Background
What is M Learning?
You are probably familiar with elearning – all things online and electronic – very ‘e’. This usually involves the learner sitting in front of a computer screen and using the mouse or keyboard to interact with the learning materials. E.g. CD roms or materials in a learner management system. Students get the full benefit of the text, graphics, and sound on a full sized screen.
Well, M learning is the smaller version of all this. Learning materials are now being developed for the mobile phone, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and are even appearing in such devices as ebooks. So all things mobile, portable and small – very ‘m’.
We wanted to explore what advice our Victorian practitioners would give in the use of these M learning devices and what others aspects of the learning design we should be aware of.
As part of our flexAbility program this year, TAFE frontiers scheduled two M Learning focussed seminars. We gathered people from a variety of areas to give us the latest information about how we can use technology in smarter ways. Things are getting smaller and more portable, and our available time is shrinking – so we set out to collect the ‘lessons learned’ from practitioners in the field about how to create learning experiences for those in the ‘fast lane’.
Challenges for our practitioners included:
- Getting smaller and portable – using ebooks, mobile phones and PDAs
- Using interactive tools such as: interactive whiteboards (Mimeo and Electroboard) and interactive evaluations (Keepads)
- Making the best use of our Intranets (Elibraries)
- Using voice support systems – CaptureCamPro and Compu.Ed (Voice over IP)
Let us unpack some of these new practices now for you and make the best use of our ‘lessons learned in the fast lane’. We have provided some brief notes, from our presenters at our M Learning seminars held in Melbourne in March and May this year, about each of these challenges.
Finally, we want to make the best use of our ‘lessons learned’ so we’re going to wrap this new ‘know how’ up and will distribute soon from our TAFE frontiers site in our Know How section. http://www.tafefrontiers.com.au/i_r/knowhow.htm Look for the link to use appropriate technology.
Getting smaller and portable – using ebooks, mobile phones and PDAs
Handheld devices, PDA’s and e-books are like small personal computers that you carry with you.
Hand-held devices
Often the hand-held devices are connected wirelessly to the network within an organisation and therefore enable great flexibility and portability. These smaller options provide a lighter alternative to the use of laptop computers – each of which may weigh up to 3 kg. Over the last few years there have been great leaps forward in the power and portability of these devices. Many are now advocating their use as a tool with huge potential for learning outside the traditional classroom.
Cinthia Del Grosso, Flexible Learning Leader 2003 believes “M-learning is the term given to a learner-centred approach, where electronic tools such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), pocket personal computers (PCs) and mobile phones are taken out of the office environment and into a mobile industry environment – where the learner can access information anytime and anywhere and in real time. M-learning is not intended to replace other forms of learning, but rather, to complement and maximise an industry organisation’s investment in training.”
Cinthia also believes that within the next five to ten years, m learning will be as widely known as e learning. Cinthia is the National Project Manager for Transport & Distribution Training in Australia. Read her research paper at:
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/newsandevents/Flexenews/Issue29/29c.pdf
E-books
The big brother of the PDA is an e-book. This is an A4 or A5 sized hand-held device used mainly for the storage of ‘stories’. Imagine, being able to read your favourite novels – all in one lightweight container. Now this opens up a new domain for our distributed learning practices. At the moment these devices are in their infancy and have yet to make a big splash like the PDAs, but they are maturing fast and pretty soon we believe they will be the ‘killer app’ in m-learning.
‘The Electronic Schoolbag’ is just such a project looking into the potential of the e-book. E Info Solutions, an Adelaide based company, introduced one of the first of the e-books called the Softbook Reader 250e, to the Australian Market in 1999. They have gone on to create the Gemstar GEB-2150 and the GE-1150 and the Hi210 ebook devices. Mike Ottoy, from E Info Solutions, introduced us to the wonder and potential of these new portable devices for readers in the fast lane.
Does this sound like a foreign language to you? Well have a look at these sites for more information:
http://www.e-book.com.au/
http://www.gutenberg.net/
http://2003.book-conference.com/ProposalSystem/Presentations/P000040
Using interactive tools such as: interactive whiteboards (Mimeo and Electroboard) and interactive evaluations (Keepads)
Interactive whiteboards have a come a long way. The new generation of e-whiteboards have made a dramatic leap forward in functionality.
Mimio
With one of these you can capture your whiteboard notes and transform into text and store in an electronic file on your PC. The Mimeo device enables this transformation of your ordinary whiteboard into an e-whiteboard. The Mimio uses a high-resolution ultrasonic position capture system – consisting of a capture bar, colour-coded market sleeves and an electronic eraser. The capture bar is a two-foot long ultrasonic tracking array positioned on the upper edge of your whiteboard or flip chart. The capture bar connects to your computer (Mac or PC) through a serial or USB interface cable.
The Mimio system captures each move of the market or stylus on the whiteboard surface as digital data. This data is transferred to the computer and can be transformed into readable, storable text. Visit Mimio at:
http://www.mimio.com
Electroboard
This one is an interactive whiteboard that turns your computer into a powerful tool for teaching, collaborating and presenting.
SMART Technologies Inc. is the industry pioneer and market leader in developing interactive products to access and share information. Their innovative range of SMART boards combine the power of a computer with the simplicity and ease of a traditional whiteboard.
You can begin with a simple slide show presentation, write notes on the board with electronic pens, run any software application installed on your computer, browse the Internet, and add in video conferencing – even record the entire session for later playback.
Visit Electroboard at http://electroboard.com.au
Keepads
Do you need evaluations done on the spot? Then why not try out these small portable devices called Keepads that enable your participants to interactively provide instant feedback on your presentation. We used the Keepads at both of our M Learning seminars to capture the feedback from the participants and evaluate our presentations.
Each participant was allocated a Keepad (same size and shape as a TV remote control device) to interact with the software displayed on our overhead screen. The Keepad is pointed at the special antenna to record their choices of A, B, C, D, E, or F in response to the multiple-choice question presented. Our feedback questionnaire had been preloaded into a PowerPoint slide show – we can now use that over and over again.
The responses were automatically loaded into the Keepad software and provided instant feedback for all to see in graph format. The entire evaluation was then saved and transformed into an Excel spreadsheet with graphs and charts as a permanent record of our evaluations. We could then easily transport that data back to the office as a file on disk or email as an attachment. Wow talk about fast feedback. If you need this for your workshops, presentations or conferences, please contact Kane Hibbert or Sally Bateman at Keepad: http://www.keepad.com
Making the best use of our Intranets (Elibraries)
Portability of learning materials is now required for busy teachers who are working offsite. For teachers at Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE in the North East of Victoria, this has been simplified by the use of the Elibrary on their intranet.
Files are stored and shared online and provide an accessible and portable repository for entire collections of learning materials. Often teachers need to carry around CDs, floppy disks or event portable disk drives (memory sticks), now here’s a new way that does not require any peripheral devices. Teachers can access their own materials from anywhere.
Craig Mathisen from the Goulburn Ovens TAFE Multi Media department says “teachers are now confident in publishing and sharing their prepared learning materials with other members of their staff and distributing to their students, by uploading their files to the Elibrary.”
The process is quite simple and enables a teacher to:
- Request a folder for storing their files on the Intranet
- Organise their own directory system
- Upload documents
- Make available for staff and/or students
- Update and archive easily.
For an overview of the GO TAFE Elibrary and their answer to portability issues, go to:
http://www.gotafe.vic.edu.au/eLibrary/home.cfm
Using voice support systems – CaptureCamPro and Compu.Ed (Voice over IP)
Capture Cam Pro
So far we’ve explored the portability of text and graphics even whole books, what about the portability and distribution of ‘voice’. Getting down to solving the issue of ‘talking’ to our remote students, James Burnell from CaptureCamPro gave us an overview of how we can record our voice and send this voice file that talks the student through their assignments; provides feedback on their assessments; or gives mentoring advice on their learning progress. “Why not simply use the telephone?” Well, if you have to do this 50 times or more, then you may be interested in how CaptureCamPro enables you to do this once and send to all your students in an email.
The beauty of this software is that it enables the teacher to capture their screen and mouse movements as well as their voice simply by placing a recording device directly onto their screen. The recording is saved as a ‘movie’ that can be delivered over the Internet.
If you’d like a free trial of CaptureCamPro, go to:
http://www.capturecampro.com/DownloadsTrial.htm
To experience some examples of this powerful program in action go to:
http://www.capturecampro.com/UserFeedback.htm
Compu.Ed (Voice over IP)
Finally, what about a portable virtual office where you can conduct your meetings, online tutorials or presentations. Geoffrey Kaye from Compu.Ed in Western Australia has been making this technology available for Australian teachers recently. The Compu.Ed software installs a chat applet for your computer instantly and easily and provides a 24/7 virtual office space where you can use real voice over the Internet to talk to your students or project team members.
Once the Compu.Ed software is successfully installed you can enter the room and invite others to join you to ‘talk’ and share slide shows. The software also enables the presenter to share a whiteboard; URLs; and an Events Scheduler.
This software has recently been chosen by TAFE frontiers to conduct some of their project meetings online. If you’d like an opportunity to see the Compu.Ed voice chat room in action go to:
http://www.compued.com.au
Wrapping Up!
So we’ve explored a sample collection of the mobile, the portable, the small and the fast methods of providing learning materials. What’s your impression so far?
M Learning – for some of us that will mean a huge shift in our teaching practices, are we ready for that?
What M Learning practices do you have that put you in the fast lane?
Article written by Carole McCulloch and Ben Fennessy
