Designing the Mobile Learning Environment

Mobile learning is not about the device. Mobile learning is about a change in the lecturer’s philosophical approach to teaching, and it is not simply to apply elearning design requirements to the mobile learning environment (Parsons & Ryu, 2006; and Ryu & Parsons, 2009). This means that mobile learning initiatives must establish their own design requirements in order to support their characteristics as discussed earlier in Section 2.5 of this chapter.

There are a few design guidelines proposed in the literature of mobile learning. For example, Herrington, Herrington & Mantei’s (2009) design principles for mobile learning in HEIs, and Cochrane & Bateman’s (2010) pedagogical design guidelines, based on over 15 mobile learning trials over 3 years. I have attempted to summarise them in Table 5. In the first column of Table 5, I compiled attributes for the design of mobile learning as reported by literature and organise them into different categories. The second column stated the sources of these attributes. In the last column, I categorised these attributes and summarised them into nine steps. For example Uther (2002) stresses understanding display size while Litchfield et al. (2007) suggest to investigate technical protocols for downloading from mobile phone to a computer. I have categorised these attributes as the need to understand

87

technical matters specifically for mobile learning as a guide for the design of mobile learning activities. Through these attributes, a more comprehensive mobile learning design guide is produced and used for this research.

Table 5: Review of Mobile Learning Design Guide

Proposed Guidelines (Attributes for the Design of Mobile Learning)

References Summary

Availability of technology Naismith & Corlett (2006)

Evaluation of available device and applications (1) Assessment of willingness of learners to

use their own mobile devices in a variety of learning activities

Litchfield et al. (2007)

Connectivity across mobile networks and wireless network access

Naismith & Corlett (2006)

Personalise: employ the learners’ own mobile device

Herrington, Herrington & Mantei (2009)

Institutional support such as resources, staff training, and hardware availability & maintenance

Naismith & Corlett (2006)

Obtain institutional support (2)

Awareness of limitations and benefits of mobile devices

Parsons & Ryu (2006) & Ryu & Parsons (2009)

Review and understanding mobile learning technical and pedagogical affordance (3) Focus on characteristics of mobile learning Kukulska-Hulme, Traxler

& Pettit (2007)

Understand learning environment that the design take place; mobile contexts

Herrington & Herrington (2007) and Herrington, Herrington & Mantei (2009)

Review and

understand learning context (4)

Learn about the context Kukulska-Hulme(2009)

Integrate with the curriculum, student experiences and the mobile learning initiative itself

Naismith & Corlett (2006)

Review and curriculum of the intended course to elicit which section can mobile learning activities can support learning (5) Critical and careful analysis into how

available mobile learning applications could be used to match specific learning objectives is essential to ensure the success of any mobile learning implementation

Kim, Mim & Holmes (2006)

Blended: blend mobile and non mobile technologies

Herrington, Herrington & Mantei (2009)

Appropriate choice of mobile devices and software

Cochrane & Bateman (2010)

Understand technical matters specifically for Investigate technical protocols for

downloading from mobile devices to PCs

88 Due to the limited display capacity of

mobile devices, information should be chunked into categories to prevent overload during processing in working memory

Koole & Ally (2006) mobile learning (6)

Consideration of display size limit; need to “organize and navigate through ‘bite-sized’ pieces of mobile learning content” (p.5.)

Uther (2002)

Short nuggets rather than large units of information which can be supported by appropriate use of different media types

Traxler (2007)

Keep it short with no more than 5-10 minute modules

Trifonova (2003) Need to be consistent with navigation

display

Parsons & Ryu (2006) Explore: provide time for exploration of

mobile technologies

Affordances: exploit the affordances of mobile technologies

Herrington, Herrington & Mantei (2009)

Development of strategic learning activities to suit for use with student-owned mobile devices

Litchfield et al. (2007) Understand

pedagogical matters specifically for mobile learning (7) Lecturer modelling of the pedagogical use

of the tools

Cochrane & Bateman (2010)

Learning strategies allow students to apply information in real life to make learning meaningful. Design activities that require the students to draw upon their social and cultural contexts

Koole & Ally (2006)

Strategies require students to promote high- level learning

Koole & Ally (2006) Need to consider variations depending on

learners’ context

Uther (2002) Keep content simple and value added

functionality

Trifonova (2003) Specific context that is delivered just in

time

Trifonova (2003) Needs to be a balance between

instructional and informative types of approach

Leung & Chan (2003)

Should be a pre and post activity of other type of learning to complement the classroom experience

Parsons & Ryu (2006) & Parsons, Ryu &

Cranshaw (2007)

Timely learning cues Cook, Pachler & Bradley (2008)

Simple aspect that the mobile device does uniquely better. To understand “the social practices by which those new affordances become powerful educational

89 intervention”(p.286)

Wherever: use mobile learning in non traditional learning spaces

Whomever: use mobile learning both individually and collaboratively

Mediation: use mobile learning to mediate knowledge construction

Produce: use mobile learning to produce and consume knowledge

Herrington, Herrington & Mantei (2009)

Technological and pedagogical support Cochrane & Bateman (2010)

Design support system in the initiative (8) Communication support Parsons, Ryu &

Cranshaw (2007) There must be a balance between effective

support and intrusion

Cook, Pachler & Bradley (2008)

The use of regular formative feedback from both lecturers and student peers

Cochrane & Bateman (2010)

Create multiple type of evaluation, and students must be involved in

evaluation process (9)

Should involve learners as part of the design

Kukulska-Hulme (2009) Involve learners in the design of mobile

learning initiatives

Kukulska-Hulme, Traxler & Pettit (2007)

Students’ perceptions and evaluation of the mobile device

Kim, Mim & Holmes (2006)

Students’ engagement on the use of appropriate mobile applications

Cochrane (2010) Level of moblogging achieved by the

learners

Cochrane (2010) Students’ reflective feedback Cochrane (2010)

The mobile learning guide derived from the literature, led to the development of the mobile learning design guide used for this study. These guidelines can be adapted but mainly they are used as a linear process illustrated in Diagram 5. This guide is part of the design of the mobile learning activities in the research process. For example, in the first step, which is to evaluate available device and applications, a questionnaire was used. The use of this guide for this study is explained further in Chapter 4.

90

Diagram 5: Mobile Learning Design Guide

There is a need to be aware that mobile learning is a fragmented process (Syvanen, Pehkonen, Turunen, 2004) in the design for learning activities. Lee (2006) describes fragmentation in learning as “when the learning experience does not form a meaningful continuum” (p.24). Due to environmental disturbances such as the weather, technical issues (low broadband bandwidth), poor concentration levels of the learner and so on, there could be interruptions to learning. Therefore in mobile learning design, unlike static computer- based learning systems, learning should be structured in such a way that the “user can easily stop and re-start their learning in an episodic fashion, since much mobile learning take place in ‘down-time’ or as part of other time constrained activities” (Ryu & Parsons, 2009, p.11). These are considerations part of the design.