Experiential Mobile Learning Activities Presentation

I am presenting workshops on Experiential Mobile Learning Activities at the Digital Media Literacy Conference 2012 and the Mobile Learning Experience 2012.  What follows is the slide deck from and a description of my presentation.

This interactive, experiential BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) workshop has its foundation in two guiding principles: (1) Building a sense of community in the classroom helps address the whole learner including achievement and academic success, and (2) Mobile devices are extensions of young people. As such, they should be leveraged in the classroom.

Young people are connecting with one another through technology in unprecedented ways. Computers, wi-fi networks, and smart phones allow young people 24/7 access to technology and to one another. Using smart devices in educational settings as learning and community building tools can promote interpersonal communication and encourage young people to positively express their individuality and build their student-to-student, student-to-educator relationships. The activities that will be presented and experienced during this workshop use the technology that young people use – cell phones, social networking sites, laptops, blogs, and digital cameras. These activities focus upon and build diversity and cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving, self-reflection and self-exploration, and communication and self-expression (adapted from Wolfe & Sparkman, 2009).

Through participation in this workshop, you can expect to:

• Understand the importance of building community in the class.
• Explore the research about the use of mobile devices by young people.
• Learn through experience at least six community-building activities that you can use with your students.
• Develop ideas and strategies for integrating mobile-driven team building activities into your classroom environment.

This workshop is divided into three parts:

1. Exploring research on the importance of building a classroom community and how young people are using their mobile devices.
2. Learning, playing, and experiencing team-building games using mobile devices – see http://community-building.weebly.com/ for a list and descriptions of these activities.
3. Large group brainstorming through Wallwisher and discussion – how these ideas and activities can be integrated into one’s own work environment.

Supporting Research

• Abrams, Mi., Scannell, M., &  Mulvihill, M. (2011). Big Book of Virtual Teambuilding Games: Quick, Effective Activities to Build Communication, Trust and Collaboration from Anywhere! McGraw-Hill.
• Austrian Institute for Applied Telecommunications. (2010). The Mobile Phone in School.
• Handling Opportunities and Risks Appropriately.  Retrieve from http://handywissen.at/downloads/.
• California University.  (2006). Schools as Caring, Learning Communities. A Center Practice Brief. Center For Mental Health In Schools At UCLA.
• Davies, A., Fidler, D., & Gorbis. M. (2011).  Future Skills 2020.  Institute for the Future for University of Phoenix Research Institute.  Retrieved from http://www.iftf.org/futureworkskills2020.
• LaRose, R., & Whitten, P. (2000). Re-thinking instructional immediacy for web courses:  A social cognitive exploration. Communication Education, 49, 320-338.
• Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., Purcell, K. (2010, April). Teens and Mobile Phones.
• New Media Consortium. (2011).  2011 Horizon Report: One Year or Less: Mobiles. Retrieved from http://wp.nmc.org/horizon2011/sections/mobiles/.
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.).  Communication and Collaboration.  Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework/261-communication-and-collaboration.
• Pew Research. (2011). Global Digital Communications: Texting, Social Networking Popular Worldwide. Pew Research.  Retrieved from http://www.pewglobal.org/2011/12/20/global-digital-communication-texting-social-networking-popular-worldwide/1/
• Pew Research (2010).  Pew Internet & American Life Project.  Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones.aspx.
• Prabhu, M. T. (2010).  Author: ‘iGeneration’ requires a different approach to instruction.  eSchool News.  Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/04/12/author-igeneration-requires-a-different-approach-to-instruction/
• Schaps, E. (2003)  Creating Caring Schools.  Educational Leadership, 60(6) p. 31-33.
• Teaching Today. (n.d.).  Cell Phones in the Classroom.  Retrieve August 21, 2011, from http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/howtoarticles/cell-phones-in-the-classroom
• Vesely, P., Bloom, L. & Sherlock, J. (2007). Key Elements of Building Online Community: Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3, (3).  Retrived from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/vesely.htm.
• Wilson, M.E. (2004). “Teaching, Learning, and Millennial Students.” In M.D. Coomes and R. DeBard (Eds.) Serving the Millennial Generation. New Directions for Student Services, no. 106. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Postscript

One of the DMIL2012 workshop participants, Billy Meinke, wrote about his experiences in my workshop in his blog, Digital Media and Learning (DML) 2012 Conference – Experience Notes:

The session, as she explained before we began, was much less of a talking-head lecture and more of an interactive experience. After describing recent research supporting the use of mobile devices in K-12 and Higher Education, she broke up the attendees into groups to take part in the same exercises she uses in her classroom. Using such tools as Cel.ly and Flickr’s mobile image uploading, she took us through simple activities that can be used to improve student engagement and build a sense of community in the classroom. Sure enough, no ice was left unbroken during that session and many participants continued conversations into the main room when she was done. I’ll be showing some of those activities to my mentors back at UH, hopefully seeing them put to use by instructors in the College of Education.