MOBILE APLICATION FOR MOBILE LEARNING

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MOBILE APLICATION FOR MOBILE LEARNING

• Galit Botzer and Michal Yerushalmy
• The Institute for Alternatives in Education
• Faculty of Education
• University of Haifa, Israel
• botzer_at_construct.haifa.ac.il
• michalyr_at_construct.haifa.ac.il

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Math4Mobile project

• Development and research of mathematical
  applications for cellular phones
• Developers
• Michal Yerushalmy
• Arik Weizman (software and site), Zohar Shavit
  (software), department of computer science

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IT and Technology in Math Ed
math4mobile
First wave
Second wave
Third wave
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The 3rd Wave Ubiquitous Computing

• Ubiquitous is being everywhere, omnipresent
• Alan C. KeyInvisible computing meant to be
  working in the background of human beings and
  supporting their lives. It is sometimes described
  as calm and human technology.

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Invisible computing

• Arun Kumar Tripathi in
• Reflections on Challenges to the Goal of
  Invisible Computing http//www.acm.org/ubiquity
• Ubiquitous Computing is roughly the opposite of
  virtual reality (VR), where virtual reality puts
  people inside a computer-generated three
  dimensional world.
• Ubiquitous computing forces the computer to live
  out here in the world, make connections with
  people.

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Learning with mobile devices

• Socio-cultural aspects
• Mobile technology has the potential of improving
  classroom dynamics owing to their computation and
  communication capabilities, which augment
  face-to-face interactions
• Supporting collaborative learning scenarios and
  the creation of a community in which learners
  can work together, share knowledge, inspire each
  other, and interact socially
• Learning in context
• Embedding the learner in a realistic context at
  the same time as offering access to supporting
  tools can enhance the active construction of
  personal knowledge

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Using mobile devices to enhance mathematics
learning

• Enhancing mathematics learning by providing a
  11 student device ratio and by enabling
  ready-at-hand access to technology throughout the
  school day and the learners personal life.
  
• Roschelle, Patton and Tatar 2007

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Design consideration for Learning with mobile
phones

• Turning the dangerous tool into a constructive
  one The idea of putting the damn cell phones to
  some good use is absolutely brilliant
• Unique features rather than replicating PC
  features
• Personal communication connectivity,
  collaboration, sharing work applications via
  sms
• Personal use small screen, handy, limited
  keyboard
• Exploiting the availability of cellular
  accessories such as cameras to enhance the
  learners engagement with mathematics learning.

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The Math4Mobile application
Sketch2Go encourages visual exploration of
phenomena (e.g., physical temporal phenomena) by
providing qualitative indication of the ways in
which the sketch drawn by the user changes. The
sketch motivates learners to experiment with a
given situation, analyze it, and reflect upon it.
Graph2Go a special-purpose graphing calculator
that operates for given sets of function
expressions. Its unique feature is enabling the
dynamic transformation of functions.
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The pilot case study

• Participants two pairs of mathematics major
  students studying for a teaching certificate.
• The course Mathematics methods course, which
  was focused on collaborative project activities
  supported by technological tools.
• The technology Students were equipped with the
  necessary mobile phones
• The learning setting included face-to face
  activities and mobile activities alternately.
• Data collection Face-to-face activities were
  videotaped, participants kept personal diaries to
  document their work and summarizing interview was
  conducted.

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A mobile learning scenario
a
b
Amman approved that the graph where correct and
sketched the graphs in her diary
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A mobile learning scenario- (Continued)
Ziva sent her colleagues SMS and asked them to
review their graph
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Aspects of mobile learning

• The active engagement in the modeling of real
  world phenomena can be attributed to three main
  aspects
• The mobility of the learning environment
• Communication capabilities of cellular devices
• Handy and easy to use applications

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Conclusion

• We found that the contribution of the mobile
  environment lies not only in making dynamic
  mathematical application more available, but also
  in supporting the execution of mathematical tasks
  that are closer to the students experiences and
  more relevant to them and supporting the creation
  of community of learners
• Further challenges
• Didactical challenge how the instructor can
  guide students during mobile learning activities?
  
• Methodological challenge how researchers can
  fully document learning processes in mobile
  learning setting?

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Acknowledgments

• The support of Eurocom Israel for this Study is
  Gratefully acknowledged