Oct
2017
Lesson 9 – Models Advancing Mobile Technology Integration
‘‘[P]lay is considered to be such an educationally powerful process that learning will occur spontaneously, even if an adult is not present,’’ (Kimb, Buckner, et.al).
Woah. Learning will occur spontaneously and independently. Learners will be intrinsically motivated to go out there and learn on their own. Isn’t that what we want, ultimately? To teach our students to find learning fun. To pursue their own bunny trails? To get so wrapped up in discovering new things that they lose track of time? To find something that they get excited about and maybe become inspired to make a change or pursue a passion?
How many bunny trails have you gone down since we were able to explore our own interests, in this course alone? I don’t know about you but I’ve been lost for hours…(and I need about 5-10 more hours in the day as it is), but I’m self-motivated, and there’s no stopping my curiosity for what else is out there!
I think about how this relates to what we read this week. In Kim, Buckner, et.al’s study, “A Comparative Analysis of a Game-Based Mobile Learning Model in Low-Socioeconomic Communities of India,” they looked at game-based learning’s effect on very poor children. They found that games, “do not put the children in the passenger seat, but in the scientist’s console chair or experimental lab where the young scientists are sharing cognitive tasks and collectively inquiring and solving problems.” The scientist’s chair. What a cool way to phrase it. They specifically looked at the effects of poor living conditions, technology exposure (or lack thereof), children’s thought processes to figuring the games out, and what factors lead to fastest results (particularly, groups and group size).
I was so pleased with how well this article tied into mobile devices in the learning setting, seamless learning, and authenticity, collaboration, and personalization.
The learning setting for gaming for very obvious reasons goes well beyond a traditional classroom. Students are spontaneously learning without the help of an adult, they are intrinsically motivated. The Indian children played many games and kept playing and improving and exploring with their peers.
Seamless learning, I think, used to be, learn something at school from a teacher, then go home and practice the skill on your own or with a parent…seamless, right? Sometimes it still is. But is that really seamless learning anymore? In seamless learning, learning “takes place through individual learning in private learning spaces, collaborative learning in public learning spaces, […]. There will be occasions where learners are engaged in self-learning or discovery, and at other times they will interact with others, such as their peers, teachers or experts.” Again, with the study conducted in India, they saw students working alone or in small groups on their own and well beyond the classroom. Given more access to devices and more variety in games, I think these children would certainly have continued to pursue learning seamlessly.
Authenticity, collaboration, and personalization are also standouts when I think about this study.
Authenticiy is this “general agreement that authentic tasks provide real-world relevance and personal meaning to the learner (Kearney, 2012, Radinsky et al., 2001).” One of the key design elements of the games these particular children were given was that they would be given “real-world” examples they could identify with. In the game, Fire Rescue Math, “the children did not seem to be confused with such concept and putting out fire was not an uncommon event. Overall, the concept of helping others or rescuing people was well received by children. We often asked, ‘‘How many people have you saved this time?’’ and they answered with confidence if they actually solved a given problem. When we said, ‘‘Great job! Save more,’’ meaning see if they can solve more and harder problems, they went right back to the problem” (Kim, Buckner, et al., 2012).
Additionally, collaboration is “learning interactions with more capable peers or adults and there is a pedagogical emphasis on scaffolding,” (Kearney, 2012). In the study, they saw that the children worked differently in different sized groups and learned differently from one another. The children in groups worked together and helped each other understand the game, the button function, etc.through trail and error and passing on “good” information to each other. The children in the individual groups understood the game at a much slower pace than those in the groups working together. I did find it interesting that they found a “cap,” the group with three did the best, with the group with 9 still did better than the individuals, it wasn’t nearly big as a gap.
Finally, personalization is “drawing on motivational theory (Pintrich and Schunk 1996) and
socio-cultural theory (Vygotsky 1978), has become a corner stone of e-learning,” (Kearney, 2012). Personalization. I think it’s vital that the game successfully motivated the group as a whole but only advanced each child as they learned at an individual rate at their own pace. The game in this study was successful, but this doesn’t always seem possible in our everyday teaching…
Thinking about all of these pieces and parts in our own contexts or classrooms…is both exciting and overwhelming. Time is a valuable resource for us all, and thinking of ways to make measurable, meaningful, personalized, collaborative, authentic, seamless learning experiences for each of our students seems like an enormous task. A worthwhile challenge.
There are obvious challenges to making this all come together. I think Looi said it best here, “Research into seamless learning needs a strong focus on pedagogy, professional development of teachers, co-design of lessons with teachers, a design research perspective
and affordable mobile learning devices,” (166). There needs to be more professional development, more co-designing, more research, more affordable learning devices…in order for this to work for the teachers and students that need this most and have the least.
This is all so new, so different from anything that’s come before…goodness, my grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse K-12 with all of her students in one room sharing a handful of books…look where we are today! Every one of my students has their own laptop, with access to literally limitless information…it’s an entirely different world, and it’s full of possibilities.
Kearney, M., Schuck, S., Burden, K., & Aubusson, P. (2012). Viewing mobile learning from a pedagogical perspective. Research In Learning Technology, 20:1, 1-17. doi:10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14406.
Kim, P., Buckner, E., Kim, H., Makany, T., Taleja, N., & Parikh, V. (2012). A comparative analysis of a game-based mobile learning model in low-socioeconomic communities of India. International Journal of Educational Development, 32(2), 329-340. Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.05.008
Looi, Zhang, et al., “Leveraging Mobile Technology for Sustainable Seamless Learning: A Research Agenda”
8 Comments on Lesson 9 – Models Advancing Mobile Technology Integration
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Lydia Keller
October 24, 2017 at 9:02 pm (7 years ago)Hi Megan, at a conference I attended, a presenter suggested we English teachers use Minecraft for journals and stories. I guess the journals document the building experiences, and the stories are the events that happen as children play. I thought it was interesting, but I couldn’t see all of my students enjoying an activity like that. I suppose, though, if we take all of that type of gaming – Syms, Roller Coaster Tycoon, World of Warcraft – there’s bound to be something interesting to most students. This isn’t gaming to learn English, but it is gaming to use and inspire English.
Good luck with that coding course, and I know you’ll take it soon. You have way too many good ideas to leave that alone. : )
Megan Riggers
October 24, 2017 at 10:25 pm (7 years ago)That’s where I was getting hung up too, so instead, I’m having them “make” a game! There aren’t games made that I need to teach my classes the way I want too. We’re one day in and my students are LOVING IT. I’m so excited to see if it continues and what they learn along the way!
Alex Herr
October 24, 2017 at 7:45 pm (7 years ago)Hi Megan,
“Authenticiy is this “general agreement that authentic tasks provide real-world relevance and personal meaning to the learner (Kearney, 2012, Radinsky et al., 2001).” One of the key design elements of the games these particular children were given was that they would be given “real-world” examples they could identify with. In the game, Fire Rescue Math, “the children did not seem to be confused with such concept and putting out fire was not an uncommon event. Overall, the concept of helping others or rescuing people was well received by children. We often asked, ‘‘How many people have you saved this time?’’ and they answered with confidence if they actually solved a given problem. When we said, ‘‘Great job! Save more,’’ meaning see if they can solve more and harder problems, they went right back to the problem” (Kim, Buckner, et al., 2012).”
The paragraph above really made me think about two things: how to connect real-world phenomena to my lessons and how to make lessons as engaging as games. As a math teacher, I have a little easier time with the first than the second. I’ve taken money scenarios and connected them to expressions/equations and a Youtube clip and connected it to the concept of a limit in Calculus. While I can’t do this daily, I try where I can. I loved reading that the children “went right back to the problem” after saving people and wanting to save more in the Fire Rescue Math game – ultimately leading to a desire to learn how to solve more complicated problems. I don’t see that same desire when my students complete worksheets out of specific context. A lot of times the kids that can move on to the more complicated problems within a class period just see it as extra work.
I struggle with searching for games that cover the exact Algebra 2 and Calculus content I need. Sometimes I’ll find that exact need but it comes at a price that is too steep for me to cover personally. Do you use or plan to use gaming with the students in your classes? I’m always interested to see how teachers of all content areas use it.
I think one of the most important lines of the week was one you quoted toward the end of your blog:
“I think Looi said it best here, “Research into seamless learning needs a strong focus on pedagogy, professional development of teachers, co-design of lessons with teachers, a design research perspective and affordable mobile learning devices,” (166).”
The challenges are real and the work to overcome them will take time. I still find the idea of overcoming this challenge worth both the time and energy needed to conquer it.
Thanks for all the ideas this week!
Alex
Megan Riggers
October 24, 2017 at 10:30 pm (7 years ago)Hey Alex! Thanks for your comments!
This is the PD video we watched last Friday, https://home.edweb.net/webinar/students-making-viable-arguments-math-smp3/, it was really eye-opening for me as an English teacher even though this was math centered, I got a lot of great ideas from it!
So many challenges, I’m glad there are teachers out there like us thinking about it and tackling these challenges!
Priya Sharma
October 24, 2017 at 1:04 pm (7 years ago)Megan, yes, it is a lot to process and a lot to implement as well. Do you have any ideas on how you might approach any implementation of a framework like this in your classroom? Thanks!
Megan Riggers
October 24, 2017 at 10:36 pm (7 years ago)I do! I am excited about the current unit, I have students working together inside and outside the classroom to “make” something, a walkthrough so to speak, of a game based version of “Othello.” It the most exciting and most challenging project I’ve undertaken as a teacher and it’s a BLAST.
Kelly Nicole Grimes
October 24, 2017 at 12:25 pm (7 years ago)Hello,
I like the idea of incorporating gaming into the classroom, but I wonder if there are games out there for every subject. I think math would probably be an easy subject to incorporate games into, but has the idea of gaming been around long enough to have an abundance of games to choose from for each subject. I also am curious as to the level of learning they are getting as well. I know that there are some practice games and quizzes online for Spanish, but the ones I have come across are the drill and kill type. I have yet to come across anything that involves critical thinking or more challenging concepts. They could potentially be out there, but like you said earlier, I would need about 5-10 more hours in a day to find them.
Also, seamless learning is something that every teacher would like to experience or witness. I think it is possible, but I also think that in some situations it is difficult to achieve. Before I started my student teaching experience, I thought that this was how education worked. Everything just kind of fell into place. Everyone had this ideal classroom with perfect children from perfect backgrounds. I didn’t know any better until I started teaching. From this point on, I realized that this is not real. I sometimes wonder if the people who come up with these new concepts take this into consideration when they create them. It would be great if they had a solution to some of the issues we face each day. Not to say that achieving seamless learning would be impossible, but it would be great if these factors were taken into consideration when developing these concepts/ideas.
I noticed you highlighted the part about professional development and training. That was something that caught my eye too. There have been times in the past where technology was introduced, but no real training was given on how to use this technology. In order for the implementation of any type of technology to be successful it is important to include some type of professional development. Otherwise, it would take longer to implement and the user may miss out on some of the features offered by that particular piece of technology.
I agree that we have definitely come a long way since the one room school house, but I still think with progress comes obstacles that just need to be overcome. So far, it seems like we have overcome a lot and this minor problems will be worked out in time.
Have you tried gaming in your class? If so, how does it work for you?
Megan Riggers
October 24, 2017 at 10:40 pm (7 years ago)I have and it went really well. We played a game on iCivics about jury duty and I incorporated it into my Unit on the teleplay, “Twelve Angry Men.” I think the beauty of gaming, is that it get’s them “in” the content. Or, it could.
There isn’t enough of the type of games out there that I want, so I’m having my students make them. I don’t think it’s so much about “gaming” itself, more about “game based thinking.” It’s about making it immersive and engaging and letting them be creative and making it their own. I’m still presenting the content but they’re making something their own with it.
Thanks, Kelly!