MLearning for Language Education - Research Paper Example

mLearning for Language Education Submitted By Submitted To: Date: Table of Contents Introduction 3 Background 3 Problem Statement 4 Available Mobile Learning Technologies 5 Proposed Mobile Technology 6 Evaluation Process 7 Methodology 9 Literature Review 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Appendix 15 Interview Questions 15 Questionnaire Based Survey Instrument 16 Introduction The field of education is highly versatile offering people opportunities to learn and grow b y developing them. The purpose of the paper is to design and develop a research that can be employed in to customizing education for a specific segment of the market while employing the technological advancements that are available to strengthen the education process and make it dynamic so it can be spread across a larger and dynamic target market or audience. Background The educational setting for which the use of mLearning has been proposed is that of Linguistics Education outside the classroom. The social community forums of the local community centre provide programs for counseling, as well as education for adult students who wish to consume the service. In this regard linguistics or language based programs are widely offered by the community centre to develop the people, enabling them to hone their skills in English as well as a range of other languages. The centre is open to all public and all people can access its services for a flat fee of $50 which is charged for registration, The courses provided are short courses, ranging from those that are monthly courses to those that are longer taking three to six months for completion. Most of the people who attend these courses are those who are unable to go to regular college due to either limitation of funds or limitation of time. Aside from these often the people who seek out these services of the centre are more mature students looking to improve their grasp on the languages in order to further develop their careers. The students come from all walks of life and include small businessmen, to housewives to blue collar workers as well as local residents and even some young adults from local colleges and schools. The majority of the students however are adults who need to improve on their language skills. The classes are conducted normally after working hours and during weekends in order to enable the students to access the facilities outside of their current jobs. Mlearning can be effectively employed to support any educational program; however the use of mLearning technology and techniques seems ideal for the community centre for its language skills courses (Shield and Kukulska-Hulme, 2008). The essence of the technology is to support learning in people who are unable to access the traditional form of educational setting, The community centre linguistic programs has the required needs and attributes that can be effectively satisfied by employing the mLearning concept. Problem Statement The problem statement for the research has been identified on which the study would be developed around and based. This problem statement is depicted as follows: To identify the applicability and feasibility of mLearning technology and techniques for the community centre linguistics programs. Specifically the use of smart phones and hand held devices that allows for mobile communication can be used to support the community centre to provide language based education to its students on the platform. In this regard the feasibility of the technology and the best suited proposition is to be identified in order to cater to the needs of the community learning centre. Available Mobile Learning Technologies There are many technologies of mLearning that are available. These include the use of hand held multi media guides, or hand held multi media devices. The use of tablet computers, or PDAs, the use of personal audio players, or even hand held gaming consoles. Other technologies that those that support eBook reading or similar to Outsmart Inc. can also be employed. The analysis of these technologies provided that they are either too complex for people to use, or some of them are rather depleting and going to go out of date with the changes taking place in the technology. Specifically, the eBook readers offer limited applicability which restricting the medium to eBooks only. While the hand held gaming consoles are not available to everyone. As the target market is adults and young adults, the likely hood of them having hand held gaming consoles at their disposal is limited. Similarly tablet PCs and PDAs are mostly devices used by businessmen and will be restructuring the target market to a small segment that is sought to be targeted through the mLearning initiatively. Personal audio players similar to eBook readers restrict the medium of learning to audio files only. The comprehensive analysis of the above mentioned options available for mLearning depict that while these mobile technologies can be significantly useful for learning while being mobile, when taken in context of the target market they provide limited or constraint value addition and benefits. Instead if the smart phones or the current OS based mobile phones are used as a technology for mLearning they would be more effective while providing significant value addition for the end user. In addition the smart phones have access to the internet and the telecommunication network providing the dimension of connectivity for the purpose of mLearning as well. Proposed Mobile Technology The concept of using mobile technology for the purpose of providing education in the filed of linguistics is a novel yet plausible idea. Mobile assisted learning especially for linguistics or languages can be effectively provided through mobile technologies. The concept of mobile learning specifically for languages or linguistics is actually a subfield of mLearning and takes some of the attribute of computer based learning as well (Chinnery, 2006). Through this approach the students and the teachers can make use of the mobiles to communicate with each other, while the smart phone capability enables the users to run software on their phones. This software can take the form of audio files or pod casts that can be played on the resident flash player, mp3 player or the mp4 player on the smart phones to enable the students to take virtual classes while still being mobile (Maag, 2006). The mobile assisted linguistics learning can also enable the students to communicate with their professors, while also communicating with their peers for the purpose of learning and education, The recent mobiles that are sold in the market are often those that use office suit supporting operating systems like android phones (Sharples, 2005). The increase in demand for these products in the market has made mobile manufacturers as well as telecommunication companies to work together and provide ease of payment through installment programs in order to make these smart phones affordable and within the reach of the mass consumers in the market. Therefore majority people have ready access to mobiles or smart phones. The MALL technology as highlighted earlier makes use of these smart phones to support learning through education programs that can be run through the smart phones. Evaluation Process The best fit mlearning technology for application will be selected on the basis of the proposed evaluation process. The technology should be able to add value to the users, instead of being a hassle or an additional time consuming task which further makes learning and comprehension complex. For this purpose a SWOT of the mLearning technology using MALL was conducted. The main strengths that are associated with the use of smart phones for mLearning are that the market for smart phones has been significantly increasing with everyone having easy access to one (Sharples, 2005). Almost all of the phones being rolled out by mobile manufacturers are versions of smart phones having capabilities of reading documents, connecting to the internet, downloading and uploading files as well as playing audio and video files. This enables the students and the teachers to communicate with each other while connecting to the mLearning platform virtually to download and play audio files for learning the linguistics for oral vocation (Carey, 2005). Similarly for written language learning files can be uploaded, downloaded and exchanged using the smart phone, making it a dynamic device for mLearning. In addition to this the smart phones are portable, hand held, easily accessed, and provide ease of connectivity for the user. The weakness that is associated with using this technology is that often access to the internet would be required for the sharing of files, This means that the user will be able to use the device by either subscribing to their telephone network providers internet connection or they will only be able to use the smart phones for mLearning where there are hotspots of Wi-Fi connectivity. Similarly the use of smart phones requires extensively battery life which will need to be accounted for by the users. Aside from this the small screens and often the touch screen technology can make navigating on the smart phone and reading on it somewhat tiresome for some people. However in this regards developments are being made to make the touch screen more sensitive and user friendly while enhancing the graphics and the display of the smart phones (Ally, 2009). There are significant opportunities for the use of smart phones for mLearning. These pertain to the developments that have been taking place ion making smart phones more dynamic, and especially with regards to the applicability of smart phones in the mLearning context (Trifonova and Ronchetti, 2003). Examples of the efforts by the researches in making smart phones more usable for mLearning especially, for language based learning can be seen through the launch of MAWL (Verma, 2012) which is a mobile assisted word learning application. The threats that are posed to the technology at the moment are minimal. This is primarily due to the large acceptability of smart phones in the market. However development of new technology specifically the hand held tablet in the following years might render the smart phones relatively obsolete. Methodology The above analysis of the various technologies available for mLearning is from the point of view of the technology and its costs and benefits. However the users of the technology also need to be taken into account when assessing feasibility of using smart phones for use on mLearning initiatives by the community centre. In this regard the application of the technology needs to be tested in the market as well. This pertains to assessing the needs of the market, specifically those who would be the end users of the technology and identify that the costs of using the technology would be outweighed by the benefits. In this regard primary research will need to be conducted. For the purpose of this study a two pronged approach would be used to gather data from the end users. The identified end users for the technology would include the students as well as the teachers/ instructors. As it would be difficult to individually interview the students, the current students enrolled in language programs can be surveyed through a questionnaire based proposition. The questionnaire based survey can be used to determine their respective needs for mLearning, how it can add value to their learning process, and whether smart phones are a feasible technology solution for the purpose of language learning while on the go. On the other hand the teachers and instructors in the community centre can be interviewed. The interview can be used to determine how the teachers teach the students, what technologies are they familiar in using, and how they would employ smart phones and related mLearning capabilities provided by it if they are given the option of providing mLearning facility. The proposed interview questions as well as the questionnaire based survey are provided in the appendix. The results from the primary data collection can then be inferentially analyzed to depict findings whether the use of smart phones is applicable and feasible from the point of view of the users. The deliverables for this study would then include a proposed reception of smart phones as mLearning technologies at the community centre for learning languages, along with a proposed plan for the implementation of the mLearning initiative. Literature Review The classroom based learning experiences are traditional and incomparable. However with the changes taking place in the social as well as the technological environments, it is possible to add value to the class room experience through the use of technology (Motiwalla, 2007). In this regard wireless mobile technologies like tablets and smart phones (Roschelle, 2003) can be used in class to expand and enrich the learning experience for the students, while opening new avenues for education medium. The learning experience can be significantly enriched through the use of smart phone like mobile technologies to implement mLearning programs. This is because when the users employ the mobile technology like smart phones or hand held devices that offer the capability of connectivity, they are able to engage in a community like environment which enables them to share experiences and learnt from them while being mobile as well (Facer et al., 2004). The mobile devices in the market also provide significant opportunities for dynamic multimedia use in learning. Taking the attributes of eLearning, with the compatibility of internet and the multimedia programs on the mobile devices the use of smart phones for mLearning can be significantly useful (Shih, 2007). Aside from the technology for mobile learning, the type of users that would be using the technology also impacts the reception and success of the technology. In this regards Carney and Banning (2001), in their book have identified different types of markets and users that can use devices for mLearning. They highlights that adults who are enrolled in education programs can best reap benefits in learning through the use f mobile technology. The mLearning can be significantly useful for them as it allows them to be included in a networked social environment provoking them to take self initiatives for learning and increasingly their motivation and willingness to participate in the learning process (Attewell and Savill-Smith, 2003). Research into the field of mLearning and use of mobile technologies is growing (Trifonova and Ronchetti, 2003), but is still constrained due to the rapid changes in the technological environment which render the existing technologies useless and obsolete a few years down the lane. This negatively impacts the research making them obsolete much faster as well (Trifonova, 2003). This is one of the main drawbacks that despite developments and research into the field, wide application of the technology for mLearning are not applied in the presence of obsolete research and technology. Another issue that is raised by mLearning through mobile technology is that of ethical concerns respective to privacy of data and its ownership (Gemmel et al., 2004) Conclusion Research into the field depicts that mLearning specifically employed by the community centers for linguistic education can be significantly useful The costs associated with the use of the technology, its limitations in the present environment as well as the concerns of ethics and privacy have been highlighted. In addition the benefits that can be reaped by the users through the employment technology provides are also depicted ranging from the increase in motivation for learning amongst the students, to their social networked inclusion, to effective learning at their own time and pace with customized programs. Conclusively it can be provided that the use of smart phones for mLearning initiatives for adults specific to linguistic education is effective; however the users should be assessed for their feasibility as well in terms of their ability to use smart phones for the purpose of mLearning. References Attewell, J., Savill-Smith, C., (2003), Learning with Mobile Devices Research and Development, Learnings and Skills Development Agency, available at Ally, M., (2009), Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training, Athabasca University Press Carey, J., (2012), Four Smart Ways to Use Cell Phones in Class, MindShift, available at Carney, S.C., Banning, J.H., (2001), Educating by Design: Creating Campus Learning Environments That Work. The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series Chinnery, G., (2006), Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning, Language Learning & Technology 10, (1) pp9-16 Facer, K., Joiner, R., Stanton, D., Reid, J., Hull, R., Kirk, D., (2004), Savannah: mobile gaming and learning, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 40(6), pp399–409 Gemmell, J., Williams, L., Wood, K., Bell, G., & Lueder, R., (2004), Passive Capture and Ensuing Issues for a Personal Lifetime Store, Proceedings of The First ACM Workshop on Continuous Archival and Retrieval of Personal Experiences Maag, M., (2006), iPod, uPod, An emerging mobile learning tool in nursing education and students’ satisfaction, Proceedings of the 23rd annual ascilite conference: Who’s learning? Whose technology? Motiwalla, L.F., (2007), Mobile learning: A framework and evaluation, Computers and Education 49 (3), pp581–596 Roschelle, J., (2003), Keynote paper: Unlocking the learning value of wireless mobile devices, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 19 (3), pp 260–272 Sharples, M., Taylor, J., Vavoula, G., (2005), Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning, available at Shield, L., Kukulska-Hulme, A., (eds.), (2008) Special edition of ReCALL 20, (3) on Mobile Assisted Language Learning available at Shih, Y.E., (2007), Setting the New Standard with Mobile Computing in Online Learning, Yuhsun Edward Shih, The International Review of Research in Open and Distant Learning 8 (7) Trifonova, A., (2003), Mobile Learning - Review of the Literature Trifonova, A., Ronchetti, M., (2003), Where is Mobile Learning Going, In A. Rossett (Ed.), Proceedings of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, pp. 1794-1801 Verma, P., (2012), MAWL: mobile assisted word-learning, Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts Appendix Interview Questions 1. What course do you teach and how long is the duration of the course? 2. What teaching framework do you currently employ? 3. Are you familiar with eLearning and how teaching can be performed through the use of Internet? 4. Similarly are you familiar with mLearning and how mobile devices like smart phones can be used to teach language courses? 5. Would you be able to participate in mLearning initiatives? How will it affect your teachings style and format? 6. What possible results due to prospect from the use of the technology. Highlight any and all advantages or disadvantages 7. Do you have any concerns regarding use of smart phones for teaching and learning languages? If so please highlight those that come to mind. 8. If smart phones are provided to you by the institution, when you are unable to access them otherwise, will it effect your perception of using them for mLearning? Questionnaire Based Survey Instrument 1) Are you aware of the concept of mLearning? a. Yes b. No c. Somewhat 2) Do you have access to a smart phone? a. Yes I use one b. Yes my siblings use them c. No I don’t have access to them 3) If the institution provides you language courses that you can take using your mobile phones (smart phones), will you be interested in such a program. a. Yes. Please provide your reasons: _________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ b. No. Please provide your reasons: __________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 4) Do you see any benefits to using smart phones for learning languages? List any three: 1._____________________________________________________________________ 2._____________________________________________________________________ 3._____________________________________________________________________ 5) Do you see any drawbacks of using smart phones for learning languages? List any three: 1._____________________________________________________________________ 2._____________________________________________________________________ 3._____________________________________________________________________ List the likelihood of incurring the benefits regarding use of smart phone for learning languages 6) Easier to stay connected with the institute and the instructors: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 7) Easier to seek help from instructors or course mates: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 8) Able to access download audio files and play them for vocational learning: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 9) Able to share audio files and data resources with others: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 10) Easier to access updates on the course and access learning resources provided by the institution: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 11) Portable and mobile therefore can work and study anywhere: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 12) Will save up on transportation and travel costs: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 13) Learning the language will be more interesting and interactive: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 14) Able to submit work and deliverables instantly saving on time: a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely List the likelihood of incurring the disadvantages and problems regarding use of smart phone for learning languages 15) Will need access to internet a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 16) Will need to subscribe with cellular network services of internet which costs money a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 17) Will be difficult to navigate on the phone due to small size a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 18) Have problems with using touch screen a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 19) Do not know how to use internet on mobile a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 20) Do not know how to use MP3 and MP4 players on mobile a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 21) Will not be able to share or download files or resources as do not know how to use the smart phone for that a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 22) The phone will keep on crashing due to strain on the operating system a. Very Likely b. Likely c. No effect d. Less Likely e. Not Likely 23) If smart phones are provided to you by the institution, when you are unable to access them otherwise, will it effect your perception of using them for mLearning? a. Yes. Please provide your reasons: _________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ b. No. Please provide your reasons: __________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________Thanks For Your Cooperation________________________________ Read More

In this regard the feasibility of the technology and the best suited proposition is to be identified in order to cater to the needs of the community learning centre. Available Mobile Learning Technologies There are many technologies of mLearning that are available. These include the use of hand held multi media guides, or hand held multi media devices. The use of tablet computers, or PDAs, the use of personal audio players, or even hand held gaming consoles. Other technologies that those that support eBook reading or similar to Outsmart Inc.

can also be employed. The analysis of these technologies provided that they are either too complex for people to use, or some of them are rather depleting and going to go out of date with the changes taking place in the technology. Specifically, the eBook readers offer limited applicability which restricting the medium to eBooks only. While the hand held gaming consoles are not available to everyone. As the target market is adults and young adults, the likely hood of them having hand held gaming consoles at their disposal is limited.

Similarly tablet PCs and PDAs are mostly devices used by businessmen and will be restructuring the target market to a small segment that is sought to be targeted through the mLearning initiatively. Personal audio players similar to eBook readers restrict the medium of learning to audio files only. The comprehensive analysis of the above mentioned options available for mLearning depict that while these mobile technologies can be significantly useful for learning while being mobile, when taken in context of the target market they provide limited or constraint value addition and benefits.

Instead if the smart phones or the current OS based mobile phones are used as a technology for mLearning they would be more effective while providing significant value addition for the end user. In addition the smart phones have access to the internet and the telecommunication network providing the dimension of connectivity for the purpose of mLearning as well. Proposed Mobile Technology The concept of using mobile technology for the purpose of providing education in the filed of linguistics is a novel yet plausible idea.

Mobile assisted learning especially for linguistics or languages can be effectively provided through mobile technologies. The concept of mobile learning specifically for languages or linguistics is actually a subfield of mLearning and takes some of the attribute of computer based learning as well (Chinnery, 2006). Through this approach the students and the teachers can make use of the mobiles to communicate with each other, while the smart phone capability enables the users to run software on their phones.

This software can take the form of audio files or pod casts that can be played on the resident flash player, mp3 player or the mp4 player on the smart phones to enable the students to take virtual classes while still being mobile (Maag, 2006). The mobile assisted linguistics learning can also enable the students to communicate with their professors, while also communicating with their peers for the purpose of learning and education, The recent mobiles that are sold in the market are often those that use office suit supporting operating systems like android phones (Sharples, 2005).

The increase in demand for these products in the market has made mobile manufacturers as well as telecommunication companies to work together and provide ease of payment through installment programs in order to make these smart phones affordable and within the reach of the mass consumers in the market. Therefore majority people have ready access to mobiles or smart phones. The MALL technology as highlighted earlier makes use of these smart phones to support learning through education programs that can be run through the smart phones.

Evaluation Process The best fit mlearning technology for application will be selected on the basis of the proposed evaluation process. The technology should be able to add value to the users, instead of being a hassle or an additional time consuming task which further makes learning and comprehension complex.

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