Session Information
06 SES 06 JS, Didactics and Technologies for Outdoor Learning in Urban Contexts
Round Table, Joint Session NW 06 and NW 27
Contribution
The use of computers in education scaled up and changed radically in 1980-ies partly due to the fact that computers became smaller, more user-friendly and affordable for schools and families. The next leap was made at the end of the century as a result of educational uses of the Internet. Although computers and other technological devices have evolved rapidly since then, there has not been a comparable qualitative change in the way technology is used in schools. The year 2011 might become a new breaking point, mainly because of the wide-spread use of new kinds of ultra-mobile personal digital devices such as the iPad, tablet/slate PCs and smart phones that allow the use of locative social media wherever one happens to be, anytime. Soon these devices will become even more user-friendly and affordable enough to be purchased for every student. Implementing a One-Computer-Per-Student approach will have radical impacts on textbooks, curriculum, teaching and learning, since the learning environment is no longer limited to classrooms or closed Web-based learning management systems. The new mobile tools can make learning ubiquitous (Saccol et al, 2009), augmenting the learning environment in two directions: towards a digital ecosystem of new media and out of the classroom. Horizon Report (Johnson et al., 2010) predicted that mobile learning will become a major trend in technology-enhanced learning already in 2011. Traditional outdoor learning has focused on getting closer to nature, but the new digital devices can be used effectively for learning purposes also in urban contexts, where most of the students are located (Dillon et al. 2006). Quite often the use of new mobile technologies in education is driven merely by availability and features of novel gadgets (Traxler, 2009; Sharples, 2007). This ignores the wealth of existing didactical knowledge and “know how”. So how can didactical thinking contribute to sense-making and designing the learning environment and activities for ubiquitous learning with mobile devices and social media in urban contexts? This Round Table addresses the didactical challenges of mobile learning in urban settings from different perspectives. Jevgeni Patarakin (form Pedagogical University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia) summarises an ambitious educational experiment involving the collection of learners' reflections on their ubiquitous learning experiences using a Wiki. Kai Pata (from Tallinn University, Estonia) reports on her study based on an ecological approach to collaborative narrative creation using locative social media in urban contexts. Oleg Popov (from University of Umea, Sweden) introduces the experiences of developing and using the Outdoor Physics portal. And finally, Mart Laanpere (from Tallinn University, Estonia) will describe a case study about a teacher training course on didactics and technologies for mobile learning.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Dillon, J., Rickinson, M., Teamey, K., Morris, M., Choi, M. Y., Sanders, D. & Benefield, P. (2006). The value of outdoor learning: evidence from research in the UK and elsewhere. In: School Science Review 87, (320), pp.107-111 Hudson, B. (2011) Didactical Design for Technology Enhanced Learning. In B. Hudson and M. Meyer (Eds.) Beyond Fragmentation: Didactics, Learning and Teaching in Europe, Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen and Farmington Hills. Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). The 2010 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Sharples, M. (Ed.) (2007). Big issues in mobile learning: Report of a workshop by the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence Mobile Learning Initiative. Nottingham, UK: University of Nottingham, Learning Sciences Research Institute. Traxler, J. (2009). Current state of mobile learning. In Mohamed Ally (Ed.) Mobile Learning: transforming the delivery of education and training. Edmonton, Canada: Athabasca University Press, 9-24. Saccol, A.Z., Kich, M., Schlemmer, E., Reinhard, N., Barbosa, J.L.V., Hahn, R.A (2009) Framework for the Design of Ubiquitous Learning Applications. In: Proceedings of HICSS '09, 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Big Island: HI.
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