Imagine looking at an object through the eyes of a camera attached to a device such as a computer, portable games console or a smartphone. Then suddenly a 3D rendering of that objects pops up in the device, complete with information about the object and links to further information. You can zoom and rotate the 3D animation to see it from different angles and perspectives.
This is called “augmented reality” and was just one of several new technologies that were on display and discussed during the recently-held 9th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning, or mLearn2010. The conference was hosted by the University of Malta in joint collaboration with the Valletta Local Council and the International Association for Mobile Learning (IAmLearn).
More than 100 participants from several countries, mostly European, were presented with opportunities for networking, collaboration and sharing of projects. Representatives from Sony PSP (who demonstrated the augmented reality) and Nokia spoke passionately about their projects and their impact on the learning developments. An impressive panel of experts and keynote speakers discussed their views on the future of mobile tools and devices for contextual and personalised learning.
“The fact that the audience and key speakers offered a variety of interests and domains, the major binding factor, was that all agreed towards the need for change in the education system, with many proposing solutions for this radical change in knowledge transfer,” Matthew Montebello, lecturer at the University of Malta and chair of the conference told i-Tech. Alexiei Dingli and Vanessa Camilleri from the University of Malta were the co-organisers.
“Most often the terms which could be heard over and over again in different context within the conference, were “open, dynamic and personalised learner”. These indicate learners as being empowered with knowledge-based initiatives, contributing to a society that is made up of highly skilled and creative individuals who are active in constructing their own learning.
“The context is another key term which was mentioned quite often within the conference, and most speakers highlighted the effectiveness of learning within a specific context which is targeted to the needs and requirements of the individual. An individual who has the capability to learn what s/he wants or needs, at the time when s/he finds convenient, results in an individual who deals with knowledge and information in a much more effective and efficient way,” added Dr Montebello.
The MobiMaths paper, that proposed an approach to using smartphones in teaching mathematics, won the Excelsior Best Paper Award.
The paper conceded that the teaching of mathematics at a secondary level is well known to be a challenging issue. An overemphasis on didactic teaching, lack of encouragement to explore possible alternative solutions to problems, an overemphasis on procedure and the separation of mathematical procedures from real world problems are just some of the factors that contribute to the difficulties in math education. Through its inherent ability to support collaboration, and contextualised learning, mobile technology offers the potential to address at least some of the issues in mathematics education. This paper describes the approach being followed in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, to create a set of tools, learning applications and teacher supports, which exploit smartphone technology to aid in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The emphasis is on collaborative problem solving and the contextualisation of learning.
Another paper, from Austria, revealed how although a mobile phone seems to be a very personal device, it can create a community online for marginalised young people. This happened as part of the pilot project for the EU-funded ComeIn project. The community aspects seem more important on the platform than learning aspects for the participants. Thus, the platform might very well have contributed to the social inclusion of the marginalised young people involved. Results also suggest that the incorporation of such a platform into institutional offers, e.g. into youth work organisation, could be beneficial, for both the youth workers and for the young people.
A paper from Stockholm University questions the design of mobile learning activities that lead students to focus on the mobile devices at the expense of interacting with other students or exploring the outdoor environment. The authors of the paper presented heuristics for design that can help students balance their focus between devices and the educational tasks at hand.
The heuristics state that the mobile devices should let students assume roles, and be used by students as measuring tools. The mobile learning activities should require physical interaction with the environment, let teachers assume roles and encourage face-to-face communication and introductory activities should introduce unfamiliar aspects of the mobile learning activities.
A Japanese paper presented a tool called SCROLL (System for Capturing and Reminding Of Learning Log) to capture what you have learned with the contextual data and remind you of them in the right place and the right time. It allows you to log your learning experiences with photos, audios, videos, location, QR-code, RFID tag, and sensor data, and to share and to reuse the logs with others. The paper illustrates the concept in an undergraduate English-language course. The web-based version is available at http://ll.is.tokushima-u.ac.jp , also two Android free apps (Learning log for you and Learning log navigator) are also downloadable from Android Market.
www.mlearn2010.org