Mobile and Online Learning Technologies

     Words come fairly easily to me.  I know that's a gift and I recognize that this is not the case for many of my students.  I believe one of the strongest tools I have in trying to lift students to their full potential lies in mobile technologies.  I see how the dynamic nature, the connectivity and accessibility create a learning environment conducive for all learning styles.  My only concern rests in the challenges I'm having making it happen.
     Web design requires instinctive flow in order to work.  Trying to wrestle technology feels beyond my intuitive grasp, though.  Finding the most efficient methods may come with practice and time, certainly plenty of time.  My hunch is to keep tapping into the talents of the digital natives I work with in the classroom so they can guide me with feedback.  As it stands now, my prototype is flat, lacking the interactivity to grab interest.  As I spend some quality time with Google sites, I'll keep looking forward to feedback and incorporating it as it comes.  Connectivity is the mindset.
   

Formative Assessment and Personal Learning Networks

In consideration of what it means to be connected, one has to reflect on one’s own connections and mobile learning as educational methodology.  As part of my own growth, and especially in pursuit of graduate work, becoming more of a part of the learning community fueled my thinking and played a significant role as I determined the future of me as an educator.  After connecting to Alt Schools in California, following Sugatra Mitra on TED and Twitter and finding the awesome Critical Thinking “core standards” of New Zealand and Austrailia, I began to see the benefit of learning anytime, anywhere, in real, global time with the support of peers, tools and mentors connected as needed.  I realize how important it is to move towards mobile learning and “connectivism,” but as I’m trying to put my money where my mouth is the action is harder than the words.  

The Informal Learning Activities Figure (Ally, p. 104 [Patten, 2006]) paints a clear picture of the categories, making it easy to consider the relevance of mobile learning as I observe it in the classroom or in relation to my classes.  Although I’ve tried using “interactive” options, such as electronic flashcards, most students who use it are already inclined to use flashcards.  I encourage “administrative” e-planning tools for executive function support,especially for students with dysgraphia, dyslexia or other challenges with tracking.  I’m so happy when mobile devices become “referential” tools, and I believe the golden ticket is when the devices become “collaborative” for students to work with and learn from each other.
Working through my outline reminds me that I have a long way to go to get students and myself into a fully realized connected learning practice.  I have no doubt they will be able to enlist it as they embrace it, if I can make everything as intuitive as a video game.  Whether going mobile will create the individualized, globalized passionate learning is another story.  I can’t wait to get it together and get moving with the necessary feedback in order to fully realize this goal.  

Mobile Interactivity and Instructional Design Strategies

It strikes me as apropos that one of the cited studies in our consideration of the applications of mobile learning is one that looked at the practical uses of such learning online. (Ally, p.139)  As I write this, I’m online,if you are reading this it’s online, and my reading of the related material  is happening electronically from open source material found- yes, online.  This scenario leads me  to say, “We are officially in the matrix.”  I’ve been working with my philosophy students online for a few years to manage a more individualized learning environment while personally, I am increasingly managing my own life mobilly (and yet the dictionary does not recognize this experience as an adverb to help me with spelling).  In order to move at a productive pace with many facets to my highly curated life, I need the mobility, even as I often resent the theory of constant availability.  Does it, though, have bearing on my teaching practice, and if so, how?

Learning still needs to come first even with mobile learning.  The goal of mobile learning is to make it more accessible.  What’s interesting is that as I’m working on developing an online learning module I’m working through it the same way as developing in class learning units.  When does the path deviate from instructional design to be instructional design online?  I know how to teach critical thinking in the classroom.  I’m working on developing equitable performance outcomes to better focus the learning.  My aim is to use mobile learning options to increase the level of individualization and thinking.  How can I best transition into mobile learning so that I maximize the potential and minimize the drawbacks?  How will I translate the moments of inquiry and connection, the malleability necessary for reaching students, and the immediate feedback that happens in order to be more effective than the teacher I already am?

I look forward to enlisting project tuning in this process.  It’s a regular part of my practice with colleagues and I’ve used variations of it with students.  Figuring out how to best approach this project will benefit from additional perspectives.  My only hope is that the metacognitive matrix of critical thinking is the hard part and going mobile won’t break me!

SJ IDA #3