David Parsons

A Learning Theory Rubric for Evaluating Mobile Learning Activities

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Design from detail

ContextCoderetreats are reflective communities of practice, where participants congregate informally to apply their coding abilities to a clearly defined problem setting with the aim of developing their software design skills. One of these events is the global day of coderetreat (GDCR) involving more than two thousand software developers worldwide. ObjectiveThe GDCR provided an opportunity to explore the ways that the coderetreat activity is perceived by its participants as a medium for reflective practice, and to suggest ways that we can enhance the design of coderetreats for improving both the experience and learning outcomes. MethodWe conducted both quantitative and qualitative surveys from a number of participants in the GDCR to understand how software developers hone their craft in the context of a coderetreat. ResultsOur study indicates that future coderetreats, particularly those that are likely to attract less experienced developers, should consider providing more structural scaffolding to the initial processes of test driven development. ConclusionWe believe that all coderetreats should more explicitly encourage practice and reflection on the four elements of simple design. We suggest a more sustained approach throughout the coderetreat with provision of more structural scaffolding. Accordingly, we have derived a set of recommended practices to make the coderetreat more effective for less experienced developers.

Transforming Teacher Education with Digital and Collaborative Learning and Leadership

This paper investigates some participant outcomes from a part-time postgraduate course for in-service teachers, focusing on digital and collaborative learning and leadership, delivered in several locations across New Zealand. In order to monitor the success of the course, regular anonymous feedback is gathered. One question in particular is essential to this feedback; to what extent does attending the course lead to transformation of classroom practice by the participants? The authors analysed free text responses to on-line surveys which posed this question to two different course cohorts. Their findings were that almost all of those who had completed the relevant course modules reported making changes their practice. Some were still making tentative steps towards new forms of pedagogy, but the majority were transforming the way they managed the learning processes within their classrooms, and many were beginning to apply their newly developed awareness of leadership skills to extend their ambitions to aim to transform their schools.

Agile Education, Lean Learning

There is growing interest in applying both agile and lean concepts in the classroom to improve educational experiences. In this chapter, we draw together the disparate ideas of these two fields from industrial practice and the existing work within this area to develop and frame the major concepts of agile and lean thinking for teaching and learning. The chapter summarises the key ideas relating to how values, processes and techniques from agile software development, overlaid with related concepts from lean thinking, can be translated to the broader needs of education across disciplines for students of all ages. From a review of the available literature, we draw out a simple conceptual framework that we use to present the key themes from the literature around how both agile and lean approaches can be used in education. We conclude by providing some insights into how agile and lean teaching and learning can be applied as an integrated set of educational concepts by identifying the essential skills and practices that can be transferred to the classroom.

Evaluating a Mobile Toolkit for Designing Mobile Learning Activities

This paper outlines the development and testing of an online mobile tool, the Mobile Learning Activity Design Analyser, intended to assist educators in designing mobile learning activities that leverage important concepts from a set of relevant learning theories. We describe the first cycle of a 6 stage design science process from motivation through to evaluation. We present the key features of the analysis tool and then analyse some data gathered from a small group of educators who agreed to participate in the demonstration phase of the research cycle. The results of our evaluation show that the tool can help to develop the integration of learning theories into mobile learning activity design. Feedback from our participants indicated that the tool has some useful features that help educators to think more clearly about the relationship between learning theory and mobile learning activity design.1

Mobile Learning Policy Formulation and Enactment in New Zealand

Adoption of mobile learning in New Zealand schools has spread rapidly in recent years as the power and usability of portable devices, along with broadband penetration and speed, have changed the technology landscape. This has major implications for higher education, both because it is tasked with training the future teachers who will work in digitally enabled classrooms and because the students from these classrooms will be future university undergraduates, bringing with them new expectations about institutional support for mobile learning. Policy both drives and responds to these contextual changes. National policy has driven the construction of broadband infrastructure but also has to respond to changes enacted locally. Local policy has driven the deliberate integration of mobile devices into teaching and learning, but school and university policies must respond to changes in the expectations made on them by the national provision of broadband infrastructure. Policy is also multi-faceted, as UNESCO’s mobile learning policy guidelines make clear. Not only does it need to deal with core delivery issues such as infrastructure provision and teacher training, but it must also address broader social issues such as equity, advocacy and health and safety. This chapter is based on a series of interviews carried out to explore mobile learning policy in New Zealand. The results of this research suggest that policies are evolving rapidly in a rich interaction of top-down and bottom-up initiatives, impacting directly on schools and indirectly on higher education, and may provide an instructive model for others in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Challenges of Integrating Mobile Technology into Mathematics Instruction in Secondary Schools: An Indonesian Context

ABSTRACT Implementing mobile learning in curriculum-based educational settings faces challenges related to perceived ethical and learning issues. This study investigated the affordances of mobile technologies to support mathematics instruction by teachers. An exploratory study employing questionnaires and semi-structured interviews revealed that, while mathematics instruction can be augmented with mobile learning, the majority of schools in Indonesia have banned student use of mobile phones in classrooms. Teachers are concerned about the improper use of mobile phones that could impact their students mental well-being and distract them from learning. Most teachers perceive mobile technologies to be disruptive and seem reluctant to use them for teaching delivery. However, teachers are eager to experiment with digital technologies within mathematics instruction. Our findings suggest infusing alternate technologies that fit better with the schools teaching and learning environment. This includes web-based applications that can run on different digital devices ranging from desktop computers, laptops, and tablets, to mobile phones. We propose setting up communities of practice for mathematics teachers to share their instructional repertoire on integrating digital technologies within the classroom.

The Software Developer Cycle: Career demographics and the market clock: or, is SQL the new COBOL?

The software development community includes people from a wide spectrum of age and experience. While the industry itself is constantly evolving with new languages, tools and methods, developers themselves are advancing through their careers. A consequence of these two paths of change is that future demand for software-related skills is unpredictable, leading to challenges for educators, trainers and strategists. In order to gain some insights into the impact of such changes, we gathered a snapshot of a set of demographic and profile data from 443 developers who attended a global day of coderetreat. We analyzed the data to seek relevant patterns in the demographics, software development skills and activities of our respondents. Then, using the concept of the IT market clock as a framework for analysis, we identified trends from this dataset to formulate informed predictions about how the software development community may evolve, as a result of generational changes over time, and what impact that may have on the legacy systems of the future.

A Mobile Game World for Māori Language Learning

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a mobile assisted language learning tool that teaches some aspects of the Māori language within a virtual game world. The game uses a simulated world, which reflects aspects of Māori art and culture, to structure Māori language learning experiences. It was developed using the Corona SDK and can be deployed onto multiple platforms. Android tablet devices were used for our evaluations with learners. The approach to language learning theory embodied in the game is based on a well-established Māori language learning technique known as ‘Te Ataarangi.’ This is modelled on ‘The Silent Way’ method which uses Cuisenaire Rods. However, rather than rods, the game uses the relationships between virtual characters and artefacts in the game. A design science research methodology was used, with prototypes being developed and tested with teachers, students and academics as design partners. This involved testing early prototypes with educators, then subsequently whole classes of students. In between testing, the software was redeveloped based on the observations and feedback collected. Classroom observations during the iterative development cycle showed the tool was both engaging and effective for vocabulary learning. Knowledge was generated about how a wide range of game mechanics can be used in a game world to structure mobile, Māori language learning experiences. Quantitative evaluation showed that students were able to learn vocabulary over a short time using the tool.