The Mobile Mind: learning differently with mobile devices

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

Inaugural lecture

The Open University

9 August 2011

Learning with mobile devices is different

Part 1 – Releasing human ingenuityPart 2 – Learning from learners Part 3 – Imagining new models for learning

How can mobile learning help create a more compassionate world, where learning is partly for the benefit of individuals and partly for the benefit of others?

One in three adults in the UK now uses a smartphone

(Ofcom, 2011)

Approx. 10% of all UK web traffic originates from a mobile device

(Tecmark, 2011)

>100,000 mobile phone subscribers in Indonesia learning English

There are 300 million fewer female subscribers than male subscribers worldwide

(Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity, GSMA and Cherie Blair Foundation report,

2009)

However…

Inspiring learning

1. iLearn4Free

2. English in Action

4. keitai shosetsu – mobile phone novels in Japan

3. Cloudbank – mobile knowledge sharing

5. Taiwan – learning English at lunch

Inspiring technology

CapturaTalk

Take a photo of any text, get the phone to read it out to you

Check words in the dictionary and get meanings read out to you

Word Lens Location-based translation

Softbank’s SpeekVoice-enabled application – recognizes spoken words and phrases and offers to speak translations e.g., English to Chinese

Part 1:Ingenuity born of constraint

“Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.”

- Samuel Johnson, A Preface to A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

Personal experience

Does this apply to advocates of the use of short messages and bite-size content in mobile learning?

Abbreviated language

Part 2:

The changing learner…

& learners as agents of change

Interviewer: How did you feel when you found out we would be sending out PDAs to students on H802?

Student: I was delighted because it was validating personal practice…

Prior to the use of the Palm M105, I had a web clipping application which I used to download the online Study Guide.

When I was out and about, I would have the whole Study Guide on my Palm Pilot, which I thought was brilliant.

PDAs for reading course materials – Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University.Waycott & Kukulska-Hulme, 2001-3

Learners at the forefront of change – back in 2001

“I seem to eat at McDonalds more than I ever did in the past” – interviewee

(because of free wifi there)

Learners’ experiences today

The joys and perils of learning English from signs and announcements

Creating and synthesizing knowledge – valued ways of thinking

Habits of Mind: • Applying past knowledge to new situations

• Remaining open to continuous learning (A.Costa)

Learners as agents of change

Designing for the next generation:Learning defined by time and place?

ActivityChallenging or easy?

Suitable for multitasking?Receptive or productive?Involves speaking aloud?

Writing or gestures?Individual or social?

Time Specific time or anytime?Routine or spontaneous?

Instant access or leisurely?How much available time?

Dependent on sufficient time?Interruptible?

PlaceSpecific location or anywhere?

Private or public place?Relaxing, energising?Stationary or moving?

Walking, running?Driver or passenger?

next generation designs

(Kukulska-Hulme, chapter in press)

What language learners (tell us they) want

E.g.• facilities to capture their attempts at communicating in a

foreign language• opportunities to find mobile study-buddies • gaming style applications• augmented reality • formal and informal learning combined in a cyclical way

From consumer to producer

Sam Joseph: http://linklens.blogspot.com/2009/09/video-describing-smartfm-android.html

Smart.fm Mobile Study Dictionary - web 2.0 crowdsourcing, 2009

Part 3:

New motivations and models for learning

岩崎光男 @rock_n_light is now following you (@agneskh).

rock_n_light 岩崎光男 皆さんこんにちは、システムアドバイザーの岩崎です。 2010/6/9からツイッターはじめました。裏技あれば教えてください！ 池袋

New motivations for learning a foreign language

Social media:Who’s following me?

What are they saying?

Micro-volunteering – new motivations for learning

A new model of learning?You learn, others benefit from your learning

Key considerations:

How learners may be changed through use of mobile technologies for learning

How they are empowered to become agents of change

Summary

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all my research collaborators and co-authors, and especially:

Bea de los ArcosSusan BullValérie DemouyRob FarrowNorbert PachlerJohn PettitMike SharplesLesley ShieldRhod ThomasJohn TraxlerGiasemi Vavoula

…And thanks to all who have taken part in our studies of learner practices

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Practicalowl/Flickr

Biswarup Ganguly – Wikimedia commons

http://techpubs.sgi.com/library

http://blog.taiwan-guide.org/2007/12/journey-to-smangus/

Image sources

Thank you

Innovation = “something that changes the way we think, not just what we do”

- David Marcovitz,

Innovative Learning, Pre-winter edition, 2010

Video and audio replay of the Inaugural lecture

http://stadium.open.ac.uk/stadia/preview.php?whichevent=1735