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Workshop

workshop 2: Beyond Mobile Learning: Innovating Rather Than Replicating Existing Learning Scenarios

Scope: The purpose of the workshop is to explore the future of learning enabled by mobile technology. It address approaches to mobile learning that go beyond merely leveraging off the mobility of the devices to replicate or augment existing learning scenarios and it will focus on scenarios that attempt to create learning opportunities which would not be possible without mobile technology. In particular, mobile learning approaches founded on Collaborative, Constructionist and Contextual pedagogical principles that bank on the data collection, location aware and collaborative capabilities of mobile devices.

Context: The ever increasing availability of wireless portable devices, financial, logistical and technical reasons have provided a rich environment for the proliferation of mobile learning scenarios, applications and research. Mobile Learning experiences and tools have been classified according to their educational objectives (Gay et al 2002), upon activity (Roschelle 2003) and by educational theory they support (Naismith et al. 2005). More recently, Pattern et al. (2006) have proposed a more extensive framework encompassing functionality and pedagogy. The Functional-pedagogical Framework (Pattern et al. 2006) identifies seven categories: Administration; Referential; Interactive; Micro-world; Data Collection; Location-Aware and Collaborative. While the former replicate learning experiences enabled by ‘static technology', the later leverage off the unique attributes of handheld devices allowing for the creation of learning opportunities which would not be possible without mobile technology. Thus, it argues that the data collection, location aware and collaborative categories are particularly suited to mobile learning when they are informed by collaborative, contextual and constructionist learning theories.

Format: The workshop runs from Sunday 21 st January to Tuesday 23rd January 2007 and takes place within the context of the Kaleidoscope CSCL Alpine Rendez-vous organized by the Kaleidoscope CSCL SIG . The daily timetable includes a break from 12:30 till 16:30 for skiing or sightseeing. The workshop is envisaged as a highly interactive event with three sessions, two dedicated to practical experiences intended as a journey from present to future innovative technology enhanced mobile learning and one to the presentation of short papers that will be published in a book of proceedings. The two hands-on-experiences involve fun activities and serious reflection :

  1. The production of a ‘film' entirely ‘shot' on mobile phones: Upon collaborative generation of a storyline (facilitated by a semi-structured grounding tool), participants are divided into groups: the image, the sound and the editing group. With the ‘script' (output of the grounding tool) in hand, to provide common ground, the image and sound group go on location to ‘shoot' while the editing group stays in the editing station. As the media is being capture this is transferred to the editors who can start editing shortly after the crews have arrived on location. While shooting and editing, other communication channels are available to the participants to repair, augment and maintain the common ground if needed. By the time crew and cast are back in the editing station, the first version of the ‘film' is ready for viewing. Final editing and production take place as a whole group activity.

    This hands-on activity will be followed by the decomposition and analysis of the experience in relation to core learning principles and how mobile technology can support these. The method has been used over the past two years with over 100 participants ranging from teenagers in an outreach programme, young children in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, children and teenagers from the shantytowns of Cape Town , postgraduate students, school teachers and researchers among others.

  2. A Future Technology Workshop (FTW): This is a structured method to actively envision and design future interactions between people and technology. The aim of this session will be to envision and explore the relations between future learning activities and mobile technologies. The method has been developed through the MOBIlearn and Kodak Children as Photographers projects, and has been used with both children and adults on themes including 'the future of capturing and sharing images', and 'future healthcare with mobile technology'. The sessions include Imagineering, Modelling, Role-play, Retrofit, Everyday, Futurefit, and Requirements.

Participants: The workshop will involve about 20 participants, including members of the Kaleidoscope Mobile Learning SIG and others with an interest in mobile learning.

Important dates : Expressions of interest, with either a short abstract of your paper, if you intend to present one, or a short description of relevant research interest should be submitted by email to the workshop coordinator (Macu.Arnedillo@cs.tcd.ie) by September 15 th . Those whose work is accepted will be notified by 2 nd October and they will be requested to submit a longer position paper by 31 st November.

Costs: The cost per participant will be 500 CHF (approx. €320; including registration and 2 night accommodation on full-board basis). It is hope that Kaleidoscope members will receive financial support through the Mobile Learning SIG however funding availability won't be confirmed till later on in the year.

Location: The workshop is located in Villars (http://www.villars.ch), Switzerland , a ski resort located 90 km from Geneva airport. It can easily be reached by train. The closest main city, Lausanne , has excellent train connections with Paris , Lyon, Torino or Germany . The Geneva airport (http://www.gva.ch) has many worldwide connections including several low-cost companies operating over Europe.

Additional Information : Our workshop participants are in addition welcome to join the Rendez-Vous day of the CSCL Alpine Rendez-Vous (from Tuesday 23rd at 18:30 till Wednesday 24th at 19:00) with a set of activities that gather participants from all workshops. The costs will be about 300 CHF (approx. €190 which includes one more hotel night and the social event on Tuesday night).

Organizers: Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez (Trinity College Dublin), Mike Sharples (University of Nottingham), Giasemi Vavoula (The Open University), Brendan Tangney (Trinity College Dublin)

Contact: Workshop coordinator: Inmaculada Arnedillo-Sánchez (Macu.Arnedillo@cs.tcd.ie)
For organisational issues, you may contact Florence Colomb (Florence.Colomb@epfl.ch) or +41 21 693 22 75.