Mobile Learning Community Research Articles

“I felt like I was on campus” creating a situated learning environment through Instagram

The transition to online learning due to COVID-19 brought opportunities for applying Situated Learning Theory through mobile social media to enhance individual cognitive growth and community sense of belonging in online learning environments. In this study, we invited students from an Environmental Psychology course to participate in a semester-long project, during which they were required to post Instagram photos of their surrounding environments every week. We intend to understand the mechanism of integrating social media (Instagram) into a hybrid class amid the global pandemic, and how the project affects students’ learning experience. Through in-depth interviews with 22 study participants, we found that integrating Instagram into the course helped students effectively connect with both real contexts and their peers. The project enhanced participants’ situation awareness and a sense of belonging through posting, interacting with peers, and browsing profiles and posts. We then proposed a framework of creating a situated learning environment through social media using conjecture mapping to inform design implications and future studies in social and mobile learning communities.

Mobile Learning Communities: Creating New educational Futures

Mobile Learning Communities: Creating New educational Futures

Understanding Chinese teachers' informal online learning continuance in a mobile learning community: an intrinsic-extrinsic motivation perspective.

While extensive studies on informal online learning have been well documented to afford teachers' collaborative learning and knowledge sharing, little is still known about their motivational factors regarding the continuance intention of informal online learning. To this end, an extended expectation confirmation model (ECM) was proposed including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The proposed research model and several hypotheses were empirically evaluated using questionnaire surveys with the valid data collected from 231 Chinese in-service teachers in the shared mobile learning community. The results consolidate the appropriateness of the extended ECM to explain teachers' informal online learning continuance. Specifically, satisfaction is the major determinant of continuance intention, followed by perceived usefulness and intrinsic motivation. In addition, extrinsic motivation positively predicts perceived usefulness and confirmation. The results of this study provide some theoretical and practical implications into in-service teachers' continuance intention of informal online learning.

Effect of Mobile Learning on the Optimization of Preschool Education Teaching Mode under the Epidemic

Mobile learning has become an efficient way to meet the needs of work learning in the epidemic situation because of its convenience, flexibility, and freedom. This paper studies and discusses the impact of mobile learning on learning education and preschool education in the epidemic. A mobile learning community resource sharing algorithm is used to explore the speed of the online learning community to obtain learning resources. The advantages of online learning are analyzed by comparing the speed of learning resources obtained in ordinary groups. In this research, the random offloading algorithm (ROA) is proposed to analyze the student response. The results revealed that majority of the students believed that mobile learning helps in learning subjects to a greater extent.

Mobile Learning Community: Adoption and Adaptation of Hybrid Teaching for K12 Education

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Raising native cultural awareness through WeChat: a case study with Chinese EFL students

This article reports the study of a novel way of raising tertiary-level students’ native cultural awareness (NCA) via an informal mobile learning community. Through two cycles of action research at a teacher-education university in East China, the study drew upon the Community of Practice (CoP) theory to form a synchronous English chat group. Students were encouraged to share their understandings and to construct knowledge of Chinese cultural topics with teacher guidance while using WeChat. To probe the students’ perceptions of how the WeChat learning community influenced cultural exchange and learning, chat logs, semi-structured interviews data and a teacher’s journal were analyzed. Findings suggest that the CoP concept played a positive role in raising NCA among the participants. Students became more willing to participate in their English chat community with a rise of trust and familiarity of group members over time. Students were motivated to use their personal, local and world knowledge through peer and multimodal discussions in order to share and learn new English expressions within a Chinese cultural context. Areas of improvement and pedagogical implications for building online CoPs with WeChat applications are discussed at the end of the article.

A novel deep learning driven, low-cost mobility prediction approach for 5G cellular networks: The case of the Control/Data Separation Architecture (CDSA)

One of the fundamental goals of mobile networks is to enable uninterrupted access to wireless services without compromising the expected quality of service (QoS). This paper reports a number of significant contributions. First, a novel analytical model is proposed for holistic handover (HO) cost evaluation, that integrates signaling overhead, latency, call dropping, and radio resource wastage. The developed mathematical model is applicable to several cellular architectures, but the focus here is on the Control/Data Separation Architecture (CDSA). Second, data-driven HO prediction is proposed and evaluated as part of the holistic cost, for the first time, through novel application of a recurrent deep learning architecture, specifically, a stacked long-short-term memory (LSTM) model. Finally, simulation results and preliminary analysis reveal different cases where non-predictive and predictive deep neural networks can be effectively utilized, based on HO management requirements. Both analytical and machine learning models are evaluated with a benchmark, real-world dataset measuring human behaviors and interactions. Numerical and comparative simulation results demonstrate the potential of our proposed deep learning-driven HO management framework, as a future benchmark for the mobile networking and machine learning communities.

Facilitating professional mobile learning communities with instant messaging

Although Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) is a massive communication phenomenon and its educational use can be seen as a genuine form of mobile learning, it has been studied to a limited extent to date. The present study examined the use of MIM to engage young professionals in mobile learning communities during their school-to-work transition. This transition is one of the most central but also challenging developmental phases marked by the experience of knowledge gaps and a lack of belonging.To assess knowledge and socio-professional learning effects associated with the use of MIM, this study adopted a quasi-experimental, survey-based approach with an intervention and control condition (n = 114) in the setting of an international research project. In the intervention condition, newly graduated nurses from Nigeria participated in WhatsApp groups in which moderators shared knowledge and stimulated professional discussions over a period of 6 months. Data were collected via online surveys and knowledge tests.The findings show that participants in the moderated WhatsApp groups had significantly higher knowledge and exhibited fewer feelings of professional isolation compared with the control group, which was not subject of any treatment. The effects were even more pronounced when controlling for active contributions (writing vs reading messages), which also amounted to significantly higher levels of professional identification. In addition, across intervention and control groups, the self-reported general active use of WhatsApp (outside of the intervention) was positively associated with the measures of professional social capital maintained with school connections, professional identity, (lower) professional isolation, job satisfaction, and the perceived transfer of school knowledge to work practice.Whereas knowledge and socio-professional effects can be triggered through moderated WhatsApp interventions yet the general (and thus informal) use of WhatsApp is associated with socio-professional connectedness. The findings are of particular relevance in the developing context under investigation, which is marked by a lack of alternative support structures.

Mobile Documentation with Smartphone and Cloud in an Emergent Curriculum

ABSTRACTThe goal of this study was to explore the lived experience of kindergarten teachers with mobile documentation designed to support their tracking of children's learning activities in an emergent curriculum. A structure for mobile documentation was created with the smartphone and cloud system. The phenomenological approach used in this study showed that mobile documentation supported teachers' documentation processes and cultivated the mobile learning community. In particular, less experienced teachers gained more benefits than experienced teachers because the former understood the emergent curriculum by viewing photos from and observing activities in other classrooms. In addition, the teachers' supervisor benefited from understanding the activities and projects occurring in each classroom and could provide specific mentoring to less experienced teachers. Suggestions were provided to cultivate a positive mobile learning community in an emergent curriculum.

A Formative Intervention on Mobile Learning Community

The purpose of this study was to develop a mobile learning community through formative intervention.As results, four components of mobile learning community were human factors, learning subjects, mobile technological supporting systems, and human supporting systems. Mobile learning processes were categorized to individual reflective practice in an authentic context and participation in the mobile learning community.As Profile Analysis results showed significantly different in score of sense of learning community between groups(λ =.77, F(6, 150)=3.56, p=.03, η2=.07) and levels of reflective practice between groups were (λ=.58, F(6, 150)=5.33, p=.00, η2=.18).That confirmed the intervention were appropriate. It had a significant in design research methodology to participant learners and instructors of mobile learning and to adopt multiple simultaneous design, implementation and validation

A M-Learning Content Recommendation Service by Exploiting Mobile Social Interactions

With the rapid development of the Internet and the popularization of mobile devices, participating in a mobile community becomes a part of daily life. This study aims the influence impact of social interactions on mobile learning communities. With m-learning content recommendation services developed from mobile devices and mobile network techniques, learners can generate the learning stickiness by active participation and two-way interaction within a mobile learning community. Individual learning content is able to be recommended according to the behavioral characteristics of the response message of individual learners in the community, and other browsers not of this community are attracted to participate in the learning content with the proposed recommendation service. Finally, as the degree of devotion to the community and learning time increases, the learners’ willingness to continue learning increases. The experiment results and analysis show that individualized learning content recommendation results in better learning effect. In addition, the proposed service proved that the experiment results can be easily extended to handle the recommended learning content for learners’ time-varying interests.

Design of Mobile Interactive Learning Community Based on Electronic Cognitive Apprenticeship Mechanism

With the development of computer technology and the Internet, mobile learning has become more important in E-learning applications. Being freed from traditional fixed locations and times for the unilateral learning of formal curricula, a learning style allowing for adaptation and interactivity as well as ubiquitous learning has emerged. From the perspective of cognitive apprenticeship, in which learning cognition is guided by experts, and the executive process of missions, objectives, and capacities is manifest, the master can observe and discuss with the apprentices, and revise it toward a well-mixed interactive process, promoting learner ability in diagnosing and reflecting upon errors. This study uses the electronic cognitive apprenticeship system as the basis to integrate and construct a mobile digital content learning community. Through the handheld devices or mobile devices used by learners connected through wireless Internet, learners can read and learn digital content on computer hardware fabrication. The learning behavior recorder for enhancing learner learning activity, which integrates records for tracking and learning processes for the learner, in order to conduct master discussion and guidance for apprentices in electronic cognitive apprenticeship.

Establishment and Application for a Mobile Learning Communities System over Cloud Network: A Case Study of Digital Archives Resource into Outdoor Environmental Education

In novel learning environments, learning systems not only are able to get environmental information through sensing technology to provide adaptive learning resources and information to students, but also help students to conduct interactions with learning communities. In this study, the development potential of digital archives resource into outdoor environmental education is focused with mobile learning-based educational theory. In this study, we adopt Kelly Repertory Grid as the tool for constructing the learners' knowledge mind maps and build the mobile learning system over cloud network to supply the learners to observe the others' learning results. At the same time, Natural Theory, Cone of Experience Theory and Hierarchy Map of Outdoor Education are also introduced to help students complete their learning programs of digital archives of environmental education. And then the learners' beneficial results of consciousness, attitude, and participation are gathered from the system. It makes the learners learn the essence of environmental education, in order to appreciate the valuable resources of nature paid to understand the sustainable ecological coexistence, thus protect the human treasure of natural resources. To verify the feasibility of our approach, the grade five students were invited to participate in the cooperative learning activity. The experimental results show that the effect of mobile community interactive learning is better than the general outdoor learning methods and the cooperative learning theory can improve the efficiency of learners' knowledge effectively. These results interpret the effectiveness of the proposed learning mode and could be referred to other teaching activities in the future.

A Survey of Research Methods and Purposes in Mobile Learning

In this paper, the authors present a survey of published research in mobile learning. The authors investigate 114 papers from mLearn 2005, 2007, and 2008, and classify them according to two dimensions: research method and research purpose. Research methods and purposes are important parts of how research is conducted. Opinions and approaches toward research differ greatly. The classified papers are evenly distributed among the research methods investigated, with one exception, there are few in basic research. In terms of research purpose, papers that describe research are well represented but there is a lack of papers targeting evaluation. Papers recounting both basic research and research evaluation are imperative, as they help a research field to mature and researchers to avoid repeating known pitfalls. This maturity, in turn, leads to better scalability and sustainability for future research efforts in the mobile learning community.

Mobile learning communities – By Patrick Alan Danaher et al

Mobile learning communities – By Patrick Alan Danaher et al

Creating a new mobile learning community with podcasting

Podcasting is becoming an important content delivery strategy, shaping new mobile learning communities both in live classrooms and in distance learning environments. Students have shown favourable responses to podcasts and some universities now offer formal podcasting initiatives or programs to assist faculty in using the technology. As podcasting is becoming more popular, there is a need to accurately assess the educational potential of the technology and develop effective strategies for supporting a podcast community. This article explores recent developments in podcasting, reports on a recent survey of 137 US students' perceptions of the technology and describes existing support services for podcasting in 50 US universities.

Ethical Considerations in Implementing Mobile Learning in the Workplace

Workplace based personal and professional development is essential for students in the health, social care and teaching professions. In this era of ubiquitous computing recording and reflecting upon learning and reviewing student progress in the workplace is easily enabled via mobile technologies. Yet researchers and student users in these settings continue to find using personal, mobile technologies a challenge; though now it is much less a technical challenge than one requiring institutional and cultural innovation in permissions and behaviors within these settings. This article describes the outcomes of a recent international workshop conducted with experts in the fields of mobile learning and education on prioritizing areas of concern and establishing best practice. In conclusion it presents a framework for consideration by the mobile learning community that can be used to highlight or prioritize ethical considerations before conducting research into the use of mobile devices by students in workplaces and schools.

Learning in a Mobile Age

The launch of the International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning is one of several indicators that mobile learning globally is reaching a critical and sustainable momentum and identity. The past six or seven years have seen a host of pilots and initiatives across sectors and across countries and these have established firstly that mobile learning takes learning to individuals, communities and countries where access to learning was challenging or problematic and secondly that mobile learning enhances, enriches and extends how learning is understood. Environmental factors have meant that this development has been haphazard. The mobile learning community is now faced with broader challenges of scale, durability, equity, embedding and blending in addition to the earlier and more specific challenges of pedagogy and technology, but these developments take place in the context of societies where mobile devices, systems and technologies have a far wider impact than just mobile learning as it is currently conceived. This paper looks at the definition and evolution of mobile learning as the starting point for a discussion of this wider impact.

Defining, Discussing and Evaluating Mobile Learning: The moving finger writes and having writ . . . .

\Since the start of the current millennium, experience and expertise in the development and delivery of mobile learning have blossomed and a community of practice has evolved that is distinct from the established communities of 'tethered' e-Learning. This community is currently visible mainly through dedicated international conference series, of which MLEARN is the most prestigious, rather than through any dedicated journals. So far, these forms of development and delivery have focussed on short-term small-scale pilots and trials in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim, and there is a taxonomy emerging from these pilots and trials that suggests tacit and pragmatic conceptualisations of mobile learning. What has, however, developed less confidently within this community is any theoretical conceptualisation of mobile learning and with it any evaluation methodologies specifically aligned to the unique attributes of mobile learning. Some advocates of mobile learning attempt to define and conceptualise it in terms of devices and technologies; other advocates define and conceptualise it in terms of the mobility of learners and the mobility of learning, and in terms of the learners’ experience of learning with mobile devices. The role of theory is, perhaps, a contested topic in a community that encompasses philosophical affiliations from empiricists to post-structuralists, each with different expectations about the scope and legitimacy of theory in their work. The mobile learning community may nevertheless need the authority and credibility of some conceptual base. Such a base would provide the starting point for evaluation methodologies grounded in the unique attributes of mobile learning. Attempts to develop the conceptualisations and evaluation of mobile learning, however, must recognise that mobile learning is essentially personal, contextual, and situated; this means it is 'noisy' and this is problematic both for definition and for evaluation. Furthermore, defining mobile learning can emphasise those unique attributes that position it within informal learning, rather than formal. These attributes place much mobile learning at odds with formal learning with its cohorts, courses, semesters, assessments, and campuses, and with its monitoring and evaluation regimes. This raises concerns for the nature of any large-scale and sustained deployment and the extent to which the unique attributes of mobile learning may be lost or compromised. Looking at mobile learning in a wider context, we have to recognise that mobile, personal, and wireless devices are now radically transforming societal notions of discourse and knowledge, and are responsible for new forms of art, employment, language, commerce, deprivation, and crime, as well as learning. With increased popular access to information and knowledge anywhere, anytime, the role of education, perhaps especially formal education, is challenged and the relationships between education, society, and technology are now more dynamic than ever. The paper explores and articulates these issues and the connections between them specifically in the context of the wider and sustained development of mobile learning.