M-Learn and Handheld Learning 2008 - Emerging views

These two international conferences ran back-to-back this year, giving those interested in mobile learning and research an intense period over a week of presentations and discussions. There was an incredible amount of information presented at both events, with each conference having its own distinct atmosphere and focus. I listened to many presentations and participated in numerous discussions, the following is a summary of some of the themes that seem to me to be emerging from these events.

M-Learn
M-Learn is focused primarily on academic research and outcomes. The proceedings are peer reviewed and published. Most presentations were based around practical research, where students were involved in using small digital devices for learning or research. Many of the talks looked at how mobile digital devices are becoming embedded and for institutions like Athabasca, which was described by Mohamed Ally as a 'university without walls' access to the technology appears to becoming expected. Mohamed's presentation was also one of the few to not make the assumption that all learners are young and he reflected on the need for access by adult learners.

As well as becoming mainstream the effect of digital technology on lifestyle management is becoming a dominate theme. The Meraka Institute in South Africa is now helping children manage their digital interactions (e.g., in Chatrooms etc.). To do this successfully the technology must start moving from being perceived as 'disruptive', which is Peter's Bird's (Manchester Metropolitan) starting premise in his research to being accepted. That said it is very early days for this kind of approach and Meraka are partially inspired in their work by the Moral Panic that has been displayed in South Africa's tabloids in reaction to children's possession of digital technology.

The cultural impact of digital technologies is an emerging theme. Prof. Yrjö Engeström (University of Helsinki) considered how these technologies could be used by 'Wildfire' communities; these are groups which have no identified centre or central structure yet manage to communicate and collaborate. He considered the examples of skateboarders, twitchers and disaster relief collaboration. Diverse areas yet with much in common when considered from a Wildfire perspective. Cultural impact was also reflected on by Mark Kramer (University of Salzburg) as he considered the future of mobile learning. A world in which increasingly we will be able to stream live via mobile devices (as he did with many presentations) to a global stage. Jocelyn Wishart (University of Bristol) looked at a pragmatic ethical framework for m-learning in the workplace and Franak Forouhi-Ghazvini (Qom University) reflected on how digital sexual identity can cause problems in cultures which traditionally have strong sexual divides in discussions raised by her presentation.

There was a tension between interest in the technology and the pedagogy, this was reflected in some presentation including Diana Laurillard's (London Knowledge Lab) keynote speech mooted that pedagogy should be the driving force in the development and adoption of the technology. However she also acknowledged that this was largely idealistic and unlikely to ever be the case. From my perspective I think that these tensions will remain for some to come as education re-defines the relationship between teacher and learner in the light of emerging technologically based cultural changes. It's also unlikely to reflect personalisation of services if educational value becomes the driving factor of design of devices. I would suggest that its because learners are engaged through the devices and technology and not with traditional technology (as Lord Puttnam argued at Handheld Learning the following week) that the systems are of interest to education.

With regard to tension there was also some discussion surrounding the difficulty of the research and more than one presenter reflected on the rapidity of change as a negative impact; something with Higher Education across the world seems ill prepared for. Jon Trinder (Robert Clark Centre for Technological Education at the University of Glasgow) picked up on some of the difficulties and led a discussion about the barriers. Having been involved in delivery of FE mobile learning but based in HE, my own perspective is that HE seems to be slower to respond to this technological revolution. This could be (speculative view on my part) that the mobile technology revolution is consumer rather than research led and so has been 'off radar' for HE, whereas in FE and possibly schools where there is often a greater focus on a pragmatic approach and the development of lifeskills these devices have been more significant either because of their perceived disruptive influence or because of their engagement potential.

The quality of papers presented at M-Learn was very high, engaging and thought provoking. In all it showed a maturing of the concept, which is still not fully defined but the community forging that definition is now engaged in a wider debate about its nature and impact.

Handheld Learning
Handheld Learning is focused on the pragmatic application of mlearning. Of course a big highlight for me was Hairdressing Training for Mobile winning one of its coveted innovation awards. The conference has strong roots in schools education but increasingly reflects a mix of the educational sectors. It is probably the only conference I've been to in which the different educational strands and industry is mixed in a cornucopia of abundance. This has some great advantages, especially in terms of ideas swapping but it also has the disadvantage of sometime emphasizing the gaps between sectors.

In terms of event management some interesting experiments took place: from the free first day and awards ceremony, through to the lack of name of badges and lunch delivery system. The lack of name tags did give an informal air to proceedings and scuppered the networkers who had a definite plan of interaction! From my perspective it led to some great chance meetings and discussions.

The theme of digital lifestyle management was also dominate here, Danah Boyd (Berkeley) picked up on some interesting observations. In particular she linked the use of digital social networks amongst the young to a greater sense of control in recent years over their opportunity to roam during leisure time. Some teenagers she observed have little time made available by their parents to go out and meet peers in an unstructured setting so they adopt the web for this instead. She feels this comes from the Moral Panics of the Baby Boomer generation, who saw stranger danger everywhere and created a generational divide, which is probably resulting in some of the cross generational tensions seen today. Whilst very interesting and thought provoking I wondered if some of Danah's assertions were perhaps a little western centric it would be interesting to hear them contrasted with evidence from other parts of the world. However, I do strongly feel that her comments demonstrate how complex the generational approach to technology can become and provides some good alternatives to some of Marc Prensky's Digital Natives and Immigrants view.

There was a lot of blending at Handheld Learning, by that I mean that the devices were not considered in isolation. So Channel 4's Battlefront project was considered as were Virtual Worlds, neither of these are particularly known for being mobile centric but they both can include mobile technology. This merging of platforms or emerging of the web on multiple platforms creates a shift in the landscape. As a technologist it's really interesting because it lays a challenge of how to manage users as they shift from one place and platform to another, with different screen sizes, connectivity and capacity. From a social perspective it creates an incredibly different world, where so many resources are a few inputs away, in which mobility and distance merge.

There was a growing anticipation that the 'mobile' is becoming the primary device for digital interaction. This was most strongly emphasised by Richard Warmsley, (Beyond Voice, T-Mobile). That perspective challenges the current development perspective that mobile is secondary. For an increasing number of users it will be the primary or possibly the only point of data and web enabled service access.

There was not much emphasis on the acquisition of practical skills at Handheld Learning (it seems to be moving away from that) except for a workshop by Apple on iPhone and iPod Touch web development. There is a lot of emphasis about seamless and fit for purpose development for this device and it shows that user expectations in terms of the experience is rising. It also shows that simply sending a desktop web service 'out there' to a mobile device and hoping it might work (or worse not caring) or a user is using a browser or gateway that will adapt for them in is not really an acceptable strategy for serious mobile delivery.

Lord Puttnam closed the formal proceedings with an interesting but disturbing consideration of the increasing sense of "emotional and physical truancy" amongst students as they increasingly felt disengaged from formal learning practice. He believes that "the future is a race between education and catastrophe" and that the use of digital technology in learning is hampered by a "mendacious media". He raised a banner for those of us in attendance to rise to challenges of digital learning and to try and re-engage the learner.

The presentations at Handheld Learning were very thought provoking and often fast paced. Like Mlearn there is a maturing of the perspective and desire to enter into deeper discussion about mobile learning.

Closing Thoughts and Emerging Themes
There is no doubt that just as mobile technology itself is a world wide phenomena so too is the increasing use of digital technology through small devices to engage and facilitate learning. It's well know that the digital device most likely to be owned or accessed is a mobile phone but the nature of those devices is rapidly changing. Devices, like the iPhone place Internet Connectivity at the centre of their interaction and mobile network technology is evolving so that more devices are connected are all the time.

The next stage must be to look increasingly at the actually mobility itself and how students are engaged on the move. As the student landscape changes and more have jobs to help finance studies or are older and juggling the responsibilities of family life and work etc. then digital learning needs to help make better use of unplanned gaps in schedules without overwhelming alienating the learner. Additionally, much learning on the move is lost to formal process at the moment and there is a real challenge about how that can 'fit' with formal models or if it ever can.

Also, education is rapidly changing and institutions must meet the challenge of a rapidly increasing student population, which will not be matched with real estate expansion. In those environments in which physical space becomes a rare commodity then institutions will have to find ways of engaging learners flexibly and cost effectively on and off campus, the very notion of a campus may well change. Also, if students will be working on a variety of devices, in different ways and at different times and locations then the current modes of practice in which students are expected to adopt to institutional methods e.g. Virtual Learning Environments, institutional email etc. will probably become unsustainable far more work will need to take place about the institution integrating with the student rather than the other way round.

The mobile device and the opportunity for learning is increasingly not an optional extra but should be viewed as part of a core service. In a world in which data is increasingly interacted with and produced on the go, then the mobile device will be crucial. Maybe its not quite the world of today but Handheld Learning and MLearn give the impression it's not far away.