[Please note: this session will use an interactive presentation software called Zeetings to engage participants. This is a free web based resource and you should click on the following link to access it before the start of the session: www.zeetings.com/kevinburden]
This session will showcase a set of free resources to support teachers and school leaders who are using mobile technologies in their classrooms and who wish to evaluate and research the impact of these technologies on teaching and learning. The session will overview how these resources can be used in schools and will provide participants with the opportunity to take part in an international network of schools who are researching and evaluating their practices in mobile learning.
The resources include an interactive Multi-Touch book called ‘Researching and Evaluating iPad in Learning’ and a new iTunes U course with the same title:
These resources can be downloaded from the following URLs:(please try to download these resources before the start of the session)
These resource are underpinned by the iPAC mobile learning framework (Kearney, Schuck, Burden and Aubusson, 2012) which enables school leaders and teachers to evaluate and research their practice in using mobile technologies like the iPad against a clear set of pedagogical criteria. Further details about the iPAC framework can be found here: www.mobilelearningtoolkit.com
Despite the exponential growth of tablet computers and other mobile devices in schools and colleges, there is a genuine concern amongst both policy makers and school level decision-makers, related to the paucity of ‘evidence’ upon which such investments are based. There is also a growing concern in the academic community about how mobile technologies are actually used in schools and to what extent they are significantly transformational, as is often claimed (e.g. Kearney, Burden and Rai, 2015). Although schools and colleges have invested significantly in these technologies over the past five years, there is still limited evidence to indicate what impact they are having on learning in schools. Encouraging school leaders to undertake their own research and evaluation, sometimes with the assistance of external agencies, is therefore critical to the success of the mobile learning experiment and this presentation will explain how this can be achieved.
The presentation will guide participants through the various stages they need to undertake in order to make rigorous and credible claims about the impact of mobile technologies in learning. Each of these stages is highlighted and illustrated in the course with a series of case studies based on actual scenarios or research papers. The presentation will highlight each of the following research stages with specific reference to video case studies and empirical data collected by the authors. These stages include:
It is anticipated the presentation will encourage school leaders and teachers to pilot the resources that are demonstrated and to participate in an international network of schools and school leaders engaged in this activity. Details about how to get involved will be provided as part of the presentation
References:
Kearney, M., Schuck, S., Burden, K., & Aubusson, P.(2012) Viewing Mobile Learning from a Pedagogical Perspective. Research in Learning Technology. Vol 20
Kearney, M., Burden, K., & Rai, T (2015). Investigating teachers’ adoption of signature pedagogies. Computers & Education, 80, 48-57
Interactive resources
Researching and Evaluating iPad in Learning (iBook) (Burden and Jones, 2016) https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/research-evaluating-ipad-in/id1162673219?mt=13
Researching and Evaluating iPad in Learning iTunes U Course (Burden and Jones, 2016) https://itunes.apple.com/gb/course/id1157447590
