Mobile and Personal

Learning for Newcomers to

a City

Keynote presented at the

National University of

Singapore

December 2016

Mobile and Personal Learning for

Newcomers to a City

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

Institute of Educational Technology

The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

CLaSIC conference, December 2016, Singapore

Milton Keynes – UK’s fastest growing city

Milton Keynes: smart city

MK Data Hub

• Harnesses the power of Big

Data

• Provides a platform to deliver

apps and services to address

the challenges of an

expanding city and its growing

number of citizens

/

How should we support newcomers to a city?

1. Situated language learning in Open University

projects: SALSA and MASELTOV

2. What does it mean to provide

‘mobile assistance’ in language learning?

3. Overview of some apps for newcomers

4. What’s missing from current apps?

5. Future directions in mobile apps for newcomers

6. Development of learning theory

7. Supporting teachers: Mobile pedagogy

SALSA project: Informal mobile learning

in a smart city

Beacons positioned in various locations around Milton Keynes

triggering language lessons on a person’s phone

http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/salsa/

Used by English language learners

from the local Adult Continuing Education Centre

Situated language learning - example 1

Situated language learning - example 2

MASELTOV project:

Mobile assistance for immigrants in Europe

Navigation

guides

Cultural game

Language lessons

Information

resourcesFinding

volunteers nearby

Social

forumTranslation of signs

The project consortium designed,

developed and evaluated

a suite of tools and services

accessible from a single

context-aware mobile app

http://www.maseltov.eu

So what does it mean to provide

‘mobile assistance’ in language learning?

11

Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2016). Mobile Assistance in Language Learning: A critical appraisal. In: Palalas, A. and Ally, M. (eds.) The International Handbook of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning.

Available for download:

http://oro.open.ac.uk/47333/

State of the art: types of apps for newcomers

Smart city apps

Making use of Big Data

Internet of Things

Tailored apps for new arrivals

Targeted information e.g. FAQs, rights, citizenship tests

Language learning

Translation for specific situations

Apps for civic engagement

Transforming local citizenship - particularly for immigrants

Improving access to local services

Better understanding the needs of the populations they serve

New to a Country: Citizenship test

New to a Country: Language Learning

• Emphasizes fun and immersion

• Uses speech recognition

• Real world videos

- Music

- Commercials

- News

• Interactive subtitles

New to a Country: Visiting a city, living in a city

• Offline maps to avoid

data roaming

charges

• Information from

Yelp and Foursquare

in one place

• Personalised

itineraries with

location specific

downloads

Civic Engagement: New York City & Vancouver

NYC 311 platform to support

immigrant integration

• Users can submit service

requests and file complaints

• Access to public information

and immigrant specific

information

• 170 languages

VanConnect: Vancouver’s

one-stop solution for

connecting with City Hall

• Users can submit service

requests with geospatial

positioning

What’s missing from current apps?Existing apps generally do not provide the following:

Information about diverse communities and languages

spoken in the town/ city/ country

Audio content - hearing different accents and

announcements

Preparation for emergencies and unusual occurrences

Personal choice of content and interaction

Support for passing through a place on the way to another

country

How newcomers can be a help or a resource for others

Future directions in mobile apps for newcomers: dynamic personalised content, improved speech recognition,

creating trails for others to follow

NomadVocab

Demmans Epp, C. (2015).

Supporting English language

learners with an adaptive mobile

application. PhD Thesis, University

of Toronto

Nomadi trails

Speech recognition for

pronunciation practice:

University of Helsinki - Sari

Ylinen’s research project:

Technology-enhanced language

learning with mobile devices

(TELL me), 2016.

Development of learning theory:highlighting cognition, experience, motivation, behaviour and

social connection in situated contexts

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Situated cognition

Embodied cognition

Augmented experience

Gamified experience

Personalised learning

Incidental learning

Self-regulated learning

Social learning

Peer learning

Authentic learning

Supporting teachers:

Mobile Pedagogy for English Language

Teaching: A Guide for Teachers, 2015

• Helping teachers understand learner

mobilities, mobile device features,

language dynamics

• Supporting app selection and activity

design

Available for download:

http://oro.open.ac.uk/43605/

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Reports coming out in

December 2016 and early 2017

http://oro.open.ac.uk/47961/

Thank you!

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

Twitter: @agneskh

http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/ak35.html