Mobile learning for teacher professional learning: benefits, obstacles and issues

Abstract

This paper reflects on the role of mobile learning in teachers' professional learning. It argues that effective professional learning requires reflection and collaboration and that mobile learning is ideally suited to allow reflection-inaction and to capture the spontaneity of learning moments. The paper also argues for the value of collaborations between teachers and students in professional learning. It suggests that authentic artefacts and anecdotes, captured through mobile technologies, can enable the sharing, analysis and synthesis of classroom experiences by teachers and students. Such analysis and synthesis helps to encourage collaborative reflective practice and is likely to improve teacher and student learning as a result. Ethical issues that might arise through using mobile technologies in this way are also discussed. Teacher voice is presented to indicate the range of views about mobile learning and to indicate current practices. Practical, school systemic, attitudinal and ethical factors may inhibit mobile technology adoption; these factors need to be researched and addressed to realise the potential of teacher mobile professional learning.

Early Career Teachers’ Self-Efficacy for Balanced Reading Instruction

“…Targeting the benefits of using technology to enhance the professional learning of ECTs in the area of reading instruction, requires further research, especially when we consider teacher isolation and the difficulties ECTs have organising and then finding time to observe other expert teachers of reading. Web2.0 technologies can offer an important form of social interaction and networking for ECTs; social networking sites afford access to expertise and allow for reflection, experimentation with and articulation of different instructional decisions, as well as the development of conceptual and pedagogical thinking (Luehmann & Tinelli, 2008;Aubusson, Schuck, & Burden, 2009). This type of technological intervention might allow ECTs to view good models and explanations of practice (vicarious experience) upon which to base their professional decisions within the Literacy Block, and a place to record their reflections on their own experiences.…”

Factors Impacting Teachers’ Adoption of Mobile Learning

“…Substantial research has addressed the factors that influence educators' integration of a range of technologies into the classroom, including; environment, policies, support, and beliefs (Albion, 2001;Hammond, Reynolds, & Ingram, 2011;Sang, Valcke, Braak, & Tondeur, 2010). Factors that impact lecturers' adoption of mobile learning, however, has only been addressed in a few studies (Aubusson, Schuck & Burden, 2009;Lefoe, Olney, Wright, & Herrington, 2009;Seppala & Alamaki, 2003). Empirical quantitative research of lecturers' adoption of mobile learning has largely been overlooked, as researchers in the past have tended to focus on student adoption (Uzunboylu & Ozdamli, 2011).…”

Reflection for Action: Designing Tools to Support Teacher Reflection on Everyday Evidence

“…Problems and barriers often mentioned in the literature include general usability and computer literacy issues, but also others more specific to the proposed technology: issues of privacy and anxiety (e.g., children afraid to talk on camera, Reid et al, 2016), the need to obtain informed consent (Aubusson et al, 2009) or time constraints (Dreyer, 2015;Hamilton, 2012). Also, such technological proposals share problems common to all reflective approaches, like the need of showing the added value and relevancy of performing the reflection (Friedrich, Ostermeier, Diercks, Krebs, & Stadler, 2012), or the fact that, over time, such reflections feel repetitive (Hramiak et al, 2009).…”

“…Such retrospective video analysis encourages reflection throughout the teaching cycle and helps to zoom in on particular situations to find patterns and relationships between teacher moves and learning (Mosley Wetzel, Maloch, & Hoffman, 2017), and enables joint discussion/reflection with peers and supervisors (Melville, Bowen, & Passmore, 2011). More recently, such video-based approaches have been combined with other tools like video editing, journal writing or video-clubs (e.g., Bayat, 2010), and the use of wearables (Fleck & Fitzpatrick, 2009) and mobile devices to capture snippets of practice or reflections (Aubusson, Schuck, & Burden, 2009). Video has also been used in conjunction with conferencing tools to analyze teaching practice (Lopez, Ortiz, & Allen, 2015).…”