Mobile Learning Resource Exchange (mLRE) David Massart, EUN EdReNe Meeting Chasseneuil, France - Oct. 26, 2011

Outline mLRE infrastructure – Introduction – Goals – Implementation – Expected outcomes E-Learning mobile device laboratory – Objectives – Implementation – Expected outcome

Mobile Learning Resource Exchange Extending the European Schoolnets Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) in order to makeLearning Resource Exchange Mobile Learning Resources (MLR) and ePUB content from a variety of providers Easily discoverable and retrievable by teachers and pupils equipped with mobile devices

Overview Defining a standard way for describing mobile learning resources and ePUB content Indexing a critical mass of resources for use on mobile devices from various sources Give access to these indexes to a variety of platforms including a mobile version of the LRE portal

Today Collections of mobile learning resources are widely dispersed and are difficult to search They lack pedagogically relevant standardized descriptions (educational metadata) such as: – Appropriate age range – Language of the resource – Intended audience (teacher, student, parent) – Subject matter, or type of learning resource (game, lesson, demonstration, etc.) that make it possible for teachers to easily assess the relevance of the resources to their curriculum plan There is no single catalogue of these mobile learning resources for teachers Users have to examine each providers collection separately and resource descriptions are inconsistent

Goal Identify, describe and make discoverable through a Mobile Learning Resource Exchange (mLRE) the rapidly growing body of learning resources designed for mobile devices mLRE will be an extension of the Learning Resource Exchange rather than a system built from scratch

Goal (cont.) Build: – A catalogue of mobile learning objects – A mobile version of the Learning Resource Exchange Create the first international educational portal accessible from mobile devices where teachers can: – Search – Evaluate and – Retrieve mobile learning resources

First Step Identify currently widely distributed mobile learning objects and ePub content Using a sample of 200 objects, EUNs experts on metadata standards and interoperability will propose an open specification for describing mobile resources for future indexing and retrieval

Second Step Using the specification customized for mobile resources, the EUN will index a critical mass for discoverability and retrieval using LREs indexing system At the same time, EUN will design and implement a mobile version of its Learning Resource Exchange portal that any user can access using a mobile device to search and discover mobile learning resources

Expected Outcomes (first year) An mLRE portal for use on mobile devices where users can discover resources and upload descriptions of content they created to share with the mLRE user community Approximately 10,000 records (including user- generated content) describing mobile learning resources and ePUB content searchable using the Mobile Learning Resource Exchange portal or a third party portal anywhere in the world

Expected Outcomes (second year) Approximately another 10,000 records added as part of an ongoing program to identify and index good quality mobile learning resources and ePUB content Because the mobile learning resources will be described in a standard machine-readable format (thus insuring interoperability), the mLRE catalog will be easily shared with any other portal where they can be similarly searched and retrieved

E-Learning Mobile Device Laboratory Objectives Implementation Expected outcomes

Objectives Explore the benefits and challenges of mobile devices as teaching and learning tools Identify best practices for: – Training and encouraging teachers to integrate mobile device into their classroom practice – Identifying and overcoming hurdles blocking the spread and the integration of mobile learning resources and devices in school curricula

Objectives (cont.) E-Learning Mobile Device Laboratory will be designed to – Encourage teachers to adopt new tools in their teaching practice – Help them map these onto the school curriculum and their own teaching programme

Implementation Approximately 100 teachers or heads of school from widely varying countries and backgrounds Action research will begin with a survey filled out by participants at the outset to gauge their initial attitudes, fears and expectations of mobile devices The survey results will be used as a yardstick to measure evolution through training and implementation cycles Throughout the year-long programme, participants will work in 7 different interest-centred Communities of practice and their appointed Lab Leader will strive to optimise peer and scaffolded learning Students of participating teacher will fill out a survey on mobile practices both at the outset of the project and after one year, thereby permitting to test the impact of the programme on the primary research target

Expected outcomes of the eLearning Mobile Device Laboratory Monitored learning curve of 100 teachers for use in shaping future actions A snapshot of the outcomes of integrating mobile device in schools 300 examples of good practice with detailed information on reasons for success/failure Implementation criteria and lessons learned

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