Mobile Phones for Assessment

This chapter focuses on using mobile assessment (m-assessment) for teaching and learning in formal and informal education settings. M-assessment has been helpful in making traditional classrooms more interactive and support the individual and class cognitive wealth. Unique affordances of m-assessment can also extend its benefits to digital classrooms, informal and formal learning settings, professional development settings, and other places where learning happens. M-assessment has increased accessibility to assessment, making it available anywhere, anytime, and to anyone.

A Case for Leveraging Mobile Learning in Action Learning Teams

Action learning teams create opportunities to learn from work on real-life challenges. Use of mobile learning can promote higher-order learning while bringing teams together around new ideas where their thinking may be challenged. In this way, action learning teams use mobile devices as tools of convenience to facilitate their learning. Mobile learning for action learning teams extends beyond simple content delivery and provides a platform that can introduce flow states and make space for critical reflection. The integration of mobile learning into action learning teams allows for the cultivation of individual creativity and maximization of group, virtual or face-to-face meetings.. This chapter will discuss the integration of mobile devices and detail multiple mobile learning exercises that action learning teams may use to promote creativity and critical reflection.

M-Learning Apps for Film Studies

While there are many educational apps for traditionally taught subjects such as mathematics and science, more specialized curriculum has largely been left unexplored in terms of m-learning. Film studies, an academic discipline that deals with the theoretical, historical, and critical underpinnings of film, is one such subject that has very few mobile applications. This chapter explores creating a mobile application to teach basic approaches to film interpretation and in addition, considers a heutagogical approach in design. Benefits of m-learning include increased delivery options for multimedia, context-based learning support, and the prospects of a more fulfilling learning experience. This chapter provides direction for implementation and evaluation techniques for an introductory film studies module on film noir, which can be integrated into a mobile format to make film theory more relevant and accessible.

Electronic and Mobile Learning for Workforce Development

This chapter covers the construction of a digital ecosystem grown organically to digitize a workforce development organization. A criteria matrix was developed from a listening tour to plan and adopt blended, electronic, as well as mobile learning (e&mLearning) as part of its practices. The chapter describes the organic approach to diffuse the technological innovation for cultivating supportive teaching and learning communities. The process started with the establishment and implementation of an academic vision and strategy; the building of a blended, electronic, and mobile learning criteria taxonomy; as well as a theoretically informed, technology integrated educational framework. The results and findings of the implementation of an LMS as the foundation of the e&mLearning vision is shared, followed by recommendations from successes and organizational needs.

mHealth Interventions for Self-Management of Chronic Disease

Chronic diseases are long-term conditions that require ongoing medical treatment and are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, imposing a high socioeconomic burden. Self-management is a critical element of chronic disease management and requires considerable effort from patients. The pervasive adoption of mobile health (mHealth) technology has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery and support patients in the self-management of their chronic conditions – thereby improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare expenditures. Although a variety of mHealth interventions are widely used by diverse populations for chronic disease self-management, there is limited evidence regarding their efficacy. This chapter explores the literature regarding the effectiveness of mHealth interventions in the self-management of hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), asthma, and cancer. The mHealth issues pertinent to each disease process are addressed, as are the areas that warrant further research.

Utilizing Mobile Learning for Orphans Aging Out

How can mobile e-learning be used to support and enhance the goals of working with youth aging out of an orphanage. This chapter describes the use of an ethnographic narrative approach to tell the stories of eight young women who were “aging out” from their orphanage where many of them had spent most of their lives. The chapter examined the way in which a collaborative art community could support the participants as they narrated their lives over a 16-month period through photo-journaling and social media outlets. The focal points of this study were community building via art making and building of personal aesthetic, community engagement, reflection on self-identity, cross-cultural art education, and shared experience via photo-art narratives. The authors also examined the role of collaborative art experiences in helping these young women form social connectedness with their peers. The project was also designed to help sustain the girls digitally and virtually in the present and future. The research project studied the identity development and how these functioned within a collaborative medium that supported the young participants as they moved out of their orphanage.

Machitia

Machitia is an educator-focused mobile app prototype where educators create, collaborate, and share lesson plans. These lesson plans embed the following liberating and transformative theoretical frameworks and pedagogies called in this chapter “circles of liberation”: (1) Dis/ability critical race theory (DisCrit), (2) biliteracy, (3) culturally sustaining pedagogy, (4) radical healing, (5) critical pedagogy, (6) proficiency-based learning, (7) queer theory, and (8) decolonizing theory. After introducing those frameworks, a mapping of currently existing educator-focused platforms prelude the review of mobile technology theoretical frameworks Machitia's design incorporates. Then, the discussion turns to how all the circles of liberation and mobile technology theoretical frameworks manifest as features within Machitia. By the end of the chapter, learners and educators will have a sense of the various possibilities of, and the need for, an education-focused liberation platform.

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning From Language Instructors' Perspectives

This chapter explores instructor use of MALL in EFL/ESL classrooms. It begins with a discussion of instructor ownership as well as personal use of mobile technology. The chapter includes a discussion of overall perceptions and/or reported educational use and benefits and barriers (not tied to specific language skills.) The chapter goes on to describe how instructors use mobile devices while teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. This is followed by a brief discussion of mobile devices in situations that integrate all four skills. For each language skill, the authors also discuss perceived and/or reported benefits and barriers. Thereafter follows a discussion of trends in the focus of research questions, research methodologies, geographic location of studies, and a brief comparison in trends between earlier and later studies. The review ends with a conclusion that provides directions for future research and reminds the reader of the utility of this literature review.

Mobile Apps, Universal Design, and Accessibility in Schools

How can mobile applications may be used to enhance accessibility for individuals with disabilities in educational settings as well as to encourage the development of apps that embrace universal design principles? Smartphones and tablets, often by default, provide alternative accessible features addressing the needs of individuals with visual, auditory, and/or physical disabilities. As schools make the leap into the mobile age, it is imperative to explore mobile applications developed with the universal design learning framework in mind and intent to provide equal access in learning environments. Increased use of mobile apps in the classroom goes hand in hand with the growing popularity of these tools in everyday life outside of the school context, and this chapter is a call for greater engagement with mobile applications that have been designed to be accessible for individuals with disabilities, and to promote a more collaborative and equitable learning environment.

Power up Learning With Mobile Games

The evolution of mobile games and the subsequent evolution of designing mobile gaming experiences to support learning is captured in this chapter. The authors will address the affordances and limitations of mobile gaming as well as the learning theories and frameworks that lay the foundation for learning through mobile games. Current perceptions of mobile gaming in the classroom and the implementation of mobile games in schools are discussed. In addition, this chapter explores mobile games for social change, their prevalence, and their role in facilitating learning. The chapter also discusses differing perceptions on the issue of mobile games in and out of the classroom as well as the potential for marketability.