EDUCATORS

1
EDUCATORS PERCEPTION TOWARDS MOBILE LEARNING

• Nor Alley Zulkafly, Ah-Coo Koo, Tengku Putri
  Norishah Shariman and Mohd Nazri Zainuddin
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning SIG, iknowmedia
  Research Centre, Faculty of Creative Multimedia,
  Multimedia University.
• http//probmobile.com/mulearn/
• Date 19 July 2011.

2
Introduction

• Mobile learning
• is defined as teaching and learning through the
  facilitation of mobile technology and its
  environment with portable devices such as PDA,
  smart phone and mobile phone
• promote active learning.
• Extended reach of e-learning (Motiwalla, 2007)
• convenience, expediency, immediacy,
  accessibility, individuality, and interactivity

3
Introduction

• Learning Management System (Rismark, Sølvberg,
  Strømme, and Hok, 2007).
• platform for web-based learning environments by
  enabling management, delivery and track of
  learning
• offers flexibility and independent learning
  environment for students
• encourage and enhance self-confidence,
  self-esteem and also self-motivation towards
  learning

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Introduction

• The LMS suggested were reviewed from existing
  MMLS system in MMU and a m-learning framework by
  Motiwalla (2007)
• The suggestions for adoption were Course
  Managements, Assessment, Discussion, Attendance,
  Advisory and learning tools

Figure 1 A m-learning framework (Motiwalla 2007)
5
Introduction

• Educators play an important role in promoting
  quality education through mobile technology.
  (Attawel, 2005 Daniel, 2008 Ferry, 2009)
• Building teacher student relationship
• Promote critical thinking skills
• Collaborative learning
• Improve engagement

6
Introduction

• Figure 2 Components of mobile learning in
  teaching and learning environment (Danaher et
  al., 2009 p. 25).

7
Background

• Two factors that contribute to educational
  technology which are the technology resources and
  the educators perception on how to utilize it.
  (Robyler, 2006)

8
Background

• A survey conducted at Open University, Malaysia
  showed that about 8 in 10 students, are ready to
  employ mobile devices in their learning
  activities and are expected to be ready for
  mobile learning within six months. (Zoraini,
  2009)
• The challenge to educate a new generation of
  students who are more technology literate.
  (Prensky, 2001)

9
Background

• Educators experiences in MMU LMS (ie Multimedia
  Learning System) system used for teaching and
  learning.
• list of educators who are actively engaged with
  the system was acquired from the university
  Multimedia Product Innovation Unit to ensure that
  the information collected will produce a detailed
  understanding of the current learning
  environment.
• log in to the system more than twice a week on
  the assumption that lecturers have to update
  notes or give announcements or contact the
  students

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Purpose Research Question

• To examine the preferences and intention of
  educators to implement mobile learning in higher
  education. Guided questions are
• What are the current status of mobile usage among
  the educators?
• What is the educators perception towards mobile
  learning?
• Perception on mobile LMS in managing their
  teaching tasks.
• What are their intention to adopt mobile
  learning?

11
The importance

• The results of this study can complement other
  studies and provide useful information for mobile
  learning developers to design applications which
  are useful for both students and educators.

12
Literature Review

• Anaraki (2006) showed a strong reluctance
  expressed by 55 of the educators in Thailand on
  the idea of recording their lectures and
  spreading the videos as notes to students mobile
  devices.
• Reasons are
• the lack of self-confidence
• more time and effort needed to make appropriate
  lecture materials.
• Educators were also concerned about the cost of
  networks and devices that will affect students,
  besides the availability of infrastructure and
  resources to develop materials that provide the
  support-Peters (2009)

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Literature Review (continue)

• There is still no assurance from the educators
  that they will integrate mobile phones
  technologies in their classrooms because
• they feel they have to build a different and new
  set of skills and knowledge for using this
  technology in their classrooms Ferry (2009)

14
Methodology

• Setting of the study
• In a media-based faculty at Multimedia University
  in 2010 (July)
• Selection of educators was based on their level
  of participation in MMLS.
• Selected randomly those who were active and
  averagely active of using MMLS.
• Email were sent out to invite them for an
  interview session.
• 12 educators showed positive response and were
  interviewed. On average, each person 25
  minutes.

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Interview Questions Data Analysis

• Formation of the questions were discussed and
  approved by a research method expert
• Examples of question are
• What type of activities do you perform on your
  mobile device?
• Do you like to conduct learning activity with
  mobile as tools in your classroom? With the
  assumption of free service and CMS etc
• Do you have any suggestion to integrate mobile
  learning in MMU?
• Full review on question
• Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis
  method, eg. thematic categorization of the
  responses.

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Findings

• RQ1 What are the current status of mobile usage
  among the educators?
• RQ2 What is the educators perception towards
  mobile learning?
• Perception on mobile LMS in managing their
  teaching tasks.
• RQ3 What are their intention to adopt mobile
  learning?

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RQ1 What are the current status of mobile usage
among the educators?
Activities (Y)
Numbers of educators(X)
Figure 3 Activities performed using mobile
devices by educators
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RQ1 What are the current status of mobile usage
among the educators? (continue)

• The respondents were between 20-40 years old
  during the interview.
• Half of the respondents already own an advanced
  computing mobile phone (eg. iPhone, Blackberry,
  Nokia N97 and etc)
• These respondents also categorized as active user
  of mobile user as they performed more than 6
  features/application of their mobile devices.
  (eg. call, sms, browsing internet, sending
  receiving file via MMS or bluetooth and etc)
• Full review on demographic

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RQ1 What are the current status of mobile usage
among the educators? (continue)

• Another half of the respondents were using
  Symbian OS Phone mobile phone (eg Nokia 5330,
  Nokia 3310)
• And they are consider moderate users of mobile
  device as they used their mobile devices
  moderately (less activities).
• Types of mobile device owned do contribute to
  activities performed by the respondents.
• Teaching and learning activities - none

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RQ2 The educators perception towards mobile
learning

• The educators perceived mobile learning as a
  useful approach to facilitate their current
  teaching environment
• Majority of them are likely to use mobile device
  features and technologies that were suggested
  (LMS).

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RQ2 The educators perception towards mobile
learning (continue)

• The finding shows activities that involve the
  types of learning and teaching management more
  likely to be preferred by the educators.

Figure 4 Activities preferred/likely to use by
educators
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Perception on mobile LMS

• Activities such as taking attendance and course
  management system tasks like sending
  announcements, notes and updates appeals as very
  likely to be used.
• Although communication activities with students
  can be done through mobile devices, some of the
  educators did not agree to use mobile device for
  discussion
• preferred face-to-face consultation.
• problem to discuss with a large number of
  students using the mobile device small screen.

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RQ3 What are their intention to adopt mobile
learning?

• Relationship between intentions of adopting
  mobile learning with the level of usage

Level of Mobile Usage Intention of adopting mobile learning Intention of adopting mobile learning
Level of Mobile Usage Positive Less Positive Total
Active User RespD RespG RespH RespI RespJ RespL 6(50)
Moderate - passive User RespA RespB RespE RespF RespK RespC 6(50)
8 (67) 4(33) 12(100)
Table 1 Relationship between intentions of
adopting mobile learning with the level of usage
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RQ3 What are their intention to adopt mobile
learning? (continue)

• Currently the educators are not fully utilizing
  the full potential of mobile technology for
  learning purposes although there were actively
  using it for personal used
• 67 are positive toward adoption of mobile
  learning
• Educators preferred the system to be automated so
  they dont need to re-do their existing lectures
  notes

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Discussion

• A framework for art and design subject is rare in
  this research field, therefore some of the
  educators are still unsure how to utilize and
  integrate mobile learning into their current
  teaching environments.
• Passion to enhance teaching and learning does not
  limit by the current mobile device used
• Cost and type of mobile device are the major
  concerned to apply mobile learning.

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Conclusion

• Educators are willing to update their knowledge
  and keep up with the current technologies.
• In general, educators perceived mobile
  environment as convenient for performing simple
  tasks like making announcement, scheduling and
  attendance taking.
• Future research
• More mobile learning research into LMS
• inclusion of AI into LMS.

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References

• Attewell, J. Mobile technologies and learning A
  technology update and mlearning project summary.
  Learning and Skills Development Agency, London
  (2005),
• Anaraki, R. Assesment of mlearning A case
  Study Assumption University of Thailand. In
  Proceedings of the Fourth International
  Conference on eLearning for Knowledge-Based
  Society 15(SP3), pp. 12.1--6. IJCIM, Bangkok
  (2007)
• Daniel, E.G.S. An Emergent Scaffolding Model Of
  Tertiary M-Learning A Case Study Of Science
  Teacher Education In 2nd International Mobile
  Learning and Edutainment Conference, Kuala Lumpur
  (2008)
• Ferry, B. Using mobile phones to enhance teacher
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• Motiwalla, L. F. Mobile Learning A Framework
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  581--596 (2005)
• Prensky, M. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
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• Roblyer, M. Integrating educational technology
  into teaching. Technology in music and art
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  (2006)
• Zoraini Wati, A. E-Learning in Malaysia
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