Exploring mobile tool integration: Design activities carefully or students may not learn

This investigation explores the integration of a mobile language learning application into a high school English course. It uses detailed behavioral data, assessments of student vocabulary and language knowledge, student work, and teacher observations to identify how students use the mobile application; measure student learning; determine which aspects of learning activity design supported or failed to support application integration; and determine how application use related to changes in student vocabulary knowledge. Students’ application use and learning suggest certain aspects of the noticing hypothesis (i.e., logging) do not apply in formal mobile learning environments and microlearning is rarely realized in these contexts when there is evidence of learning. From a theoretical perspective, the data suggest mobile tools can be used to encourage spaced repetition and deep processing when the accompanying learning activities are appropriately designed. However, the desired depth of processing is unlikely to be observed when application usage patterns that are consistent with microlearning are seen.     

成人学习视域下移动微型学习内容设计策略研究

成人教育作为一种现代的教育体系,已成为教育事业极为重要的组成部分。基于微型内容和微型媒体的移动微型学习使人们在快速的生活节奏中得以不断学习,实现终身学习的理念。在对移动微型学习进行相关概述后,分析移动微型学习应用于成人教育的适切性,在此基础上提出移动微型学习内容设计策略。     

Authentic,dialogical knowledge construction: a blended and mobile teacher education programme

Background: Knowledge construction and technology have been identified as critical for an understanding of the future of teacher education. Knowledge is discovered, applied and created collaboratively from authentic starting points. Today’s new mobile and blended learning environments create increased opportunities for such processes, including learner-centred approaches, authenticity and dialogical knowledge construction. However, teaching still requires appropriate learning design and structuring. The presented study explored, and was designed and implemented, using the ‘Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity’ (DIANA) pedagogical model, which is seen as one of the learning designing models for existing digital, open and mobile learning environments.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges and opportunities inherent in the adoption of the DIANA model and to examine student-teachers’ reflections concerning authentic and dialogical knowledge construction. The focus is on the learning process.

Sample: Participants were 63 student-teachers who were following the study module ‘Networks in Vocational Education’ at the School of Professional Teacher Education, in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Design and methods: This qualitative study uses a deductive content analysis to discern relationships between the data and the existing theory. The data for this study were drawn from an online questionnaire and participants’ self-reflective accounts.

Findings: The results indicate that achieving deep-oriented learning through dialogical actions is the most challenging part of using the DIANA model. Some of the students had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘authenticity’.

Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest enhancing learner-centred scaffolding and guidance, particularly at the outset of the learning process. In addition, methods that develop dialogical skills and competences ought to be integrated into teacher education as extensively as possible, in order to make collaborative work and problem-solving genuinely dialogical and equal.     

试析小学数学课堂练习优化设计的策略

在小学数学课程教学过程中,课堂练习占据重要地位,同时也是学生学习数学知识、掌握数学技能的重要方式.高效的课堂练习具有重要意义,不但有助于集中学生在课堂学习中的注意力,让他们将所学的数学知识应用到数学习题的解答中,而且高效的课堂练习还能帮助教师了解和掌握学生的学习情况,从而针对学生对数学知识掌握薄弱的地方采取针对性的策略...     

生态学视角下微型学习环境设计

微型学习作为一种新的数字化学习模式已经被广泛地应用到非正式学习中。但目前有关微型学习的研究中很少涉及学习环境,为完善这一领域的理论研究,本文依据生态学理论呈现了微型学习环境的五个特征,结合生态学环境设计理论以及乔纳森建构主义环境设计模型,从物理环境设计、社会环境设计和规范环境设计三个方面来构建微型学习环境模型,以期能够提高微型学习效果,保证微型学习的持续发展。     

Mobile phones and/or smartphones and their apps for teaching English as a foreign language

Currently, there is an increasing trend in the shift from the use of traditional technologies such as a desktop computer towards the use of mobile technologies such as a mobile phone. Nearly all students nowadays own a mobile device and about half of them own more than one. Therefore, students are nowadays well equipped for mobile learning. The aim of this review is to explore the use of mobile phones and/or smartphones and their apps for teaching foreign languages, specifically English, and highlight their benefits and limitations for their use in the teaching of English as a foreign language. This was done by conducting a literature search in the databases Web of Science, Scopus, and ScienceDirect, and consequently, by evaluating the findings of the relevant studies. The findings indicate that the use of mobile phones and/or smartphones and their apps generate positive effects on learning English as a foreign language, especially in the development of learners’ vocabulary and their increased motivation to study. Nevertheless, more longitudinal randomized controlled studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of the use of mobile phone and smartphone apps on specific language skills and knowledge.     

合理设计课堂练习,增强教学实效

课程标准强调＂人人参与有价值的练习,人人都能获得必需的练习,不同的人在练习中得到不同的发展＂,要在＂知识与技能、过程与方法、态度情感与价值观＂三个维度上体现具体的学习目标,合理设计课堂练习是重要的教学环节,是巩固新授知识、培养良好思维品质重要途径。在课堂教学中改变传统练习模式显得尤为重要。本文主要从课堂练习的作用、设计的原则、用好用活课本例题习题三个方面探讨如何设计有效的高中数学课堂练习。     

Is the flipped classroom model for all? Correspondence analysis from trainee instructional media designers

The educational potentials and challenges of “flipping” a classroom are today well-documented. However, taking into account the contradictory results, literature on the benefits in using the flipped model as a socially inclusive technology-supported instructional design model is still in its infancy. This study seeks to investigate the perceptions of twenty-six (n = 26) trainee instructional media designers based on the access and use of a flipped instructional model, following an exploratory mixed method research with quantitative and qualitative data that was framed by learning concepts. Findings indicate that the flipped model supported really well exercises facilitating trainees’ participation, particularly those with specific reference to gender, age and web-based open educational resources (OER) level of frequency use. Regular recordings of difficulty with long-time content lectures were perceived as the most effective for flipped instructional model use showing that course design matters for knowledge gain. The study results also confirmed the view of flipped classroom as facilitating model for learning activities with trainees to be actively participated and not being passive receivers of the main instructor’s information or observers of other colleagues’ practices and experiments. In this context, which is defined by severe resource constraints and fear of using web-based transactions or sources among lecturers and trainees, the simplicity and accessibility of a flipped model promises a successful adoption for instructional media technology in Higher education.     

成人移动学习信息表征设计原则与策略研究

信息表征是学习资源设计的前提与基础,成人移动学习的信息表征设计则是实现有效交互、提高成人移动学习效率的关键。本文分析成人移动学习信息表征的特点,根据梅耶多媒体设计原则,结合成人移动学习特点提出成人移动学习信息表征应遵循的设计原则,并指出在信息表征设计时可采取的策略。     

Out of the box: behaviourism and the mangle of practice

ABSTRACT

Although often labelled obsolete and ethically dubious, twentieth-century behaviourist principles of learning have been central to the development of instructional technology and the design of modern learning environments. Using Andrew Pickering’s philosophy, this article addresses behaviourism as a mangle of practice to highlight the conceptual and non-human agency involved in research on learning, and to analyse how these forms of agency allow scientific knowledge to travel from experimental research settings to teaching.     

Message design for mobile learning: Learning theories,human cognition and design principles

The demands of an increasingly knowledge‐based society and the dramatic advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning (mLearning). However, for mLearning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop pedagogy and instructional design tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. At present, there is a lack of research on message design for mLearning. Towards these ends, this paper explores the principles and processes of message design for mLearning, including the influence of learning and cognitive theories, human–computer interaction principles, devices and methodologies. And it presents a number of practical guidelines for designing instructional messages for mLearning.     

Easy,collaborative and engaging – the use of cloud computing in the design of management classrooms

Background:?Cloud computing has recently received interest in information systems research and practice as a new way to organise information with the help of an increasingly ubiquitous computer infrastructure. However, the use of cloud computing in higher education institutions and business schools, as well as its potential to create novel learning environments remains an underresearched topic.

Purpose:?To address the research gap, this paper investigates how the capabilities of cloud computing have fostered collaborative learning processes of students in the design of management classrooms. The research project has taken place in a three-year period and has covered five post-graduate knowledge management classes, which have been situated in the context of business education.

Research design and sources of evidence:?I have used an illustrative case study of five knowledge management classes as research design to explore and describe interconnections between methods of social constructionism and cloud computing properties which enhance collaborative learning experiences of students in the classroom. To develop a theoretical background for the case study, I first review literature on constructivist and experiential learning, new management profiles, and information systems. In the empirical part of the case study, I have observed the experimental blending of constructivist learning methods and the cloud computing platform Google Apps for Education in three post-graduate classes and two Executive Master of Business Administration classes on the topic of knowledge management. For the data collection, I have focused on collaboration processes to understand how students have used various cloud computing tools to work together, and how their usage has affected interaction and reflection in the observed courses.

Results:?Findings show that collaborative properties of cloud computing, when they are undergirded by methods of social constructionism, influence learning factors on cognitive, emotional, spatial and group levels and lead to substantial changes in teacher/student roles and behaviours. The ease-of-use, playfulness and immediacy of cloud platforms creates collaborative learning spaces and has the potential to foster lateral thinking and problem solving of students in the classroom.

Conclusions and contribution:?By illuminating mutual interrelations between learning factors, constructivist principles and cloud computing properties, the paper enriches the literature on the innovative use of information system technologies in universities and business schools. The paper provides, in addition, practice-oriented insights for pedagogical and methodological choices that undergird the capabilities of cloud platforms to foster collaborative learning processes of students in higher education institutions.     

知识付费背景下高校网络教育平台建设探索

互联网+时代,移动学习逐渐成为一种重要的学习方式,但目前高校网络教育平台普遍存在移动学习体验差、课程形式单一等问题,无法很好地满足大学生移动学习需求。通过对当前主流知识付费平台进行体验,采用文献分析法整理现有知识付费相关研究,结合大学生移动学习特点,参考“得到”APP等优秀知识付费平台建设模式,从平台形式、平台定位、内容来源、内容呈现形式、质量控制和互动性6个方面,对高校网络教育平台建设提出建议,以促进大学生移动学习活动的顺利开展。     

Personalising and localising knowledge: how teachers reconstruct resources and knowledge shared online in their teaching practice

ABSTRACT

Online platforms that enable teachers to share knowledge and resources with other teachers are increasingly common mechanisms for supporting teachers’ learning. Despite their growing presence, there remains limited understanding of how teachers engage with and utilise the resources and knowledge they gain online in their teaching practice. This study employs qualitative methods to investigate the processes through which teachers engage with, interpret and utilise teacher-created teaching resources and curriculum materials that are shared on two online platforms. A three-stage knowledge reconstruction model is proposed, with teachers progressing from the selection of resources online, through the modification and implementation of the resources and knowledge, and finally to the evaluation and embedding of resources and knowledge in their practice. The findings further explore the factors that shape teachers’ behaviour and actions, and the learning that occurs at all three stages of the knowledge reconstruction process.     

Kindling fires: examining the potential for cumulative learning in a Journalism curriculum

This study investigated context-dependency of learning as an indicator for students' potential to continue learning after graduation. We used Maton's theoretical concepts of ‘cumulative’ and ‘segmented’ learning, and ‘semantic gravity’, to look for context-independent learning in students' assessments in a Journalism curriculum. We postulated whether the curriculum constrained or enabled cumulative learning. Students' responses to assessments were coded by their degree of context-dependency, or semantic gravity. We found that, firstly, students are overly successful in producing context-dependent answers but struggle to deliver context-independent responses. Secondly, students were not effective when they used higher level knowledge principles without the foundation of lower level ones. Lastly, the marking criteria were encouraging markers to reward context-dependent answers over context-independent ones. This study has implications for educators interested in curriculum design that enables cumulative learning in discipline specific contexts.     

终身学习视野下的微型学习课程设计原则研究

移动通信技术的发展使依托移动设备的微型学习成为可能,满足了成人学习者短小、松散、实用的学习需求。微型学习的理念和移动学习融为一体,为提高学习效率和质量提供了保证。然而,从目前的现状来看,对微型学习课程设计原则的研究非常有限。要充分发挥微型学习＂短小、精悍、实用＂的特点,尤其需要针对成人学习的特点以及移动设备的特征对课程设计原则进行深入研究。通过对移动学习的相关学习理论、已有的课程设计原则进行了研究和分析,提炼微型学习课程设计的原则和要素,为形成符合成人移动学习特点的课程设计提供参考,使成人学习者能够利用＂零碎＂时间进行学习,发挥移动设备和技术的特点和功能,使新媒体技术支持下的学习变得更加高效。     

Teacher collaboration in curriculum design teams: effects,mechanisms, and conditions

ABSTRACT

Collaborative design positively affects both professional development and the implementation of curriculum change, because teachers develop competencies and practice and develop ownership of the change. The current study was aimed to explore what empirical evidence is available about processes that take place when teachers co-design and how these contribute to professional development and curriculum change. Evidence from 14 PhD studies was collected to study their impact on teacher learning and curriculum change, by analysing effects, mechanisms, and conditions. Results showed that effects of curriculum design teams, in terms of learning outcomes for teachers in areas such as (pedagogical) content knowledge and design knowledge and skills, became manifest in the outcomes of the curriculum design process, and in the appreciation by the stakeholders. We concluded that professional development, through collaborative design in teams, which is specific and linked to the curriculum, influences teachers’ knowledge and practice and impacts implementation of curriculum change.     

Contextualized mobile game-based learning application for computing education

This paper intends to present an overview of a mobile game-based learning application, BaghLearn that develops and upskills programming and algorithmic knowledge by cross-curricular capabilities through a traditional world-based game. The focus of this research was to explore the learning effectiveness of BaghLearn on students. Mixed method research approach was applied to collect, process and analyze the research data in which undergraduate students who had some prior knowledge or had taken algorithm courses were instructed to test the mobile game learning application. This study exhibits the idea of integrating learning with contextual mobile game as an effective approach in understanding the influence of games towards cognitive achievements of students in computing education. In addition, there are no major requirements for the use of this application (can be maintained in resource-constrained contexts such as Nepal), which makes it expressively satisfying and useful for students who are relentlessly using mobile devices. Besides, this study evaluated the influence of BaghLearn towards learning of the design and analysis of algorithm course, which is a compulsory course for most undergraduate computing education program. Furthermore, the study findings can be used as a guideline for developing learning solutions and usability evaluation of such solutions, especially for infrastructure-constrained contexts. Students using the BaghLearn opined that the application is easy to use, supportive and lead to improved learning satisfaction.

     

Designing pedagogic strategies for dialogic learning in higher education

This article focuses on the pedagogic value of dialogue to strengthen pre-service teachers’ reflective practices and improve their knowledge about the power of talk for learning. Dialogic learning was introduced to a unit of study taken by a final-year cohort of students in an initial teacher education degree at an urban university in Australia. Various opportunities for dialogue were designed into the unit through blended learning such as face-to-face tutorials, social networks and Viva Voce contexts. In the face of mixed opinion on their efficacy, the author profiles the use of social networks as a means of incorporating more interactive discourse through Web 2.0 platforms in higher education. The mixed-methods study reports on data collected from focus group interviews run at the end of the semester. An analytical framework based on Alexander’s principles of dialogic learning is used to interrogate the data set. The results illustrate the positive impact that dialogue employed as a pedagogic tool had on the value students perceived of their learning experience. It is recommended that designs for learning in higher education incorporate iterative exchanges across a variety of blended learning contexts to encourage productive interactions between students, peers and tutors.     

Preparing university students to lead K-12 engineering outreach programmes: a design experiment

ABSTRACT

This paper describes an engineering outreach programme designed to increase the interest of under-represented youth in engineering and to disseminate pre-engineering design challenge materials to K-12 educators and volunteers. Given university students’ critical role as facilitators of the outreach programme, researchers conducted a two-year design experiment to examine the programme's effectiveness at preparing university students to lead pre-engineering activities. Pre- and post-surveys incorporated items from the Student Engagement sub-scale of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale. Surveys were analysed using paired-samples t-test. Interview and open-ended survey data were analysed using discourse analysis and the constant comparative method. As a result of participation in the programme, university students reported a gain in efficacy to lead pre-engineering activities. The paper discusses programme features that supported efficacy gains and concludes with a set of design principles for developing learning environments that effectively prepare university students to facilitate pre-engineering outreach programmes.