Social Constructivism and Mobile Learning Activities

Mobile learning is complex and as such there are many aspects that a researcher and learning designer need to consider in designing in such a versatile and portable environment. As stated by Naismith et al. (2004), the “challenge for the educators and technology developers of the future will be to find a way to ensure that this new learning is highly situated, personal, collaborative and long term; in other words, truly learner-centred learning” (p.36). There are learning values that appeal to both students and teachers in the mobile learning environment, for example, to enrich collaboration practices and also to individualise feedback (Rochelle, 2003). Besides understanding the learning opportunities of different features of mobile phones that could be made available for students (discussed in Section 2.5.2), the design of mobile learning activities to accompany an HEI course should also be based on a strong theoretical learning foundation as proposed by the Outline of Learning Activity (Diagram 4). O’Malley et al. (2005) and Sharples, Taylor & Vavoula (2005) stress the importance of contemplating the mobile learning environment through a consolidated theory that positions the students at the centre stage of the learning design.

The social constructivist approach and mobile learning fit well together. Mobile learning is a student-centred activity; yet it also promotes social connection as in the discussion of mobile learning characteristics in Section 2.5.1 in Chapter 2. Kukulska-Hulme et al. (2009) acknowledge that “inherent characteristics of mobile technologies are particularly well suited to support learning rooted in social, constructivist, contextual and collaborative principles” (p.16). Another reason for using the theory of social constructivism to study mobile learning is that it provides a space for dialectical process as learners are being engaged in a learning task, for example, discussion amongst their peers in a real-world context (Shih & Mills, 2007). Mobile learning also empowers user-led learning. This means that learners create their own content and collaborate with their peers beyond the classroom (Cobcroft et al., 2006). The continuous building and extending of learners’ meaning through

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a flexible tool such as the mobile phone is thought to be able to assist learners to construct meaning within their daily context.

Vygotsky (1978) states that the nature of learning is such that social environment plays a major role in the learner’s learning development, and he identified this environment as a higher order process. This is because learning does not take place in a vacuum, but rather learners together contribute to concepts, ideas and skills. Wilson (1996) describes this social learning environment as a space where “learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and information resources in their guided pursuit of learning goals and problem solving activities” (p.5). Social constructivist learning needs to have space to promote discussion, collaboration, or arguments for interaction to take place as part of the learning process within a social environment. This space cannot only be within the limited four walls of the classroom, but it must also go beyond it, and mobile learning may offer such an environment.

Social constructivist approach also focuses on the learning process which occurs through learners' experiences. Knowledge is not fixed or external and that understanding is derived through social experience (Hannafin & Land, 1997). Von Glaserfeld (1989) asserts that students construct their learning based on their experiences, and tools are used to assist students to connect their experiences. The link between making meaning with the assistance of tools, such as the mobile phone, is a learning activity. Students are encouraged to participate in learning activities that allow them to create an external structure that reflects their internal conceptualization of the topic. As Koole (2009) proposes, mobile technologies support learners’ learning both individually and collectively. This is based on Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of interpsychological and intrapsychological discussed in the earlier section.

Context is an essential aspect of the learning experience in the social constructivist learning environment. Kukulska-Hulme et al. (2009) also emphasise this in the mobile learning environment by stating, “Context has been identified as a central construct in mobile learning developments, guiding projects to use mobile technologies to help connect learning across contexts and life transitions, and to form bridges between formal and informal learning” (p.16). According to Hannafin & Land (1997), social constructivism is described as being “focused on the relationship between context and knowledge, emphasizing the socially-mediated aspects of learning” (p.173). This is further explained by Brown, Collins

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& Duguid (1989) who state that learning is located between contexts and relationships rather than passively in the mind of the learner. It is a joint activity that is tied to social practices and is mediated by tools. Learners are believed to inhabit a social and cultural environment, and now there is a technological aspect too. They construct their learning within this environment by the process of making meaning within it (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). This process of meaning making takes place when there are opportunities to construct learning through activities in a natural context. Learning activities are those created to provide an environment to construct meaning and support learning, which is the focus of this research.

Learning activities serve as catalysts for construction of respective individual meanings within a social context. McRobbie & Tobin (1997) suggest that a “social constructivist perspective on learning highlights the role of active involvement in tasks associated with making connections between experience and extant knowledge” (p.197). One way to make this connection is to use HE students’ daily context in the design of learning activities particularly if we want to reach students before or after the classroom face-to-face sessions. The context forms the basis of students’ involvement and engagement of their learning (McRobbie & Tobin, 1997). In the beginning of this research, we suspected that Malaysian HE students had mobile phones and used them regularly in daily life. Therefore, in this research, before we set students to engage in mobile learning activities (tasks), we need to understand their familiarity with mobile phone applications (extant knowledge) in order to get them connected with the experience of the engagement with mobile learning activities. Oliver et al. (2002) stress the descriptive elements of constructivist learning settings, and as explained by Cunningham, Duffy & Knuth (1993), these could assist learning designers in understanding the forms of learning activity needed.

Pinch & Bijker (1984) posit that the social constructivist perspective on ICT could be useful in evaluating the relationship between the technology and how it is being used in a social context. They propose a multi-directional view of the use of ICT in learning which forms part of the process of technology development. These stages are: (1) interpretative flexibility, which means that people adjust how they think and use tools and how they use these tools daily; (2) relevant social group: a group that share needs and expectations comes to a consensus on a tool being selected as it works for that particular group; (3) closure and stabilisation as the social groups achieve familiarity of use; and (4) wider context, i.e. the

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socio-cultural and political context in which technology implementation is taking place. These stages are part of a mobile learning initiative to promote the use of mobile phones as a tool to support HE students’ learning.

As justified earlier, there is a need to ‘unpack’ social constructivism as a theory in order to translate it further into pedagogical guidelines that could assist in the design of mobile learning activities. This section has argued the suitability of mobile learning to the nature of social constructivism; the next few sections illustrates further how the theory is interpreted to produce pedagogical guidelines suitable for the design of mobile learning activities.