Designing an Educator Toolkit for the Mobile Learning Age

Abstract

Mobile technologies have been described as 'boundary' objects which enable teachers and learners to transcend many of the barriers such as rigid schedules and spaces which have hitherto characterised traditional forms of education. However, educators need to better understand how to design learning scenarios which genuinely exploit the unique pedagogical affordances of mobile technologies rather than replicating existing patterns and modes of behaviour. This article describes the design and development of a mobile learning toolkit for educators to realise this vision. It presents the theoretical underpinnings for the toolkit and describes the development of different tools, instruments and resources. The main aim of the toolkit is to help teacher educators and teachers build knowledge and understanding of more diverse mobile pedagogical approaches.

Mobile learning in pre-service teacher education: Examining the use of professional learning networks

“…Further research is needed into the types and levels of guidance needed by PSTs to help address these challenges, as well as how teacher educators might model best-practice through their own PLN activities. More research into the design and development of supportive resources, such as Burden and Kearney's (2018) mobile learning toolkit for educators, and the PLN enrichment framework , will offer teacher educators valuable assistance when addressing these issues.…”

“…For example, Shuck (2016) explored ways in which the iPAC framework could enhance primary teacher education in Mathematics, using mobile technologies, including the challenging of PSTs' beliefs. The framework has recently been used to inform the development of a mlearning toolkit for educators (Burden & Kearney, 2018) aiming to help them diversify their mobile pedagogical practices; and to inform the design of an app evaluation instrument in science education (Green, Hechter, Tysinger, & Chassereau, 2014) to aid teachers' rigorous selection and evaluation of K-12 science apps. The theoretical underpinning of the iPAC framework fits with our socio-cultural views of learning with technology.…”

The iPAC Scale: A Survey to Measure Distinctive Mobile Pedagogies

“…The iPAC framework originated as the Mobile Pedagogical framework (Kearney et al 2012). It was the basis of a 2014-2017 Erasmus + project, the Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Educators' Pedagogies (MTTEP) project, and subsequently became known to practitioners and users as the iPAC framework (Burden and Kearney 2018). Its key dimensions are personalisation, authenticity and collaboration, each with sub-dimensions.…”

“…This article discusses a scale developed to measure the extent to which teachers use the three dimensions and 6 sub-dimensions of a mobile pedagogical framework (Kearney et al 2012) which became known as the iPAC framework (Burden and Kearney 2018). The original framework was developed to reflect the learning that occurs using mobile technologies and highlights the dimensions that are characteristic of mobile learning (m-learning), that is, learning that occurs with the use of mobile technologies.…”

“…In this article, we investigate ways to measure use of the mobile pedagogical dimensions of personalisation, authenticity and collaboration, and their corresponding sub-dimensions of agency and customisation; context and task; and conversation and co-creation. These subdimensions have evolved since the original development of the framework (Burden and Kearney 2018;Kearney et al in press), based on feedback from users and from analysis of earlier scales in which factor analysis indicated the strength or weakness of the dimensions' internal consistency. The amendments are discussed in more detail below.…”