Comments on: Constructivism and Mobile Learning

By: Mobile Learning » Learner-Centric Mobile Learning

Mobile Learning » Learner-Centric Mobile Learning — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 06:42:55 +0000

[...] I’ve previously blogged about the parallels between mobile learning approaches and teaching and learning theories such as social constructivism, as well as parallels between the development of mobile and computer-based learning. [...]

By: Mobile Learning » Mobile Learning 2.0?

Mobile Learning » Mobile Learning 2.0? — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 00:41:33 +0000

[...] I suppose it’s the jargon that had to happen, in the wake of Web 2.0 and E-Learning 2.0… but in my view, we’re not quite there yet. While mobile learning may have begun to utilise some Web 2.0 tools, and as I’ve previously mentioned, also supports some of the same philosophies and learning theories, we’re a long way yet from mobile versions of the kind of content and functionality that drives Web 2.0. In truth, we’re not really even at the point where “E-Learning 2.0″ has properly caught up with the range of newly available online services, to make sense of how Web 2.0 tools can be used for best practice teaching and learning, as I discussed with colleagues from around Australia in this forum last month. [...]

By: mlearning

mlearning — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:34:00 +0000

Thanks Marg, for your insight. I’ve heard similar responses (http://www.groups.edna.edu.au/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=6615) to my ideas that other social networking tools might promote Constructivist approaches to learning – that Constructivism doesn’t take into account the social context of learning.

Two alternative learning theories were suggested to me as better parallels for social networking tools, and perhaps they also sit better alongside mobile learning. These were Connectivism and Social Constructivism.

George Siemen’s theory of Connectivism (http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm) makes an attempt to model learning and its relationship with information in an age of technology. It recognises the complexity and fluidity of information and that it’s necessary for learning to incorporate a range of opinions and connected resources to form knowledge.

Lev Vygotsky, as you mention, presented the theory of Social Constructivism (http://gsi.berkeley.edu/resources/learning/social.html), before the Information Age, but his theory resonates better with me than Siemens’. Vygotsky posited that learning was the product of social interactions, and therefore learning could not be isolated from its social context. His ideas resonate strongly with Web 2.0 technologies, as well as mobile technologies that allow learning to become strongly contextualised within social interaction and learner lifestyles.

By: Marg

Marg — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 06:01:47 +0000

While I like your take on ‘constructivist’ approaches to learning, I’m concerned that a connection to ‘instructivist’ remains inherent in constructivist approaches. Yes, learners certainly build their learning, but they also develop socially. This premise, to me, presents a stronger case in relation to mobile learning, as it realises the social connectivity of the learning that can potentially occur.

Vygotsky, amongst others, presents a thesis based on the sociocultural aspects of development (albeit child development, but we all start somewhere! ). In order for the learner to develop and learn they must do so with an awareness of the social and cultural processes (as well as their cognitive processes) in which they live. Where constructivism says we develop our own ‘rules’ and ‘structures’, sociocultural educational theory suggests we cannot develop in such ways that ignore the social structures and rules by which we live. We are ‘enmeshed’ in our culture(s), that is our families, schools, workplaces. So, our cognitive development is derived from and influenced by cultural determinants.

Your post talks more to these aspects than to constructivist principles, as I see it! I wonder if a slight shift in focus to sociocultural connectivity might be worth pursuing?

What we learn and how we learn are inextricably linked to who we are and how we ‘be’ in society. As with the underpinning principles that seem to be driving Web 2.0 and e-Learning 2.0, we preference our identity over the carriage of information, as a way to pursue knowledge and develop as human beings.

Cheers, Marg

By: Jo Mcleay

Jo Mcleay — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 07:19:02 +0000

Just found your blog when you listed it on the Directory of Aussie Edubloggers. I have to say, looking back through your posts, that I really like what you have written here, even though it is apparent that your context is different to mine. (I’m teaching in a normal secondary school classroom, and it’s a bit harder to see using mlearning), but your suggestions and ideas can be adapted of course.