My work with scenarios in researching and teaching about mobile learning

1. Who am I?
Jocelyn Wishart
University of Bristol, UK
University researcher and teacher specialising in the use of new
technologies to support education, especially science education
What am I going to present?
Draw on your students work and your own to tell us what should be in
a scenario so that it communicates to (1) teachers, (2) other
researchers.

2. Scenarios, or simulated case studies, are a means of articulating
issues from real-world experiences and of providing a vision or way
forward for the future (Kamtsiou, Koskien, Naeve, Pappa &
Stergioulas, 2006).
Such an approach supports contextualisation of issues, exploration
of multiple perspectives, reflection, and opportunities to develop
collaborative solutions (Herrington, Oliver & Reeves, 2003).
Their use in an ethics workshop (adapted from Howard, Lothen-Kline
and Boekeloo (2004)) implies need for three elements:
• The scenario.
• An ethics framework, set of principles or ethical decision-making
strategy in the context of which the scenario is to be considered.
• A set of questions to stimulate ethical discussion of the scenario.

4. Scenario: Where do you stop?
Key Issue: Boundaries between formal-informal, public-private, home-
school, real-virtual etc.
Research question: What use can undergraduate university students
make of social networks to support their formal learning?
Description: This is a project funded by a National Teaching Innovation
Grant and run by a university lecturer who is concerned that their topic is
perceived by students to be a particularly ‘dry’ one. They are interested in
developing their teaching to make more use of collaborative learning
opportunities enabled by students using mobile phones to access social
networking sites at a time and place convenient to them. They have set a
task to be completed on line through, say, Facebook, where students work
with each other on a set task.

5. Scenario: Where do you stop?
Questions to be considered:
• Who should be asked for consent and how should they be informed?
• When is a discussion ‘on task’ and thereby included and when is it ‘off-
task’?
• What are the pros and cons of having the lecturer as a ‘friend’?
• What are they to do on coming across unexpectedly personal
information?
• How to anonymise the data?
Other similar situations:
Any research involving a mobile device that is used in personal as well as
work contexts is likely to lead to access, wittingly or unwittingly, of
personal information unrelated to the project. A participant may be
unaware when giving consent to the research of the extent of the personal
data stored on the phone.

7. Each scenario to cover:
• Sector
• Subject
• Pedagogy (teaching strategy and planned learning outcome)
• Technology (device and apps)
• Organisational/logistical issues with focus on practicalities
(charging, coverage, replacement...)
• Acceptance/attitudes
• Sustainability/scalability issues
• Ethical accessibility or m-safety concerns
• Outcomes evaluation and
• Acceptable use guidelines
NB Currently rare to find scenarios of what didn’t work

8. A Current Scenario: Handheld rather than mobile learning?
James asked school students to use a school supplied PDA for four
science learning activities in a Year 10 class:
• Quick response (QR) codes linked to resources that allow students to
find supporting information for the set task,
• Camera to record stages in a chemistry experiment linking photos to
appropriate equations,
• E-book on Global Warming and
• Data logging software and light gates to record velocity in an
experiment exploring momentum.
Students found data logging app difficult to understand and use but the
other activities showed how e-books, mobile cameras and QR codes can
empower learners to have increased choice and independence in how
they approach their learning.

9. References:
Herrington, J., Oliver, R. & Reeves, T. ( 2003). Patterns of engagement in
authentic online learning environments, Australian Journal of Educational
Technology, 19(1). 59-71.
Howard, D.E., Lothen-Kline, C., & Boekeloo, B.O. (2004). Using the case-study
methodology to teach ethics to public health students. Health Promotion
Practice, 5, 151-159.
Kamtsiou, V., Koskinen, T., Naeve, A., Pappa, D., & Stergioulas, L. (2006). A
glimpse at the future of technology enhanced-professional learning: Trends,
scenarios and visions. In European Networking and Learning for the Future,
Eden conference.
Wishart , J. (2013) Ethical Issues in Mobile Learning: scenarios to aid research
planning. Available at http://www.iamlearn.org/ethical-issues-mobile-
learning/research-planning
Traxler, J. & Wishart, J. (2011) Making Mobile Learning Work: Case Studies of
Practice, Bristol: ESCalate: HEA Subject Centre for Education. Available
at http://escalate.ac.uk/downloads/8250.pdf