Trish Andrews

Advancing Ethics Frameworks and Scenario-Based Learning to Support Educational Research into Mobile Learning.

The ubiquity of mobile devices and their use for collecting and sharing data require a reconsideration of approaches taken to managing ethical concerns in the educational research context. In the mobile age, the concept of educational research extends beyond traditional understandings and contexts due to: the wide range of mobile learning research settings, the immediacy with which mobile devices connect to social media, heightened privacy concerns and uncertainty about informed consent. This paper explores some of the ethical challenges and proposes that ethics frameworks and scenario-based learning can be powerful tools to assist educational researchers to better understand the ethical complexities of research using mobile devices and social media. An ethics framework for mobile learning research and several exemplar scenarios created during two workshops are presented. The authors make a case for this approach to be used for professional development for mobile learning researchers which may include teachers researching their own mobile learning practice.

Ethical Issues Surrounding the Adoption of Mobile Learning in the Asia-Pacific Region

Mobile technologies are increasingly part of the everyday life of people in the Asia-Pacific Region and are used to support a range of work, life and learning activities. In spite of the high penetration of mobile phones into all socio-economic groups, many educational organisations, from primary school to higher education, have been slow to adopt mobile learning. In large part, this is due to concerns about ethics and possible misuse of these devices. Examples include fears of students being distracted if they bring their mobile phones to the classroom, concerns over cheating and worries about the use of personal information. Mobile devices tend to be associated with play, not work, leading to misperceptions by others that students are not on task when seen using their mobile device in an educational setting. In addition, there are equity issues if not all students have access to the technology. However, vignettes presented in this chapter also demonstrate how mobile learning is being used to overcome major educational inequities in the region. The authors propose strategies for fostering a proactive approach, taking into account local contexts and cultures. These include student education regarding responsible behaviour, professional workshops for teachers based on ethical scenario development and the development of institutional and national guidelines.

Rich Media Technologies

This chapter reports the outcomes of a two-year project investigating the implementation of rich media technologies in higher education in Australian universities. Rich media technologies are described as the range of synchronous and asynchronous videoconferencing technologies that facilitate interactive communication between users who can see, hear, and interact with multiple communication streams. The investigation used a taxonomic approach to define which technologies could be included in the “rich media” category and established a website providing access to professional development resources and case studies demonstrating effective practice as well as scanning the higher education sector nationally and internationally for exemplars of policy and practice that could inform future implementations. It found that rich media technologies have the potential to be lighthouse technologies for reducing costs and environmental footprints across the higher education sector while improving the efficiency of administration and research as innovations in pedagogy for learning and teaching emerge. Surprisingly however, our research indicated that rich media technologies are sinking into the wash of the e-learning tide in Australian higher education, rather than cresting the wave of the social communication software swell, primarily due to lack of coherent policy and planning within the sector. They have not maintained their status as lighthouse technologies because their capability in a digital world is not well understood by managers and others beyond a small number of videoconferencing enthusiasts.

Mining education Australia: Adapting technology to support a collaborative approach to transnational teaching for mining professionals

Due to a range of social and economic factors, Australian institutions have struggled to meet the demand for highly trained professionals for the minerals industry in recent years. In order to address this issue, Mining Education Australia, a consortia of four of Australias mining schools was established to develop and deliver a common curriculum for mining engineering education. The use of technology to support the delivery of this common curriculum is integral to the success of this initiative. This chapter outlines the challenges in such collaborations and discusses the range of corporate and open source technologies selected and adopted to overcome these challenges to enable collaborative teaching and learning activities in this trans-national program.