Lung-Hsiang Wong

Leveraging mobile technology for sustainable seamless learning: a research agenda

Chee-Kit Looi is Head of the Learning Sciences Lab of the National Institute of Education (LSL, NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He has over two decades of experience with educational technology research in research institutes and universities. He is an editorial member of the International Journal on AI & Education and the International Journal on CSCL. Peter Seow is a senior software engineer with the LSL, NIE. He has over 10 years of industrial experience in leading projects, consulting and systems development. Zhang BaoHui is an assistant professor in the Learning Sciences and Technologies Academic Group (LSTAG) and LSL, NIE, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). His current research foci are designing and assessing interactive environments when using computerbased modelling or mobile technologies for inquiry-based science learning. So Hyo-Jeong is an assistant professor in the LSTAG and LSL, NIE, NTU. Her research focuses on designing interactive online learning environments, and students’ scientific knowledge building through collaborative inquiry. Wenli Chen is an assistant professor in the LSTAG and LSL, NIE, NTU. Her research interests and expertise are computermediated communication, virtual learning environment, mobile learning and community of learners. Lung-Hsiang Wong is an assistant professor in the LSTAG and LSL, NIE, NTU. His research interests are information and communication technology-enhanced Chinese language learning, teachers’ professional development, agent technology for learning and mobile learning. Address for correspondence: LSL, NIE, NTU, 1 Nanyang Walk Singapore 637616. Email: cheekit.looi@nie.edu.sg

What seams do we remove in mobile-assisted seamless learning? A critical review of the literature

Seamless learning refers to the seamless integration of the learning experiences across various dimensions including formal and informal learning contexts, individual and social learning, and physical world and cyberspace. Inspired by the exposition by Chan et al. (2006) on the seamless learning model supported by the setting of one or more mobile device per learner, this paper aims to further investigate the meaning of seamless learning and the potential ways to put it in practice. Through a thorough review of recent academic papers on mobile-assisted seamless learning (MSL), we identify ten dimensions that characterize MSL. We believe that such a framework allows us to identify research gaps in the stated area. A practitioner interested in adopting an MSL design or doing a new design can use our analysis to situate the dimensional space where the constraints or parameters of his or her design problem lie, and look at relevant design and research-based evidence of other related MSL systems to refine her own design.

Anatomy of a mobilized lesson: Learning my way

With the mass adoption of mobile computing devices by the current school generation, significant opportunities have emerged for genuinely supporting differentiated and personalized learning experiences through mobile devices. In our school-based research work in introducing mobilized curricula to a class, we observe one compelling mobilized lesson that exploits the affordances of mobile learning to provide multiple learning pathways for elementary grade (primary) 2 students. Through the lesson, students move beyond classroom activities that merely mimic what the teacher says and does in the classroom, and yet they still learn in personally meaningful ways. In deconstructing the lesson, we provide an in-depth analysis of how the affordances of mobile computing enable personalized learning from four facets: (a) allowing multiple entry points and learning pathways, (b) supporting multi-modality, (c) enabling student improvisation in situ, and (d) supporting the sharing and creation of student artifacts on the move. A key property of mobile technology that enables these affordances lies with the small form factor and the lightweightness of these devices which make them non-obtrusive in the learning spaces of the student. This article makes a contribution on the design aspects of mobilized lessons, namely, what the affordances of mobile technologies can enable.

A learner-centric view of mobile seamless learning

Introduction In a major international synthesis of 1:1 (one-mobile-device-per-learner) TechnologyEnhanced Learning (TEL), Chan et al. (2006) foregrounded the notion of seamless learning. The seventeen distinguished co-authors defined seamless learning as a learning style where a learner can learn in a variety of scenarios and in which they can switch from one scenario or context (such as formal and informal learning, personal and social learning, etc.) to another easily and quickly, with the personal device as a mediator. The definition is congruent with Laouris and Eteokleous’ (2005) view that mobile learning is about increasing a learner’s capability to physically move her personal learning environment as she moves. Such an exposition was perhaps an intention to stimulate further research and changes in practice to maximise the potential of mobile learning. In this paper, seamless learning mediated by 1:1 setting is referred to as mobile seamless learning (MSL).

Vocabulary learning by mobile-assisted authentic content creation and social meaning-making: two case studies

In recent years, we have witnessed the concomitant rise of communicative and contextualized approaches as well as the paradigmatic development of the mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) framework in analysing language learning. The focus of MALL research has gradu- ally shifted from content-based (delivery of learning content through mobile devices) to design-oriented (authentic and/or social mobile learning activities) study. In this paper, we present two novel case studies of MALL that emphasize learner-created content. In learning English prepositions and Chinese idioms, respectively, the primary school students used the mobile devices assigned to them on a one-to-one basis to take photos in real-life contexts so as to construct sentences with the newly acquired prepositions or idioms. Subsequently, the learners were voraciously engaged in classroom or online discussion of their semantic constructions, thereby enhancing their understanding of the proper usage of the prepositions or idioms. This work shows the potential of transforming language learning into an authentic seamless learning experience.

How artefacts mediate small-group co-creation activities in a mobile-assisted seamless language learning environment?

The rich learning resources and contexts learners experience in their everyday life could play important roles in complementing formal learning, but are often neglected by learners and teachers. In this paper, we present an intervention study in ‘Move, Idioms!’, a mobile-assisted Chinese language learning approach that emphasizes contextualized learner content creation and meaning (sense) making with their daily encounters. In the study, students used smart phones on a 1:1 basis to take photos of the real-life contexts pertaining to Chinese idioms or conjunctions, made sentences with the idioms/conjunctions, and then posted them onto a wiki space for peer reviews. This paper focuses on analysing students’ on-campus face-to-face collaborative learning process. Inspired by the notions of mediation by artefacts and distributed cognition, we derived a novel visualization approach for descriptive analysis of the small-group activities to provide a synoptic view of the process of student artefact co-creation in such collaborative activities. Through our artefact-oriented analysis, we foreground the significance and the potential impact in fostering learners’ habit of mind and skills in identifying and appropriating in situ resources to mediate their learning activities in any learning space, rather than always being ‘dictated’ by the resources that the teacher provides with fixed roles to play.

Seamless Learning in the Age of Mobile Connectivity

A solution to get the problem off, have you found it? Really? What kind of solution do you resolve the problem? From what sources? Well, there are so many questions that we utter every day. No matter how you will get the solution, it will mean better. You can take the reference from some books. And the seamless learning in the age of mobile connectivity is one book that we really recommend you to read, to get more solutions in solving this problem.

Swarm intelligence: new techniques for adaptive systems to provide learning support

The notion of a system adapting itself to provide support for learning has always been an important issue of research for technology-enabled learning. One approach to provide adaptivity is to use social navigation approaches and techniques which involve analysing data of what was previously selected by a cluster of users or what worked for previous users or learners of such system and to use such analysis to guide and help the current user. New techniques are now available that rely on emergent or self-organising methods to analyse a large amount of interaction data being generated by large-scale online learning communities, interactions with learning resources or learning management mechanisms. One such technique is swarm intelligence, a set of computing algorithms in the form of multi-agent systems that simulate how swarms of insects or birds move or work. It has been applied to various intelligent functionalities such as adaptive content planning, computer-adaptive testing and assessment paper generation. In this article, we provide a survey of the various approaches in swarm intelligence that explores potential mechanisms to adapt and individualise learning and assessment. We hope that this article can inspire future studies in this exciting area.

Enculturating self-directed learners through a facilitated seamless learning process framework

The proliferation of mobile technology has opened up or enhanced opportunities for more personalised, self-directed learning experiences beyond the four walls of classrooms. This paper reports an attempt to rise above the past five years’ studies on one-to-one mobile seamless learning by foregrounding the notions of facilitated and self-directed seamless learning to distinguish between externally and self-initiated learning activities. The paper argues that in order to nurture genuine self-directed seamless learners, practitioners ought to develop and enact systematic and cyclic facilitated seamless learning processes to enculturate the students. A domain-independent facilitated seamless learning (FSL) process framework is proposed to guide the design of a new seamless learning environment as well as to analyse existing designs. To demonstrate the versatility of the framework, two case studies are presented – one pertaining to the domain of the Chinese language and another to science learning. Through post-study reflections on the underpinning concepts on seamless learning and empirical findings, the author proposes additional guidelines for more effective applications of the framework. It is hoped that the guidelines can serve to inform the design of mobile seamless learning environments in future.

Enculturating seamless language learning through artifact creation and social interaction process

This paper reports a design-based research (DBR) cycle of MyCLOUD (My Chinese ubiquitOUs learning Days). MyCLOUD is a seamless language learning model that addresses identified limitations of conventional Chinese language teaching, such as the decontextualized and unauthentic learning processes that usually hinder reflection and deep learning. MyCLOUD focuses on developing new learning practices among students who traverse the in-school and out-of-school learning spaces, in the hope of bridging the formal and informal aspects of language learning. This paper focuses on two stages of DBR across 13 months and traces students’ artifact creations and social interactions facilitated by the design and re-design of the learning environment. The findings indicate that the students’ participation rates and the qualities of their artifacts and online interactions were significantly improved towards the second stage of the intervention. The key implication from the DBR cycle is that the teachers need to plan and enact enculturation activities to systematically promote the motivation and qualities of artifact creations and online interactions. “Facets” of artifact creation and online interaction skills are distilled to guide the enculturation design as a result.