Closing in on Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary acquisition is one of the critical building blocks in acquiring foreign language fluency. While a number of studies have focused on effective vocabulary learning techniques for second language learners, several confounding factors complicate the practical application of this research in a classroom. For instance, faculty, pressed for time and results, frequently find it too cumbersome to explore new variations in their teaching and opt for standard methods of providing students with vocabulary lists which the student are expected to study on their own using their own methods. This tactic falters when the students are unaccustomed to second language learning and have not yet identified effective learning strategies suited to their own learning styles. This chapter will discuss one attempt to resolve this problem through the use of mobile devices as digital flashcards. This technological intervention may address the need to help students study vocabulary more effectively and do so in practical, sustainable ways that do not increase work loads for faculty, students, or academic technical support staff. Based on the results from a small-scale study, the authors make recommendations about this pedagogical approach and the technology used, aiming toward the goal of creating a pedagogically sound and scalable application of mobile devices in foreign language learning.

Unleashing the Potential of Mobile Learning through SMS Text for Open and Distance Learners

Malaysia has a population of about 28 million people but there are, incredibly, more than 30 million mobile phone subscriptions. Sixth in the world in terms of SMS (Short Message Service) volume, Malaysians appear to be addictive SMS texters. With over 98 percent of its students having mobile phones and 82 percent of the students ready for learning through mobile phones, Open University Malaysia initiated a project that first experimented with podcasts and SMS texts later. This chapter describes how the institution conceptualized, planned, and created a mobile learning environment using SMS to enhance its current blended learning model in general, and in particular, one of its courses with over 1,000 students enrolled. The chapter also describes the categories used for formulating the SMS content, use of Twitter and Facebook to support the SMS sent and discusses the feedback received on the initiative as well as the issues and challenges.

Student Perceptions and Uses of Wireless Handheld Devices

The chapter draws on a case study method using factor and regression analysis to interpret the questionnaire responses about the uses of wireless handheld devices in higher education. The principal findings included that behavior and attitude contribute strongly to the perceived performance of using such devices in the chosen context, and that facilitating conditions have a more complex and mediated relationship with behavior and attitude on the one hand and perceived performance on the other. The authors elaborate the implications of those findings for increasing alignment across several different interfaces related to blended and mobile learning in the early 21st century.

Situation-Based and Activity-Based Learning Strategies for Pervasive Learning Systems at Workplace

The chapter is organized as follows: the authors introduce some issues of technology-enhanced learning systems and define mobile, pervasive and ubiquitous learning and some closely related features: context, adaptation, situated learning, working and learning activities. Secondly, work-based learning features are described. Thirdly, situation-based and activity-based learning strategies are presented. Finally, the P-LearNet project is used to illustrate the proposal, and the conclusion summarizes the chapter and shows how and at which level this framework can be reused.

But Do They Want Us in “Their” World?

The growth of social media and mobile communication provides educators with an opportunity to transmit course-related information to students in new ways. But are students willing to accept course information through those channels, typically seen as “fun” and “social?” The study in this chapter examines the reasons that students use different types of personal media and how appropriate certain types of communication channels are for academic information. Results show that students prefer to get their academic information through “official” channels, such as email and course management systems. However, they are willing to accept certain types of information through social channels (mobile devices, social networking), as long as they do not have to share personal information.

An Analysis of Mobile Learning in Education, Business, and Medicine

This chapter examines m-learning within education, business, and medicine. Specifically, three types of mobile devices were examined within the three subcategories of m-learning: the mobile phone or smartphone, the iPod, and the PDA. A mixed method design was used to review 40 m-learning articles and to synthesize the literature to explore m-learning projects around the world. The literature revealed that m-learning was used in many parts of the world, and most in North America, within all three fields. There were also numerous projects in Europe, Asia, the United Kingdom, and in Oceania. Mobile phones, smartphones, iPods, and PDAs were used in all three fields.

Using Students’ Own Mobile Technologies to Support Clinical Competency Development in Speech Pathology

The need to adequately prepare students for the workplace competencies of a health professional in the 21st century demands exploration of alternative learning opportunities. Two such examples are the appropriation of mobile technologies and the use of standardised patients to support clinical learning. This chapter will discuss the appropriation of students’ own mobile devices to support the development of clinical competency for speech pathology students in a standardised patient clinic. The chapter includes descriptions of a project that focussed on the role of mobile technologies in supporting learning across different contexts. The results indicated that the use of mobile technologies in a clinical practice setting can make a positive contribution to clinical competency development. Issues for future integration of mobile technologies in clinical practice are raised.

Augmented Reality and Mobile Technologies

Unlike Virtual Reality (VR) that attempts to replace the perception of an immediate environment with an artificial one, Augmented Reality (AR) applications aim to enhance a person’s perception of their immediate environment. A blend of both the virtual and the real, AR application interfaces on mobile devices display information that is dependent on users’ time and location. AR applications are not necessarily an entirely new technology and have been emerging in various sectors over the past 5 years. For example, in aviation, AR in the form of ‘heads-up-displays’ has been used to display important data to pilots for decades. As mobile devices diversify in their speed, power consumption needs, network connectivity, and locative functions, developers are able to port AR applications to next generation mobile handsets, opening a wide range of utility and potential across public and private sectors.

Mobile Learning in Medicine

This chapter describes the medical context and characteristics of medical students, residents, and medical professionals and implications for m-learning. Some technologies used and examples of usage, benefits, outcomes, and barriers at the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education are explored.

Producing Generic Principles and Pedagogies for Mobile Learning

This chapter outlines how innovative research methods were developed (Calbraith, 2010), and how the model described in this chapter was based on (and adapted from) comprehensive research concerning learning objects (Calbraith & Dennick, 2009). It describes how the model was designed and developed to create a robust foundation on which to build rigorous research-based content for mobile learning. Taking a step-by-step approach it describes how reliable pedagogies were formed, how subsequent research testing distilled factors noted from this method into both unique and generic pedagogical principles, and how the principles formed can be used in any context or discipline to produce effective and enjoyable learning. The authors include analysis of a worked example using this approach (in this instance from Nursing) in order to illustrate how each stage of the model may be performed, and to make clear how the process may be replicated and incorporated into many different settings.