I had one of those evenings yesterday when I jump online to check one thing out and am still there past midnight discovering and organising.I didn’t get to bed until 2am…Lucky today is Sunday. I spent alot of my online discovery time playing with iPod related things. I have resolved to use my iPod in my classroom much more this year. I checked out iQuiz Maker and got it working on my iPod. I’ve also found out how to Mogopop my iPod. You’ll have to stay tuned for more on that… I also spent some time reading more closely some blogs that I have recently subscribed to which focus on the topic of mLearning.
What is mLearning?
mLearning simply stands for mobile learning and simply means learning while on the move! mLearning is nothing new if you think about it - just picture people on public transport reading books and writing notes. It’s just that now, with all the powerful communicative technologies that we have, much more structured learning activities can take place. Mobile devices such as PDAs and mp3 players allow instructional content to be delivered to anyone anywhere at anytime. Some examples of mlearning are:
- Using mobile phones to SMS quizzes
- Using iPods for interative quizzes
- Listening to lessons in the form of podcasts on mp3 players
- reading instructional content on iPods
- connecting with social networks like Twitter via your mobile phone
Here are some useful sites to learn more about mLearning:
This site, by Tony Vincent, is an educators resource for using handheld computing in schools. There are lots of different sections including one devoted to iPods. Tony also blogs here.
This blog is by Aussie teacher Jonathan Nader “aims to report and discuss bridging the digital divide through the use of mobile technology in Education.” There are a couple of great videos on this site about what you can do with iPods.
Matthew Nehrling, who is a elearning and mlearning consultant in the US, blogs here about mlearning which is what he calles “education for the iPod generation.”
Liz Kolb runs this blog. She is a doctoral student studying Learning Technologies at the University of Michigan. She’s got lots of ideas and resources to help teachers turn cell/mobile phones into learning tools for their students.
I’d just love to make my classroom more of a mobile learning unit. The base for an elearning mlearning Chinese language course! oCool! That would mean my classroom won’t simply exist within the walls of room 14 at my school. My classroom might extend to the school bus, a walk around the block, a beanbag in the corner of a room, the couch, or a plane trip. I hope my students will recognise that learning does not happen only during periods 1 - 6 Monday - Friday. They can take their learning wherever they want it to go.
For the next post on mLearning, go to iGo uGo weGo moGo! How to Mogopop Your iPod and 5 Other mLearning Ideas.
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Great blog Jess. Look forward to working on mlearning with you. You have certainly given us some great resources to look into. Love the photo. Did you take then on your daily exercise? Thanks for this
Hi Jess
Thanks for the shout-out to my site. I think you are really on to something with this concept that classroom learning does not have to occur only for 50 minutes M-F, rather the mobile phone (or iPod in your case) can be a great reminder of content learning (and a fun one too!). Great Blog!
I think we haven’t really gotten the correct picture of so-called mLearning. There is a tendency to see mLearning as a lesson delivery platform but this may limit our approach to the learning of the future.
For a stirring example of the role computers will play in our future I suggest you read Manna written by Marshal Brain.
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
You may recall, Marshal Brain was the author of the “How Stuff Works” series of books and website.
Read at least the first two chapters to get an idea of how technology can augment nearly everything people do.
From the overall perspective that Manna gives we can work out ways that ALL the technology tools, including mobile phone type tools, can work together to bring about our purposes in the way all the musical instruments make up a symphony.
We don’t have to agree with Manna on how this technology will affect people, but it can certainly give us lots of ideas. Let’s hope things develop in the direction of the Australia example and not the American.