Contextual Learning Principle

As discussed in Section 3.3, knowledge construction is socially mediated through technological tools i.e. the mobile phone in this research. The mobile phone allows for interaction with others in a context as discussed in Section 2.5 of the literature review. According to McRobbie & Tobin (1997) there are “multiple

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ways in which individuals may construct their meaning from a given context” (p.194). As an educator there is a need to take advantage of students’ multiple contexts in order to ensure that learning takes place over and beyond their weekly 3-hour face-to-face classroom contact. Duffy & Jonassen (1992) suggest that learning activities “should provide contexts and assistance that will aid the individual in making sense of the environment as it is encountered” (p.5). This means that there could be activities designed to exploit students’ multiple contexts. For example, since the target participants are trainee teachers, they could be asked to collect pictures and videos through their mobile phones and to upload them to a virtual repository for a teaching aid bank.

Edelson (2001) postulates that when “learning takes place, the connections that can be constructed for subsequent retrieval of the new (or newly elaborated) knowledge structures depend on the context in which the learning takes place. These connections may be elaborated later, whenever the knowledge structures become reactivated” (p.357). This process of creating and elaborating is a critical part of the learning process. The implication is that the learning context can support the learner in making meaning from knowledge structures which is also supported by Jonassen (1994) when he states, “Knowledge construction is context-specific” (p.37). Context of use also needs to be considered as part of the design of mobile learning activities because this provides unique opportunities to make learning make more sense to learners (Kukulska-Hulme, Traxler & Pettit, 2007). Muyinda (2007) further adds to this by describing mobile phones as “well suited to context-aware applications simply because they are available in different contexts, and so can draw on those contexts to enhance the learning activity” (p.99).

Furthermore Luckin et al. (2005) describe the learner’s context as “a situation defined through social interactions that are themselves historically situated and culturally idiosyncratic” (pp.4-5). They propose that getting the design of learning contextually right could lead to better learning experiences for learners. They suggest that a context is no longer “a snapshot of elements interacting within a situation” (p.5), but has further developed into a dynamic historical sense of the interactions and also the relationships within the given situation

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(Luckin et al., 2005). This creates social contexts that build on past interactions and build on new activities, as stressed by Vygotsky (1978). Chen et al. (1999) describe this form of context as being culturally sensitive.

Contextual activities could also offer authentic learning. Authentic learning may support “new ways of combining the real worlds with digitally re-presented information (Ryu & Parsons, 2009). In other words, by linking learning activities to contextually relevant or associated information in the form of digital representations, where learners can experience phenomena and explore concepts and relationships through combined physical and digital artefacts” (Ryu & Parsons, 2009, p.6). Traxler (2009) describes authentic learning simply as “learning that involves real-world problems and projects that are relevant and interesting to the learner” (p.18). Authentic learning activities are those where learners bring their representations of the real-world into their formal learning, such as data they have collected in fieldwork. It seems that authentic learning brings about realistic and meaningful learning activities which enhance students’ learning.

Another element of contextual activities is that they need to create the possibility of learning that is situated. According to Ryu & Parsons (2009) “learning needs to be presented in an authentic context, that is, settings and applications that would normally involve knowledge” (p.6), while Traxler (2009) defines situated learning as “learning that takes place in the course of activity, in appropriate and meaningful contexts” (p.18). This means that contextual activities can offer situated learning whereby learning is empowered with a sense of immediacy and a context specific element.

Therefore we understand that for learning to occur multiple contexts need to be utilised within the design, along with the need to base it in the cultural setting of the Malaysian HE students. Mobile learning could possibly engage learners across various contexts as it can support learning activities across time and space. This means there is an opportunity to link the learning experience of learners across multiple contexts (Luckin et al., 2005). A context for learning should also be authentic and situated in order to support knowledge construction. There can be overlap between situated and authentic learning as both ensure that students

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can access resources to support their understanding (Kukulska-Hulme, Traxler & Pettit, 2007). It is proposed that contextual learning activities could be designed for situated learning that takes into consideration the location of learners at the time of learning, and for authentic learning in which “real-world problems and projects are literally within reach of their mobile device” (Kukulska-Hulme, 2008, p.7).

Thus, in this study contextual learning principle is the learning activities that promote authentic and situated learning in the multiple contexts of the participants.