Mobile Learning

I’ve always loved science. All through my education, “Mad Scientist” was up there in my preferred 10 occupations after leaving school. I was a Gold Member of the Double Helix Science Club at the age of 12, and had numerous letters, photos, and competition entries published in the club’s magazine, The Helix. I was lucky – for me, science was made a lot of fun.

The E-Learning Queen blog points out this potential to make learning fun and engaging through video, and in particular, looks at pop-science serials such as Numb3rs and Bones, in which maths and anthropology (respectively) feature extensively in the deeds of derring do. The spate of “Diet Coke and Mentos” videos on YouTube was also highlighted as a potential learning tool; the videos of Bellagio-like fountains and rockets of soft drink were virally shared by tens of millions around the world.

Who would have thought that this kind of viral media could actually be used as a means of teaching science? For, as stated on the E-Learning Queen blog,

And yet, if one watches the videos alone, it’s somehow unsatisfying.What’s missing? It’s the explanation. They never say HOW or WHY the reactions happen.

The answers came one night in an unexpected way. The boxed set of DVDs I had ordered had arrived. I was watching Season Two of Numb3rs when the characters in the series re-enacted the Mentos and Diet Coke experiment for an Applied Math course, and accompanied the explosions with an explanation. The answer involves surface tension. It’s about surface tension. There is extreme change upon the sudden introduction of a gum Arabic and gelatin disc into a liquid under pressure (due tothe carbonation), where the only way for gas to escape is through a narrow neck creates a rapid phase change. The way the surface tension changes is explained here.

This experiment, a catalyst for a physical reaction, provides a model for learning content, too. Sites like YouTube become repositories of viral video content that could be used by educators as catalysts for learning. Introducing a topic (such as “Surface Tension”) with a Mentos fountain is one way to engage students in online and mobile learning, and make them keen to understand the why and how.

These little chunks of sweetness can bring about big reactions – from our students.

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The Handheld Learning blog has posted a roundup of the two of the biggest Mobile Learning conferences held at the end of last year – Handheld Learning 2006, in Europe, where mobile learning research, theory and practice leads the rest of the world, and mLearn 2006, in Canada, where some of the world’s foremost thinkers in modern teaching and learning theory reside.

Both are well worth a read if you weren’t able to attend in person!

technorati tags:mlearn, handheld learning, conference, 2006, m-learning, mlearning, mobile learning, mobile-learning, mobilelearning, education, teaching, learning

Judy Breck at the Golden Swamp blog has written an insightful article on Tim Berners-Lee’s keynote speech to the 3GSM World Congress 07, highlighting the importance of the Mobile Web. Tim Berners-Lee is regarded as the “father” of the Internet; his invention of the open network has been a revolution for the way information is shared around the world.

Tim Berners-Lee’s keynote emphasised the importance which W3C, the international standards body for the Internet (led by Berners-Lee hmself), is placing on the Mobile Web. Mobile phones have high penetration in developing countries, and provide a low-cost platform for information connectivity and education. In concluding his keynote, Berners-Lee provided great insight into his vision of the Mobile Web providing connectivity opportunities for those in poorer countries:

Among other things, many of us are hoping that a low-cost open platform will have a much greater penetration in what we currently call the developing world. I personally believe that it is important to humanity to connect peoples across the world as widely as possible. I think we must preserve the diversity of cultures and ideas. But also I think we must connect people to give more global harmony. We should not add connectivity to the long list that the richer countries have and the poorer ones do not, a list which of course has clean water, health care and peace pretty near the top.

As part of the Mobile Web Initiative, W3C held a workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries. One of the concerns is that some of the new phones aimed at the lower cost bracket don’t all have Web browsers. The area is very exciting, and the figures for coverage — 80% of the world’s population I have heard (World Bank, according to Wikipedia), and for market growth in developing countries seem very positive.

So when we look at the choices for the mobile devices, it is clear that they must continue on the path to an open Web platform. That is what the Mobile Web Initiative is about. Huge new markets, and huge opportunities for humanity, depend on this. We know in general how to do it. But there is a lot to do.

As well as providing the potential for improving the quality of educational experiences, mobile teaching and learning promises to leverage the low-cost, high-penetration aspects of the mobile web. It may well help to deliver education to disadvantaged groups, and bring about the social justice and equity of which Tim Berners-Lee speaks.

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