Edited by Shireen, Wila, and Brian
This article is based on Mobile learning: Small devices, big issues by Sharples et al. (2009)
INTRODUCTION
We can observe from our daily life and find that digital devices serve multiple functions. For example, students use smartphones to play multi-player. Working adults rely on computers with Internet access to realize meetings over a distance. We can also find that digital devices serve as the facilitator for learning in different aspects.
Today, we will look at mobile learning from the following dimensions: 1) its definition; 2) its affordances for learning; 3) the issues in design and evaluation; and 4) two questions remaining unanswered.
WHAT MOBILE LEARNING IS
You may think that mobile learning is something that is related to learning through digital devices. However, to thoroughly understand what mobile learning, it is better to look at “mobile” and “learning” separately according to the following five perspectives(Sharples et al., 2009) :
- Mobility in physical space: people on the move learn in a fragmented manner every day.
- Mobility of technology: 1) the portability of tools and resources, 2) the possibility of attention transfer from one digital tool to another.
- Mobility in conceptual space: the learning attention and topics change over time due to the change of people’s interest, curiosity, etc.
- Mobility in social space: people can show their learning performance in various social groups, such as family, office, or classroom context, etc.
- Learning dispersed over time: the cumulation of learning experiences allows people to connect and reinforce what they have learned
THE AFFORDANCES OF DIGITAL TOOLS FOR LEARNING
Many people may still oppose the idea that mobile devices should be incorporated in students’ learning activities. To fight against this attitude, let us look at this example.
The Mobile Digital Narrative (mobileDN)
In Mobile Learning Exemplars sectionof the research article, the authors introduced a collaborative project in 2006 that required group members to create a multimedia product in a prescribed amount of time. The group was divided into three sub-groups: one responsible for shooting, another for audio issues, and the third sub-group for editing issues. A variety of digital tools and resources were provided, including the concept-map that facilitated script creation, camera phones, notebook computers, a movie editor, etc.
Overall, this project shows its mobility in that the workshop can take place wherever possible. The mobile devices also helped students explore the natural surroundings and enabled interactions for learning purposes. Team members experienced rich conversations as they “negotiated how the images and sound captured on location could best be assembled together to convey narrative intent.” (Sharples et al., 2009)
This project has illustrated some affordances that digital devices provide for effective learning.
- Efficiency: the use of mobile digital tools has made synchronous collaboration possible
- Collaboration: concept-mapping and editing allows opportunities for interaction and negotiation
- Creativity and multimodality: the use of multimedia devices enables events, opinions, or attitudes can be presented in a non-tradition manner of words only
As a matter of fact, mobile learning has also showed its lofty status in UNESCO’s mobile program.
THE DESIGN OF MOBILE LEARNING
Naismith & Corlett (2006)suggest the need to:
- Create quick and simple interactions;
- Prepare flexible materials that can be accessed across contexts;
- Consider special affordances of mobile devices that might add to the learner experience (e.g., the use of audio or user anonymity);
- Use mobile technology not only to “deliver” learning but to facilitate it, making use of the facilities in current mobile devices for voice communication, notetaking, photography and time management.
Attention:
The design should be driven by specific learning objectives.
Try to enrich the learning conversations and enhance the learner experience without interfering with it(Beale, 2007).
THE EVALUATION OF MOBILE LEARNING
Evaluation, which is at the center of the technology development process, should be a continuous process.
A Framework for Mobile Learning Evaluation
Sharples et al. state that the mobile learning evaluation framework structures the evaluation planning around general goals for assessing usability, educational effectiveness and overall impact. More specifically, it comprises three levels:
- Micro level, which examines how effective, efficient and satisfying is the individual user’s experience supported by the technology.
- Meso level, technology is in place and is robust enough to allow assessment of the learning and teaching experience and its educational value.
- Macro level, the technology is in place and used for long enough to establish its effects on learning practice.
Challenges:
- Unpredictability of the context of use: The context of use is not fixed and well defined but can vary significantly. Mobile contexts of use are difficult to observe, predict or simulate.
- Unpredictability of the learning process: Mobile learning blurs the distinction between formal and informal learning. Traditional assessment methods are not appropriate for Mobile Learning.
- Unpredictability of the mode of use: How new tools and services are appropriated by people in their everyday learning practice(Waycott, 2004).
- Looking beyond the “wow” effect: Mobile learning evaluation should see beyond the initial “wow” factor associated with the technology and investigate how effective is mobile technology in engaging learners over the longer term.
LINGERING QUESTIONS
As a critical reader, some questions may come to our mind when we go through this blog. The following lingering questions are waiting for your response, and please note that you can voice your opinions freely because there are no fixed answers to them.
- Have you ever had any learning experiences that were facilitated by a certain/ some mobile digital tool(s) or resource(s)?
- Suppose you were a parent/ teacher/ school management/ government official, would you support the use of mobile digital devices among students to help their learning? If no, what is your concern?
There was a time when I was stuck at the airport waiting for transfer. There was a time I was supposed to arrive at the school on time to attend a class but actually stuck at the airport. Thanks to Zoom, I finished that lesson at the airport. So digital tools do facilitate language learning by breaking the limitations of space and time.
If I were a teacher, I would definitely apply digital tools to class. Because technology can help teachers do a lot of work, such as building up students` error history, or providing educational support from afar.
Hi, Sean! Thanks for sharing your mobile learning experience. Yes, digital tools help us break the space and time limits, especially under the condition of the epidemic. Since we all have a class via Zoom, I can also save time on the way to school and can review the class records.
Using technology to build up students’ error history is a good way for teachers. We also collect our errors in my tertiary school, but we mostly copy them down. Using technology instead can save a lot of time and easy to search.
Yes, I have used some apps on my mobile phone to learn new words or do pattern drills of some phrases and sentences.
If I were a teacher, I would like to introduce mobile digital tools to students for them to engage in out-of-class learning. But maybe more concerns would be raised by parents, for example, parents may worry about the effectiveness of learning by mobile digital tools.
Hello, Vickie! Thanks for sharing.
It is reasonable for parents to worry about students’ learning efficiency. But mobile digital tools can give data for them to directly show how long students spend learning and how many words or phrases they have learned. For example, I am now using an App to help memorize new words. It will tell me my vocabulary amount, how long I have insisted on learning, and how many words I have learned through this APP. Therefore, I can clearly know its efficiency.
I have some English learning apps installed on my mobile phone, mostly to practice my reading and listening skills and as an online dictionary or vocabulary book. Going mobile does provide me with some previously inconceivable opportunities to learn English incidentally whenever possible, wherever I go. Encouraging use of mobile devices in language teaching and learning is also desirable in this increasingly mobilized world, but at this moment I think it might still be more reasonble to restrict their use mostly to in-classroom for beginning learners, considering the difficulty to monitor students’ mobile device activities outside of classroom. Anyways, they can always draw on those online learning resources with the teachers’ or parents’ supervision.
Hi, Felix. Thanks for sharing. I can understand your concern. As our blog said, the context of use is unpredictable. So young users should be restricted from being dedicated to mobile services. Luckily, besides parents and teachers, the APP company can provide teenager mode to limit the number of screen hours the access of harmful contents.
1. When I was in university, I have used an APP called Daily English to improve my listening skills. It worked like a radio providing various listening materials such as daily news of BBC, movie soundtrack and audiobooks. Its mobility and flexibility allowed me to make use of pieces of time to learn English. For example, I usually listened to BBC for about 15 minutes during my breakfast, which not only increased the efficiency but also reduced my pressure because I only needed to concentrate for a short time. After one year of listening, I was surprised to find that I could understand English speeches in different accents more easily, which, I think, should be attributed to the fragmented learning in the App.
2. Having experienced the benefits of mobile learning, I am willing to embrace the use of mobile digital devices in my future teaching. Mobile learning provides access to numerous resources and increases students’ learning autonomy, which could benefit formal classroom teaching.
Yeah, I agree that fragmented learning is a good way to improve language skills bit by bit. I used to watch some English videos like TED talk, BBC news when doing exercises in the gym.
I also insist that using mobile phone as a tool for learning is beneficial to facilitate learning, while the management of teenagers’ addiction to some of the apps that are not correlated with language learning may still be a problem that need to be solved. Anyway, I think as the technology develop, mobile learning would become more and more popular.
Hi, Connie! Thank you for your comment. Learning in pocket time really helps! I also listen to some English broadcasts on my way to school. Through it, I can adapt to foreigners’ accents and speaking speed and get some new information. I like the “reduce the pressure” point. I hadn’t thought about it from this angle, but I had the same feeling after reading your sharing.
Yes. I used some apps for English learning. Especially when I was preparing for my IELTS test, it was super expensive to buy the materials, so I used online materials in apps. Thanks to that, I saved a lot of money.
I think I will support using mobile digital devices for language learning as a teacher, as they are really helpful and convenient. But I will definitely request students to use those devices under my control and they cannot keep the devices with them in other classes. Because I am afraid that they will focus on the devices but not follow the teachers.
Hello, Xiaohan! Thank you for sharing your experience. I totally agree with you about the money-saving part. I also used some Apps to prepare for my test. I can watch some course videos through these apps. In addition to saving money, it can help me save time because I can play the videos faster, and I can screenshot teachers’ slides instead of copying them down.
I think your concern about students’ focus is reasonable. When I have Corpus class, I will also focus on the corpora webs and software rather than the teacher’s explanation.
Yes, I have used social media on the phone to learn English, particularly when I want to learn some English slang and culture. Because social media can provide learners with authentic communications, in which learners can observe the language use in a real context.
As a teacher, I will recommend my students to use mobile digital devices, because it allows them to utilize the time fragment to continue their learning, for example, when they are commuting, they can learn some vocabulary through the mobile digital devices.
Hi, Jaclyn, thank you for your reply! I agree with you that we can learn English through social media. Through them, we can observe authentic language use. Besides, we can also practice and adjust our English in those real communications. I also learned some exciting abbreviations such as “AUSOS (Are you stupid or something?)” from Twitter.
Yes, I have. And I think it’s a common phenomenon for us today to use mobile technology to learn. I usually use online apps in my phones to learn new vocabulary, which provides convenience and help to save time. And we are applying tablets and laptops to have online lessons, protecting us from current epidemic situations.
To be honest, although there are so many advantages have been mentioned, I don’t think we should promote digital technology to facilitate language learning among students. Firstly, it really does harm to their eyesight. Secondly, it’s unavoidable that students may come across some unsound online information, affecting their growth. Thirdly, because of their age limitations, students may be addicted to digital tools and spend too much time playing them, wasting their learning time. So I don’t think providing digital tools for young learners is a good idea.
Hi Joyce, thanks for sharing your concerns about mobile use and the learning experience with us! I also use my mobile phone to learn vocabulary. It can help me to make better use of my pocket time. Also, the apps can provide me the languages to review according to my memorizing curl.
Your concern is really unique. Because almost all our readers agree to use mobile devices in language learning. I totally agree with you on the points you listed. Actually, even I am an adult, I cannot get rid of those negative affections.
Ellen advised we can learn from digital radio instead of just watching the screen. I think it is really a good idea to solve the eyesight problem!
1. Now I can hardy learn without my laptop and iPad. Since all the courses are conducted online, I need a laptop for class, search for information and write essays. And my learning is facilitated by an iPad, especially when I look through the literature and class materials. With the help of some apps such as notability, I can import all the materials and take notes, with no need to print them out.
2. I would support the involvement of mobile digital devices as long as students can achieve their learning goals. Taking notes with an iPad can enhance the efficiency of learning and giving students opportunities to search information online can promote learner autonomy. Students’ creativity and ability to cooperate are explored when they conduct some multi-model projects.
Hello, Cindy, thanks for your reply! I also use notability to take notes on my iPad. But because of my poor handwriting, I prefer using my mac to study. You also mentioned the advantages of using mobile digital devices. I agree that it can promote students’ creativity and cooperation ability. This semester, our classmates really did some excellent work in the group works.
1. Yes. I use my mobile phone to learn vocabulary, read English articles, and watch English videos. There are many apps designed for language learning, focusing on various language skills such as extensive reading, intensive reading, listening, oral ability and cultural knowledge of the target language. I find it useful and interesting to learn English using these apps.
2. If I were a parent, I will definitely support the use of mobile digital devices for my child’s learning. Since nowadays many young people and even children are addicted to the entertainment functions of mobile phone, mobile learning can be a good way to make them aware of the educational affordances of mobile phone. One of my concerns is that mobile digital devices are harmful to students’ eyesight. But I think the digital radio, which allows them to listen to BBC, VOA and other news broadcast around the world, doesn’t have this drawback.
Hi, Ellen! Thank you for sharing. It seems you really benefit from mobile learning. Can you recommend some Apps you find helpful for us?
Using digital radio instead of watching the screen to solve the health problem is a great idea! I will recommend it to Joyce. I hope it can release her worry.
You are right. Some students only use a mobile phone to entertain themselves because they have no idea of mobile learning. Using mobile devices in class can also help them be aware of their effectiveness.
Nowadays, because of the pandemic, almost everyone need a laptop to facilitate their work or study. We have courses through zoom, collaboratively create group projects through google doc., and access to daily information through several applications. Using a mobile device is ubiquitous. I watch Ted and learn the thoughts of the video as well as some unfamiliar vocabularies.
If I am a teacher and the budget of the school is affluent, I would choose to introduce mobile devices into the class, because students can do some tests or quizzes online and the results or mistakes they commonly make can instantly be reflected which help teachers better acquire students’ learning situation and make adjustments in the following instruction.
Hi, Kristy! Thanks for your comment. Ted is really an authentic and valuable material for us to learn English. I can always benefit from both the context and expressions of Ted.
Yes, the convenience data analyzing ability is one of the affordances of mobile devices. It saves teachers time, freeing them from the mechanical labor of grading multiple-choice questions.
I guess we often use different mobile tools in daily life in order to facilitate teaching and learning. For example, thanks for the zoom, although there is a serious pandemic situation in Hong Kong and we cannot have face-to-face lessons, students, including me, can still have lessons for continuous learning while having online collaboration tasks during lessons.
If I am a teacher, I would definitely promote the use of digital devices because it can help arouse students’ interests in learning. More instant feedback and comments can be replied to students once the replies are received. It should be aware that the classroom management should be carefully monitored as it may be a little hard to control.
Hello, Florence. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!
Yes! Zoom has allowed us to take classes online during the pandemic. Besides, through Zoom, we can carry out activities that cannot go offline, such as voting and screen sharing.
Of course I have such experiences. Much like others, I used to learn english on mobile phone, downloading a lot of apps for listening and reading materials. But it’s a bit boring to learn alone, and you need plenty of persistence and patience, so now i seldom use those apps. i particularly want to mention the cooking app which I have been using for a couple of years. You can pick up some lovely recipes once upon a time and even more, interact with those phenomenal chefs to improve your culinary skills. it’s great fun!
I would absolutely recommend mobile learning. it’s a great way to develop children’s independent learning. However, parents and teachers should play an important role in guiding their use of mobile devices due to their lack of discipline and critical thinking in online spaces.
Hi Elain, thanks for sharing! Do you mind telling us what that cooking app is? It sounds beneficial. You mentioned that learning alone is boring. As I have known, some apps can let us understand the language in groups. You have some group tasks every week. You can also share your learning achievement with your group members. Besides these Apps, we can also learn with friends in the We chat group.
I agree with you. APP companies are always asked to restrict the use of teenagers and the context published in their Apps. But parents and teachers should guide students’ use of these mobile devices.
I once prepared for the IELTS speaking test by using Wechat Official accounts. There are many resources on structuring your speaking and content and providing different perspectives on speaking topics.
When I was an intern teacher, I recommended students to subscribe to some Official accounts, and they were interested in this innovative learning way. However, students who are less self-control are addicted to other mobile functions rather than learning.
Hello, Liz! Thanks for sharing. I also prepared for IELS through my mobile phone. It is really helpful. Besides, as Xiaohan said, it helps save a lot of money :). I agree that students will be addicted to other mobile functions. Even as an adult, I will sometimes spend too much time on my mobile phone. But in the condition of pandemics, we cannot get rid of using mobile devices.
These past two years, I have attended some school manager workshops via Zoom and Webex, because social distancing restrictions made it impossible for masses of attendees to gather in the same auditorium. Thanks to these online modes of delivery, I was able to fulfill training hours which are part of the post’s requirements.
As both a teacher and a parent, the affordances of mobile digital devices outweigh its limitations. Besides, these devices have become compulsory tools in today’s world of online learning and, at times, they are the only media that keep teachers and students virtually closer during the pandemic times. Parents can also have a greater peace of mind knowing that their children can keep up with school learning using the online mode and not fall behind their studies too much due to physical school suspension.
Hi, Heidi! We all benefit from mobile devices like Zoom in this pandemic time. I had never heard of Webex before. Is that an APP just like Zoom?
Thank you for giving your opinion from a parent’s perspective. I can know a new affordance of online devices that can provide information on the learning progress of their kids.
While I have experience learning via digital tools, those tools aren’t specifically designed as mobile digital tools. Rather, most of them expect the users use PC rather than mobile devices.
As a teacher, I will support the use of mobile devices for several reasons. First, it facilitate the use of flipped classroom which enable students to engage in learning activities anywhere. Also, it allows our students to persist learning even when f2f lessons are suspended.
Hello, Chung! Thanks for sharing your observation. I think these tools are more suitable for PC use because PC is invented much more earlier than mobile phones. As I know, there are also some APPs specifically for mobile devices, because they are more widely used.
Yes, I think I have a lot of experience of mobile learning. For example, I have used breaks to memorize vocabulary via Apps almost every day. And when I suffered insomnia at late nights, I have listened to podcasts to exhaust myself.
I will support mobile learning because mobile learning is an inevitable trend. Although the constraints of mobile learning are obvious. For example, it is hard to supervise the learning process, and the line between informal and formal learning is quite blurring. What’s more, juveniles are easily get distracted by other insidious temptations. However, in the digital age, we cannot prevent all juveniles from being exposed to mobile devices; thus, what we should do is to lead them to the right track by teaching them how to make use of the learning resources on mobile devices properly and effectively. Mobile learning will definitely play a positive role in language learning as long as it can be used scientifically.
Hi, Sylvia! Thanks for sharing. I have a similar experience with you. Actually, I also have some sleep problems. Sometimes listening to podcasts can help me fall asleep. But sometimes, I will be attracted by the context of the podcasts and be more excited. Can you share your podcast channel with me?
For the answer to the second question, I totally agree with you in today’s environment, even we do not agree to use mobile devices, we cannot prevent people from using them. Therefore, all we can do is solve existing problems and make better use of them.
In the class this week we made a short recording with background music as an experiment on mobile learning. Although at first, we weren’t sure how much effort we wanted to put into this small experiment, the result turned out okay and all of us enjoyed the process. Together we used WeChat, TikTok, a music app, and zoom to finish the small project and the collaborative experience was especially enjoyable as it made learning more fun and in the end we got to creat something instead of being this passive receiver. So I will definitely try it in the future and I don’t really think there is anything about this approach that concerns me as problematic.
Hello, Lid! Thank you for your comment. I also enjoy that activity. And I think if we can adopt these activities in our classroom, students will definitely want to focus rather than indulge in entertainment. So it’s not about these devices. It’s about how we use them.
1.Yes, I have experienced learning vocabularies on a Chinese mobile app called BaiCiZhan. In this app, I can learn some specific vocabularies. For example, I can learn some specific English vocabularies to prepare for TEM-8, a test for English majors in Mainland China. This app not only provides me with written and audio version of vocabularies, but also with some sentences and pictures. By using this multimodal way to learn vocabularies, I can learn fast and more efficiently.
2.If I were a parent, I would support my children to use mobile devices to learn. There are various sources in the Internet, and they can be used to facilitate learning. For example, my children could watch some videos to preview. They could also search the Internet to find more detailed explanation for those knowledge that they could not understand after taking the class at school. Moreover, they could find some exercises to practice by using mobile devices. However, I have to admit that I should control the usage of mobile devices for my children. I need to limit the time for using mobile devices. In this way, it can protect my children’s eyes and prevent them from playing games on mobile devices when I ask them to study.
Hi, Rose! Thanks for recommending the App to us. I also tried BaiCiZHan in the past. However, I can only remember the picture rather than the meaning or the spelling. So I installed it at last. It is important to find a way suitable for ourselves.
I agree with you. Everyone can get advantages from mobile devices. But for young students who are lack self-control, it is important to have practical guidance from their parents and teachers.
I have downloaded many mobile apps to my phone, such as YouTube, dictionary, Twitter, and Instagram. Those apps, which prove a rich and comprehensive learning environment for me, can be used anytime and anywhere. I can learn the latest topics and interact with different people worldwide.
I think students can also learn language from mobile apps effectively. For example, they can learn from videos, texts, and e-books.
Hi, Ceci. Thanks for your comment! Yes, through these mobile devices, we learn the language with mobility in physical space and conceptual space.
You mentioned students can learn from affluent resources on mobile devices. So you agree to use them in your class? I agree with you. Actually, I can also learn language from these materials more effectively.
Hahaha, thanks for your reply, Shireen^^. Teenagers enjoyed the learning experience through mobile apps. It is an excellent idea to integrate mobile learning into teaching. I would be glad to use it in class if I was a secondary or primary student.