MOBILE ROADIE APP: FOOD As a product for the graduate course, Design and Production of Multimedia Presentations, I have designed an app, through a web-based software called MobileRoadie, to accompany an intensive, weeklong course at my school, titled "Food: A Transformative Process". My intention with this project was to explore the feasibility of app construction as an instructional practice and functionality of an app, leveraged for learning, with students. After completing the app creation process, I do believe there is a place for such technology integration within my practices and intend to continue with app creation. Theoretically, mobilizing an app as part of my students’ learning environment addressed many of my pedagogical views: integrating technology purposefully and thoughtfully to hook students, to meet students where they are (developmentally and physically), to provide meaningful opportunities to build knowledge and reflect on learning, and to make learning relevant and social.
AN ARGUMENT for PHONES in the CLASSROOM Through the integration of mobile applications, I hope to address the distractibility and multitasking typical to the modern learner that Wallace refers to in her article (2011). Coursework is in competition with games, videos, and social media, and so my hope with crafting course-specific apps to have a legitimate chance when competing for students’ attention outside of the classroom. The optimum way to do that is keep learning relevant, engaging, and meaningful through thoughtful use of the widely adopted, ubiquitous mobile phone (Wallace, 2011). Over the years, I have inherited many students who list history as their absolute LEAST favorite course. Rightly so, many of these students did the typical, rote history experience—read a text, regurgitate dates and facts onto a test, and then promptly forget the material. To me, learning history is so much more than the memorization of fact… it offers an incredible opportunity to examine our world from many different perspectives, to discover patterns and continuity in our historical choices, to deeply
examine an event through effective research, and to think critically about our role in forging history. However, to counter previous teaching patterns, I’ve got to hook kids first! I have found that technology is not only a powerful way to capture my students’ attention, but also as means of engaging students as we build the skills essential to critical historical study. I hope to capture and maintain student attention by leveraging the ubiquitous mobile phone.
According to Wallace, over 90% of students, aged 14 to 17 own cellular phones (2011)-- a fact that puts incredibly reliable and efficient tools for learning in nearly every student’s hands (2011). While over 60% of modern schools completely ban the use of cellphones for fear of cyber-bullying, cheating and texting/sexting, I would argue that they serve a central role in students’ learning experiences. As educators, we can create the framework for the appropriate use of the cellphone and we can teach how these incredible tools can be used wisely and when and how to best leverage them. We spend much time helping to form the social character of our students with culture building, rules norming, and disciplinary plans; why not also educate students on appropriate digital citizenship instead of banning technology entirely because students may abuse it?
ON THEIR PHONES I have always believed in meeting students where they are, and in today’s world, that is on their phones. Not only would providing access to learning resources via the phone meet many of our learners through this digital device with which they feel an intimate connection, it also allows educators the ability to further personalize each learners’ educational experience. Because the app provides for a range of multi-media formats, I can offer an entirely new level of differentiation and choice to my students—from videos, to weblogs, to digital texts, to interactive features. Utilizing the ‘flipped classroom’ model to provide videos, tutorials, articles, and weblinks that allow for student choice, I can provide the time and
self-direction necessary for students to develop their understanding when at home, freeing up classroom time for the tasks that require direct, hands-on interactions. Learning at their own pace, when and where they want to--even during “micro time slots” (Wallace, 2011)-- more closely mirrors the way in which modern students acquire information of interest and create social connections. And because students already have a great deal of familiarity with phones and phone software, apps can be designed to support learning beyond “information acquisition” (Meyer, 2001).
CONSTRUCTING and REFLECTING In my quest to identify resources for my learners, I have found few apps that can be implemented for “knowledge construction” (Meyer, 2001). Although informational, the apps did not activate the kind of critical thinking I expect my students to develop during my course and I was often disappointed to discover that most apps simply served as memory tools for students. In learning to create my own apps, I hope to provide opportunities to BUILD knowledge and reflect on understanding, not just digest and regurgitate facts. Apps can include purpose-built areas for interactions between subscribers that provide for deeper reflection on learning and meaning-making. Referring “to the idea that new information is solidly anchored in the learner's knowledge base and is enriched with causal relations, abstractions, and elaborations (Eysink and deJong, 2012)”, meaningful learning must provide for connections between the new information students receive and what they already know. As students construct their understanding, participating in discussion forums or reflection areas allows educators to monitor student progress and learning (and redirect where necessary through participating in, rather than driving, discourse) and allows for students to support each other in making meaningful connections and applications of learning in new situations. In fact, it is often through student-led discussions (rather than content reading) that the most profound learning takes place in my classroom. Moving these discussions to the app would allow that constructive learning to happen anywhere, any place, any time, empowering learners beyond the confines
of my classroom.
RELEVANT and SOCIAL Building on the social nature of an app (including the built-in Fan Wall and areas for commenting and sharing locations, images, and videos), educators can capitalize on the benefits of social and collaborative learning. Students can utilize such tools to reflect on their own learning, provide feedback to their peers, and participate in thoughtful dialogue about our course content, allowing the ownership for learning to shift from the teacher to the learners. This app provides a digitally relevant environment that is predicated on social interconnectivity and collaboration. Research indicates that the opportunities for cooperative learning provide through the app may increase student learning potential. When working on a “creative product... a team can produce a better quality product than an individual working alone� and because virtual collaboration can lead to more reflective sharing, students who can access virtual collaborative tools can create better quality products (Clark and Mayer, 2011).
Works Cited: Wallace, P. (2011). MLearning: Promises, perils, and challenges for K12 Education. New Horizons for Learning, North America, 9. Retrieved from: http://education.jhu.edu/PD/ newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Wallace. Eysink, T. H. S., de Jong T. (2012). Does instructional approach matter? How elaboration plays a crucial role in multimedia learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21(4), 583-625. Meyer, R.E.(2001). The Promise of Multimedia Learning. In R.E. Meyer (Ed), Multimedia Learning (2nd ed.). Cambridge.
Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R. E. (2011). eLearning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. Leu, D. J., Coiro, J., Castek, J., Hartman, D., Henry, L.A., & Reinking, D. (2008). Research on instruction and assessment in the new literacies of online reading comprehension. In Cathy Collins Block, Sherri Parris, & Peter Afflerbach (Eds.). Comprehension instruction: Research-based best practices. New York: Guilford Press. Mobile Roadie CMS Overview Webinar. (2012, October 09). YouTube. Retrieved May 25, 2013, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWCuIpVqYsk