Best Education Infographics – 2013

Infographics, when used correctly, appropriately, are powerful tools for conveying a lot of pertinent information plus they support visual learning and thinking.  I curate a Scoopit on Infographics for Education which can be found at http://www.scoop.it/t/infographics-in-educational-settings

Here are some of my favorites from 2013:

http://envisioning.io/education/

http://www.onlinedegreeprograms.com/blog/2013/the-internet-access-gap-in-education/

http://blog.boundless.com/2013/02/the-history-of-education-infographic/

http://vrmedia.com.sg/2013/03/21/adobes-report-how-educators-in-sea-handle-the-creative-challenge/print/

http://www.knewton.com/gamification-education/

http://gettingsmart.com/2013/05/34658/

http://www.educationforallblog.org/issues/girls-education/investing-in-girls-education-delivers-results-infographic

Taking the Learners and Technology Outdoors

I began my career as an educator as an outdoor educator.  Now I teach educational technology.  Given both the ever increasing sedentary and indoor lives of kids and the advancement of technology, the time is ripe to combine the two.

Current and recurring themes that guide my ideas about what constitutes a “good” education include:

• Learning should extend beyond the classroom walls.
• Outdoor education is good for students and adults.
• Mobile technology is engaging and interesting; and can create authentic and relevant learning experiences.
• Mobile learning should be just that – mobile.

Moving Learning Beyond the Classroom Walls

“[In traditional education]…the school environment of desks, blackboards, a small school yard was supposed to suffice…There was no demand that the teacher should become intimately acquainted with the conditions of the local community, physical, historical, economic, occupational etc. in order to utilize them as educational resources.” 

– John Dewey, Experience and Education, 1938

The Council for Learning Outside of the Classroom provides the following rationale for taking learning beyond the classroom walls:

Learning outside the classroom is about raising young people’s achievement through an organized, powerful approach to learning in which direct experience is of prime importance.

This is not only about what we learn, but most importantly, how and where we learn. It is about improving young people’s understanding, skills, values, personal and social development and can act as a vehicle to develop young people’s capacity and motivation to learn.

Real-world learning brings the benefits of formal and informal education together and reinforces what good educationalist have always known: that the most meaningful learning occurs through acquiring knowledge and skills through real-life, practical or hands-on activities.

There is a wealth of evidence which clearly demonstrates the benefits for young people’s learning and personal development outside the classroom. In summary, learning outside the classroom:

• tackles social mobility, giving children new and exciting experiences that inspire them to reach their true potential. These real world experiences raise aspirations, equipping young people with the skills they need to become active and responsible citizens and shape a fit and motivated workforce.

• addresses educational inequality, re-motivating children who do not thrive in the traditional classroom environment, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds or with Special Educational Needs. Young people who experience learning outside the classroom as a regular part of their school life benefit from increased self esteem, and become more engaged in their education both inside and outside the classroom walls.

• supports improved standards back INSIDE the classroom, raising attainment, reducing truancy and improving discipline. Learning outside the classroom is known to contribute significantly to raising standards & improving pupils’ personal, social & emotional development.

Find out more about research studies which reinforce and illustrate the wide-ranging benefits for young people on our research pages.

The Benefits of Outdoor Education

A report from the National Wildlife Federation, Back to School: Back Outside, shows how outdoor education and time is connected with wide-ranging academic benefits including:

• Improved classroom behavior
• Increased student motivation and enthusiasm to learn
• Better performance in math, science, reading and social studies
• Reduced Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Higher scores on standardized tests (including college entrance exams)
• Help under-resourced, low-income students perform measurably better in school

(http://blog.childrenandnature.org/2010/10/07/outdoor-education-and-play-benefit-all-education/)

Mobile Learning in the Outdoors = Authentic, Engaging Learning

Mobile Learning in the Outdoors Benefits, Apps and Examples

From Expanding the Classroom with Mobile Learning:

Mobile devices can form an engaging platform for teaching and learning, with the potential to expand the realm of the classroom. Functionality and context are key considerations when selecting from the myriad of mobile-enabled web sites and applications.

Like a Swiss army knife, mobile devices and their apps can provide utility and flexibility in a compact, portable package. Among the options available are:

• GPS and other location-based functionality
• Video, audio, and still image capture
• Mobile networking and collaboration
• The ability to bridge to other tools and data
• Scanning and data logging in the field
• Visual and audio recognition
• Screen readers, slow keys, text to speak, and other accessibility features

The portability and convenience provided by mobile devices enables instantaneous, contextual observations in the field or whenever spontaneous learning opportunities arise. Collecting information outside the classroom can help students hone observation and collaboration skills, reinforce topic relevancy, or provide opportunities to emulate an expert system through use of the apps.

GPS-based apps for mapping, geo-blogging, and geo-tagging are especially powerful in this regard, because they enable direct linking of observations to specific times and locations. The ability to capture, reference, and share data, multimedia, and ideas within a spatial or temporal context helps students identify broader trends and relationships, foster discussion, and develop conceptual thinking.

5 Ways to Take Technology Outdoors:

• Mobile Devices

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are powerful tools for outdoor study. Access to the Internet, a camera and geospatial data (e.g. GPS) make it easy to gather, organize and submit data from observations. Applications (apps) can be downloaded to engage students in citizen science activities, like identifying wildlife.

• GPS Units

GPS (Global Positioning Systems) is a technology that communicates with satellites to pinpoint specific locations on Earth. GPS units are great tools for getting students outside and engaged in environmental field research and service-learning projects.

At Wisconsin’s Augusta Area School District, teacher Paul Tweed engaged his students in several projects that used GPS and GIS (Geographic Information Systems), one of which helped the Wisconsin Department of Nature Resources (DNR) track orphaned black bear cubs released into the wild.

• Digital Cameras

Students can use digital cameras to document their local environment, track their progress on science projects, collect evidence and present their findings in the classroom.

Students at Monroe City Schools in Louisiana use tech tools like digital cameras to enhance environmental education programs at Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  Learn more at: fws.gov/northlouisiana/blackbayoulake/environmental_education.html.

• Digital Weather Stations

Digital weather stations are small monitoring devices put in place to collect real-time weather data. They can be installed near home, school or in nearby parks, enabling students to add weather conditions to their study of the local environment.

Students participating in outdoor education programs with NatureBridge check digital weather stations at Olympic, Yosemite and Golden Gate National Parks for weather data to add to their field research.  Learn more at: naturebridge.org/your-naturebridge-program-olympic.

Here is a list of apps and websites that can assist learners in becoming citizen scientists:

Links to these websites:

• Project Noah – http://www.projectnoah.org/
• Journey North – http://www.learner.org/jnorth/
• Weatherbug – http://weather.weatherbug.com/
• Creekwatch – http://creekwatch.researchlabs.ibm.com/
• Nature’s Notebook – https://www.usanpn.org/natures_notebook
• Nature’s Find – http://www.naturefind.com/
• iNaturalist – http://www.inaturalist.org/
• Google Earth – http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
• Marine Debris Tracker – http://www.marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/

Outdoor activities with mobile devices: A slidedeck by Shelly Terrell

 

10+ Activities to Do Around the School Ground by Shelly Terrell

Mobile Learning in Outdoors Viewed with the SAMR Model

The SAMR model (http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/) is being used to discuss technology integration.  The SAMR model, developed by Dr Ruben Puentedura, aims to support teachers as they design, develop and integrate learning technologies to support high levels of learning achievement and student engagement.

The guiding questions for the SAMR Ladder include:

It becomes apparent that these outdoor-based mobile learning activities can be categorized in the transformational levels of modification and redefinition as learners engage in tasks that are uniquely possible given the mobile technologies.

Zoom Book: Communicating Perspective (QR Code Activity)

Zoom: Communicating Perspective is a new mobile learning activity added to those found at Mobile and Technology-Enhanced Experiential Activities. This website describes mobile learning and technology-based activities that facilitate a sense of community in a variety of educational and training settings. They rely mostly on texting, emailing, and photo-taking activities.  Free, group sharing internet sites are also used which require access to the Internet via a smartphone or computer.  Sites such as Flickr Photo Sharing, Google Docs, and Web 2.0 tools supplement some of the activities.

Zoom: Communicating Perspective (QR Code Activity)

Goals

• To build communication and problem solving skills.
• To understand and develop perspective taking.
• To build visual literacy skills.

Materials

• One mobile device with QR Code reader per one or two learners
• A copy of “Zoom” by Istvan Banyai (could be done without but it honors and compensates the author)

Procedures

• This game is based on the intriguing, wordless, picture book “Zoom” by Istvan Banyai which consists of sequential “pictures within pictures”.  The Zoom narrative moves from a rooster to a ship to a city street to a desert island and outer space.  Zoom has been published in 18 countries.
• Hand out one QR Code/Image (see below or the original post via the link above for a downloadable PDF) per person/per pair (make sure a continuous sequence is used).
• After QR codes are distributed and images are accessed, tell participants may only look at their own pictures and must keep their pictures hidden from others.
• Encourage participants to study their picture, since it contains important information to help solve this challenge. The advantage of using mobile devices is that learners can zoom in on details of the image.  It is the facilitator’s choice whether or not to tell learners this.
• The challenge is for the group to sequence the pictures in the correct order without looking at one another’s pictures.  They are to use only verbal communications to describe the images they have.
• When the group believes they have all the pictures in order, they can indicate so and the pictures on the mobile devices can be viewed by everyone.  Share the book or the following video so they can see the level of correctness in their order.
• A follow-up discussion can include characteristics of effective communication, how perspective affects how we see and communicate, using visuals to communicate.

Leveraging the Devices, Tools, and Learning Strategies of Our Students

I developed a mission statement as an educator several decades ago.  It is simply, “To provide students with the knowledge, skills, and passion to become lifelong learners.”  I have never swayed from that mission, but as I say in my Twitter profile, “I don’t do education for a living, I live education as my doing . . .  and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” Technology makes possible 24/7, interested-driven learning.  I teach online so I get the opportunity to learn everyday all day long due to the Internet and social networks.  Students of all ages and settings should also be given the skills, tools, and time to engage in this type of self-directed, passion-based learning.

Higher education and high school teachers have stubbornly kept lectures as the primary mode of instruction.  Most students in these venues report boredom as a result.  I discuss this more in Who Would Choose a Lecture as Their Primary Mode of Learning.  An opposing state of being passionate is being bored, a contradiction to my mission statement . . .  and I believe that most educators would report that do not wish to elicit a state of boredom in their students.  This is why I am confused that in these amazing times of the abundance of information, mobile devices, and free technologies, educators are not leveraging them in the classroom.

Where, when, how, and even what we are learning is changing. Teachers need to consider how to engage learners with content by connecting to their current interests as well as their technological habits and dependencies. http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/introduction-learning-through-digital-media

Reports continue to be disseminated about how young people are using technology.  These devices, tools, and strategies can be integrated into existing lessons to enhance the learning activities and create more engagement, excitement, and possibly some passion among the students.

What follows are the results of some recent research and surveys about how young people are using technology along with suggestions how educators can

Pew Research’s Photos and Videos as Social Currency Online

A nationally representative phone survey of 1,005 adults (ages 18+) was taken August 2-5, 2012. The sample contained 799 internet users, who were asked questions about their online activities.  Based on the results of the survey, recommendations are made how these online activities can be leveraged in the classroom.

Have Students Show Their Learning Visually with Photos and/or Videos

Taking photos and videos are commonplace for many young people.  Students can demonstrate their learning through some form of visual media.  Using visual media in the classroom is congruent with brain research about the power of vision in learning (as per neuroscientist, John Medina) and supports research that visuals enhance learning.

Resources:

• Image Is Everything
• 100 Ways to Use Digital Cameras
• Student Generated Digital Video

Have Students Curate

As instructors, we are all information curators.  How do you collect and share currently relevant content with your students?  How do your students research and share information that they find with the rest of class? What tools do you use to manage or facilitate presentation of resources? Is it public? Can students access it at other times? In groups?  Modern web tools make it easy for both students and instructors to contribute online discoveries to class conversations.  Using free online content curation software, we can easily integrate new content in a variety of ways. http://iteachu.uaf.edu/grow-skills/filelink-management/content-curation-tools/

. . . and as Bill Ferriter notes:

While there are a ton of essential skills that today’s students need in order to succeed in tomorrow’s world, learning to efficiently manage — and to evaluate the reliability of — the information that they stumble across online HAS to land somewhere near the top of the “Muy Importante” list.  http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2012/12/curating-a-content-collection-activity.html

Resources:

• How can I use Content Curation in My Class?
• Teaching With Content Curation
• Students Becoming Curators of Information?
• Content Curation for Online Education
• Teaching Kids to Curate Content Collections
• How Educators Are Using Pinterest for Showcasing, Curation

Have Students Connect to Other Students, Teachers, and Experts Via Their Social Networks

By utilizing a technological channel that is popular with users, professors are increasing participation among students and seeing the results. Due to the real-time format of these outlets, students can contact peers, faculty and other authorities anywhere in the world, and usually elicit a prompt response. Despite its reputation, social media platforms allow professors to approach curricula in ways that are more creative and engaging to students. The College Bound Network has said of social learning, “Despite what you may have thought, technology doesn’t hinder learning—it fuels it.”  http://www.business2community.com/trends-news/the-modern-student-the-rise-of-online-schools-social-media-and-institutionalized-understanding-0356321#tosmQAvUcXUAKmbU.99

Resources:

• How teachers use social media in the classroom to beef up instruction
• Social Media Belongs in the Classroom
• 50 Reasons to Invite Facebook Into Your Classroom
• 100 Ways To Use Facebook In Your Classroom
• 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
• 10 ways to help students develop a PLN…

Have Students Use Their Own Devices During Class Time

Two reports/infographics support this strategy:

View this document on Scribd

There are limitless ways to use student devices during class time.   I recommend to educators to take what they are already doing well in the classroom and brainstorm how these learning activities can be enhanced using their mobile devices.

We have come to a time when we need to accept the fact that the concept of 21st century skills is no longer a progressive phase to latch onto but a reality that we need to instill into our school systems. When students bring their own devices it literally transforms the conversations that take place in the classroom.  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2012/08/are_schools_prepared_to_let_students_byod.html

For several semesters, I taught an undergraduate course on interpersonal relations.  It was at a vocational-driven local college with most of the students being between the ages of 17 to 22 (some high school students) and a handful of students in their thirties and forties.  I took learning activities I had developed and taught in the past and enhanced them with technology.  Reflections about these activities can be read at:

• Cell Sharing: An Ice Breaker Using Mobile-Devices (BYOD)
• Communication Activities Using Mobile Devices
• The Equity Game: A Mobile Device-QR Code Driven Activity
• QR Coded Student Videos: Classifying Activity

For more resources, see my curated Scoop.it of articles and resources related to Mobile Devices with Bring Your Own Devices

Pockets of institutions, administrators, and educators are successfully integrating the tools and strategies discussed above into their setting.  More blog posts, case studies, journal articles, and news pieces about these initiatives can give permission and suggestions to those who are willing but scared or a bit reluctant.

A Technology/Mobile-Enhanced I AM Poem

I blogged about this activity before.  I am using it for an online course for the first time this summer and am so excited about the results, I wanted to report on it again.  The I Am Poem is a popular exercise for language arts.  I thought it would also be a good ice breaker for students to get to know one another.  It goes beyond the, “Hi, my name is ________, and I live/work at __________” type of introduction, and reinforces the importance of beginning an online course through developing a sense of community.  Some general strategies to do so include:

• Connecting people’s names and faces is a first big step to forming bonds.
• Students need non-threatening, interesting ways to begin creating online community.
• Social interactions between and among learners enrich the learning community and should be supported in the instructional design of the course. (http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed01/19.html)

I have used the I Am Poem in a face-to-face undergraduate course (see https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/mobile-driven-identity-activities/).  For this summer semester teaching online courses on Integrating Technology Into the Curriculum for the Boise State Educational Technology graduate program, I asked students to do the I Am poem as one of their first course tasks.

Students were provided with the following directions:

• Write an “I Am” poem using the template, either electronically – http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/iampoem.htm or through the template below to write your own poems.

 

Flickr Version

• Once your poem is written, locate or take a photo via one of your computer devices that symbolizes who you are, the essence of your poem.
• Send your photo to Flickr along with your first name in the subject line and your I Am Poem in the email body to (email to my Flickr account – randomly generated by Flcikr).
• Since all the group’s images will be sent to this single Flickr account, you can view each other’s poems via the Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773858@N03.
• You do NOT have to have a Flickr account to submit your I Am Poems nor to view other students’ pictures/poems, but if you want to comment on a photo/poem (not required), you will need to have an account.
• A full description of this activity can be found at http://community-building.weebly.com/i-am-poems.html.  Here you can find more directions how to set up the activity for your own class.

Here is a screenshot of the Flickr page of student submissions.  I love the diversity and creativity they demonstrated both through the images selected and poems written.

Google Presentation Version

Directions to Students:

• Once your poem is written, locate or take a photo via one of your computer devices that symbolizes who you are, the essence of your poem.  It does not have to be a picture of you.  It can be a symbol.
• Create a slide that includes your poem/image. You can include your name or not – it is your choice.   Add it to the class Google presentation at https://docs.google.com/presentation/. . . .  This is the editing version.  Please make sure you choose a blank slide.  Google automatically saves any added content.  The presentation version can be found on the Moodle homepage.  Look for your slide once you add it.

Mobile Learning and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

I have jumped onto the Flipped Classroom craze to take the opportunity to propose and discuss an experiential model of education (ala John Dewey and Kurt Hahn), one that has experience at its core and provides learning options for all types of learners.  In this model, the videos, as they are discussed in the flipped classroom. support the learning rather than drive it.

My series on the Flipped Classroom – The Full Picture includes the following posts:

• The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture
• Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education
• Flipped Classroom Full Picture: An Example Lesson
• UDL and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture

This post continues the series by providing an overview of The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture using mobile devices.  Each phase of the model has suggestions and ideas for mobile-driven learning activities which can be implemented on most devices.  This supports Bring Your Own Devices programs and increases the chances students will use similar learning activities on their own devices outside of the classroom environment.

A major focus of mobile learning these days seems to be centered on the apps, but my focus is on designing and providing mobile learning activities that are cross platform.  Smartphone ownership is up in the United States, but it is still not universal and especially not within lower income communities.  Discussion of the app gap and this type of digital divide has occurred within several recent articles:

• Screen Time Higher Than Ever for Children
• The Digital Divide Still Exists

It also is the basis of my teaching philosophy – to provide access to learning regardless of learning differences, income, digital access, and geographical location.  Most students own mobile devices that have photo and video taking capabilities, and have Internet for content access.  The mobile activities described for the model below take advantage of these functions.

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Engaging Experience

The lesson or unit begins with an authentic, engaging, often multi-sensory and often hands-on experience.  Its purpose is to hook and motivate the student to want to learn more about the topic.

Photo and/or Video Examples of Real Life Situations. One method to do so is to ask students to locate evidence of the learning topic in their immediate environments and record that evidence via a media sharing sites such as Flickr or Youtube.  Both of these sites generate (random) email addresses that can be given out to students so they can upload their photos or videos to the educator account.  Students do not need email accounts. The media is then aggregated onto the educator account.  For example, at the beginning of a unit on personal identity, I asked students to take photos of their core values and upload them to my Flickr account – see Picture Our Values.  This description also includes directions how to set up a Flickr account for a class project.

Texting Observations, Questions, Two-Way Communications. Students can use their texting functions to interview one other, discuss real world observations made, and report on real life experiences based on suggestions provided by the educator.

Example experiential mobile activities I have done with students to engage them in the topic include:

• I Am Poems
• All About Me
• Interviews
• Directions Via Texting
• Building Communications

There are so many ways to get students excited about the content topics especially when asked to use their mobile devices to do so.  My advice to educators is to take the best experiential activities they have done and/or experienced and include a mobile element as I did with the activities above.

Concept Exploration

During this phase, learners explore the theoretical concepts related to the topic being taught.  This is the phase where videos, such as those being discussed in relation to the more popular articles and posts about the flipped classroom, are used in the lesson.  To make the content more accessible, as per Universal Design of Learning, a multimedia learning environment needs to provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation.  It is important to include content material presented in a variety of formats including ebooks, audiobooks, and content-rich websites can serve this purpose.

• Video services such as Youtube which features Youtube Education has several mobile options, Youtube for Mobile.  Students will need to have internet access.
• Audiobooks and Podcasts through services like Librivox
• Read books on mobile/cell phone, e.g. BooksinMyPhone

The key to this phase, to the use of these materials, and why it is called the flipped classroom is that content resources are recommended to the learners, and then they review them during the own time frames, sometimes as homework.

Meaning Making

Learners should, often need, to be given the opportunity to reflect on what they experienced and concepts explored during the previous phases.  For learning to be meaningful, they need to construct their own meanings and understandings of the concepts covered.

Some options for learners to reflect and synthesize their key learnings include:

• Microblogging with Twitter using hashtags.
• Microblogging through SMS and group texting services such as Cel.ly
• Blogging and Media-Based Reflections via Posterous in the Field or Cinch
• Phonecasting via ipadio or Google Voice or Cinch
• Photo-Audio Sharing via Yodia: Yodia in the Classroom
• Vodcasts/Video Reflections uploaded to Youtube (uploading from a mobile)
• Texting summaries: e.g. Messaging Shakespeare

Demonstration and Application

This is the integration phase where students demonstrate what they learned and how they will apply it to other areas of their lives.  This can be viewed as a celebration of learning where students create a project that represents their key learnings, significant experiences, and commitments-contracts for post-lesson implementation.

I discussed ideas for using Web 2.0 for this phase in Technology-Enhanced Celebration of Learning.  Many of these strategies can work on the students’ mobile devices.

The following is TJ’s example from an undergraduate course on interpersonal relations.  He used his skills at the Minecraft game and the webcam on his laptop to demonstrate what he learned.  What is especially relevant about this demonstration is that TJ has a mild form of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Mobile Learning Presentation for the 4T Virtual Conference

I presented Experiential Mobile Learning at the 4T (Teachers Teaching Teachers About Technology) Virtual Conference.  I am all about sharing, so here is a version, an agenda, of what I presented.

Introduction: Epic Learning Activities

With a background in experiential education and as an advocate of John Dewey, I believe that learning experiences should be, borrowing from the game world, epic.

The following video is viewed with participants asked to describe the characteristics of the learning activities shown in the video.  Participant reactions are posted in the webinar backchannel.

Questions to assess the “epicness” of learning activities:

• Was there an experiential component?
• Was it engaging?
• Was it an authentic, relevant learning experience?
• Did it facilitate critical, reflective thinking?
• Did the learning activity change behavior or thinking?

Participants join and access Cel.ly to discuss their own Epic Learning activities.

Overview of Session

The session is divided into three components:

1. Research of the importance of building community and social interactive into the learning process.
2. Mobile device use patterns by young people.
3. Sample experiential mobile learning activities – active participation.

The Research and Its Implications for Mobile Learning

Information about the importance of building community in the classroom is shared from the following resources.

• Creating a School Community http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar03/vol60/num06/Creating-a-School-Community.aspx
• Key Elements of Building Online Community: Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/vesely.htm.
• The Process of Community-Building in Distance Learning Classes http://www.aln.org/publications/jaln/v5n2/v5n2_brown.asp
• Exploring the Challenges of Supporting Collaborative Mobile Learning www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/60139/

Research about mobile use patterns is shared from the following resources.

• Pew Research: Teens, Smartphones & Texting http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Teens-and-smartphones.aspx
• Pew Research: Just-in-time Information through Mobile Connections http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Just-in-time/Main-Report/Findings.aspx
• Educase ECAR Reprot: Mobile IT in Higher Education, 2011 Report http://www.educause.edu/ECAR/MobileITinHigherEducation2011R/238470
• My End-of-Course Student Survey https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/mobile-learning-end-of-course-student-survey-part-ii/

Participants share implications of the research on own teaching strategies via Cel.ly.

Sample Mobile Learning Activities

I Am Poems

• Example I AM Poems are shown via http://www.slideshare.net/jgerst1111/i-am-poems
• Participants are provided with directions about how to write a poem (https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/mobile-driven-identity-activities/), upload it with a picture via email to my Flickr account, and then view at http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773858@N03/

Participants are encouraged to respond on each other’s photos/poems . . .

QR Video Sorting Activities

• Participants are walked through the steps of the QR Video Sorting activity http://community-building.weebly.com/qr-video-sorting-game.html
• They are asked to access their QR code reader and given the challenge to guess which nonverbal behaviors were demonstrated via the student created videos.

Additional References are provided:

• Experiential Mobile Learning Activities website http://community-building.weebly.com/
• User-Generated Education blog posts tagged with mobile learning https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/tag/mobile-learning/
• Mobile Learning Reflections http://community-building.weebly.com/

Presentation Slides

Cell Sharing: An Ice Breaker Using Mobile-Devices (BYOD)

The following ice breaker is quick and easy to do (especially part 1) in all types of settings.  I have used it for the first meeting of my face-to-face college courses, conference presentations, and orientations for teen-age summer camp counselors.

Part 1:  Cell Sharing

• If a large group or class (over 20-25 members), separate members into smaller groups.
• Ask participants to locate a photo, song, or video from their mobile device that best represents them.
• Each person then shares with the group his or her media and the reason it was selected.
• For photo or video sharing, ask students to pass the device around so all students can view the image or use a webcam to project the image onto a larger computer screen or whiteboard.
• For sharing of music, attach portable speakers to assist with the sharing of songs so others can hear them.
• Also inform them that they will be asked to report via a group texting service what they liked, what they discovered about their group members.
  

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Part 2: Sharing of Favorite Cell Shares

During Part 2, members share what they learned about their team members via Celly, a group texting service.  The rationale behind Part 2 is twofold: (1) It reinforces learning about one another through sharing one another’s names and interests, and (2) It gets members registered for and accustomed to using a group texting service so that it can be used for future activities.

• Provide instructions to the members about how to join and use Celly.  Celly is very easy for participants to join and use.  Messages can be posted via all cell phone or directly through through a computer URL.  The biggest learning curve is for the facilitator who needs to set up his or her cell for the activity.  Cel.ly step-by-step guides can be found at http://cel.ly/guides. Learn It in 5 provides the following tutorial about how to set up and use Celly.

• Once members have joined Cel.ly and the facilitator cell, ask them to text in interesting things they learned about their group members through the cell sharing activity.  Ask them to text the first name of the person who they selected along with what he/she shared.
• Project these text messages via an LCD projector or interactive whiteboard so everyone can view them or if none is available, provide them with the URL to the cell so those with laptops or smartphones can view them with some of their classmates.  For example, here is the URL to the cell I use for my team building activities http://cel.ly/c/teambuilding.

More experiential mobile learning activities like this can be found at Mobile and Technology Enhanced Experiential Activities.

The Equity Game: A Mobile Device-QR Code Driven Activity

Preface

I have been blogging about how I am integrating mobile technology into my undergraduate course on interpersonal relations.  Since I have always been an experiential educator, I seek ways to integrate the learners’ mobile devices into my experiential activities.  The questions I seek to address when designing experiential mobile learning activities include:

• What effective instructional activities did I use in the past that can include mobile device integration to make them even more effective?
• Will it be interesting and engaging for the learners?
• Will it be an authentic and relevant learning experience?
• Can it facilitate critical and reflective thinking?
• Does it have the potential for to cause a change in thinking and/or behavior?  (Grant Wiggins recently wrote about this in Everything you know about curriculum may be wrong. Really where he discussed the point of learning is not just to know things but to be a different person – more mature, more wise, more self-disciplined, more effective, and more productive in the broadest sense.)
• Does it have the potential to be epic?

The Equity Game

Goals

• To explore issues related to unequal distribution of resources.
• To explore principles related to communication, non-verbal behavior, emotions, listening, and conflict.

Audience

• High School, College, and Adult Learners in Face-to-Face Settings

Set-Up

• The intent of the activity is for three groups to build a city within the boundaries and materials provided.
• Prior to the activity, the facilitator set ups the room by tapping off three areas – a large, roomy area for the upper class, a medium sized area for the middle class, and a small, cramped area for the lower class.

• The community resources are provided to each group via QR Codes on Index cards.  The QR codes lead to Creative Commons Flickr photos of city structures, These include houses, schools, recreational buildings, etc.  The reasons QR codes are used is twofold: (1) It increases the realism by linking into real images, and (2) Because groups can trade with each other, it adds an element of trust.
• Popsicle sticks are also distributed to represent roads.  The upper class is given a huge pile, the middle class about a dozen, and the lower class a few broken ones.
• The resources represent those typically (and stereotypically) found in the neighbor of that social class.  The upper class gets nice homes, several schools, high class recreation center and golf course, and high end shopping.  Here are some examples (you’ll have to scan it).

      

• The middle class receives housing, some strip mall shopping centers, basic schools and recreational areas.

     

• The lower class receives low income housing, a liquor store, a waste disposal center.

    

Procedures

• The group is split into three sub-groups of equal numbers. There needs to be one or two mobile devices per group to serve two functions: scanning the QR codes and communicating via text with the other groups.
• The facilitator takes the groups one by one into the set up room and are told to build a city with the materials provided.  The upper class is taken first and given directions that they are to build a city, that they can request additional resources.  The middle class goes next with most of the same directions omitting that they can request additional resources.  The lower class is taken in last and given short directions, “Build a city with materials provided.  The QR Codes lead to pictures of resources.”

• They are told that they can text the other groups with questions and requests.  This is intentionally left vague with the hopes that some trading and deals with occur.

• The unspoken rules that the facilitator follows during the activity: (1) Upper Class can go outside of their boundaries, lower class cannot.  If the lower class member goes out of their boundary, they are warned.  If they get more than two warnings, the member causing the infraction is taken to “jail” – a corner of the room. (2) The facilitator continues to check in with the Upper Class group if they need anything.  If another group has an item requested, then the facilitator takes it and gives it to the Upper Class. (3) The Upper Class can communicate with the other groups in any manner they choose.  The Middle and Lower Class can only communicate via texting.
• Post-activity reflections occur via a group discussion and a VoiceThread using photos from the activity.  The Voicethread allows for opinions to be shared that might not be shared face-to-face.

The Equity Game: In Action

The following is an edited video of this activity in-process.  It provides a good overview of how this activity operates.

Mobile Learning: End of Course Student Survey Part II

This is the second of two posts on student perceptions of mobile learning integration within an undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relations.  It combines two semesters’ worth of student surveys.

Preface

As is true for many of us using educational technology in the classroom, we are experimenting with how technology can enhance the learning experiences of our students.  Sometimes we have failures, often times we have successes.  Yet, in this age of evidenced-based education, educators, administrators, and other decision-makers are depending on and using the data gleamed from large studies often completed by companies with vested interests, e.g. Gates Foundation, book publishers, and testing companies.

Educators can easily conduct action research about the practices they are using in their own classrooms especially given the ease of creating online surveys and data collection methods.  Yet, it seems that it is rarely done.

For example, I introduced Quest Atlantis into my gifted classes a few years ago and asked these 3rd through 5th graders to complete a survey to assess its efficacy from the student perspective.  The results I received were rich and informative.  The kids offered great feedback, ideas, and suggestions.  See Beyond the Game: Quest Atlantis as an Online Learning Experience for Gifted Elementary Students.

So if educators want to influence what occurs in not only their own classrooms, but in the classrooms of their co-teachers, then they need to invest the time and energy to demonstrate best practices.  In a related blog, I discuss Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.

End-of-Course Survey

The two sections of Interpersonal Relations course were offered during Fall, 2011 and early Winter, 2012.  There were 20 students in the sections – eight were male, 12 female; 16 of the students were 17 to 20 years old, one was 25 year old male, another a 40 year old female, and two of the  students were females in their fifties.  All of them had/owned some type of mobile device.  No two of the owned devices were of the same make or model.

The first section of the survey listed all of the class activities that used the students’ cell phones.  I blogged about the individual activities.  The archive of these blog posts can be found at User-Generated Education tagged with mobile learning.

As can be seen by these results, most students rated most of the mobile-driven activities to be of some value in helping them understand the concepts being discussed/covered.  Students were them asked to identify their least and most favorite activities.  The most favorable activity was Building Communications.  The least favorite did not identify any consistent activity.  A few mentioned that there were none, “They were all pretty good.”

Do you feel that using students’ mobile phones during class time was a good idea? Why or why not?

• Yes, it was great learning new technology and interacting with each other via phones.
• Yes I do because it brings our generations technology and learning.
• Yes I do feel it is a good idea. I believe technology is growing so much that mobile phones are vital in today’s communication.
• There were some things about people calling with different providers which would be annoying.
• Yes, I liked it because I know how to use it so well.
• I do, but with my phone, it didn’t work well.
• I thought it made the time go by faster because we were learning a different way. But some other students took advantage of this and used it as personal time.
• Yes I do because it gets more involved in our lives.
• Yes, it gave us the ability to open up and be ourselves.
• Yes, I did. We are in a technological age, it is time to accept that.
• Yes, it made things more entertaining.
• Yes and no. we could have done the same on the computer.
• I think it was in the middle because I would get distracted.
• Yes because it helped us use our cell phones for good use in activities.
• Yes. I think it was because you go to learn more things about people
• Yea. Cell phones are a big past of society these days.

As can be seen in these results, there was an overwhelming positive response to mobile device use in the class.  A few problems were noted but no students reported a purely negative response to their use.  The reasons stated for positive feelings about mobile device use seemed to revolve around three themes:

1. Technology is part of today’s world.
2. It made the activities more engaging and interesting.
3. It provided the means for learning to be more personal.

What was the greatest advantage of using students’ mobile phones to get to know one another and build a sense of community in the class?

• It was nice to use them and not have to hide them and it connected the class because one way or another we all got each others numbers.
• I think people are a lot more open on their phones so I believe it helped us get to know each other more. Also we were able to show pictures of important people in our life so that I feel personalized it.
• The greatest advantage was how we could text and get to know each other.
• Ease of communication.
• You got to know the students better.
• It made us open up to one another because we had to connect at a more social level.
• It was something that we use everyday so it related back to us
• To get a better experience from the class and enjoy coming to class.
• It was something they were familiar with.
• It provided us with a common ground on which to get to know each other.
• We got to talk to each other outside of class, not just when we were in class.
• The students use their phones on a regular basis.
• That we didn’t waste paper.
• Getting the other students numbers and exchanging phone numbers to get to know one another.
• You got to know the people better though them
• We were able to communicate outside of class and create friendships.

The student responses centered around the social nature of mobile devices adding to their feelings getting to know one another.  Several students mentioned that it provided them with a forum to open up with other students.

What was the biggest problem in using students’ mobile devices during class time?

• People who did not have unlimited texting, or did not have a phone..
• Sometimes your phone wouldn’t be charged and you wouldn’t be able to participate in the activity.
• I think some of the students were confused on some of the activities.
• It distracted me because I kept texting and not focusing
• Lack of technological compatibility.
• People text other people other than the class mates.
• I didn’t always remember to charge my cellular device so I thought it was going to die.
• People would abuse it and text friends and do other things that the activity wasn’t for.
• Caused outside social distractions
• The students were tempted to use the phones for personal use.
• Not everyone brought their mobile device.
• Students had more of a chance to get distracted.
• Some didn’t work.
• The service was bad because i would send a text and it would show up ten minuets later.
• Some people texted when they should have been participating.
• I didn’t see any problems.

Not surprisingly, the responses centered around two themes: distraction and not having a device/device that worked for the activities.

In addition, students wrote a final course reflection.  What follows are some comments regarding their significant overall course learning.

I think I learned more about myself in the building structure unit then I did in the whole quarter.  I always thought of myself as having the potential to be a leader but this activity helped me believe it.  When I was trying to help the others build this structure without actually being able to help was very difficult, I had to make my teammates feel confident enough to where they could achieve the end project.

The most significant learning would be the, “building the bridge” because that was fun to be able to know who would take charge and everything you said over the phone about what your team was building with the blocks would affect how there bridge would look. I had to be very precise and accurate, nearly perfect in order to get them to build it the same. Something I am going to improve on is the clarity of how I talk.

My favorite activity would have to be going around taking pictures of our emotions with the emoticons.  We really got to see everybody’s different personalities and see them open up on a different level.

I learned several ways to communicate effectively with others, especially during our build a bridge activity.

I appreciate that there were so many hands on activities to do and that we got to learn in a different style other than lecture or reading.

I enjoyed them all because I like doing hands on learning and I learn the best that way versus book work and paperwork. Being able to learn about something then put it to use during a couple activities actually helped me a lot to understand everything I was learning.

I personally enjoyed the activities quite a lot. They helped me learn the concepts effectively while also being enjoyable to participate in.

I really liked having the participation on Facebook as part of our assignments. It was nice to have discussions throughout the week with classmates about what we had done in class

Summary

This part is easy.  Based on student testimonials both through the survey and their end of course reflection paper, the following two themes emerged:

• Students appreciated the use of mobile devices and believed they helped to increase their engagement.
• Students appreciated and learned best through the use of experiential and hands-on activities.

This is in line with recent research.  An EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative report, Authentic Learning for the 21st Century: An Overview, states that “students say they are motivated by solving real-world problems. They often express a preference for doing rather than listening.  At the same time, most educators consider learning-by-doing the most effective way to learn.” and that the focus should be “on real-world, complex problems and their solutions, using role-playing exercises, problem-based activities, case studies, and participation in virtual communities of practice” (net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3009.pdf).