Mobile Learner Requirements

Mobile Learner Requirements
MATURE Workshop on User Centred Requirements
Processes for E-Learning and Knowledge Management –
A European-Wide Perspective (#MUCRP09) July 2009
http://tinyurl.com/mod9l9

http://mature-ip.eu/en/start
Email: john.cook@londonmet.ac.uk
Home page: http://staffweb.londonmet.ac.uk/~cookj1/
Blog: http://blogs.londonmet.ac.uk/tel
Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnnigelcook
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/johnnigelcook

Dr John Cook
Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning
MATURE & Learning Technology Research Institute,
London Metropolitan University

Please turn you mobile phone
…on!

My mobile number:
+44 7920 534 784
But text me questions & your name
Then in talk will try and answer you or
txt u bk

Role in MATURE
• MATURE (FP7 IP)
– http://mature-ip.eu/en/start
– focus is on Continuous Social Learning in Knowledge Networks
• Workpackage leader for evaluation and requirements
spec (Workpackage 6)
– LTRI’s refined role one of performing Evaluation within a Design
Based Research approach
• Working across the project applying expertise in
– informal learning,
– mobile learning and
– adoption of e-learning tools and approaches designing and
implementing systems that support learning

• About 4 billion people own a mobile
phones
• That is over half the world’s population
• So looking at mobile devices from TEL
perspective important
• Links between informal and formal
learning important themes (e.g. see Cook,
Pachler and Bradley, 2008)

Structure (25+5)
• Simplified overview of what mobile
learner requirements may need to
consider
• A Twitter hashmob …
• Four examples of mobile learner
requirements
• MATURE: possible demonstrator in
mobility & mobile devices
• Near future? Scaffolding the mobile
wave

1. Simplified overview of what
mobile learner requirements
may need to consider

Simplified dimensions of
learning environments
• Instructional models / learner control
• Novice / Expert
• Instructional phases / Scaffolding / Networked
Learning
• Content / Learner Generated Content &
Context
• Formal learning / informal learning
• Single context / conversations across contexts
• Desk-top based PC / appropriation of handheld
device and mobility

2. A Twitter hashmob between
@gsiemens, @Downes &
@opencontent (David Wiley)
as they engage in a
backchannel debate on David
Merrill’s talk at #edmedia, 25th
June 2009

First Principles of Instruction

• FYI from http://bit.ly/nE8mS by Merrill
• Instructional phases
• Many current instructional models suggest that
the most effective learning environments are
those that are problem-based and involve the
student in four distinct phases of learning:
– (1) activation of prior experience,
– (2) demonstration of skills,
– (3) application of skills, and
– (4) integration or these skills into real world activities.

• This is an example of ‘tweetalogue’ &
shows how experts learn/debate issues
using mobile devices, but it also serves to
raise ‘dimensions’ described above (my
bold)

• @gsiemens: Merrill presenting first principles of
instruction http://bit.ly/nE8mS w/ the periodic
shot across the bow of network learning
#edmedia
• @opencontent: @gsiemens "Successful learner
control" is highly correlated with learner
expertise. #edmedia
• @opencontent: @gsiemens Merrill's critiques of
learner control will all deal with "novices."
#edmedia
• @gsiemens: Merrill presents a great case. His
ideas resonate with many. And yet, what his
model is antithetical to much of how I learn daily
#edmedia

• @Downes: @gsiemens right
• @opencontent: @gsiemens You're an expert
and have context in which to interpret your
learning. #edmedia
• @opencontent: @gsiemens The problem comes
when we ask novices to learn as if they were
experts. And Merrill is more interested in
novices. #edmedia
• @Downes: #edmedia Merrill: Learners don't
know what they need to know Siemens:
challenges on learner control; merrill: theres a
place for non-control

• @gsiemens: Asked @opencontent question to
Merrill, received anticipated response:)
#edmedia (Merrill: I didn't think David would be
here. I was wrong!)
• @Downes: #edmedia The thing is - what is
the best evidence that a student 'needs'
some content? The fact that the need
actually manifests itself
• @Downes: #edmedia and if the need actually
manifests itself, it therefore becomes
apparent to the students, and they seek it out
for themselves

3. Four Examples of mobile
learner requirements:
‘Learner voice’

3.1 RLO CETL (UK Gov)
• UK’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and
Learning (CETL) in Reusable Learning Objects (
http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/)
– Explored converged multimedia capabilities of
smartphones as platform for storing learning
resources
– See Bradley et al. 2007; Smith et al, 2007.
• This work uses smartphones as a desk-top,
placing rich multi-media mobile learning objects
in the phone’s memory to scaffold (Wood,
Bruner and Ross, 1976) different types of
learning.

• Picture shows students evaluating sports science learning objects. Smith et
al. (2007) obtained some interesting results in the focus group when the
students had a chance to use and evaluate a mobile RLO for muscle
mechanics (which is also available as an internet version).
• Of particular interest was the observation that the mobile version
complimented the web version of the RLO in a number of respects.
• Firstly, it was observed that having already seen and completed the web-
based version, the mobile version could be used to reinforce and memorise
what was learnt before an exam
– “because, if you were on the train or whatever, to Uni … it would be perfect”.
• Secondly, it was agreed that the addition of audio in the mobile version
added to a sense of immersion in the content and an increase in the level of
involvement in comparison with the web version.
– “It’s more like you’re in class…. you are able to concentrate more”.

• Indeed, picture illustrates that with headphones on, this form of
learning enables immersion in the learning task.
• The subjects are completely engrossed in their learning activity. A
number of students mentioned some other advantages of the mobile
version, citing the element of distraction with computer versions:
– “Because when I’m on the internet to be honest, I’ve got loads of
different pages open and just flicking through – on the mobile you’re just
looking at the work” and
– “I just think it’s much better when you’re travelling or whatever, when
you’re on a train going somewhere … If I had it on my phone, I’d look at
it definitely”.
• Students also agreed that they would use the mobile RLO in
context, e.g. in the gym to observe muscle mechanics.

Fit to dimensions
• Instructional orientation
• Novice model
• Content
• Scaffolding
• Formal learning
• Single contexts
• Desk-top based PC & handheld device
and mobility

3.2 MA Live Media Events
(Local project)

[Play quote 2 clip]

Learner story

“Well we were walking around and observing
the theatres of the event and trying to get the
most images [that] we could get, and videos,
and even sounds. We tried first to observe
with our own eyes a little, to pick up what we
thought was important for our presentation,
and for our observation of the event.”

[play Elli clip]

(Cook, Pachler and
Bradley, 2008)

Fit to dimensions
• Learner control
• Novice moving towards Expert
• Scaffolding off-site learning / Networked
Learning
• Content / Learner Generated Content &
Context
• Formal learning outcomes assessed / informal
learning
• Single context / conversations across contexts
• Desk-top based PC / appropriation of handheld
device and mobility

3.3 Mobile Urban Planning
and Education (CONTSENS)
• Location-aware services
– offer to transfer background information
– services such as finding places and giving directions
– help identify potential interactors in physical proximity of the
learner
• Context-sensitive learning
– aware of the activities of learners and can thus offer to give
assistance
– E.g. if a student’s course work is due in soon, the context-
sensitive system can send a tip giving the location of resources
that may help with an assignment
– continually derive what intervention is appropriate and can
provide relevant services to aid learning

• Context-aware learning could include (Sharples,
2006)
– location-based guides and customised help systems
– systems that enable activities in context, e.g. data
logging
– game learning offering services and options such as
communication and awareness of other game players
– customised content
– adaptive interface and interaction, where the level of
detail and order of presentation can vary and be
made appropriate for context and for display on
different devices.

• The ‘CONTSENS’ project
http://tinyurl.com/ox3ulx
• Developed a series of mobile learning
applications that are being used to support
student teachers in exploring their
knowledge and understanding of urban
education in a meaningful context (Smith,
Cook and Pratt-Adams, 2009).

Going for a Local Walkabout: Putting Urban Planning
Education in Context with Mobile Phones (Cook, 2009a;
also Smith, C., Cook, J. and Pratt-Adams, S., 2009)
• An urban area close to London Metropolitan University, from 1850
to the present day, is being used to explore how schools are
signifiers of both urban change and continuity of educational policy
and practice.
• The aim of this project is to provide a contextualised, social and
historical account of urban education, focusing on systems and
beliefs that contribute to the construction of the surrounding
discourses.
• Another aim of this project is to scaffold the trainee teachers’
understanding of what is possible with mobile learning in terms of
field trips.
• Part of EC funded CONTSENS project: http://bit.ly/oU9bj

Enhancement of the learning
experience
• 91% thought the mobile device enhanced the
learning experience
• The information was easy to assimilate
allowing more time to concentrate on tasks.
• Allowed instant reflection in situ.
• The mobile tour promoted “active learning”
– they were less passive than they would have been
on a tutor-led tour
– they were not “merely taking in information”
– the mobile tour triggered their own thoughts and
encouraged them to think more about the area

“The information given was underlined by the
'experience' of the area and therefore given context
in both past and present.”

““it was triggering my own thoughts and I
was getting to think for myself about the
area and the buildings.”

Fit to dimensions
• Instructional models & learner control
• Novice
Learning
• Content & Learner Generated Context
• Formal learning
• Single context / moving towards conversations
across contexts
• Appropriation of handheld device and mobility

3.4 Mobile Archaeology
(CONTSENS)
• Another approach to mixed-reality is provided by the
‘CONTSENS’ project The project focuses on the
development of appropriate training/learning materials
for mobile learning enhanced by context sensitive and
location based delivery
• London Metropolitan University, consortium members
are working on new environments and visualisations that
are created where the physical and digital interact and
inform one another in real time. This Cultural Heritage
Learning work package extends work done on an earlier
mobile learning Cistercian Chapels project for
archaeology students hosted by Sheffield University, UK,
(http://www.shef.ac.uk/hri/projects/projectpages).

Cistercian Chapels project for
archaeology (Carl Smith, John Cook &
Claire Bradley, work in progress)
• Construction of the Abbey began in 1132. A
defining feature of the Cistercian Order was its
incorporation of two communities, and the abbey
church was designed to accommodate both
groups separately.
• Whereas the monks’ choir was in the eastern
part of the church, the lay-brothers’ was in the
west; the two were divided by a large partition
known as the rood screen.
• MA Landscape Archaeology students from
Sheffield University

• The gap
between
physical
world (what
is left of
Cistercian),
virtual world
on mobile is
inhabited by
the shared
cognition of
the students
in the video
clip (PLAY)

(Lots of pointing at screen and abbey)
Student 1: So those windows, up there isn’t it, still? Is that right? So those
have all changed since then.
Student 2: Yeah there was like another stage between this one and this
one.
Student 1: High up.
Student 2: With three vaults.
Student 1: There’s three on that side at the moment and three on that side.
Student 2. Yes
Student 1: So three have come down haven’t they, along with the window.
Student 2: And from this (? points screen) that one is equal to that one, and
actually we can not see that one (points). We can see three vaults
there …
Student 1: There must have been …
Student 2: That’s the big one there. Can you see that? (points at screen)
Student 1: Do mean with the pillar?
Student 2: Yeah, you can see it’s this way (?) but it’s stopped there.
Student 1: That’s right (makes gestures for a pillar and they both stare
into the space where the missing pillar should be).

Preliminary results
• All the users made extremely positive comments
about what they thought of the mobile learning
course, describing it as
– “more fun” than expected, “I enjoyed it”, “interesting”,
2 said it was “very interesting, it was a “good idea”,
“good!”, a “fantastic experience”, and “very stimulating
lots of good ideas”.
– 80% rated it as being useful for learning the subject
– 60% thought the mobile device enhanced the learning
experience

Preliminary results
• On the negative side, three found that having to look at
the mobile devices were a distraction from engaging with
the archaeology/site itself, and one would like more
archaeological and historical explanation.
• However, 80% agreed that the mobile learning
experience was fun, and 9 out of the 10 users (90%)
would take another mobile learning course if it was
relevant to their learning needs and would recommend
mobile learning as a method of study to others, which is
a good indication that most of them had a positive
experience (the other user answered ‘uncertain’ to both
of these questions).

“The ability to be in a particular position but get a
variety of views/different visual perspective was a
very useful opportunity. The whole thing also got
everyone talking in a way I hadn't experienced on
field trips to Fountains before.”

Lecturer in MA Landscape
Archaeologist
• “As an archaeologist I am typically also
interested in architecture and related art history -
so the idea of a multifaceted package which
could allow the user to easily transform content
between subjects interests me … intelligent
learning packages which respond to people with
needs within a particular subject area but then
allow them to push these boundaries and
develop their activity beyond this really ensures
the technology provides opportunities way
beyond the usual paper-based handout.”

Designer’s view after 2
CONTSENS case studies
• Need to know more about the profile of the
learner, about related subjects and related
knowledge. This should be modelled
before the tour. If we get a rich user profile
we can support the tour.

Fit to dimensions
• Instructional models / learner control
• Expert
Learning
• Content & Learner Generated Context
• Formal learning & informal learning
• Single context / moving towards conversations
across contexts / boundary objects
• Appropriation of handheld device and mobility

4. MATURE year 2:
negotiations about a
demonstrator in mobility &
mobile devices

5. Near future? Scaffolding
the mobile wave (Cook,
2009b)

• My own view is that the mobile device will be a
major platform that makes use of Google Wave
(http://wave.google.com/).
• A Google Wave is a hosted conversation that
lives in one place.
• On the baisis of the recent Horizon report
(Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R., 2009), I
predict that in 2 years these communication
waves will form a ‘Mobile Wave’ environment
which allow users to mix and match services that
suit their own needs much in the way iPhone
Apps are currently being used now.

• Consequently, in the talk I will give two
CONTSENS examples, developed by the LTRI
team, that I think are useful ways of showing
what is possible in terms of scaffolding the
mobile wave: Mobile Urban Education and
Mobile Cistercian Abbeys
• The goal should be to enable the learner to
appropriate the Mobile Wave, configuring it so
that it blends their personal apps and
apps/services that the institution or work-based
organisations provides that the learner finds
useful.

Ambient learning
– makes use of the digital artefacts to augment
the environment and enable learning (see e.g.
Price, 2007).
– technological tools are used to augment user
activity in context.
– this view of context invests effort in designing
a rich environment that in turn mediates
innovative forms of learning and teaching.

A prototype Nokia
camera phone,
equipped with
sensors and
Mobile
Augmented
Reality
Applications
(Source: Nokia
Research Center)

6. References
• Bradley, C., Haynes, R., Smith, C., Cook, J. and Boyle, T. (2007).
Multimedia Learning Objects for Mobiles. Mobile Learning, 5-7 July
2007, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Cook, J. (2009a). Going for a Local Walkabout: Putting Urban
Planning Education in Context with Mobile Phones. Invited talk at
LearnHigher CETL ‘M-Posium’ on Mobile Learning. April 22nd,
Manchester Metropolitan University. Slides available:
http://www.slideshare.net/johnnigelcook
• Cook, J. (2009b). Scaffolding the Mobile Wave. Keynote at
Institutional Impact, a JISC online conference, 9th July 2009. See
http://ssbr0709.inin.jisc-ssbr.net/programme/
• Cook, J., Pachler, N. and Bradley, C. (2008). Bridging the Gap?
Mobile Phones at the Interface between Informal and Formal
Learning. Journal of the Research Center for Educational
Technology, Spring. Available from: http://www.rcetj.org/?type=ci&id

6. References
• Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report.
Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Download: http://www.nmc.org/
pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf, accessed 14 January 2009
• Price, S. (2007). Ubiquitous computing: digital augmentation and learning.
In: Pachler, N. (ed) Mobile learning: towards a research agenda. WLE
Centre, Institute of Education, London, pp. 33-54. Available at: http://www.
wlecentre.ac.uk/cms/files/occasionalpapers/mobilelearning_pachler_2007.
pdf
• Sharples M., Milrad M., Arnedillo-Sánchez I., Vavoula G. (2008). Mobile
Learning: Small devices, Big Issues. In Balacheff, N., Ludvigsen, S., de
Jong, T., Lazonder, A., Barnes, S. and Montandon, L. Technology
Enhanced Learning: Principles and Products. Kaleidoscope Legacy Book.
Berlin: Springer. Available at:
http://www.lsri.nottingham.ac.uk/msh/Papers/KAL_Legacy_Mobile_Learning.pdf

• Sharples, M. (2006). Becta seminar ‘Future Gazing for Policy Makers’, 28
March, held at the BT Government Innovation Centre, London, UK.

6. References
• Smith, C., Cook, J. and Pratt-Adams, S. (2009). Context
Sensitive Mobile Learning: Designing a ‘Technoscape’
for Urban Planners. Mobile Learning, Barcelona, 26-28
February.
• Smith, C., Cook, J. Bradley, C., Gossett, R. and Haynes,
R. (2007). Motivating Learners: Mobile Learning Objects
and Reusable Learning Objects for the X-Box
generation. ALT-C 2007, 14th International Conference
of the Association for Learning Technology, University of
Nottingham, September 2007.
• Wood, D., Bruner, J. S. and Ross, G. (1976). The role of
tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology
and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89-100.

Mobile Learner Requirements

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