OLTD 508- Mobile Learning & Gaming
Examining the underlying concepts driving the adoption of mobile and gaming technologies in education, this course will investigate potential devices/apps/games, issues (e.g., supporting infrastructure, management, digital divide), resource selection, integration in curriculum, and potential venues for creating mobile and/or gaming content for educational use.
Learning about Mobile Learning and Game-Based Learning
March, 2017
I am using the first four assignments that we did in this course as my first evidence. I am including all of these artifacts to reflect my learning as the topic of this course was new to me and this way it provides a global view of the knowledge that I have acquired.
The first assignment in this course focused on mobile learning. I did some research and created a PowerPoint which outlines what is mobile learning, its benefits, and the reasons why it should be present in the schools. I, then, looked at an educational environment where although the technology is readily available, mobile learning is not current practice. This exercise focused more on what challenges need to be addressed in order to change the situation of under usage instead of critiquing it. I like this type of exercise as it is more focused on finding solutions to existing situations. If these were put into practice, it could eventually bring some sustainable change towards implementing more 21st century learning to the students. I think that after having done this exercise, if I find myself in a situation where Mobile Learning could be encourage, I will have a better idea on how to approach it within the staff and the administration of the school.
I am using the first four assignments that we did in this course as my first evidence. I am including all of these artifacts to reflect my learning as the topic of this course was new to me and this way it provides a global view of the knowledge that I have acquired.
The first assignment in this course focused on mobile learning. I did some research and created a PowerPoint which outlines what is mobile learning, its benefits, and the reasons why it should be present in the schools. I, then, looked at an educational environment where although the technology is readily available, mobile learning is not current practice. This exercise focused more on what challenges need to be addressed in order to change the situation of under usage instead of critiquing it. I like this type of exercise as it is more focused on finding solutions to existing situations. If these were put into practice, it could eventually bring some sustainable change towards implementing more 21st century learning to the students. I think that after having done this exercise, if I find myself in a situation where Mobile Learning could be encourage, I will have a better idea on how to approach it within the staff and the administration of the school.
The next assignment in the mobile learning section that I completed focused on looking at an activity done in a traditional delivery model and mobilizes it to provide a more 21st century learning experience to the students. I really enjoyed this activity as I decided to take an environment that is different than mine: a novel study unit for a Français Langue première course in an f2f environment. Although I did it for the French program, it could also be used for an English class. Since I teach French Immersion online, this exercise provided an opportunity for me to be creative while using mobile technology available in French. During the process of creating a modernized novel study unit, I brought together what I had learned so far on mobile learning, my knowledge of 21st century learning, and my creative side to collate a series of activities to eventually build a novel study unit. Doing this, I realize that I could in the future design activities and entire units in a variety of subject areas. As long as I know the pedagogical purpose of it, I can count on my creative side to produce material which will be outside of the traditional classroom which will benefit students by providing them the opportunity to acquire 21st century learning skills.
The third assignment focused more on game-based learning. I first looked at the Gee’s 13 principles on gaming. Following that, I had to choose the three that seemed to be the most important to me as an educator and explained why they appealed to me. As I am not a gamer, this exercise allowed me to broaden my horizon into how games can be integrated into the classroom learning. Next, I looked at several concepts related to game-based learning such as gamification, game-based learning, serious games, simulation, and commercial off the shelf game (COTS). After having a better understanding of each one of these and their usage in an educational environment, I then had to explain how I would introduce them in my own practice. This seemed to be even more difficult but with some imagination and stretching of my own teaching boundaries, I was able to find ways to do it. This exercise made me realize that if I get back to teaching f2f, I will definitely look into how I can use game-based learning in my courses as I now know that it is a good way to increase students’ engagement and motivation.
My fourth assignment focused on game-based learning in which I was to choose a game and show how I would use it in my class. Since I am not a gamer and I mostly teach Français Langue, I had to really search to find a game available in French that would fit my courses. I also had to think outside the box to successfully figure out how it would be a useful tool for my students and me. Finally, I chose Classcraft which is a serious game focusing on classroom management and as a motivational tool for the students. In my teaching environment, I decided to use this game to encourage students to take ownership of their acquiring of the French language. I believe that students should not depend on the teacher to learn the language but instead, they should be wanting to learn the language and converse in it on a variety of subject that interest them and not just on what the curriculum or the teacher provide them. I think that the way I presented the implementation of Classcraft would help with this.
I am glad that I have taken this course as mobile and game-based learning were foreign to me prior to it. Every assignment forced me to go outside of my expertise and comfort zone to see how I could integrate the pedagogical background of these educational principles into my teaching practice. While completing these four assignments, I have realized that they should be part of students’ 21st century learning experience. I also appreciated that these tools can support teachers to provide personalized learning experience to their students. Mobile and game-based learning are tools that can inspire students to take learning outside the classroom and motivate them to become better independent and lifelong learners which they will need to keep adapting to this ever changing world.
Inquiry Project: Building an app
April, 2017
For my second evidence, I have chosen the Mobile Learning inquiry project that Karen Leask and I completed together. We both decided to work on developing an app specific to our own teaching area. We divided the project into sections and picked what seemed to be more useful for the kind of app that we wanted to build. We determined the benefits of mobile learning, why we should build an app geared to a specific field, and the advantages of developing an app that will provide an active learning experience. We then followed Haselmayr’s 12 steps guide to build a mobile app. Karen chose to experiment with an app creator program to assist her to create her app on Baynes Sound Biodiversity to be used by students to do beach surveys. I, instead, created a wireframe for my app which is a visual representation of how it will look like on the mobile devices to show how it will work and what it will do. My app “Fral Écrit” is to be used by Français Langue students, post-secondary students and anyone else learning French.
This was a very valuable experience as I have been wishing to have an app like “Fral Écrit” for my courses but did not know what it would entail to build one. I, now, have a better understanding how app are created and what I would need to do to get it build. However, as I would not consider myself to have lots of knowledge and affinities with computer programming and information technology, I think that I would have to get an app developer to build the app. The drawback with this is that I would have to find funding from somewhere to pay for the developer and additional fees to publish the app on the app store. Although, it would save me and other teachers’ lots of hours of marking and it would also provide more autonomy to students, I don’t know if I could convince someone to fund the building of it.
Going back to our critical question: In what ways can mobile learning and technologies be utilized so as to benefit students and teachers both in and out of the classroom? Karen and I agree that it would be very beneficial to our students if we did create the app that we conceptualized and began to build. As mentioned in our inquiry project’s conclusion: “Apps are useful for taking learning outside of the classroom and assist students to learn more independently, as well as provide more personalized learning. Developing an app specific to your teaching area will assist students to manipulate the content, to motivate and encourage them to learn the material in a more modern manner and develop their skills with mobile technology. These are all characteristics of mobile learning which promotes 21st century learning and teaching.” My only wish would be that I had the time, funding and expertise to create the “Fral Écrit” app so that my students can use it as well as teachers and other students in French Immersion in BC and anywhere else.
For my second evidence, I have chosen the Mobile Learning inquiry project that Karen Leask and I completed together. We both decided to work on developing an app specific to our own teaching area. We divided the project into sections and picked what seemed to be more useful for the kind of app that we wanted to build. We determined the benefits of mobile learning, why we should build an app geared to a specific field, and the advantages of developing an app that will provide an active learning experience. We then followed Haselmayr’s 12 steps guide to build a mobile app. Karen chose to experiment with an app creator program to assist her to create her app on Baynes Sound Biodiversity to be used by students to do beach surveys. I, instead, created a wireframe for my app which is a visual representation of how it will look like on the mobile devices to show how it will work and what it will do. My app “Fral Écrit” is to be used by Français Langue students, post-secondary students and anyone else learning French.
This was a very valuable experience as I have been wishing to have an app like “Fral Écrit” for my courses but did not know what it would entail to build one. I, now, have a better understanding how app are created and what I would need to do to get it build. However, as I would not consider myself to have lots of knowledge and affinities with computer programming and information technology, I think that I would have to get an app developer to build the app. The drawback with this is that I would have to find funding from somewhere to pay for the developer and additional fees to publish the app on the app store. Although, it would save me and other teachers’ lots of hours of marking and it would also provide more autonomy to students, I don’t know if I could convince someone to fund the building of it.
Going back to our critical question: In what ways can mobile learning and technologies be utilized so as to benefit students and teachers both in and out of the classroom? Karen and I agree that it would be very beneficial to our students if we did create the app that we conceptualized and began to build. As mentioned in our inquiry project’s conclusion: “Apps are useful for taking learning outside of the classroom and assist students to learn more independently, as well as provide more personalized learning. Developing an app specific to your teaching area will assist students to manipulate the content, to motivate and encourage them to learn the material in a more modern manner and develop their skills with mobile technology. These are all characteristics of mobile learning which promotes 21st century learning and teaching.” My only wish would be that I had the time, funding and expertise to create the “Fral Écrit” app so that my students can use it as well as teachers and other students in French Immersion in BC and anywhere else.
