Group Admins
Description
Session Description
The ERASMUS+ funded MINE project has brought together university teachers and students from a range of European institutions to develop scenarios for active open mobile learning. It involves five European partners in Austria, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Scotland. Mobile learning is defined for the project as the use of different mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebooks, and also as the use of free and open knowledge resources. [1] In universities there is a need for pedagogic scenarios to encourage educators to use these new technologies. [2] Farley [3] suggests that educators will need to move beyond didactic approaches still frequently found in higher education. Social constructivist approaches have been advocated, along with the development of communities of practice to support educators. [4]
A key part of the MINE collaboration was an intensive programme which allowed teachers and learners to experience a range of scenarios and learn together about new m-learning opportunities. The outcomes of this process will be shared via an open and online learning event this spring. All relevant resources and results of this project will be published under the creative commons license and will available to be downloaded from the project website.
When evaluating learning scenarios, students and teachers have worked on individual and collaborative activities. They have reflected on the benefits and challenges of using different tools, and on personal, institutional and cultural issues that could influence implementation. A range of OER practices have been considered, including videos, e-portfolios, weblogs and microblogging, that may be produced by university teachers, students or others on mobile devices as part of a formal learning programme. In fact, m-learning has the potential to convey the learning process to people, communities, and remote and island locations, offering higher education students the opportunity to take control of their learning experiences in a different way. [5]
Evaluation of learning scenarios revealed that an emphasis on learners is required, in order to understand how they are already using OER on mobile devices to support their learning and to encourage their active participation in m-learning in formal settings. Cultural, institutional and academic contexts need to be considered when attempting to introduce OER on mobile devices. In addition, the development of an open feedback culture and new forms of performance assessments are important. [6]
University teachers need to care not only about what they are teaching but also about how they are mediating the topics. The pedagogical scenarios presented in this paper address the views of learners and teachers in creating context where active learning can happen. As Traxler and Crompton [7] point out, mobile devices present great challenges to education systems. In universities, the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning is a topic increasingly spoken about but which still needs further implementation in practice. Our scenarios are examples of practices that have been developed by the participants in the MINE project and we intend to show that m-learning using OER is not just about mobile technologies but above all about pedagogy.
References
Project website: http://blog.mine-project.eu/
[1] J. Gikas, M.M. Grant “Mobile Computing Devices in Higher Education: Student Perspectives on Learning with Cellphones, Smartphones & Social Media”, 2013. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096751613000262. (27.02.2017)
[2] Hochschulforum Digitalisierung, “Diskussionspapier. 20 Thesen zur Digitalisierung der Hochschulbildung” (2015). https://hochschulforumdigitalisierung.de/sites/default/
files/dateien/HFD%20AP%20Nr%2014_Diskussionspapier.pdf. (27.02.2016)
[3] Farley, H. et al., (2015). How Do Students Use Their Mobile Devices to Support Learning? A Case Study from an Australian Regional University. Journal of Interactive Media in Education. 2015(1), p.Art. 14. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.ar
[4] Cochrane, T. (2012). Critical success factors for transforming pedagogy with mobile Web 2.0. British Journal of Educational Technology https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01384.x
[ 5] Cardoso T., Abreu R. (2019) Mobile Learning and Education: Synthesis of Open-Access Research. In: Zhang Y., Cristol D. (eds) Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
[6] Y. T. Sung, K. E., Chang, T. C. Liu (2016). “The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students’ learning performance: A meta-analysis and research synthesis”, Computers & Education, 94, 252-275
[7] Traxler, J. & H. Crompton, H. (2015). “Mobile Learning In The UK Today: Successes, Failures, Future”, GLOKALde April 2015, Volume: 1 Number: 2.
