Yesterday, I had finished reading on "Usability" from all relevant articles in MobileLearningUsability folder. Today, I would reading on "Usability from UsabilityMLearnELearn_20090821 folder.
Establishing a mobile blog system in a distance education environment.
Teemu H. Laine* and Jarkko Suhonen. Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: teemu.laine@cs.joensuu.fi E-mail: jarkko.suhonen@cs.joensuu.fi *Corresponding author
Int. J. Mobile Learning and Organisation, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2008. pg 149-165
Virtual Studies of Computer Science (ViSCoS). ViSCoS Mobile is an m-learning extension to ViSCoS that frees students to study anywhere and anytime. We present the first design, implementation and evaluation of a mobile blog system Advanced Postman for ViSCoS. Preliminary testing of the system indicated that moblogs can be used successfully as a reporting tool on a programming project course.
In Section 5, we evaluate Advanced Postman through preliminary usage test and
reflections on usability and technical issues.
ViSCoS Mobile as a concept was first introduced by Laine et al. (2005). The goal of ViSCoS Mobile is to develop necessary mobile learning environment and learning tools, which can be used by ViSCoS students to learn via mobile devices, thus enriching the learning experience.
Mobile technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers high portability, instant access, flexible solutions and affordable price.
On the other hand, however, small screen and lack of proper input method makes usability of mobile devices very poor when compared with desktop or laptop computers.
According to Smith (2003), unstable data storage and security of personal information are also issues affecting the design of the ViSCoS Mobile. Contents of the ViSCoS courses are not optimised for mobile phones and even though the HTML content is theoretically readable by any web browser, presentation of large HTML structures on a small screen is very frustrating to browse.
One of the main challenges to support services in ViSCoS Mobile is to motivate students to study from a tiny screen. The usage of mobile technologies alone can be a good motivator at least for the technologically oriented students (Attewell, 2005; Perry, 2003).
...to boost the motivation and to create and support a new kind of learning community: a mobile learning community. The student support services may include reminders, calendar and other information helping everyday life of an online student. Space- and time-agnostic queries, quizzes and even examinations are also possible to be organised with current mobile technologies. Internet telephony and conversation tools on mobile devices offer instant interaction between members of the learning community, thus creating a stronger atmosphere of togetherness. One of the most promising technologies for student support services is a mobile blog in which students are able to reflect their learning and discuss with peers from any location at any time.
As any distance-learning program, ViSCoS has also met problems related to students’ motivation and performance. In this paper, we provided an overview of the latest branch of ViSCoS, ViSCoS Mobile, which has a clear focus on bringing ViSCoS studies into mobile devices. One of the three development threads of ViSCoS Mobile is student support services and within this thread we recognised the potential of mobile blogs as a learning tool.
Based on literature review, we concluded that blogs have been used successfully in education. Mobile blogs have also been used in educational arena, but not nearly as much as regular blogs. The advantage of using mobile blogs over regular blogs is that the author is able to post new entries spontaneously at any location and at any time.
References of note:
Attewell, J. (2005) Mobile Technologies and Learning: A Technology Update and M-Learning Project Summary, Learning and Skills Development Agency, London, http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/041923RS.pdf (Retrieved March 12, 2006).
Prensky, M. (2005) ‘What can you learn from a cell phone? Almost anything!’, Innovate – Journal of Online Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, June–July, http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=83
Establishing a mobile blog system in a distance education environment.
Teemu H. Laine* and Jarkko Suhonen. Department of Computer Science and Statistics, University of Joensuu, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland. E-mail: teemu.laine@cs.joensuu.fi E-mail: jarkko.suhonen@cs.joensuu.fi *Corresponding author
Int. J. Mobile Learning and Organisation, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2008. pg 149-165
Virtual Studies of Computer Science (ViSCoS). ViSCoS Mobile is an m-learning extension to ViSCoS that frees students to study anywhere and anytime. We present the first design, implementation and evaluation of a mobile blog system Advanced Postman for ViSCoS. Preliminary testing of the system indicated that moblogs can be used successfully as a reporting tool on a programming project course.
In Section 5, we evaluate Advanced Postman through preliminary usage test and
reflections on usability and technical issues.
ViSCoS Mobile as a concept was first introduced by Laine et al. (2005). The goal of ViSCoS Mobile is to develop necessary mobile learning environment and learning tools, which can be used by ViSCoS students to learn via mobile devices, thus enriching the learning experience.
Mobile technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it offers high portability, instant access, flexible solutions and affordable price.
On the other hand, however, small screen and lack of proper input method makes usability of mobile devices very poor when compared with desktop or laptop computers.
According to Smith (2003), unstable data storage and security of personal information are also issues affecting the design of the ViSCoS Mobile. Contents of the ViSCoS courses are not optimised for mobile phones and even though the HTML content is theoretically readable by any web browser, presentation of large HTML structures on a small screen is very frustrating to browse.
One of the main challenges to support services in ViSCoS Mobile is to motivate students to study from a tiny screen. The usage of mobile technologies alone can be a good motivator at least for the technologically oriented students (Attewell, 2005; Perry, 2003).
...to boost the motivation and to create and support a new kind of learning community: a mobile learning community. The student support services may include reminders, calendar and other information helping everyday life of an online student. Space- and time-agnostic queries, quizzes and even examinations are also possible to be organised with current mobile technologies. Internet telephony and conversation tools on mobile devices offer instant interaction between members of the learning community, thus creating a stronger atmosphere of togetherness. One of the most promising technologies for student support services is a mobile blog in which students are able to reflect their learning and discuss with peers from any location at any time.
As any distance-learning program, ViSCoS has also met problems related to students’ motivation and performance. In this paper, we provided an overview of the latest branch of ViSCoS, ViSCoS Mobile, which has a clear focus on bringing ViSCoS studies into mobile devices. One of the three development threads of ViSCoS Mobile is student support services and within this thread we recognised the potential of mobile blogs as a learning tool.
Based on literature review, we concluded that blogs have been used successfully in education. Mobile blogs have also been used in educational arena, but not nearly as much as regular blogs. The advantage of using mobile blogs over regular blogs is that the author is able to post new entries spontaneously at any location and at any time.
References of note:
Attewell, J. (2005) Mobile Technologies and Learning: A Technology Update and M-Learning Project Summary, Learning and Skills Development Agency, London, http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/041923RS.pdf (Retrieved March 12, 2006).
Prensky, M. (2005) ‘What can you learn from a cell phone? Almost anything!’, Innovate – Journal of Online Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, June–July, http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=83
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