Picking up the teacher's challenge of investigating local changes, Sam goes to the local community centre where she interviews her grandpa and some of his friends. She records the interviews on her PDA whilst taking notes on the important changes mentioned. At the end of each interview, Sam takes a picture of whom she has interviewed and after selecting an appropriate organising tool, adds the image to the recorded, annotated document. As she wanders back towards the learning hub, Sam sees an example of a Victorian building next to a modern digital hub, where community members can go to access a variety of resources and to seek and exchange ideas and information. She videos the two buildings whilst giving a commentary about the differences in each of the designs; she then accesses the internet and searches for the plans for both buildings which, when she finds them, she attaches to her video.
On her return to the learning centre, Sam places her PDA on a desk and her work is automatically synced to her private space on the server. She then places a message on the shared e-board that calls for anyone else doing this task. After a short while 15 others join her and they share their findings and begin to make comparisons between their data, using it to analyse the changes to their local community. Sam is beamed some plans of older buildings and in return she places her plans into a shared area of the server so that everyone can access them. As she discusses the plans with the group everyone has a copy of the plan on their PDA and Sam uses her project function to show a large copy on the wall which the group can use as a shared reference point. Sam then sends the automatically generated transcripts wirelessly to the printer so she can add them to the large 'mind map' being created on the wall.
The Futurelab Innovation workshop series is designed to bring together experts from research, practice and the creative industries to investigate how technology can impact upon learning in 5, 10, and 15 years time. The workshops are designed to provide an opportunity for these diverse groups to share their understanding from their own professional perspectives to create a variety of scenarios of the future possibilities for learning technologies. This workshop focused upon exploring the potential for mobile-connected technologies to be harnessed to create enriched learning experiences.
Current technology
A variety of research-lab/university and school-based research projects are currently investigating potential uses of hand-held technologies for learning. (For a detailed view see Futurelab's literature review in Learning with Mobile Technologies.) This Innovations workshop focused upon the potential of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) but also took into account various other technologies that can be described as hand-held, mobile and connected. Third generation (3G) mobile phones can offer much of the functionality of the PDAs (video/camera, MP3 player etc) and instant connectivity leading to the question of whether in 5, 10 and 15 years time the mobile phone and PDA will be separate entities. Handtops provide the functionality of a laptop within an appliance that can be held in one hand or carried in a pocket or bag. The functionality and more importantly the possibility offered by these devices is moving towards the Dynabook envisioned by Alan Kay in 1970: a cheap, mobile and connected resource that can be used to connect learning contexts with any environment. In addition to these core functions, PDAs can currently connect to a variety of peripheral devices from keyboards, data-loggers and microscopes to printers and projectors.
Future developments
To inform future developments, the group began to investigate the principles underpinning successful use of PDAs for learning. A list of desires and necessities was compiled and through constant review, discussion and amendment, the principles for designing an educational toolset for the PDA are beginning to emerge:
- it is important to provide students with a variety of tools so that they can make appropriate choices for particular tasks
- providing students with similar information in a variety of styles, enabling students to investigate areas in many or preferred communicative modes
- it is important to provide simple and quick ways of securing work: automatically 'syncing' work to a network that has private space as well as an area for sharing with both wide audiences and select audiences
- enabling students to share work with a variety of chosen audiences: from single peer/teacher to groups and publishing to the web. Providing easy drag and drop actions to share or merge work
- providing tools that enable students to enter a state of 'flow'. This entails designing tools so that they are (or become) intuitive for use within particular tasks
- in addition to the basic functionality of the PDA, ease of connectivity to a variety of peripheral devices is also important. A selection of examples given on the day were printing, data-logging and projecting images
- providing a variety of input methods, from keyboards that can be used away from flat surfaces to voice-to-text input, aims to provide greater learner choice. The theme of providing a generic toolset that can be personalised by each learner accentuates the affordance of the PDA as a personal learning tool.
Fundamental elements of the PDA design are that it should easily fit into a pocket, be lightweight, robust and reliable. The internal memory should allow multi-tasking between a number of open applications as well as providing storage for rich media content. Linked to this theme was the use of the PDA as a thin client for accessing rich data and smart caching for regularly used content. This takes into consideration battery use, robustness, and having enough embedded characteristics to be able to complete tasks without peripheral devices.
Changing context
The potential that is offered with every learner being mobile and connected, having access to information, experts, peers and resources, brings with it exciting prospects. The PDA can offer great benefits to classroom activities:
- enriching location-based data-logging
- providing constant opportunity for access to technology to each student
- empowering students in choosing the appropriate technologies (including non-digital technologies) to undertake tasks
- providing students with a technology that encourages simple sharing of products and process through beaming
- enabling students to become more active in the learning process by tailoring content to their specific needs.
Yet the potential offers more than an opportunity to enrich current activities. The possibilities for changing classroom practice: for creating a stronger link between 'home learning' and 'school learning' (or 'real-world knowledge' and 'school knowledge'); creating links with disparate experts - both experts in other schools, universities, commercial and creative partnerships as well as local experts such as parents and local businesses. This brings with it a need to investigate the developing role required of the teacher in supporting mobile, connected learners.
In enabling stronger links between formal education and informal learning, the PDA was described as a possible 'Trojan horse of a social shift in the significance of learning within communities'. Mobile learners have the opportunity to truly take control of their learning by directing it (literally and metaphorically) towards areas of interest. Work placements, field-trips, interviews that can be easily captured through the use of PDAs are enriched opportunities of current practice that could be more self-directed by each learner. A further area of investigation is to look at the ways that the potential of mobile and connected learning can further develop classroom practice and the wider curriculum and assessment frameworks.
Linked resources
OQO Ultra personal computer (uPC): www.oqo.com
Futurelab Literature Reviews: www.futurelab.org.uk/research/lit_reviews.htm
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