Keynote
Presentation
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“Mobile Learning – Starting in the Right Place, Going
in the Right Direction?”
By Professor John Traxler, Director, Learning Lab,
University of Wolverhampton, UK |
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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.
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"Lessons learned about "learning": what can we derive
from this in view of designing learning environments"
By Professor Martin Valcke, Head of the Department of
Education in Ghent University, Belgium
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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).