Blogging on the Brain

Day 2 of ELI started with a replacement keynote speaker, Gary Marrer, from Glendale Community College. His talk was entitled “Strategic Analysis: A Typical Community College Wondering How to Take Advantage of mLearning.” (For those of you who, like me, aren’t familiar with “mLearning,” it means “mobile learning,” which is different from “e-learning.”) My primary take-away from the presentation was that we need to be sensitive to the demographics and financial restraints of our particular academic setting. For instance, Gary mentioned that very, very few of the students at GCC have smartphones, and if they do, they generally don’t use the internet access because of the cost. On the other hand, here at Baylor, I think I’m about the only person left on campus that doesn’t have an iPhone. Interesting to think about, but I didn’t really get any more than that out of his presentation.

The last presentation I attended was entitled “Mobile Collaboration: Redefining the Classroom,” from William Rankin and Kyle Dickson of Abilene Christian University. They were essentially asking how teaching/learning/formal education would change once every student has a computer in his or her pocket. They went on to talk about some interesting projects they’re starting at ACU, but at this point I started on a mental tangent that unfortunately kept me from paying full attention to their presentation. So I’ll tell you about my little train of thought instead.

So, I get the revolutionary effect of e-learning, that we now have access to way more information than we can ever take in, and communication from wherever, whenever, but I’m really not getting the difference between that and m-learning. Does the learning qualitatively change because I get the info in my pocket instead of at my desk? In a park instead of my home? I guess I don’t understand why the mobile part is so important/revolutionary. In addition, I’m definitely one of those people that likes to check things off my list; when I’m done I’m done. I work at school and relax at home. So what is mobile learning going to do to that type of lifestyle? What if I want to be away from my class/work/etc. (or at least have the right to be)? I’m not saying I think mLearning is a terrible idea, I’m just saying I don’t want my professors texting me. Maybe I’m in the minority, or maybe I just don’t understand why the m- is so different from the e-learning (just to clarify, I’m totally on board with the e-learning), but there it is.

I arrived late for the first session of the ELI Online Spring Focus session, but the portion of the first presentation I caught was very interesting. Judy Brown was addressing the differences between e-learning and mobile learning. Obviously there are a lot of similarities, but from what I caught, the main differences are, obvious, the mobility of the technology available now, and along with that, the sort of all-access all the time approach to learning. She also talked about using a shortened format that would most likely be more useful as a mobile application (she gave the example of hairdressers, who most likely would have access to smart phones, but not computers, and information would be more useful in short, concise bursts).

I missed whatever application this may have in more formal teaching/learning/classroom situations, but the kinds of learning she talked about were really exciting – she mentioned a service called “text4baby.org” which is a free mobile info service. You register by texting in “baby,” then you’ll get free text messages timed to your own pregnancy/birth about nutrition, what’s happening developmentally at that point, etc., which I thought was remarkably cool!

Towards the end of her talk (which accelerated quite a bit as she began to run out of time!), she got to a slide that she referred to as her “take home” message. She said that this mobile revolution is not about the devices, it’s about their (and our) capacity; it’s not about the technology, but the experience. I always feel myself relax a little in these settings when people acknowledge that technology is not inherently good, it’s about how we use it.

The second session was given by a Aaron Wasserman, a senior at Stanford University, who was one of the leaders in the “iStanford” project. The project entailed the production of an app for the iphone that does, well, everything a student would need, really. It integrates an interactive campus map (with real-time bus route updates), course information/registration, directories, and even information about sports and other on-campus activities. It looked really, really useful – and it made me wish that either I went to Stanford, or that Aaron Wasserman went to Baylor.

After showing us the app, several questions came up in reference to the use of this app in the classroom. He said that they wanted to start with more basic stuff (which is where they are now) and get that working, but that he saw real potential for this to expand as a teaching/learning tool in the future. At this point, he apparently kept getting questions about it, effectively giving the impression that if it doesn’t directly impact the classroom, why should we care? I got a little irritated at this point for a couple of reasons (not the least of which is that this guy is maybe 22, has come up with a pretty revolutionary program, and you want to judge? Really?). I feel like maybe some of the faculty are missing the bigger picture with something like this. As a student, even the idea that my University was actively trying to integrate those technologies/trying to make my life easier, encourages a feeling of community (generally it feels here like the administration, etc. is trying to get us to do the most work for the fewest benefits/least pay they can) or at the very least, a feeling that the admins might care even a little bit about my time/resources. Too often (especially at large schools) students feel literally and figuratively lost when they arrive, this is a way for them to integrate much more easily into campus life. In addition, it should lead to a huge time-save for both students and administrators, leading to more time for the “important stuff.” So anyway, there’s my gripe for the day. I thought the presentation was great.

I’ll be attending a couple of sessions tomorrow too; stay tuned for more updates!