Presentation by Anna Wingkvist and Morgan Ericsson at mLearn 2010

1. A FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE AND
STRUCTURE THE DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS OF MOBILE
LEARNING INITIATIVES
Anna Wingkvist & Morgan Ericsson

2. MOBILE LEARNING
• Much research and development activity, but few
last or become “products”
• Complex environments, but many minor
“oversights” as well
• Research
and development in the small,
deployment in the large, results in mismatch
•A lack of Scalability and Sustainability

3. THEORY AND
PRACTICE
• Thereis a need for theoretical foundation and
systematic approaches
• Several approaches exist but no consensus
• Aiming to include “the bigger picture”
• Many parallels with (information) systems
development

4. THE SOCIO-
TECHNICAL SYSTEM
Social Technical
system system • Foundation for
(information)
Structure Technology systems development
• Social and technical
interact, and must
People Tasks both be considered
• Learning?

5. A PERSONAL SYSTEM
Social Personal Technical
system system system • Introduce a focus
on the individual
Structure
• Task changes
Tasks Technology from a technical to
personal activity
People
• Better match for
learning

6. A SYSTEMATIC
APPROACH
• Usethe extended socio-technical system as a
basis
• Allowsto leverage research and best practice
regarding systems development
• Introduce a framework and concepts

7. FRAMEWORK &
CONCEPTS
Areas of Concern
Technology Learning Social Organization
Idea
Foc
Trial
u
Stages
s
Project
Release

8. KEY CONCEPTS
• Stages
• The life cycle of a development project
• Each stage represents specific activities and goals
• Areas of Concern
• Views dealt with in each stage of the life cycle
• Captures the Social, Technical and Personal systems

9. KEY CONCEPTS
(CONT’D)
• Focus
• Mediation between the areas
• Reduces complexity
• Equilibrium
• A steady state, where a stage work according to
specification/requirements
• Required for transition between stages

10. KEY DESIGN IDEAS
• Basic idea: provide guidance, not dictate
• Provide a framework for the development process
• Allow for the use of tools/methods suitable for the
actual project
• Be easy to understand for non-experts
• Be useful to other activities, such as evaluation

11. CONCLUSIONS AND
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
• Provides
theoretical foundation and systematic
approach to development
• Introducesterms to describe important
concepts, with the aim to make them
understandable to non-experts
• Nextstep is to evaluate the use of the
framework

12. THE END & FYI
• In honor of Carl Linnaeus, the newly established
(1st of Jan, 2010) university took its name.
• He was born 1707 in the region (died 1778)
• Two campuses, 100 km apart (South east
Sweden, cities: Växjö and Kalmar)
• 34 000 students
• 2 000 staff