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.

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

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

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)

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

Introduction

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

Background

Two factors that contribute to educational technology which are the technology resources and the educators’

perception on how to utilize it. (Robyler, 2006)

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)

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

Purpose & Research QuestionTo 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?

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.

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)

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)

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.

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.

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?

RQ1: What are the current status of mobile usage among the educators?

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Call

SMS

Application

Organizer

Tools

Internet Browsing

Send File

Social Software

Email

Banking

Video Calling

Other

Shopping

Teaching

Activities (Y)

Numbers of educators(X)

Figure 3: Activities performed using mobile devices by educators

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

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

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).

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

RQ2: The educators perception towards mobile learning (continue)

Figure 4: Activities preferred/likely to use by educators

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.

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

Positive Less Positive Total

Active User RespD

RespG

RespH

RespI

RespJ

RespL

6(50%)

Moderate - passive User

RespA

RespB

RespE

RespF

RespK

RespC6(50%)

8 (67%) 4(33%) 12(100%)

Table 1 Relationship between intentions of adopting mobile learning with the level of usage

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 don’t need to re-do their existing lectures notes

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.

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.

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 learning in environmental education. In: Herrington, J., Herrington, A., Mantei, J., Olney, I., B. Ferry (eds.)pp. 45-55. University of Wollongong, Wollongong (2009)

Motiwalla, L. F.: Mobile Learning: A Framework and Evaluation. Computers and Education 49, 581--596 (2005)

Prensky, M.: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants Part 1. On The Horizon 9(5), 1 - 6 (2001)

Roblyer, M.: Integrating educational technology into teaching. Technology in music and art instruction. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey (2006)

Zoraini Wati, A.: E-Learning in Malaysia: Moving Forward in Open Distance Learning. In: International Journal on E-Learning. 8(4), 527--537 (2009)