1. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Developing m-Portal - pedagogical issues The European Schoolnetworks Conference New Technologies and Pedagogies, the Keys to Collaboration Saturday, 15 February 09.30 – 11.00 Workshop Strand 3 The Open School: New Pedagogies in New Spaces Alice Mitchell M-Portal project leader Ultralab www.ultralab.net October 2002

2. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org October 2002 The m-Learning project M-Learning - a pan-European project Harnessing mobile technologies to promote learning M-Portal development SMS and MMS, push technologies, mobile games Need for a shared pedagogy for m-learning

3. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org October 2002 The m-Learning project Project No: IST-2001-37187 Project Full Name: Mobile Communications Technologies for Young Adult Learning and Skills Development Duration: 36 months Start date: October 1 st 2001 Countries involved: Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom

4. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m--Learning consortium Ultralab, Chelmsford, UK The Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA), London, UK Centre of Research in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Salerno, Italy Cambridge Training & Development, Cambridge, UK Lecando AB, Bromma, Sweden

5. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Why m-Learning? “… one in five adults has less literacy than is expected of an 11-year-old” Skills for life “In 1996 … a quarter of nineteen-year-olds were functionally illiterate”Basic Skills Agency “Inertia and fatalism …are our chief enemies. We must be bold and imaginative to overcome them” Skills for Life

6. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org How to reach them? Using mobile technologies to:  engage disaffected learners  improve their Basic Skills  re-connect them with learning Using our combined strengths as:  2 university based research centres (UK & Italy)  2 e-learning companies (Sweden & UK)  1 educational research & development charity (UK)

7. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org The challenges A ‘high-risk’ project: 4 difficult and diverse areas:  new, emerging and rapidly developing technologies  developing learning content for devices with limited input/output functionality  target audiences who are disaffected and difficult to reach  Need for new pedagogic approaches

8. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Browser (big) Browser (small) IPAQVoice XML SMS Learning Management System  Courses, projects  chat, forums LIA Content m-Portal optional login - you can customise your environment What? - System overview Underpinning research

9. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org M-Portal research  Technology Watch: mobile technologies and their potential for promoting autonomous learning  Field research: needs, preferences, attitudes and habits of young adult phone users

10. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal layer

11. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Learner management tools LMS - a learning environment for participants and tutor/mentors Facilitates administration Complements m-Portal with Forum discussions and chat functionality Uses CRMPA Learning Intelligent Agent to make personalised learning paths to CTAD’s material

12. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal - pedagogical issues Computers are increasingly powerful and complex, but with an interface that presents an illusion of simplicity.  How can we make the interface easy to use?  How can we make it powerful and empowering?  How do we engage and support the disaffected learner?

13. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Features of progressivist environments  Promoting creativity, independence and interdependence - and delight in learning  Teacher as a facilitator/mentor rather than a knowledge provider  Students learn what they want and need to know  Wanting to learn and knowing how to learn are more important than acquiring factual knowledge  Their own evaluation - a meaningful judgement of their work  Learning takes place when students are feeling at ease

14. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org M-Portal environment M-Portal is designed as a progressivist environment, to promote:  Innate curiosity  Choice of activity  Emphasis on group and individual discovery  Learner self-direction and self-expression  Open communication  Mutual respect between participants

15. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Interactivity and collaborative learning However the success of m-Portal will lie in the extent to which it is:  easy to use  engaging  able to foster a culture of learning  promotes interactivity and enquiry-based, social learning

16. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal Overview Café Portal Constructor My Microportal Forum Other Microportals MLWorld Buddies Study/Library Contacts Mentors

17. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal Screens

18. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal Screens Currently small browser based Uses database of known devices for layout detection English and Italian Direct access to LMS and Learning Materials ‘My microportal’ functionality allows users to select, annotate and create

19. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org m-Portal Screens This is some info about me blah blah blah etc etc etc etc. Contenuti aggiundi Found this helped with interest... Cool Italian English Dictionary My short story

20. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Potential of mobile technologies to support learning Importance of IPv6 and Broadband:  Ipv6 swings the axis of control of the infrastructure towards common good and public service organisations - a significant contributor to the European Union push for open source and non proprietary software environments.  Symmetry is a key component of a broadband learning environment - learners put in and contribute rather than simply download and interact.

21. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Potential growth areas  Wireless email and groupware - strong potential for m-learning  Technical benefits of asynchronous environments - reduced queries and ‘user idle time’ - controlled communication costs - a good choice for m-learning applications - people prefer it

22. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org New generation mobile devices Convergence of phones and PDA’s:  more bandwidth and speed to transfer data  handsets turning into ‘world phones’ or ‘microbrowsers’  e-mail, sound files, other data  daylight viewable, tactile screens with high resolution  more affordable AND significantly more processing power …  your phone is fast becoming your computer!

23. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org SMS, MMS, mobile games  SMS - more than just a passing fad - a communication medium integral to young people’s lives  Clear market push towards MMS - but premium rate activities  Mobile games - the next ‘killer application’?  We should remain ambitious for the future

24. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Need for a shared pedagogy We need an overarching, progressivist m-learning pedagogy that will:  accommodate different learner perspectives in developing learning strategies, models and applications  support virtual networked and collaborative learning  support ambient learning

25. T R I B A L m-Learning project - IST-2000-25270 - www.m-learning.orgwww.m-learning.org Discussion  What specific added value/s can you identify for using m-Portal with your students?  How could it provide you with the information you need about what students have learned?  What are key pedagogical issues for m-learning?