Ten minute talk...

The purpose of this presentation was to aid a ten minute talk on any subject I felt passionate about. The aim was to give us the opportunity to see how we would cope with presenting in front of our peer group. I chose gambling as my subject as it is a topic I am personally interested in, especially in terms of the psychology of gambling disorders and addictions.

Learn, unlearn and relearn

The Value of Mobile Technology in Teaching and Learning.

"Learn anywhere at any time"

Over the last ten years, mobile technologies have become increasingly popular for just about everybody (Chuang, 2009). The development of smartphones and PC tablets give their users the opportunity to learn anywhere at any time. Mobile devices are now small enough for us to carry around conveniently and allow us to connect to the internet more or less anywhere.

Mobile learning has been described as a follow up to e-learning; learning that involves using a desktop PC to communicate material intended to be learned (Chuang, 2009), be it through the use of the internet or any interactive tools. The desktop PC, however, is immobile and restricts the user from using it anywhere at any time (Motiwalla, 2007). By introducing mobile technologies to the learning environment, we are introducing ‘portable’ and ‘movable’ tools that we can use on the go (Naismith et al., 2004). The most common and popular types of mobile technologies, as suggested by Naismith et al. (2004) are mobile phones, PDA’s, tablet PC’s such as iPads, and laptops.

According to Jones (2002), the vast majority of American college students own or have access to wireless devices such as smartphones. Nowadays, general mobile devices intended for the use of social contact are always with learners. Very rarely does an individual leave the house without their mobile phone. Chuang (2009) believes that it would be beneficial to take advantage of this and use mobile phones as a device equipped to act as a learning tool anywhere. As the technology of smartphones is evolving, it is becoming easier to send and receive information about virtually anything, which can only add to the value of learning.

Shoha (2011) states that mobile devices need not be limited to informal learning. Teachers should acknowledge the fact that students are able to use, and would benefit from the use of, calendar functions and email set up on virtually any mobile phone to manage learning related tasks. Whilst there are some who are against the use of mobile phones in the classroom; such as Clark (2012) who believes that mobile phones usage in schools should be restricted due to the potential for cheating and disruption to lessons, others state that it is crucial for teachers to “make the most of modern information technology in our classrooms” (Shoha, 2011).

Walker (2013) questioned whether pupils in the UK actually used their mobile devices to help their learning and concluded that many students benefit from integrating mobile usage into their learning. Consistent feedback from pupils was that mobile devices are convenient, useful tools to use for learning and that they add an element of fun to learning. Armatas et al. (2005) also discovered that there are many educational benefits that are born through the use of mobile technology in the classroom; for example, it enables students to engage in interactive tasks to aid learning, as well as adding incentive for learners to attend and participate in lessons/ there are also apps available for many tablet PC’s that can assist learning, one of these being the Explain Everything app for iPad.

Mobile technologies are beginning to provide an opening into learning that demonstrates that learning does not always have to be bound to the classroom. The potential to learn, and also to teach, can be anywhere at any time on a mobile device. Chuang (2009) suggests that the success of mobile learning will be demonstrated in the way in which it is easily and seamlessly adapted into our everyday lives. Using mobile technologies alone may never be adequate for learning, but they will definitely assist learning and have shown to be successful to expand learning opportunities and also teaching strategies (Motiwalla, 2007).


References

Armatas, C., Holt, D. and Rice, M., 2004. From online enhanced to wholly online: Reflections on e-learning developments in teaching psychology. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer and R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 78-87). Perth, 5-8 December. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/armatas.html

Chuang, K-W., 2009. Mobile technologies enhance the e-learning opportunity. American Journal of Buisness Education, 2(9), pp.49-53.
Clark, L., 2013. Ban mobiles from schools. Daily Mail, 10 May 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142085/Ofsted-chief-gets-tough-classroom-discipline-schools-penalised-failing-tackle-disruption.html , accessed 7 October 2013.
Jones, S., 2002. The internet goes to college: how students are living in the future with today’s technology. Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2002/PIP_College_Report.pdf.pdf , accessed 7 October 2013
Motiwalla, L. F., 2007. Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation. Computers and Education, 49(3), pp.581-596.

Naismith, L., Lonsdale, P., Vavoula, G., and Sharples, M., 2004. Literature review in mobile technologies and learning, Futuerlab Series, Report 11 http://telearn.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/01/43/PDF/Naismith_2004.pdf , accessed 7 October 2013.

Shoha, A. 2011. Don’t ban mobiles in schools. Let students use them. The Independent Blogs, [blog] 10 Nov 2011, http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/11/09/don%E2%80%99t-ban-mobile-phones-in-schools-let-students-use-them-all-the-time/ , accessed 7 Oct 2013.

Walker, R., 2013. “I don’t think I would be where I am right now”. Pupil perspectives on using mobile devices for learning. Research in Learning Technology, 21, pp.1-12.