HHL 3rd day- first bit of Research strand

HHL 3rd day- Research strand part 1.

John Traxler- Will student devices deliver innovation, inclusion &; transformation?
Reviewers welcomed the fact his paper has introduced sociology back
into the papers. Papers will be published spring 2010 - this one
should be worth looking at.
Problems with dishing out devices; including scaling up- no or limited
sustainability. Country is awash with mobile devices. They change the
nature of learning (& society) - not just an easy fix. They allow us
to sustain community & shift ownership of learning from teachers to
community of learners.
In literature people discuss the blurring of the physical & real
worlds. Mobile tech is like wrist watches- glance, woken into real
world. Completely unlike fixed computers. Blurring of work & private
days as well.
Mobile tech is also changing our idea of identity. They are becoming
part of us.

Haven't really addressed the issue in education that people can be
physical present but virtually elsewhere.

Hard for institution when there is no convergence in mobile tech -
such as PCs. End up with animals running the zoo of using learners own
devices. Real problems with us managing this.

Robin Deegan. Issues & challenges in usabilty of mobile apps. Survey
for his PhD. Lots of definition at the start - should probably expect
this from a research student!
Survey : 202 students from range of countries. 65% use their device
for <5 mins per interaction. Not a lot of detail, ran really quickly
over few results he showed us. Full paper might be interesting for
full stats from survey.

Nicola Beddall-Hill mobile devices as boundary objects on field trips.
Mobile devices seen as fantastic for geography type field trips - but
very little research to prove it. Interested in how mobile tech
changes social interaction in learning on field trips. Using Actor
Network Theory in her research. Boundary objects are shared ideas or
concepts that are shared - used this to explore ideas. Interesting,
lots of people flipping between gps devices & paper, but not sure if
this paper would be worth reading for me, how tranferable is gps / gis
on field trips to other environments & kit?

Luciane Brown, Using mobile learning to teach learning. Focussed on
14-15 year olds & mobile phones. Look at Attewell 2005 for something
on mobiles supporting different learning styles.
She used smartphones that she provided for one class. Didn't use their
own phones. Could only use phones with teacher present. Looking at
groups that need help with reading. Control group did similar tasks
to mobile group but in class & with pencil & paper. Mobile group could
listen to vocabulary words (over phone), practice stuff using7
webpages & do exercises on phone. Not much difference in improvement
between groups. Not surprising- this is in no way mobile learning when
you have to sit on one place to do it. Study sounds a complete waste
of time in point if view. Sounds like she struggled to get permission
to do anything with the students... Has recommendations, but these are
useless without a mobile component of this research on supposed mobile
learning.