My focus of this week’s reading again was focused on 21st-century skills and seamless learning. For my past several blogs, I have referred to Army Learning Concept (ALC) as the foundation to incorporate 21st-century skills and seamless learning into instructional design. The ALC concedes “The Army must close this gap to attract and retain a generation of young people who know how to use technology to learn both formally and informally. The Army must leverage technology to establish a learning system that provides engaging, relevant, and rigorous resident, distributed, and mobile learning” (p. 13). That stated I have been looking at different approaches and techniques through literature to incorporate such practices.
My first article, I read Toh et. al. (2013) article on seamless learning with kids. Seamless learning was defined as “synergistic and continuous learning across multiple spaces and time scales” (p. 302). The authors’ research was based on a practice-based design, conducted over a three-year time span. The last two years, researchers used an ethnographic (direct engagement of data collection) study of kids between 3rd & 4th grades (ages 9-10) using HTC Tytn II Windows mobile phone. Further, to collect data, the authors’ used a cooperative inquiry (participants actively engaged – photo & video) throughout the study. The author’s theoretical framework for this study focused on a socio-cultural lens called transformation of participation. Transformation of participation is a holistic approach to situated learning looking at “interpersonal, personal, and cultural-instructional aspects” sense-making (p. 304). Below is the pictorial framework the authors’ used to study the students.
The researchers believed looking through many lens was the only was to understand seamless learning using mobile devices. Even though this study was not what I was expecting, viewing seamless learning through so many lens, the layers it did provide all the pieces to link seamless learning together. Also, in the data collection section, the authors do provide good uses of mobile devices with 21st-century skills.
For my second article was authored by Terrie Thompson (2015). Her study is titled, Digital doings: curating work–learning practices and ecologies. Thompson research was a practice-based design; that looked at workers (self-employed, contracted, or micro-small entrepreneurs) from Kenya, Rwanda, and Canada (p. 3). The workers were interviewed before and after journaling for two days on all “learning activities (informal and formal), including what they did, time of day, technologies used, where they were, what prompted the activity, time spent, who else was involved” (p. 4). Thompson study linked the 21st-century skills and seamless learning that I could possible use in curriculum design. Even though the author explored tethering, the descriptions all interconnected to my topics. Tethering is the connect devices to extend their functionality (p.7). Without too much detail, I will summarize Adam’s illustration in the article (p. 6-7). Adam is entrepreneur and passes knowledge back and forth between to five peripheries in his life. The five peripheries are “LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, face-to-face learning events, and his work colleagues” (p. 6). Adam receives or start to construct knowledge or ideas in anyone of these circles and passes the information into all circles to complete or share knowledge. Adam’s use of technology and formal and informal interactions incorporates the concepts of seamless learning and 21st-century skills.
I had a hard time finding a third article. I used an article from unit 6 as my third piece of literature. I read e-Books for Educational Uses by Davidson and Carliner (2014). Since e-Books is a form of mobile and seamless learning, I thought this chapter would fit into my two topics. After reading this chapter, e-Books has not been well accepted into the educational arena as would be expected from a seamless learning perspective. Some of the reasoning for non-acceptance is due to usability. I only focus on a two factors of many listed in this chapter. First, e-Books designers are using different platforms that cannot be used on all devices (iPads, tablets, Kindle, Nook, PDA’s, smartphones, etc.). Unlike Martin, Pastore & Snider (2012) design for mobile apps for smartphones, e-books have not broken the design issues. The “design of standard formats for digital texts, so the content easily works as intended on several different types of devices” (p. 719). A non-standard design has left both students and instructors with hesitations to use in educational settings. Second, associated with standard formats, is readability. Readability has several concerns within itself. Lighting contrast (background light), under different conditions (natural vs. sunlight) and reading fatigue all play a part in the acceptance of e-Books to promote seamless learning in an educational environment. Once these two important issues are addressed, e-books will remain in the background instead of the forefront of digital learning.
Dennis
References
Davidson, A.-L., & Carliner, S. (2014). e-Books for educational uses. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (pp. 713–722). New York: Springer Science+Business Media. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5
Martin, F., Pastore, R., & Snider, J. (2012). Developing Mobile Based Instruction. TechTrends, 56(5), 46–51. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-012-0598-9.
Thompson, T. L. (2015). Digital doings: curating work–learning practices and ecologies.Learning, Media and Technology, 1–21. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2015.1064957
Toh, Y., So, H.-J., Seow, P., Chen, W., & Looi, C.-K. (2013). Seamless learning in the mobile age: a theoretical and methodological discussion on using cooperative inquiry to study digital kids on-the-move. Learning, Media and Technology, 38(3), 310–318. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2012.666250
U.S. Department of the Army. Army Learning Concept for 2015. TRADOC Pamphlet525-8-3. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Army, January 20, 2011.
Dennis great blog. Your reference to tethering really caught my interest and got me to thinking about the digital divide again. I think tethering and the sharing/providing of access to the internet maybe one of the solutions in dealing with the digital divide. The ability that mobile devices provide us to be able to tether and basically take internet access to any device is huge. I think this also increases the affordance of mobility and portability that mobile devices provide. Here is an interesting read about further advantages that tethering can provide.
What is Tethering? http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/phonesformobileworkers/f/what-is-tethering.htm
Your blog post and this article also reminded me of how soldiers in the barracks and college students often times share access to the internet. I remember visiting my son one time in the dorm and he shared with me how everyone on that floor accessed the internet through one students account. In much the same way I have seen several soldiers in the barracks that share access and split the cost amongst each other. I am amazed that we don’t see more of this in our communities and homes.
I also found your reading on the use of eBook’s interesting. I will use our eBook from LDT 415a as an example. I tried on several occasions to use the e-version as the primary reference but it was just not user-friendly. I cannot help but to think that somewhere out there is a developer that thinks this product is good enough but in reality it is not. What I also realize after reading some other research is that the number one driver is cost of textbooks that drives students to eBook’s. This being a factor that we as Fellows did not have to experience since all our books were provided by the Army. I wonder if I had to pay for the textbook would I have gotten over the issues and utilized the e-book version. Found an interesting article that summed up students’ testaments about the use of e-books.
Why College Students Still Prefer Print Over E-Books http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/09/14/why-college-students-still-prefer-print-over-e-books/
Carl Dwyer
Reference
Pinola, M. (n.d.). What Is Tethering? Retrieved April 10, 2016, from http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/phonesformobileworkers/f/what-is-tethering.htm
Schwartz, K. (n.d.). Why College Students Still Prefer Print Over E-Books | MindShift | KQED News. Retrieved April 8, 2016, from http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/09/14/why-college-students-still-prefer-print-over-e-books/
Dennis, I am also very interested in the 21st Century skills and their applications for developing or improving current curriculum. I had briefly read about them last year, but it wasn’t until this course that I understood these skills. Now, I can’t see designing any form of curriculum without refereeing to these skills. When we get in our classrooms for the SMC this fall, I am going to refer to these skills as we teach, coach, and mentor the Army’s future Sergeant’s Major. I know many of us will be tearing the POI apart based on what we have learned thus far in our studies with PSU.
I think e-Books are beneficial in regards to seamless learning. You stated that one of the challenges was that the designers use different platforms that can’t be used on all devices. The lack of versatility of this platform is probably the biggest factor as to why it isn’t as relevant as some other learning platforms. I own an old Kindle that I bought back in 2010 to take to Afghanistan. It worked well and never gave me any problems, unlike many of my counterparts who complained about how their device performed while deployed. Unfortunately, I haven’t purchased any of the new platforms because I download books to my smartphone. One aspect that has also hurt this platform is the development by major book retailers and third-party developers to offer free e-reader applications. These applications are designed for Mac and PC computers as well as use on Android, Blackberry, iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone and Palm OS devices. They have these applications for some of the heavy hitters who produce these devices such as the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook.
Tim Todd
Steve,
I agree Soldiers and informal learning (Army learning) to be constructive could be a challenge. Up until this class, I did not use mobile technology for Army learning. I left that to PC (personal or work). I kept the two separate. I believe now, I will start incorporating more mobile learning though.
Dennis
Ryan,
e-Books can be a very useful way to assist with seamless learning. Kindle sounds like to be a good products since you can read all the class assigned readings with it. I have read non-academic books through i-Books. i-Books has some nice features (word searches, font sizes, bookmarks, highlighter and notes). I have not used it yet to academia. I do have Adobe Reader on my iPad. During our break between Spring and Summer sessions, I will have to play with literature from our classes to see if the features are similar to my PC.
Dennis
Dennis,
Great rundown on your articles. Back when I read the Davidson and Carliner article I kind of got the same impression. I think the biggest downfall of e-books for education is that it just seems to be a conversion of the textbook. That can be handy, my kindle will read the pdfs we get from the class reserves, but unless it is a kindle product or a format that kindle reads that does not have digital protection on it, it is not gonna work. My personal preference for school work remains paper copy because of the fact that I can use highlighters and make notes in the margin. I know that feature works on some digital readers, but I get distracted with reading e-books. A big thing I remembered in that reading was a way where digital textbooks could be used in a more interactive way if the design was changed away from a conversion to integrating more interaction and connectivity. It sounds promising, but probably would add to costs of an e-book as well as the actual text book because now you are investing more time and resources into producing two items that are not just delivered differently, but increasing interaction. There is value in it now with cloud services so students can be mobile and still focus on studies as needed, but with continued research and development they may get to where e-books are an effective form of technology to use with learning.
Ryan Robert
Steven M. Townsend
Fellow
Great blog Dennis, you have hit on some really good areas this week. Seamless learning is such a great topic and the opportunity it provides for mobile learning to play a role in the formal learning environment – even if its use does not come in the classroom. I think it will be a challenge to get young Soldiers to use their mobiles for highly constructive uses outside of the training environment, but being that the majority of the time is spent outside the formal learning context, it is invaluable to achieve, “mobile computing devices also allow for learning to be situated and context aware in which learning takes place in meaningful surroundings — most likely outside the classroom and in the student’s surroundings or environment at a time appropriate for
the learner (Mottiwalla as cited in Gikas & Grant, 2013, p. 19).
Your second article has made me reflect further on the contexts in which learning occurs. I had taken into account the different physical contexts – formal, informal – at home, riding mass transit, wasting time, but I had not considered how different platforms play a role as well. I appreciate the new perspective to consider. Reflecting myself, this applies to me and my time here at World Campus – though my across platforms tends to be across devices as opposed to applications. I use several cloud services, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive out of sheer fear of losing a time intensive product. With these applications, I move between laptop, phone, and tablet very easily.
References
Gikas, J., & Grant, M. M. (2013). Mobile computing devices in higher education: Student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. The Internet and Higher Education, 19, 18-26. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2013.06.002