Mobile learning

I have read chapter 3 “Using a smartphone to create digital teaching episodes as resources in adult education” and chapter 13 “Designing principle for mobile learning” for week nine task.

Chapter three provide us detail that how we as teachers can create digital narratives using smartphones which can be used as resource in our teaching and training. This task highlights the strengths and benefits of the technology and the pedagogical approaches involved in using mobile technology. The educational technology I have chosen also require to create a digital video episode for students using camtasia which can provide post learning to students before coming to class. I can use the below questions which I learn from the article for finding effectiveness of using this educational technology tool.

• ·         What were the advantages of creating teaching episode?
• ·         What were the disadvantages or challenges of using the devices?
• ·         What were the most difficult aspects of creating a teaching episode?
• ·         What were the most positive aspects of the task?
• ·         How useful were digital videos as a tool for teaching?

My personal belief is that in future mobile learning will play an important role in education. Lot of research is going on in this field. As mentioned in the article “Designing principle for mobile learning” there are many reasons for using this as an educational technology tool. Some of them are: Students can afford it, they know how to use it and it provides them real word relevance. They can use it anywhere, anytime with anyone.  

Designing principles plays an important role for laying foundation of any educational tool. Without proper designing principles it is very difficult to use the technology for learning. I have chosen following designing principles for implementing my project. 

1. Real world relevance : Use learning in authentic contexts

2. Mobile contexts:  Use learning in contexts where learners are mobile

3. Whenever: Use learning spontaneously

4. Wherever: Use learning in non- traditional learning spaces

5. Whomsoever: Use learning both individually and collaboratively

6. Affordances: Exploit the affordances of technologies

Reflect on relevant literature

Flipped class room is relatively a new concept and it is mostly used in western world. It has not been applied in Middle East so far and I think it has great potential for higher education students especially in UAE. Students can pace them self and work independently using flip class room. They can attend missed lectures and do catch up. Using flip class room students will get more chance to work on application and problem solving with teachers. They can also use these video for revision and exam preparation as well. People who have used flipped class room have an excellent and positive experience with it. It has not only increased students learning but as well as their grades. Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams from Woodland park high school invented flip class room concept for their college but it has tremendously picked up and is now used worldwide as mentioned on their blog.

The pedagogical approach used in flip class room focuses teaching time on solving problem, case studies and application with students rather teaching them boring theories in class. Theories students can learn on their own by watching digital videos outside class time.

The challenging part for implementing flip class room at HCT will be to make digital videos simple, interesting and in small portions. 40 min lecture will be boring for students and they will get more confuse. It will be good to break the lecture into chunks of 5 to 7 min. This will not only help students to develop better understanding but it will also maintain their interest as well.

My next step is to create story line for minimum two chapters and then convert it into digital format using Camtasia. I have used an old version on Camtasia and I am hopeful that new version will have more advance options.

Implementation Plan

I have chosen business semester one course Management and Leadership for this project, this course introduces students to the basics of management issues and leadership styles. Learning outcomes for the course are:

1.       Understand the functions of management and the role of managers working both individually   and in teams.

2.       Describe the pros and con of a range of traditional and contemporary organizational structures.

3.       Describe the different methods and styles of management that leaders use to manage/motivate/lead and the impact they have on organizational effectiveness, with special emphasis on the UAE.

4.       Investigate and discuss emerging issues in management and leadership.

The assessment type is divided into four parts as shown below. First three assessments focus on the practical activates. The last activity is based on combination of cognitive response and selective response using a Black Board Vista online exam.

The educational technology product I have chosen for this task is camtasia ( http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html ). It is an excellent product to show students how to do anything or in simple words to present a lecture. It is used mostly in explaining technological stuff so far but I think it can offer more than that as shown in the video shared by Adnan earlier ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H4RkudFzlc&feature=player_embedded ).

Most of our students joining bachelors program have IELTS Band 5 but it is difficult for them to understand business vocabulary. To overcome this I am planning to develop lecture using camtasia. These lectures will provide following additional value in achieving learning goals.

1. It will provide explanation of difficult and unknown vocabulary.

2. Provide understanding of the topic to students before coming to class.

3. Post lecture students can learn from these video if anything is not clear to them.

4. Student who will miss class due to some reason can catch up with help of these videos.

5. It will help students to refresh their concepts before exams as well.