mLearn 2012, sessions on Flow, Distance Learning and Open formats.
afternoon Wednesday 17th October

Up now is Keynote from Lauri Järvilehto of Filosofian Akatemia Oy
which I think is related to Rovio games

Lauri is enthusiastically sharing his theory of good learning, which I think combines dopamine, brain scans, engagement, flow and playing. He has passed around his favorite book ‘Flow the psychology of optimal experience’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Lauri is a fan of Angry Birds as a learning tool

The twitter backchannel as noted by @jocelynWish is not entirely convinced. for example:

Yishay Mor @yishaym –  @laurijarvilehto literature base is Andre Agasi, Amy Chua and TED talks? 

I do like his vision though that the school of the future which is coming will be engaging, fun, interactive full of driven students learning things they love.

Fun quote from Lauri

I don’t think that anyone should have to do what they don’t want to do unless they don’t want to do anything, then they should do everything.’

Dr. Mpine Makoe. The Pedagogy of Mobile Learning In Supporting Distance Learners

Mpine from UNISA is giving us a clear explanation of the challenges of supporting distance learners who only have access to a basic phone for interaction and often live in rural places.

For inspiration on how to make their distance learning more supportive and interactive for students, Mpine and colleagues look to these three pedagogy models:
1. Guided didactic conversation, Holmberg
2. Transactional distance, Moore
3. Integration of teaching and Learning acts Keegan

Mpine now support learners via Mxit to run peer learning groups, sms quizzes and learner checks as to their progress. The students held discussions on Mxit and then later shared their discussion thread with Mpine so she coudl analyse and give feedback. Interesting model!

and from twitter:

Ronda Zelezny-Green @Glam_mobileLeo

Teachers can send motivational msgs via mobiles to learners in to support dist ed pursuits – Dr. Mpine Makoe 

Mobile-based weekly self-assessments helps keep dist ed learners engaged, registered for class – Dr. Mpine Makoe

Geoff Stead. mLearning – towards open formats

Geoff is talking about a 2 year research on ‘On the job – blending task and learning’ and then in the context of disaster management. Disaster management is probably one of the most challenging environments and certainly when you want to promote open and collaborative learning in such a context.

The app / mobile web site Geoff and his team have devekoped is called ‘Global Med Aid’ and its for use for learning, sharing, checking and connecting while working in a disaster.

“you can’t only dissect content or usability or information levels, they are all intertwined’

His team has been working with tools which presume BYOD, (bring your own device) and then Geoff shows the spectrum from native apps to mobile web to text only and explains where his work falls on the spectrum. This is definitely not text only, it’s a rich media experience. They went thru’ several iterations of cross platform, from Html5 and native app, combination. Whereby each delivers certain aspects of the learning experience.

You can see some of his slides and notes here: http://moblearn.blogspot.fi/2012/09/open-standards-for-m-learning.html

Geoff reminds us that when you are aiming for device agnostic and you want to deliver a smooth user experience, and this is a huge challenge, one which most people baulk at and opt for only one device afterall.  Luckily for us Geoff and team have convinced their funders to share all their learnings openly,

so coming up in the next two weeks is what they call OMLET and it’s going to be available here. bit.ly/omlet-docs

Well done Geoff, a serious nut to crack.

Image from Geoff’s Blog