Mobile Learning

A Piece of the Online Pie

April 21, 2015 by Mary Wiseman

Inside Higher Ed Article

Do you think online faculty would work harder if they were given a piece of the tuition pie?

Today, Inside Higher Ed posted this article A Piece of the Online Pie. There is a third party company, American Partnership, which proposes to do just that.

The online “enabler” company Academic Partnerships plans to share tuition revenue with faculty members at partnering universities as the company prepares a major update of its online education platform.

Notoriously online faculty are underpaid and over worked. Given the opportunity to have a bigger piece of the pie, do you think that incentive would help improve online faculty interaction and performance? Would it improve yours?

And, what do you think of that image/graphic? Look how the 3.0 online game changes learning: mobile devices, multiple languages, student interaction and credentialing….thoughts anyone?

MHE622 Foundations of Online Learning-Final Presentation-Mobile Learning

December 13, 2014 by Mary Wiseman

Here is my Final Presentation for the MHE622 Foundations of Online Learning Course. I researched mobile learning and its impact upon higher education online learning.

MHE622 Wiseman Mobile Learning FINAL Presentation from Mary Wiseman on Vimeo.

A full transcript can be found here along with resources and image references.

MHE622 – Week Four Blog- Reflections on Learning

November 20, 2014 by Mary Wiseman

Students reviewing the iPad-based dissection manual in relation to a hemisected head.

I have been thinking about mobile technology more and more these days, perhaps because I know I need to spend some serious time, next week, on my presentation for my MHE622 course. So, this week, I honed in on shared resources revolving around mobile technology.

The Wylie article caught my eye as the premise was to urge educators to take advantage of a new wave of electronic devices that offer portability and ease of use on a budget. Within the third paragraph Marc Prensky, who has written on Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants, was cited saying, “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” Prensky goes on to summarize, that because today’s students are digital natives they used to interacting with technology and indeed actually ‘need’ mobile learning.

This article’s research was geared more toward the K-12 educational demographic. I would summarize the excellent points shared as being:

We should not ban, we should embrace technology in education and the classroom.
Those [students] not exposed to technology are unprepared to develop a respectable digital footprint [now, also referred to as a digital tattoo].
Students need the knowledge and practice of safely interacting with technology.
I would add, that the K-12 students moving up into the higher education system will be expecting to use their mobile technology in their classrooms.

The Lewis article brings the whole mobile technology discussion to the next level, which is out of our pockets and onto our bodies. The article discusses how wearable technology will transform education. I find this study fascinating, as I believe it further proves how much we are embracing our technology and expecting it to improve our lives. If wearable technology can aid us in monitoring data to track our: fitness, children and pets, etc. the next logical step seems to be to support the personalization of our educational efforts. Costs withstanding [for the moment, as costs will come down] I believe wearable technology will continue to help all of us better understand how we can be more productive and efficient with our personal learning processes.

Mayfied, Ohara and O’Sullivan (2013) discuss using iPad-based multimedia to improve dissection learning in an anatomy course. The investigation focused on how the iPad manual aided learner engagement, achieved instructional objectives, and enhanced the effectiveness and efficiency of dissection education. The study also recommended that, “Mobile technologies can become productive learning tools delivering learning content and integrating into the social learning environment of the anatomy laboratory.”

These resources got me thinking about Bay Path’s own Occupational Therapy and Physician Assistant Graduate Programs. While I have no first-hand understanding if and/or how they might currently be integrating mobile technology into the courses found within these programs…it seems to me that throughout Bay Path’s graduate program [both online and on the ground], there are opportunities to implement mobile technology and improve student learning.

References:

Kessler, S. (2011, May 4). 4 Ways Mobile Tech Is Improving Education. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2011/05/04/mobile-education-initiatives/

Lewis, C. (2014, October 22). Wearable Technology: Will education look very different in the future?
Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/blogs-post/wearable-technology-will-education-look-very-different-future/187878

Mayfield, C. H., Ohara, P. T., & O’Sullivan, P. S. (March 01, 2013). Perceptions of a mobile technology on learning strategies in the anatomy laboratory. Anatomical Sciences Education, 6, 2, 81-89.
Retrieved from: http://baypath.worldcat.org/title/perceptions-of-a-mobile-technology-on-learning-strategies-in-the-anatomy-laboratory/oclc/5156370955&referer=brief_results

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5
Retrieved from: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

West, D. (2013. September 17). Mobile Learning: Transforming, Engaging Students and Improving Outcomes.
Retrieved from: http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2013/09/17-mobile-learning-education-engaging-students-west

Wylie, J. Mobile Learning Technologies for 21st Century Classrooms. Scholastic.
Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3754742

MHE622- Week Two Blog Entry-Reflections on Learnings

November 2, 2014 by Mary Wiseman

Tar Heel

First Shared Blog Entry Review: Academic Fraud

My daughter Xernay, attends Elon University in Elon, North Carolina [a 35 minute drive west from Chapel Hill] and for some time now she has been telling me ‘stories’ of student athletes – from Chapel Hill – being recruited with all sorts of promises such as- first pick on ‘easy’ classes, monetary stipends and private tutors, along with a realm of other ‘amenities’-just for playing ball. I had sort of brushed off my daughter’s comments thinking this was ‘urban myth’, until I read the Stripling article describing academic fraud, which Professor Testori posted on our Shared Resources Page.

When I read Stripling’s list for the football team’s eligibility

They didn’t go to class
They didn’t take notes, have to stay awake
They didn’t have to meet with professors
They didn’t have to pay attention or necessarily engage with the material.

I was infuriated! But, probably not as angry as Carol L. Folt, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and others who had been having the wool pulled over their eyes for so many years.

The article also cemented, in my mind, my daughter’s opinion that most of Chapel Hill’s football team were, as my daughter stated, “idiot guys who were only there to play football and never even went to class.” This article went on to describe how ‘anguished’ Ms. Folt was in the prolonged nature of the crisis.

I think those die-hard Tar Heel fans will be more closely watched-especially those who are ‘still’ employed by Chapel Hill. I gather there will be much stricter ‘management’ of academic registration and oversight of the Chapel Hill athletes. I wonder what Professor Debby [Ms. Crowder] is doing these days?

Second Shared Blog Entry Review: The Future of Distance Education
Having just spent 3 days attending, listening and presenting at the Online Learning Consortium 20^th Annual International Conference I was anxious to further dissect the article written by Steven Cohen and posted by Carol Dykas entitled Distance Learning and the Future of Education. The article’s use of ‘distance’ vs. ‘online’ does date the content. That said, this article has solid information.

Carol stated in her review how Cohen makes the point, “Advances in educational technology provide new ways to teach, new ways to learn, and new ways to measure the effectiveness of educational offerings.” I agree that face-to-face educational experiences allows, learning to happen in lounges, cafes and bars around the physical campus. Personally, I felt Cohen was ‘suggesting’ this could not be replicated in an online environment.

To this I would disagree. I do believe we can virtually replicate a face-to-face experience and build connections and friendships just like those a ‘real address’ gives. Cohen’s article was written in 2012 which means that Moore’s Law [which states that computer processing power doubles about every 18 months] has had enough time to further and virtually replicate the face-to-face experience Cohen mentions. And, we have had time to further our human interaction with technology and ability to interact with technology; think iPhone’s FaceTime, Skype, Google Hangout and the array of webinar conferencing technologies we have to use to augment our online experience. In my humble opinion, mobile technology is at the forefront of this trend, which lead me to review the article Jill Motyka shared.

Third Shared Blog Entry Review: Intensification of Online Retention
The Chris Tilghman, As CE Becomes More Central, Focus on Online Retention Will Intensify. Chris interviewed the vice-president of program development at InsideTrack. The very first ‘trend’ discussed is mobile technology and the hope that it will be the folks in higher education who will bring online learning to the tiny computers that everybody is carrying around in their pockets these days.

We have to start thinking of the ‘learning we desire to exchange’ in terms of the fluid movement that mobile technology allows. As Chen and Denoyelles state, “In order to improve mobile learning effectiveness, students and instructors need help adopting more effective learning and teaching practices across content areas.” Chen and Denovelles remind of that the use of mobile learning on the rise in higher education. They conclude that, “Instructors must gain knowledge of these innovative technologies and integrate them into the curriculum with sound facilitation and assessment strategies, as well as be able to support the mobile practices of students.”

To prove the importance of why the shift to implement technological innovation is import, watch this 4 minute video entitled A Vision of Students Today by Michael Wesch. If you have not yet seen this, I highly recommend the couple of minutes it takes to watch. It summarizes the characteristics and vision of students today and while it was uploaded 7 years ago, it is still relevant today.

“Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19^th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules.” -Marshall McLuhan 1967

Additionally this 3 minute video [below] created by Erin Brethauer, describes how teacher colleges are working to improve technology literacy of future educators. The accompanying article by Robin L. Flanigan describes how Clemson University is challenging traditional teaching techniques and placing an emphasis on focusing on how educators can, “… improve their curriculum, in technology and other areas, to help educators and benefit students…”

Change takes time and it is especially challenging for colleges and universities who tend to hold onto traditional methods of teaching. Slowly change can occur and I enjoy and am excited to be a part of that change.

References:
Chen, B., & Denoyelles, A. (2013). Exploring Students’ Mobile Learning Practices in Higher Education. Why IT Matters to Higher Education EDUCAUSE Review Online. Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/exploring-students-mobile-learning-practices-higher-education

Cohen, S. (2012, October 1). Distance Learning and the Future of Education. Retrieved October 25, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-cohen/distance-learning-and-the_b_1928535.html

Flanigan, R.L. (2014. January 27). Teacher Colleges Seek to Shift to Digital Age. Education Week. Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/01/29/19el-teachers.h33.html

Stripling, J. (2014, October 23). Widespread Nature of Chapel Hill’s Academic Fraud Is Laid Bare. Retrieved October 23, 2014, from http://chronicle.com/article/Widespread-Nature-of-Chapel/149603/

Tighlman, C. (2014, March 12). As CE Becomes More Central, Focus on Online Retention Will Intensify. Retrieved October 27, 2014 from http://www.insidetrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/as-ce-becomes-more-central-focus-on-online-retention-will-intensify-c….pdf

X. Aniwar, (personal communication, November 1, 2014)

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