Keynote Presentation

Abstract

Mobile learning is perhaps nine or ten years old. This talk looks back at those years to ask if we started in the right place and went in the right direction. And have we gone as far as we can?

The achievements of the mobile learning community in this time are relatively easy to identify. The community globally has demonstrated, though probably not proved, that we can take learning to individuals, communities and countries that were previously too remote, socially, economically, infrastructurally or geographically, for other educational initiatives. We have also shown that we can enhance and enrich the concept and activity of learning, beyond earlier conceptions, with learning experiences that are more personalised, authentic, situated and context-aware than ever before. We have shown also that we can challenge and extend existing theories of learning.

There are now several substantial national programmes and initiatives, and last but not least, the community now supports an international professional association, several peer-reviewed academic journals and a range of national and international conferences, ranging from those for practitioners and policy-makers to those for researchers.

Each of these apparent achievements is however more complex than it at first seems and the mobile learning community still has major challenges to address. Some of these are internal or local to the mobile learning community itself but other more significant challenges are located in the wider external environment.

The development of mobile learning has often been driven by pedagogic necessity, technological innovation, funding opportunity; it has come out of particular regions, institutions and disciplines, and sometimes out of the perceived inadequacies of conventional e-learning. These historical factors have shaped mobile learning but they have limited it and now challenge it too.

There are still the significant challenges growing out of this history, those of scale, sustainability, inclusion and equity in all their different forms in the future, and of context and personalisation in all their possibilities, of blending with other established and emerging educational technologies, and of tracking the changes in technology.

There continues to be challenges in developing the substantial and credible evidence-base that will justify further research and development.

These challenges are however local to the immediate educational context of mobile learning. There are however wider contextual challenges, those of recognising the profound societal and philosophical changes catalysed by mobile devices, and of recognising their local echoes and implications within mobile learning.

Mobile learning can be characterised as a specific enterprise within education systems. Mobile devices are near-universal and their impact brings near-universal connectedness to people, data, content and media. There are subtle but pervasive transformations of jobs, work and the economy, of our sense of time, space and place, of ethics and politics, of knowing and learning, and of community and identity. Finally, the talk explores how these transformations challenge education systems and hence challenge mobile learning.
 

Abstract

In the research literature, clear models are presented that describe in detail the nature of learning processes. These models have inspired instructional designers to define clear guidelines as to developing learning envrionments. The question is whether we are always aware as to the critical nature of these guidelines? In this keynote, we review a typical model for the learning process and start looking at ways we correctly or incorrectly develop, design and/or implement our learning settings. Examples from both formal and informal instructional settings will be used to enrich the talk.
 

Bio

Martin Valcke is currently full Professor ‘Instructional Sciences’ at the Ghent University, Belgium and head of the department “Educational Studies”. Building on his PhD-work in the field of educational information sciences, his actual field of research focuses now on the innovation of Higher Education and the integrated use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

He coordinates implementation projects to introduce ICT-based open and distance learning strategies in the face-to-face setting of traditional Higher Education institutes. Current research is also set up in the context of developing countries: China (Teacher education, mathematics performance), Mozambique (Research based Learning), Uganda (e-learning and Teacher-Education), Vietnam (distance education), Ecuador (Teacher Education and ICT in primary schools to foster new ways of teaching and learning), Zimbabwe (e-learning in Information sciences), China (impact of culture in e-learning environments).

Next to ICT, major topics of his research are related to performance indicators (PISA, PIAAC), methematics education, computer games for learning, peer tutoring, alternative assessment and evaluation procedures and work-based training. Formerly, he has been working at the Dutch Open University, focusing on the design of ODL-information systems: systems to design, develop and exploit flexible electronic learning materials to be delivered just-in-time, on-demand, via the Internet, CD-ROM or by printing-on-demand.

He has been involved in a large number of national and international research and consultancy projects in countries of Central (Uganda, Zimbabwe) and South Africa, Latin and Middle America (Ecuador). Next he is regularly involved in activities and projects of the World Bank, the European Commission (Flexible Universities, Multi-Media programme, TEMPUS, Socrates, IST, …) , and other international organisations. He has published a large variety of international journals and international books. He is member of editorial boards ; e.g., Australian journal Distance Education, Computers & Human Behaviour, Carréfour de l’Éducation and involved in a large number of other journals (Computers & Education, Learning & Instruction).