Month: August 2017

My mobile learning definition is drawn by my personal experience as a learner. I used mobile learning application especially when I was an ESL student. Besides, in master’s and phd, I am using my tablet pc a lot.

Hi everyone,

I am Enes Gokce.

I am from Turkey. I am second year Ph.D student at Lifelong Learning/ Adult Education program.

I studied math teaching in undergrad. I did my my master’s on Adult Education at the University of Minnesota. I did six month volunteer ESL teaching at the Minnesota Literacy Council.

My research interest  is mobile learning. I want to understand how to use mobile learning opportunities in adult education. I want to gain deeper insight about how to integrate game mechanics to mobile learning applications.

I like technology, computers. I love read about technological developments. On the other hand, I like reading book. I am doing reading activities and book discussion with my friends. It is one of my favorite and time consuming activities. This semester I am doing book club with three different groups. I wonder if I can survive or not 🙂

By considering Sharples (2013) and Pea & Maldonado (2006) articles, my definition of mobile learning is the type of learning that happens with the help of a mobile, portable device wherever and whenever you want.

I think, mobile learning is more student driven compared to traditional learning methods. That’s why, role of the learner is more important and learner is more responsible for their progress with mobile learning. Teacher is more like a conductor in mobile learning (Pea & Maldonado, 2006). CATAALYST interventions are good example of this situation. Sharples (2013) states that in the literature, mobile learning has been characterized as ‘personal’, ‘informal’, ‘private’. As we can see, a student as an individual is in the main actor of the learning process. What’s more, bringing learning devices to the school or learning institution is another responsibility that is shared by students and their parents (Sharples, 2013). Therefore, that mobile learning is more driven by students compared to traditional methods.

On the other hand, there are some serious advantages of mobile learning. First of all, students are familiar with portable electronic devices like PSP, Nintendo DS, GameBoy. Most of the students have an experience with these devices that enabling viewing and manipulating information (Pea & Maldonado, 2006). I think, this is a good incentive for students in mobile learning.

Interface is also another appealing factor for mobile devices. Manipulating information by using finger offers feeling of interaction. Pea & Maldonado (2006) discuss this point under the title of the ‘stylus driven interface’. I think, main point of the authors is not stylus pen’s itself. The thing whatever screen can be manipulated can be considered as stylus in the context that Pea & Maldonado (2006) discussed. My observation, there are limited number of people using stylus. People mostly prefers using their fingers for manipulating screen. On the other hand, there are cases that stylus has specific role. Pea & Maldonado (2006) state that stylus is especially useful for writing in Kanji alphabet. What’s more stylus is makes using graphic tablets easier. As a result, manipulating screen is another appealing factor for users of mobile devices.

In mobile learning, a student’s does not have to be a consumer. A learner can be s contributor or content creator, too. For example, when I was an ESL student, I was using mobile applications for memorizing new words. One of application was called ‘Memrise’. Memrise was showing pictures of a word and aiming to address visual memory of the learner for faster memorizing. On the other hand, user can add pictures for the word, too. This function makes students contributor to the content. Therefore, students’ role is changing with mobile learning.

Taking all mentioned points into consideration, it can be concluded that mobile learning can change learning habits deeply. This change has already started but it is not fully evolved yet. In order to benefit from mobile learning’s advantages, more studies should be done and strategies should be developed. That’s why, in order to fulfill this responsibility, universities and policy makers should be pay close attention to mobile learning.