Research on iPads:‘Disruptive Innovations’?

iPad in Education: Eden project

21st November 2013

Dr. Kevin Burden: Senior Lecturer,

The Faculty of EducationThe University of Hull

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Personalisation

Collaboration

Authenticity

Clayton Christensen:

‘Disruptive Innovations’

Is the iPad a ‘disruptive innovation’?

• What?

• So what?

• What next?

What do we currently know about the use of mobile technologies in education?

What does this mean? What difference is it making?

What does the research suggest we should be looking to in the future with mobile learning?

iPad Scotland Evaluation: 2012

Edinburgh 1:1 Mobile project: 2012-2013

What does the research tell us?

Finding 1:

iPads dramatically increase personal access to technology in the classroom

Regular use of technology in school

iPad Scotland Evaluation (2012)

What do students use it for regularly in school?

Finding 2:

‘Ownership’ models may be a significant variable

“It doesn’t work if it’s shared because all the good things that happen, happen because it’s yours and you’re taking it home and you’re using it and then you’re adapting and you’re taking the different things. And you’re getting so used to using it that you can use them across the different apps and you can have that bit of personal choice” (Student, Bellshill Academy)

Finding 3:

Personalisation may increase when mobile devices are deployed effectively

“Staff directly involved in the initiative consider it has fostered greater personalisation of learning by offering students a greater degree of choice and freedom in how they access information (e.g. through apps or the Internet), how they process information and how they present and offer it up for assessment”

Headteacher, Bellshill Academy

Personalisation

•Students exercise more agency over their own learning

•The device is able to customise learning to the individual

Finding 4:

Levels of collaboration and cooperation increase

Conversations mediated by mobile devices, not replaced by them

Finding 5:

The focus of learning shifts from consumption (content delivery) to production (content creation)

Learner Generated Content

So what.....?

Augmented Cognition

New patterns of teaching and learning are emerging

Independence: where and how to learn

Narrow definitions of ‘literacy’ need

expanding

How we ‘read’ a book changes

Students as authors (knowledge

constructors)

eBooks that understand your ‘reading’ habits

Greater authenticity is possible

1. using the iPad to replicate professional tools

2. using the iPad to access real time data in the classroom

3. using the iPad in outdoor contexts

Heritage learning - situated

What Next...?

Changing the nature of assessment and feedback

“… before I would have maybe sent a worksheet

home and they would just complete it and send it

back to me.  But if I put the worksheet on ‘Screen

Chomp’, then they can do the worksheet on

‘Screen Chomp’ but record themselves while they

do it, and explain what they are doing to me, so I

can see where their understanding is, and I can see

any points that they are not understanding.  And I

can also, when I am marking it when I am talking to

the children after, I will be able to give them more

direct and targeted feedback because I will know

exactly where they have gone wrong with things.  I

think that has been a big change in being able to

do that”

Teacher - Chryston Primary School

Design Based ResearchStage 1:

Identify a product to design or improve

Stage 1I:

Build on the shoulders of giants

Stage III:

Develop an initial prototype and test it

Stage 1V:

Iterative cycles of testing and improvement

Stage V:

Identification of design principles

Can we use DBR to design more effective mobile learning scenarios?

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Using DBR to improve the effectiveness of feedback

‘Making Thinking Visible’

•Use scenarios which encourage two-way feedback

•Design problems which force students to articulate their thinking processes

•Facilitate student feedback with peers

•Focus on ‘threshold concepts’ and ‘troublesome knowledge’

•Mobile devices can be ‘disruptive innovations’

•Educators need to understand the unique ‘affordances’ of mobile technologies in order to leverage powerful learning opportunities

•Thinking of teaching as a design based science may help to identify how these affordances are translated into learning scenarios

Your take-away

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No iPads were harm

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dvert!