I’m one of the students of the MOOC Instructional Design for Mobile Learning (#ID4ML) and the first task is to ask ourselves if we have the competencies to face the change of habit to mobile learning environments.
At the very beginning I was eager to say “YES! of course” as I’m Instructional Designer and I’ve been in the elearning industry for a while. We should assume that according to that experience I should have the competencies needed. Or maybe not?
So before answering the question I asked myself, “why don’t you do some research about what are those competencies linked to mobile instructional learning environments?”. Just in case to proof I’m not wrong.
What are the competencies in mobile learning environments?
At this point, I’m going to focus on a person like me who is expecting to design mobile learning experiences. In that sense, I’m not going to talk about the competencies of the students in a mobile learning environment, but from my perspective, as Instructional Designer.
I googled “competencies mobile learning” and the first entry was the following article Top 8 competencies of mobile learning designer written by Ravi Pratap Singh.
After reading this post and doing some additional research I’m able to answer the following questions:
Do I have the competencies to face the change of habit to mobile learning environments? If not, what do you think you need to learn?
Yes, I have the knowledge, the skills and the attitudes needed. However, I’m aware that is important to pay attention to the new trends or other initiatives to get inspired.
Where does mobile learning incorporate into your current learning environment?
From my experience, learning is not black or white. It’s not about learning in front of a pc, or just using my mobile or using my tablet to learn something knew. Learning is a combination of all of them as now, more than ever the learning experience happens everywhere. My learning experience is a whole puzzle. I bet yours it’s similar.
In that sense, how I learn through mobile?
I curate information from Twitter using a combination of different apps such as Evernote or IFTTT. Then I read them all later on in my tablet or pc and try to fit that new knowledge to my world.
When I travel I have previously downloaded and app or information about the city I’m visiting. Some museums have their own applications and I use them to get further information about paintings or whatever along the different areas.
I have used some AR applications to discover facts about my own city, Barcelona.
But I’m also using my mobile to learn something new while having a cup of coffee in a cafeteria with Wi-Fi. Sometimes I click on Youtube to find a recipe, sometimes I check some Instagram accounts where people publish how to make up or perform something in less than 5 seconds.
I use Duolingo to practice German when I’m on the bus, but when I don’t understand some grammar topics I go for other resources such as books, both digital or the regular ones.
So, my mobile learning experience happens everywhere, but it’s a piece of my learning journey. Sometimes the information grabbed in a mobile context is used to enhance or to complement my whole learning experience.
What about you guys? What’s your mobile learning experience.
Here are some mobile learning recommendations for today: