Book Review:
The Future of Learning: FromELearning toMLearning
FernUniversität - Hagen, November 2002, ISSN: 1435-9340,
www.fernuni-hagen.de/ZIFF/mlearn.htm
This book comes at a very opportune time. Cellular telephone companies have helped to increase access to phones by leaps and bounds and have penetrated many markets such as young adults and business people. Cell phones have caught on to such an extent that it's not uncommon to find people receiving and sending text messages while in meetings and classes. Cell phones have become everyday accessories for many people and yet seem to have hardly received a glance by most educators and administrators.
The Future of Learning gives a glimpse into the integration of cellular phone technologies into open and distance learning. Much of the world's distance education depends on paper and to a small extent, on the Internet (eLearning). One of the greatest challenges lies in improving communications between distance (mobile) learners and their tutors or lecturers. The focus of this book is to introduce readers (typically educators and administrators) to the uses of cellular phones that are frequently an everyday factor in the lives of learners, but little used or even known about in institutions.
Tapping into the power of cellular technologies will allow institutions to transmit information such as updates to learning materials, assignment questions and marks, and other important, time-sensitive information (e.g., information relating to examination venues, dates and times and assisting with disaster management). Learners who are unable to join discussion groups and cannot afford long distance telephone calls can easily and cost-effectively send text messages to their tutors and receive answers back the same way. The most innovative institutions are likely to assist learners to acquire cell phones that can send and receive basic e-mail and faxes to further enhance their communication capabilities from out-of-the-way places. Lecturers can operate from desktop computers in their offices to send and receive text messages and e-mails, while learners in remote locations can easily use cell phones and cell-enabled PDAs (personal digital assistants, e.g., PalmPilots).
Mobile workers are no longer forced to carry heavy notebook computers and books to enable them to study while travelling. Study material converted into the same format as e-Books, read on PDAs will help lighten the load and enable the most mobile of individuals to keep up-to-date with their studies while travelling. Many rural areas in developing countries are cell phone-enabled, even if it means the learners must travel a short distance (perhaps to the top of a hill) to send and receive text messages or e-mails. These devices remain far more mobile and affordable than notebook computers, and are easier to transport and care for.
This book includes a brief description of the move from distance learning (termed "dLearning" by the author) to "eLearning" (including the use of the Internet) and to "mLearning" (Mobile Learning, including the use of small, pocket-sized, cell-phone enabled mobile devices). It offers descriptions of more than 30 mLearning initiatives.
As stated at the outset of this review, the release of this publication is well timed to advise educators of a wave of innovation that has already started to penetrate campuses, even without the full knowledge of many educators. But with rapid advances in technology, some of the information contained in the book is already out of date. The author would further help readers if the book passed over the desk of an astute editor who could help to improve the clarity of a topic that some might find a little like science fiction - even in 2003, when tens of thousands of these devices are already in daily use in places around the world where GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) cellular networks are in operation.
Paul West
UltraLab, a learning research centre based at Anglia Polytechnic University, U.K., is now involved in three large education and technology projects that are experimenting with mobile phones in teaching and learning. With the E-viva project, students pick up their phones to respond to questions about the ICT skills they have recently acquired. The project, in 10 schools across the UK, was launched [in September 2002] and involves 50-100 students. In the final phase of the project, the students receive a call to do a voice examination with a computer, as the students felt this would be more comfortable than talking to a teacher. The final stage will involve posting students' coursework onto a web site...
"Education is often slow to cotton on to the educational potential of new technology," says Sally Paggetti, an advanced skills teacher at Greycourt Secondary School in Richmond, U.K. This school is currently taking part in another revolutionary project that will ... open three futuristic classrooms in its local schools and use mobile phones as part of the project. Tina Herring, head teacher of a participating primary school, Meadowlands, says one potential use could be on field trips and outdoor activities, linking a student in the field with one in the lab. Strathmore, a special school that caters for children with severe learning difficulties, is also participating in the project.
The cost of using mobile phones, however, could be an issue and so could health scares about the safety of mobile handsets, although picture phones are often held away from the body. Richmond's classrooms of the future are due to open this summer.
The Guardian
COL has opened consultations on educational use of the web-posted documents and issues of copyright. In February 2003, COL hosted a very active and hotly debated virtual conference on the topic of "Copyright and the Web". Over 500 people participated in the three-week, e-mail-based conference and about 600 messages were posted.
The conference was launched with a background paper prepared by the moderators, Mr. Robert A. Schad, Special Adviser to VP Research and International for the Centre for Sustainable Communities (and Senior Policy Strategist in Information Services), University of Regina, Canada and Ms. Wanda Noel, Barrister and Solicitor, Ottawa, Canada.
The paper (printed in
Connections and available online), describes a current lobby in Canada that asserts that "copyright law is a barrier to the educational use of the Internet and the World Wide Web" and "that amending the Canadian Copyright Act to remove this barrier is essential if education systems are to produce the highly skilled, computer literate population required in the global information economy." Many Commonwealth countries have similar copyright legislation and are also embroiled in similar debates.
While many conference participants agreed, many others contended that copyright provisions should be more strictly enforced, regardless of circumstances. However, much of the discussion focussed on web-posted material that is
intended for public consumption and how current legislation can actually be a disservice to publishers/authors as well as users. The unique needs of developing countries were also considered.
While more questions were asked during the conference than were answered - the moderators reported that discussions "clarified some issues, raised others, and provided a wealth of commentary and information" - there was some consensus that current copyright legislation can restrict educational use of freely available (non-password protected) Internet materials, and that something needs to be done about it. Some participants advocated "open source" software and materials; most considered international and inter-institutional collaboration, especially between developed and developing countries, crucial to establishing equitable Internet copyright standards and legislation.
The closing comments of several participants posed a series of questions that can be used to focus future work on educational use of copyright material on the Internet.
Further information, including back-ground information and the moderators' summary of the conference discussions and results are available on COL's web site.
www.col.org/copyright
WCET, the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, and C2T2, the Centre for Curriculum, Transfer & Technology (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), have announced the launch of EduTools, a web-based resource for the higher education community.
EduTools was built to assist higher education administrators and faculty in using a more rational decision-making process to review the many options in course management systems that are on the market.
EduTools is a redevelopment of "Online Educational Delivery Applications: A Web Tool for Comparative Analysis" developed by C2T2 and Bruce Landon, of Douglas College in British Columbia. It was redeveloped by WCET under a project sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
EduTools' researchers review each product using the producer's web site resources, a product demo, and a set of guiding questions. A variety of analyses are available to users of the site: they can compare specific products for instance, or can ask for a list of products containing specific features.
WCET is also developing three new companion sites that apply the same decision-making models for comparisons of other tools. These new sites, set to debut over the next year, will analyse student services software and service providers, e-learning policies and instructional technologies.
www.edutools.info