Presentation made on 19-09-2012 for the Mobile Learning and Creativity Workshop which was held on September 19th 2012 at the EC-TEL Conference in Saarbruecken, Germany. Title: L4ALL: a repository to foster mobile learning design Authors: Luca Ferrari and Alessandro Soriani

1. L4ALL: a repository to foster
mobile learning design
Alessandro Soriani, Luca Ferrari
Department of Education, University of Bologna, Italy

2. Learning for All (www.learningforall.it) aims at investigating how the
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be adopted
in Italian schools in order to create opportunities and stress new
problems.

3. Our findings
• The elements measured (observations, interviews, focus
groups, questionnaires) are almost never made available
to "outsiders", but are merely summarized in general
evaluations.
• Often this data is very qualitative and emphasizes above
all the “customer satisfaction” (of teachers and students)
or the quality of what is produced (various products:
websites, multimedia products, on-line news sheets,
etc.); details are however not available on how the
educational experience was effectively implemented.

4. • Excessive emphasis on “best practices”, which are often
bound to exceptional circumstances, which are therefore
not easily replicated in other school situations.
• Self-referentiality of the initiatives (national/regional/local
programmes/experiments, etc.): poor sharing of
experiences, duplication of efforts, lack of vision "from
the outside" of the activities.
• Insufficient methodology for measuring the "educational
benefits" (often generic and imprecise) and specific
factors (organisational, pedagogical, activity
management, methods of using the technologies) which
these benefits have generated.

5. Research method

6. Design Vs. Improvisation?
Could L4ALL be an effective tool for
teachers and researchers who want to
improve their understanding of an
experience during its whole life cycle (from
design to implementation)???

7. Portal
The “L4ALL” portal (http://hoc.elet.polimi.it/l4all/)
is the operational tool which allows users to
effectively and efficiently share the educational
experiences collected.

8. A "state of the art" exploration technique offers a
range of activities: targeted research, exploration
of the impact of specific factors, correlation
between different factors, comparison of
importance of different factors, etc. The
advanced explorative approach of the portal
combines elements that can be traced back to
various computer tools (search engines, data
mining, data visualization, etc.) to create a
unique and effective set that cannot be found in
any tools available on the market or other
research prototypes.

9. L4ALL Portal

10. L4ALL PORTAL
TOP-DOWN APPROACH BOTTOM-UP APPROACH

11. Bottom-up
- Run your experience
- Upload and share your
experience
- An experience, if it’s
remarkable, could
become a FORMAT

12. EDUCATIONAL FORMAT
A FORMAT is a formalization (with a
certain level of abstraction) of specific
expericiences that could inspire or be
used as a “starting kit” for the teacher.
WHAT’S INSIDE A FORMAT?
Class Setting
Technologies
Workflow
Assessment strategies

13. Example: “Explore!”
Explore implements the game-excursion teaching method
and is structured in a way similar to a treasure hunt;
it is designed for teams of 3-5 students who’ll explore the
environment seeking places of historical importance.

14. Explore!
Three main phases are provided:
– INTRODUCTION: the game is explained to
the class
– GAME PHASE: the players try to accomplish
all the missions (usually identify some
historical spots) while they explore the
enviroment with the support of their cellular
telephones.
– DEBRIEFING PHASE: reflection on the recent
experience, using an application implemented
on a notebook.

15. Top Down
The top-down use is the real
“killer application” of this project.
WHY?
- Over 150 experiences (and over…)
- Research engine that foster serendipity

16. SERENDIPITY
“Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a
farmer's daughter.” (Julius Comroe Jr., 1976)
L4ALL stimulates the creativity of teachers by
providing insights and ideas to create their own
learning activities.

17. What a teacher can do?
– Simply replicate experience or formats
– Get ideas for their mobile learning
experiences
– Think over the learning methodologies,
activities, educational benefits, pedagogical
settings, strategies to overcome problems and
to find solutions
– Create new mobile learning experiences
– Share them in the portal

18. Searching in L4ALL for activities can help
teachers to have more ideas (raising their
awareness and increasing digital skills) to
implement aspects of the projects they
have in mind in order to design new and
more original educational experiences.

19. Creativity in action
L4All Portal
Involving pupils
in the Projects

20. www.learningforall.it
Contacts:
alessandro.soriani2@unibo.it
luca.ferrari15@unibo.it