Mobile Learning

Mobile Learning Resources

By Mark Sivy

Here are links to a few mobile learning resources that I’ve used over the years. I hope they prove to be as useful to you as they were to me.

Wikipedia

M-learning or mobile learning is defined as "learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices.” A form of e-learning distance education, m-learners can use mobile device educational technology in…

UNESCO

Today over 6 billion people have access to a connected mobile device and for every one person who accesses the internet from a computer two do so from a mobile device. Mobile technology is changing the way we live and…

Edutopia

Smartphones, tablets, e-readers -- today's students have a variety of mobile technologies at their fingertips. Here's a look at some mobile-learning resources from…

Mobile Learning Blog

I’ve been writing about QR Codes in education for the last five years, on this blog, as well as in a few published and formal papers. Recently, I have been seeing some buzz around QR Codes in education, and without meaning in any way to…

Mobile Learning Portal

This website, hosted by the Learning Technology Center in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin, is designed to be a central point of access to the wide range of research, projects, and other resources related to the use of mobile technologies in learning environments. As it continues to…

KQED News

Presents a variety of ideas for the use of mobile learning both in and out of the classroom…

Mobile Learning Handbook

This ADL Mobile Learning Handbook is a compilation of mobile learning resources. It is geared towards instructional designers, developers, project managers, and stakeholders to help them better understand the issues, opportunities, and best practices in mobile learning. It is not…

m-learning.org

Tribal is a global thought leader in m-learning. We have been active in mobile empowerment and learning since 2001, working to widen opportunities for learning through the use of mobile technologies. If you are looking for strategic advice and support with mobile pedagogy and technologies, or…

International Association for Mobile Learning

IAmLearn is a membership organization to promote excellence in research, development and application of mobile and contextual learning. It organizes the annual mLearn international conference series and manages the website to collate and disseminate information about new projects, emerging technologies, and…

Ed Tech Resources

Ed Tech Resources

 

by Mark Sivy

Here are links to a few educational technology resources that I’ve used over the years. I hope they prove to be as useful to you as they were to me.

Wikipedia

Educational technology, also termed instructional technology, information and communication technology (ICT) in education, Ed Tech, and learning technology, is "the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources." A closely related…

Educational Technology News

This blog is an ongoing source of the latest news, events, issues, etc. that are associated with ed tech. For example here’s the latest from the Tifton Gazette - Changes in technology are changing the way we educate students. This school year marks the beginning of a new program that allows Tift County students to learn online. Blended learning is a new format in which students are taking online classes, but are doing so in a…

Educational Technology Clearinghouse

The Florida Digital Educator program supports the appropriate integration of technology into K-12 education…

ISTE

Join our tribe of passionate educators, leaders and experts who are committed to expanding the horizons of education technology. Home to the ISTE Conference & Expo and the widely adopted ISTE Standards for learning, teaching and leading in the digital age, the association represents more than 100,000 professionals…

Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

Directory of Learning & Performance Tools. Listed in the left hand sidebar are the main pages of the Directory of Learning & Performance Tools. There are over 2,000 tools for learning and working in education and the workplace listed. If you would like to submit a tool…

SETDA

Building the capacity of leaders to improve education through technology. The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership association launched by state education agency leaders in 2001 to serve, support and represent their emerging interests and needs with respect to the use of technology for teaching, learning, and...

Ed Tech Reality Checks

 

Educational Technology – A Cycle, a Model, and a Theory

Throughout the years, there are some basic “tools” that I’ve used to guide me through the consideration, adoption, and implementation of educational technologies. 

Gartner Hype Cycle

During my career I’ve found the stages of this cycle to be almost dead on accurate and I keep it in mind when I read about the next “greatest” technology. The five phases of the Gartner (1995) Hype Cycle are:

1. Technology Trigger – breakthrough, product launch, and events create an interest
2. Peak of Inflated Expectations – there are publically generated over-enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations, often from having only a superficial understanding of capacities and logistics. The technology, which is still in its infancy of development, becomes a fad.  More failures than successes with the first generation technology occur.
3. Trough of Disillusionment – expectations of the technology are not met, the media abandons the hype, and the public’s embracing of the technology as being trendy dissolves.
4. Slope of Enlightenment –individuals, groups, businesses, and institutions that thought beyond the media spectacle and who have a more complete understanding and vision for the technology, continue to develop the benefits and practical application of the technology.
5. Plateau of Productivity – the tangible benefits and applications of the technology become widely accepted and embraced. The technology becomes more stable and is perceived as being user-friendly as it evolves through second and third generations of development.

A rendition of a generic hype cycle with more detailed explanations of the various points along the timeline can be found on the DigitalTonto website.

Technology Acceptance Model

Having an awareness of human psychology and tendencies when adopting new technologies has also proven to be useful for me. Moving forward with the selection and implementation of an educational technology should include an awareness of end-user needs, expectations, and usage behaviors. A simplified model for this can be seen in the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1985): 

Other aspects that can be assessed during such an evaluation process would be the educational and social perceptions of the technology, the learning curve, complexity of the user interface, effort required to produce an educational experience, the level of required support, differences due to age and gender, and learning community behavior patterns. These variables coincide with a more complex acceptance model, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (Vehkatesh, Morris, Davis, and Davis, 2003):

Theory of Diffusion of Innovations

An additional premise which had implications in my evaluation plan was the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations which addresses how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. According to Rogers (1995) there are groupings of adopters (realize that all group characteristics are generalizations and do not necessarily apply to all individuals in a group):

• The first 2.5% of the adopters are the "innovators". Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators.
• The next 13.5% of the adopters are the "early adopters". These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories. Opinion leadership is created by an active user of innovations providing interpretations and explanations to those who are lower-end users. Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters.
• The next 34% of the adopters are the "early majority". Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have above average social status, contact with early adopters, and show some opinion leadership
• The next 34% of the adopters are the "late majority". Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority, very little opinion leadership.
• The last 16% of the adopters are the "laggards". Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to no opinion leadership.

Reflection Point – “Good, bad or indifferent, if you are not investing in new technology, you are going to be left behind.” Philip Green

References

Gartner Organization (1995). Understanding hype cycles.

 

Davis, F. D. (1986). A technology acceptance model for empirically testing new end-user information systems: theory and results. MIT Sloan School of Management. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, 1986.

Rogers, E. (1995).  Diffusion of Innovations, 4th Edition. New York: The Free Press.

Venkatesh, V., Morris, M.G., Davis, F.D., and Davis, G.B. (2003) User Acceptance of Information Technology: Toward a Unified View. MIS Quarterly, 27(3), 425-478.