Mobile Learning Workshops

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So, our question of the morning is how do we transform our K-12 history classrooms into sights of mobile learning, of informal teaching & learning?

Let’s jump off the ledge. Why are we jumping? We are jumping because we are using mobile devices for teaching & learning, not just for texting & media. And, generally, our school environments are simply not there, mostly because it is forbidden, and also because even lots of personal sharing (on email even) is not allowed for reasons, including FERPA.

But, the day will come. Let’s get beyond Wikipedia and webquests.

Cleveland Historical (and curatescape)

Why?
Informal learning, pervasive (anytime, anywhere) learning, and students are likely to have these tools readily available.
Connects you to the community beyond the classroom, takes anywhere in the world instantly,
It remakes how you access information.
It remakes your control
And, it remakes how we express information.

It is about more than the technology then, but the basic organizational structure of, and access to knowledge.

Explain the Internet of Things.

Information might be ubiquitous, but we need frames of understanding… that’s where historical thinking skills come in, why they are important, and why we so desperately need them.

How?
One way that people will use mobile, especially tablets, is to replace desktop computers and access to the internet. Although tablets are better than phones at this, they are not optimal for obtaining and processing information (at least not yet.)

Devise approaches to mobile teaching & learning that actually emphasize the import of the mobile device, not just the digital.

Cleveland Historical as a model for this. Create a network of users (Frank O’Grady will do this for us.)

Here are a list of topics.

Discovery

  1. inside classroom (QR Code posters as example…)
  2. outside classroom (Rob & Dave & Nordonia & Royalton)
  3. creating and critiquing tours (process of synthesis)
  4. illustrations for historical stories/lectures

Creation

  1. append a story with new information (i.e. photograph, text, sound)
  2. create an entirely new story (i.e. at a site), with authors
  3. bibliographic connections
  4. tags & tour development
  5. lead tours of your community

Skills

  1. deep analysis & historical thinking
  2. creative writing
  3. oral history
  4. metadata (sourcing + context)
  5. locating (geography back in) history
  6. research, i.e. newspaper & archival work (P-D)

Deploy your own app OR Create a visible knowledge-creation process

  1. Use course blog, wiki, or google apps to have students document their community
  2. If you do that, why not connect it to other projects, not as a substitute but as another expression
  3. Knowledge is more powerful when shared and connected
  4. Deploy Curatescape in your community OR deploy a blog that leads to Cleveland Historical

Why Cleveland Historical (Curatescape)?

  1. common platform,
  2. standards-based database
  3. supported by CSU
  4. sharable & scalable (in theory)
  5. based in best practice

Teacher Skills

  1. Create & use your own blog: wordpress, tumblr …
  2. Create & use Google apps + Google Maps
  3. Create & generate your own QR codes (Andreas & Nordonia)
  4. Use existing services & tools: FLICKR, Google, HistoryPin

All of these are lo-cost solutions, but often time intensive…

Challenges:

  1. Sharing
  2. Building user communities
  3. Connecting students to best practices beyond their community (or the problem with walled gardens)