MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London Are they doing what they think they’re doing? Tracking and triangulating students’ learning activities and self reports Esra Wali Institute of Education, London Knowledge Lab

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 2 Introduction Mobile learning is mainly investigated in the literature through investigating learners’ utilisation of portable devices in different learning settings (e.g. Hennessy, 2000; Waycott, 2002; Corlett et al., 2005). These methodologies relied on students’ self reports as the main source of data.

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 3 Research in mobile learning requires studying students’ learning activities that take place in different context. Researching mobile learning requires a methodology that enables:  Collecting data that represents students’ activities in different contexts (e.g. formal and informal).  Collecting detailed description of students’ activities in these contexts.  Collecting data about the context (physical and social) where learning activities take place.  Triangulating students’ self reports Introduction

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 4 Higher Education institutes  Implement campus wide laptop program Students and instructors are provided with laptops Laptops were used to accomplish routine activities (e.g. learning, communication, administrative)  Does not implement such program Students mainly using handouts  12 participants The studies

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 5 Research methodology Questionnaires Observations Log files Interviews Collect students’ self reports Triangulate students’ self reports and collect descriptive data Clarify and validate the collected data

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 6 Example Questionnaire: using the laptop to engage in learning activities and communicate with others in formal and informal settings Observations and log files: validated the self reports and provided more information. The laptop was used to engage in learning activities directed towards the same objective at the classroom, home and another classroom. Interviews: provided more information about the purpose of the learning activities The spaces where the student was in were determined based on the:  Observational notes  Log files: (a) conversations through instant messaging software and (b) comparing the time logged in the log files with the student’s timetable  Interviews

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 7 Challenges and concerns Ethical concerns  Students’ informed consent to install system-monitoring software and observations in different contexts  Students’ anonymity and privacy Ethical and practical challenges  Getting the university’s agreement  Getting students’ consent to participate  Technical problems Methodological challenges  Log files  Observations

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 8 Reflections The methodology enabled studying mobile learning through investigating learners’ activities in different contexts. The methodology enabled studying the relationship between context (physical and social) and learning activities Students’ self reports were generally honest and correct, however, they lacked detailed description of learning activities.

MIL-RM Workshop, 14 Dec 2007, WLE, London 9 Questions?