simple style and easy to use, you can produces charts, spreadsheets, diagrams and more; all being compatible with Microsoft, making it an excellent aid for teaching and learning.

My Experience of Mobile Technology and Learning

My main job consists of me supporting individual students; I use a fair amount of application on Mobile technology. A lot of the students I work with have barriers to education, for example, organisation skills, spelling, grammar, physical conditions, etc., and so these application help aid me in my role.

Say I have a student who has bad organisational skills, if they have a Smart Phone/PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) we would routinely key in the activities for the week and this unchanging activity eventually becomes autonomous.

Another example would be the dictionary app; as these help not only with spelling, but pronunciation and the context to which each word fits. These can be great aids for when the student has no one around to help.    

For me as a facilitator I use mobile technology for everything digital, camera, diary, emails, timer, to show and send video, research and so much more. I think if I lost my phone tomorrow I would be rendered useless, for my life exists there and things would move slow if at all without it. 

My personal experience with YouTube

My personal experience with YouTube, a video sharing website, took a while for me to understand the purpose.  As at first it seemed just like a place where people upload silly videos of themselves and it still is, but if used right it can host a great range of short informative and interactive educational video. These video can assist in the transmitting of knowledge and can be incorporated in innovating ideas to engage the student. Especially adult learners and those with barriers particular could really benefit from connecting to material in a more unorthodox way.

Learning with a twist; if you look at Vsauce(also have Vsauce2 & 3)  for example, most of these videos are way out there concepts, but are all based on realistic facts and knowledge. He brings in relevance to the real world and we learn things we would never imagined, but it inspires creativity based on factual knowledge. This is a great was to spend 10-20 min or used to inspire thought after session.

Doodling Math a  marvellous  way to inspire those who cannot stop doodling in maths, to learn while the doodle. It is creative, funny, fresh and appeals to all ages and all abilities; the imagery produced is fascinating and is quite encouraging.

Even some musicians/rapper videos can be motivating to the learning; above is a video by an Artist known as Dizraeli and Macmillan dictionary, titled ‘The 21^st Century Flux,’ a fun way it get the learners to see the importance of improving our own vocabulary.

To sum up, my experience with YouTube is a good one, that gets better and better the more videos I find. There are obviously videos that are completely useless and serve no point at all, but I am not even scratching the surface of YouTube with the information I have provided and most people will already know this. I am just glad I realised the potential myself and incorporate them into my modes of inspiration.      

Blog Review

It is really difficult to say a particular blog that I have found useful in the development of my practice, but I have found a few that have definitely aided this. What I enjoy most about finding these blogs is that there is so much I have yet to discover and through the journeys of others; others whom I know very little about, I can improve my own practice.

The first blog I will introduce you to will be Vicky Davis – who is an award winner teacher, her blog is called ‘The Cool Cat Teacher.’ This is packed full of all sorts of ideas such as ‘app smashing’ to ‘the school teacher that help Charles Schulz see the light,’ very useful for new ways of engaging students.

http://www.coolcatteacher.com/

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners created by Susan Oxnevad – this blog has an array of technologies and tips on keeping up with the times. The great thing about this blog with every article there are recommendations to other articles that are link in subject matter; very interesting with fresh ideas.

http://d97cooltools.blogspot.co.uk/

Education in Technology and Mobile Learning this blog has a wealthy resource of educational web tools and mobile apps for facilitators to take advantage of. Contain all sort of knowledge about google drive, educational technology resources, books, teacher guides and much more. Recent up-to-date research and incredibly hand information; a well recommended read.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/

‘Free Technology for Teachers’ by Richard Bryne – Another blog just full of really useful material. Harbouring tips on subject content, great ideas to form parental involvement, great links to other good sources of information, handy tool, techniques, etc. This is a great blog to visit.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Grind Jumper’s blog is a collaborative blog and predominately contains information about 3D application within teaching and learning. They have some great programme recommendations and I particularly like the article ‘Immerse into Mobile Games for Fitness,’ the concept of ‘walking meetings’ intrigues me.

http://gridjumper.net/

So here are my recommended blogs; I am certain there are many more out there, it is just finding the time to read them all. Is that even possible?     

Bubbl.us

This is my bubbl.us mind map, it was created for me to understand and break down microteaching.

 As part of the PCET course we were asked to prepare a microteaching session on a subject of our choice, for this I chose the subject of microteaching. A daring topic I know, but I felt to truly understand why we should be using this technique, I must teach it. When teaching a subject, only then do I fully start to understand it.

It is one thing researching a subject to the bitter end, but only when I teach a subject does it begin to make sense. As a result of this the above mind map was created for me to break it down and find out why we microteach. What is the point?

What I have come to understand is that microteaching is an essential tool, which should be used throughout all departments within all educational establishments. Not only is it a great aid to build confidence in new teachers, but can be a great way for departments to gauge the levels of teaching within it; where they can learn from each other’s practice; see how their own practice is received and even improve the curriculum (in their department) through their findings.

This could also potentially work in the business world; where departments could create a microteach about the job they do, and to create an activity to show a typical procedure that would be undertaken. This then could be delivered to higher management who would either; have an understanding and would help to evaluate and accredit them, or acquire an awareness of the quality of work their staff are achieving.

To sum up, this technique has the capacity to allow us to grow within our chosen vocations as a whole; learn together and from one another. It is given us the ability to improve what we do for the better and as a unit; depicted what is best practice from the bottom up.

 Learning is a dynamic process during which individuals make internal adjustments individually and developing the necessary skills. Thus, to enhance the effectiveness of learning, the learning itself should be a starting point and other concept, such as instruction and curriculum or teaching techniques, should be built on it. (Prof., 2010, p.79)

Works Cited

Prof., A.K., 2010. Learner-centered Micro Teaching in Teacher Education. International Journal of Instruction, 3(1), pp.77-100.

https://bubbl.us/mindmap

How great leaders inspire action

How great leaders inspire action - got me thinking! Question why before you start; what are the objectives? Is there a purpose? How do I project this? 

Technology and I

The type of technology I use in my everyday life: I have been asked to describe the technology that I use often. Looking at this from a broad perspective; most of what I do is aided by some form of technology, but the main and obvious culprits would be;

·         Computer/Tablet/Netbook (word processing/spreadsheet/emails/internet/etc.)

·         Smartphone (Social media/emails/finding locations/sometimes to speak to someone/etc.)

·         Digital SLR camera (Visually recording/documenting my life and the world around me)

·         USB (could not be without this small, but extremely important item)

These amazing items shape my life. They help me to be efficient; keep me organised; allowing me to be accessible and carry tones of important documents around, in one tiny device. Even though these objects have not always been in my world, I would struggle to keep on top of my life without them.

Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson

Do schools kill creativity? We were introduced to Sir Ken Robinson during an ICT session; as part of this brief we must write about a ted talk that inspires you and this has inspired me.  In this TED Robinson starts to talk about the three themes which display, ‘the evidence of human creativity’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) and how we cannot predict the future in terms of society, the environment, etc. Therefore, the role of the facilitator is vitally important; children have astonishing ‘capacity’ that we want to enhance not stifle. Teaching can be a very organic process, which can often be unpredictable and so you can never full plan for the future; so how can we educate for the future?
 

He does not give the answer in this talk, but the most important message I got form this TED was that ‘creativity is as important as literacy and should be treated with the same status.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) I completely agree with this statement; to deny creativity, in any sense, would stunt original thought and personal expression. A world with no creativity, I feel, would be a dreadfully boring place; where no one would take any risks and these chances are what you need for your mental growth. 
Robinson discusses the notion of kids being more susceptible to take chances and he believes that, ‘if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with something original.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) This is something we all fear becoming, the failure and this is what is fundamentally wrong with our society.
 

Robinson brings about the idea that this fear perception of failure is starting to transcribe through to the business world, where companies ‘stigmatise’ mistakes of its employees. Even the national education system pushes for perfection; in this world it seems ‘mistakes are the worst thing you can make.’ (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007) As a consequence of this way of thinking we are educating people out of their gifts. He gives a famous quote by Picasso, ‘all children are born Artists, the problem is to remain an Artist as you grow up.’ A brilliant quote, Artist in the lose term could mean anything, you do not need to be able to draw or paint to be creative; for a while now I have been trying to think an something we do that does not consist of us being creative. I have not been successful in answering this yet.
 

Around the world the way we educate is quite similar, in the sense, we have the same hierarchy system; we value the same subjects for their purpose in our economy. These top end subjects are Mathematics and Languages, Humanities, then the Arts; even in the Arts there is a chain of command again Art, Music, Drama and Dance. Recognising that we have a pecking order within the system makes you question why? Back before the nineteenth century public schools did not exist, they came about during the industrial revolution and were designed on two ideas;

 

• The useful subjects at the top, hence, the need for a hierarchy system.
• Academic ability –universities designing the system in their own image.

A lot of creative people are being lost in a system like this and in our ever growing, diverse society that way of thinking is becoming outmoded. Today education is looked upon as gauge of academic ability, but due to the influx of students each year a degree does not hold the same value. Robinson states, ‘more people are graduating now than in the whole history of education; due to technology and its effects on how we learn, and demography, and the explosion in population.’ This is showing in the academic inflation of the accreditation system and our education system must reflect this.
 

Robinson sums up by emphasizing the need to change the way we educate the world, as it does not suit the needs and modes of our economy, society, environment, etc. We know three things about intelligence; 

• It is diverse – we think in many ways, visual, audio, kinaesthetic, abstract, movement.
• Intelligence is dynamic – creativity comes through interacting in different ways.
• It is distinct – unique to us all and learning has to redirect this. 

         (Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?, 2007)

 

The way Sir Ken Robinson has delivered this talk has inspired me to learn more about his work, I believe he is looking at the education system with the right approach. We are ever growing intellectuals and the more we learn about how we take in information, the greater the need for change in the system. It should become almost like a living organism, growing with us so we can continue to improve as a race and better the economy, improve the environment and try to ensure a safe future for the next generation. I will definitely be blogging more on Sir Ken Robinson, a great leader of inspiration.   

Works Cited

Robinson, Sir Kenneth Do Schools Kill Creativity?. 2007. [Film] Directed by Sir Kenneth Robinson. America: TED Talks.

Adult Eduction

This is my first wordle and blog post; adult learning will be what most of the content is based around, but held within this image above are most of the themes I would like to cover. The aim is to gather an array of information, to understand and try to explain the world of education; to see how it fits within our society and how it is changing around us. I will be looking into the many uses of ICT in our education system and analysing why it is important to us. As well as, show a variety of applications and programmes used in my life, and my role as a facilitator. I intend this blog to be almost like an expedition, where I explore the ever changing world of the learner.