This week, we were given quite a few options for the articles that we wanted to select.  I was/is somewhat still up in the air about my final project, therefore I chose articles that were more general than specific, but focused more on the impact of mobile learning and how students perceive it.  I also chose an article referencing the legal and ethical obligations we have when video recording our students, this was from the list of mandatory articles to choose from. Each article was thought-provoking and definitely provided some additional food for thought.  

The first article I chose was “ Keeping kids safe from a design perspective: Ethical and legal guidelines for designing a video-based app for children”.  I chose this article largely due to my unwavering concern of keeping children safe on the internet.  Before I got into my current role as technology teacher/coordinator, I would have never thought twice about personally identifiable information, COPPA or FERPA.  For the last 7 years though, this concept has been drilled into my brain and it is one that I take very seriously. Therefore I was drawn to this article. Now, the article isn’t strictly about the video recording, it is actually more about how there are safety implications that need to be considered when designing video-based apps.  So, in reality, it was more focused on what one needs to consider when designing learning programs, but these are good points to consider for any video recording of students that may be online. I think we can all understand why it is important for there to be safety protocols surrounding the use and viewing of any videos containing children.  The article highlights eight points that should be considered when developing an application that is video-based, as previously stated though these are important points to consider anytime there is video of children that may be stored on the internet.

The eights points are:

1. What are the goals of the video recording?
2. Who needs to provide permission?
3. Who needs/will be able to see the videos?
4. What level of consent is needed depending on intended use?
5. What level of confidentially is wanted?
6. What level of protection is needed for storing the data?
7. Who controls how the video is recorded, edited, and uploaded?
8. How long is it necessary to keep the video and when will it be deleted?

(Zydney et. al, 2015)

As I was reading this article, more and more I realized that it related to something I do every day, which is a program called Wake Up Watchung.  It is essentially our morning broadcast show and the majority of our students have an opportunity to be on the broadcast throughout the year. Up until this year, our morning broadcast was viewed on an in-house channel and therefore the risk of the video getting out was minimal.  This year though we had to switch to a private YouTube channel that is only accessible by a link that changes daily but it simply being internet based now means I need to reconsider my approach. This article will be something I consult again in the future.

The second article I dove into this week was “ Potential negative effects of mobile learning on students’ learning achievement and cognitive load—a format assessment perspective”.  I guess I would say that it is the cynic in me that made me select this article. I find that as a technology educator I struggle at times with the innappropriate use, even educationally, of technology.  There seems to be this thought at times that technology is always going to enhance the curriculum and increase student engagement. I am a strong believer in the idea that technology is a tool to enhance curriculum and that first the objective or goal needs to be determined before an appropriate technology tool can be selected if there is one.  Technology doesn’t always make a learning experience better as this article confirms. This article went into a concept that in many ways I guess I knew about, but didn’t know any of the specifics, cognitive load. Cognitive load theory has been around since the 80’s and deals largely with how much our short and long-term memory can deal with at any one time (Chu, 2014).  Research has found that “working memory can handle only a very limited number of novel interacting elements, possibly no more than two or three.” (Chu, 2014, p. 333) This makes complete sense and is why multi-tasking is not as effective as many think, it is because the brain and memory can only focus on so many things at once. What was interesting about this study, is they applied effective web-based learning strategies and added a formative assessment to it for the mobile learning environment.  This approach had been previously been successful in web-based scenario’s but failed dramatically when applied to mobile learning. What they found is that the students’ cognitive load was too high due to overloading the working memory of the students (Chu, 2014). The impact of being asked to find learning materials from both the real-world and the digital world in a short amount of time was overloading the students (Chu, 2014). Although the students were all eager to complete the tasks, there were so many questions from the formative assessment being presented to them, they felt they had to rush and therefore were not making deep reflections or thorough observations (Chu, 2014).  I can relate to this article both personally and as an educator. I have this life philosophy (whether right or not, it has gotten me this far though) that I can only do three major things well at once. For example, work, graduate school, and maintaining a healthy social life are my current priorities (maybe not the best). As soon as I try to add in let’s say going to the gym, either one of the previous three start to suffer or they all do. So although this isn’t the same as cognitive load, I can understand how our memory/brain can only handle so many things at once. As a teacher, I found the piece about students not feeling like they had enough time to come to the correct answer interesting.  Even an entry-level teacher understands the importance of wait time. I in some ways equate the two. We all process at different speeds and that wait time allows for each individual to make the requisite connections to come to a clear answer. Going forward, if they were to redo this study, perhaps there could be built in some mandatory wait time. In general, though, I think this article shows that although technology may allow for an unlimited number of bells and whistles, perhaps editing of a program’s capabilities is more valuable to positive learning outcomes. Sometimes too many spices in the soup ruin the soup.

The final article “It’s more funner than doing work’: Children’s perspectives on using tablet computers in the early years of school”, was pretty much what I expected when I chose it.  There is an ongoing struggle that teachers and parents are facing regarding when students start to explore technology, how much technology is appropriate and is it our responsibility to “support children in developing their digital skills and attitudes to enable them to function as literate citizens in the future” (Dunn et. al, 2018, p.820).  Also, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reported that over the last 10 year, there is no real evidence that shows improvement in student growth in reading, science, or math in countries that have spent a considerable amount of money in educational technology (Dunn et. al, 2018).  So, the question is, are we wasting our time and money?  That is clearly a question that there is no one single answer for and specialists in a multitude of fields will claim their reasons for and against.  There is one voice though that isn’t often listened to, that of the children themselves and that is what this study focused on. Class groups of young students in Ireland were given class sets of iPads to use for the school year.  Specific groups were then chosen to “interview” about their iPad use and four main themes became apparent: links with home, fun and games, choice and competition (Dunn et. al, 2018).  Seamless learning is certainly one focus of mobile learning and these students “saw their tablet use in and out of school as seamless, yet different”  (Dunn et. al, 2018, p.824).  The fun and games aspect of the tablets was also very important to them, but even these young children realized that the games they were playing were to help them learn and they voiced this in their answers (Dunn et. al, 2018).  Another area that the children focused on was the idea of choice and creativity.  I will say that as a teacher, these are two things that I have come to realize are immensely important when designing lessons for our students.  Apparently, these concepts are also important to students as we see from this study. Finally, many students responded well to the idea of personal competition built into an app allowing them to move up levels or win “prizes”  I can honestly say that I absolutely have seen these four factors in my dealings with students and technology and do feel that a little more students voice can be beneficial from time to time.

As I mentioned above, these articles weren’t necessarily directly tied to my final project but are all honesty, I think they all presented me with things to consider regardless of what that final project is.  A) When developing any lesson or project, that safety or the student’s privacy must be considered at all times. B) Although technology can provide you with countless tools to choose from, it is always important to start with the learning objective then select the appropriate tool or tools based off of that.  The brain can only handle so many inputs at once and it is important not to overwhelm the student or it can actually be detrimental to the earning outcome. C) Consider your student’s voice and what they enjoy about technology. We can’t always provide fun and games, choice, and competition, but if we can try to meet those objectives occasionally as well the learning objective, there is a far better chance that our students will be engaged and will learn.

FINAL PROJECT IDEA:

So, for my final project, I am envisioning something along the lines of a gallery walk.  Now, a gallery walk is not new to education and I understand that, but the type of gallery walk I would like to do would be new to our building.  This project could be school-based, k-5, but I think for the purposes of this activity, I would like to do a combination of 5th grade and 3rd grade.  The 5th-grade students would be responsible for creating/locating appropriate content for the 3rd-grade students. Content could range from audio files, video, informative slide shows, a picture collage, etc. and finally a fun quiz via google forms.  All of this content will have an individual QR code assigned to it.  The 5th-grade students would then create physical posters with the various QR codes relating to their content that would be hung up around the building.  The 3rd-graders would all be provided either a tablet or iPod touch with a QR code reader enabled. Previous to beginning the “gallery walk” students will have opened Google Keep in which to take notes as well as a Google Doc pushed out by their teacher that will serve as a scavenger hunt.  It is the 3rd-graders responsibility to find the necessary information as they travel through the gallery. All students that “Turn In” an accurate scavenger hunt document will be rewarded with a “Detective Badge” that they can set as their profile picture. This project would likely take several weeks or possibly a month to complete on both the 5th-graders end as well as the 3rd-Graders.  The 3rd-Graders will need to learn how to use Google Keep, Google Docs on a device other than a computer as well as the use of QR codes, etc. For the 5th graders, although less mobile learning focused, students will have the opportunity thanks for their G-Suite accounts to work on the project from anywhere as well as collaborate with others if they choose to work in groups. I have neglected to name a topic as I think this project would work well with just about any topic, but I was thinking perhaps of a digital wax museum.  Rather than the students serving as the individuals, the poster and QR codes would step in to provide the necessary information.

The video (which is located below) that I was able to find regarding what I am hoping to do for my final project isn’t nearly as detailed as the project I am hoping to complete.  I think this gives a very simplistic approach to what I envision, but it is a starting point to give individuals a very basic idea.  I look forward to any feedback or additional ways I could make this project even more mobile-learning forward.

 

References:

 

• Zydney, J. M., & Hooper, S. (2015). Keeping kids safe from a design perspective: Ethical and legal guidelines for designing a video-based app for children. TechTrends, 59(2), 40–46.  
• Chu, H. C. (2014). Potential negative effects of mobile learning on students’ learning achievement and cognitive load—a format assessment perspective. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 17(1). 332–344.
• Dunn, J., Gray, C., Moffett, P., & Mitchell, D. (2018). ‘It’s more funner than doing work’: Children’s perspectives on using tablet computers in the early years of school. Early Child Development and Care, 188(6), 819–831.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BptbNBkuP6o