Handheld Learning

Radstock School will be presenting the latest on their PIC Learning Project at the Uniservity Stand (D130) at BETT. The times of the two presentations on "The Mobile Classroom" are 11 and 2.30 on the Thursday.

The four learners and myself are explaining how we've used our Nokia N800 Internet Tablets with the Uniservity Learning Platform to develop a more collaborative learning style, and build on the work as seen on the BECTA DVD on Learning Platforms and the HHL Conference 2008 Y Factor Awards.

I'm posting this for another member of my class whose parents want her to stay anonymous.

High Tech Class!
 

My class  has the best way of teaching - with mini Internet tablets! My class of 30 children has a N800 each all funded by our school and local council. These devices are expensive and therefore we are very careful with them. We are allowed to take them home everyday to finish homework that we have been set or to show our parents the work we have done in school that day.
                                   
Or teacher is really good at making our lessons interesting by giving us certain web sites to look at or giving us time to jot down notes whilst he is talking. Also the good thing about the N800s is that work can be saved and later on uploaded onto Uniservity (our school web site.) Our school received a letter asking if we wanted to bring 8 people from our class to go to London Olympia via Uniservity.     
     
Of course my teacher agreed and he chose 8 people to go with him to London. We all had a great day and the rest of the class back at school weren't left out because they used the n800s to communicate by the Uniservity instant messaging tool. Also, every month or so have camera crews and people in from other companies to see how we use the N800s and Uniservity. We all have great use out of our N800s and they are definitely worth having!!   

C.

Hi

For our interim report go to the SEGfL site



Or if you would like to hear it from the other side, read Iona's forum comments

https://handheldlearning.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,58/topic,1376.0

There is also a series of articles written for ICTopus Sharing Good Practice entitled "Adventures with a Learning Platform" which include some information on how we've used the devices.

http://www.ictopus.org.uk/

Philip

David

I don't want to go over ground that has already been covered in another forum- Are laptops handheld?

https://handheldlearning.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,58/topic,1262.0

To a large extent I agree with your criteria for a device, which were


I believe that for primary schools  the mobile device needs to be combined with the creative use of a learning platform to enable collaboration and sharing of content. To create web content a relatively simple device could suffice. You don't need a high quality camera or video- just one capable of producing suitable quality for posting on the Learning Platform. You do need the battery life. However, many of the applications can be housed on the Learning Platform.

The critical bottle neck is the speed of access to the web. The wifi within the school must be of high quality.

We've been using Nokia N800 Internet Tablets to try and do this. These relatively simple devices are capable of being used to good effect when combined with a learning platform. They are not a perfect solution- but then there never will be a perfect device.

Philip Griffin

Hi Iona and everyone

Iona is doing a great job at explaining what we are doing. The aim of the project is to try and integrate the Learning Platform- in our case Uniservity- with the Handheld Devices- Nokia N800 Internet Tablets.

Once I've planned it- tomorrow we are going to use the N800's to research Tudor Medicine and build up a picture of a Tudor Medicine Chest. So we'll use the tablets to do the research, and then the children can choose whether they use the N800's or pen and paper to produce the outcome. The outcome can then be added to Uniservity.

If you want to see what we are doing, you'll need to get hold of the forthcoming Becta DVD on Learning Platforms- our Tudor Day is the first video ont he DVD. It features a fair amount of work using the N800's.

OK, better get to work.

Philip Griffin

Dave



Which is precisely the point I was coming to from a different angle in one of the other forums  Are laptops handheld?[https://handheldlearning.co.uk/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,58/topic,1262.msg3512#new



It's not the device, it's how you use it! And this time I'm not making a handist comment about the number of hands you have, I'm insisting it's the pedagogy that you use with your day to day learning and teaching. It isn't a matter of bolting on the device to present practice, it's about examining our present practice and reinventing it to benefit the learner, in doing so utilising the handheld device.

Graham

I think we have different perspectives on this


For my purposes, I don't expect the device to be permanently connected to the network (who does?). What I'm expecting my learners to do is to go and do something somewhere, bring it back, change it and upload it. Perhaps it should be called just that, something, somewhere learning!

I want them to be creative with their devices and publish their efforts for others to see and to comment on, allowing both learners to improve.

Philip

Is the 21st century classroom expensive?


It seems lots of money. However, I don't think it is in many ways. The money will effect some schools- one secondary locally, but leave many untouched.

It is interesting to look at the effect of government policy on the classroom. Our school was built as semi-open plan. Then the Literacy and Numeracy hour came in, and the pressure was to go back to Classrooms. Several hundred thousand pounds later, the open plan was no more- converted into classrooms. Do we need to knock the walls down again?

Little bits of money would actually help the situation no end. If the money could be found to move the redundant heaters in my classroom and buy me some different furniture, it would make my classroom a much easier place to manage. No criticism of our school intended- it is just that we don't have the money right now- there are definitely more important things to do. I have much more space in my room than some others and so that quite rightly needs sorting out first.

And we are, of course, back to basics. I don't mean the 3R's, I mean pedagogy. The pedagogy has to inform the teachers, the leadership team, the designers and the builders. It should even inform the government!

Philip

C'mon guys and gals, anything which folds and looks like a laptop, however, mini, is not a handheld device.

Anything that you use two hands to type on is not a handheld device (unless you have three hands, one to hold it with and two to type.

It has a place, I'll admit, and is now very cheap but it doesn't give you some of the really important aspects of handheld learning. It doesn't fit in your pocket and is not fully compatible with ANYWHERE anytime learning. Probably an excellent device for sitting at a desk in a room and typing in something in Open Office (or whatever) but can you take a photo of your science experiment and upload it to the web?

A good secondary school device is what it seems like to me.

Not that the perfect device exists or will ever exist.

Philip

Why we still need classrooms.


No, we can't do without classrooms. Young children need the social interaction to make the most of the learning opportunities.

Is there anything wrong with calling it a classroom? After all, I teach a class in a room. It's all the baggage that goes with the classroom that is the problem.

Our internet finally allowing us to work as I intended, we used the technology to full advantage on Monday- responding to text. The text was on the IWB and the Learning Platform- so the chn could download it. The questions on the text were then answered on a forum- which they could all see both on their mobile devices and in the IWB in the room. I've even sent a message to one of my class who is in Italy at the moment- telling her about the forum for tomorrows lesson and asking her to contribute! If you think I'm being mean, she did ask to be involved before she left for her week away.

What made the lesson (?) memorable for me was the sheer enthusiasm of the children seeing their own answer and sharing it. Some immediately went back and improved their answer as they could see ways that it could be improved from the work of others. Although they could see all of the responses on their devices, at this point it was the IWB that was the focus of their attention. They wanted to see their response on the board and share it there with their peers.

Philip

I've just been given the devil's dictionary of education.

It defines classroom as

black chamber in which some thirty people sooner or later accept that one of them is in charge.

Sorry, it doesn't define mobile!

Philip

Oxymorons

Well, after looking that up (!) I've been thinking about it.

Learning is a social activity, and we do need the classrooms particularly at primary. We need the class part as children need to learn in a social situation. We need the room part as we have to work somewhere. Perhaps the definition should approach that of church- in that a church is not a building but when 2 or more people gather together with a particular objective in mind.

We also need the mobile part if we are going to allow greater creativity and collaboration- even (especially) at KS2.

Philip

Graham

You are right that there are other solutions to the central display of work. In fact, our project aimed to do just this via the Learning Platform. Unfortunately there is a problem, not of our making, with this. Somewhere in our LA everyones internet goes through this tiny hole. At peak times (say between 9am and 3.30pm) their tends to be a little bit of a wait while the data squeezes through, which is causing our project (and everyone else) a bit of a problem! Despite the experts trying to find where the constriction is, it is still there. Bit embarassing when you have 3 high powered visitors in the room wanting to see Handhelds interacting with the Learning Platform and even the laptop takes 5 minutes to go to a new page!

In the words of a good book, Don't Panic!

Philip

Hi

Interestingly I teach in an (air conditioned) temporary (permanent?) building at the other side of the playground, so it really is a mobile classroom in both senses of the word.

One of the advantages/disadvantages of the N800 is that it is a Linux device. This means their is a large number of enthusiasts out there developing software but that some commercial software won't run. Neither will the Sanako software- this runs on the later N810 but not on the N800- even with the updated OS2008.

The Sanako software would lock the devices down and stop the learners installing software, would cut out the bluetooth and enable total teacher control. Is this good pedagogy for the 21st century?

Having said that, it would be great to easily show all the screens from the N800's on the Smartboard at the same time. So some aspects are worthwhile.

Time to leave my mobile classroom now, I think.

Philip

Expect the unexpected

Since September I've been using a set of handheld devices, Nokia N800's, in my classroom. The idea has been to link the N800's, the Uniservity Learning Platform, via the Smartboard to create a new classroom environment. This has led to many challenges. Tasks which appeared to be obvious and easy have proved to be impossible, new ways of working have emerged.

For instance, take Bluetooth technology. The children very quickly realised that they could send each other information via Bluetooth and that such sending would be impossible for the teacher to monitor, especially if there N800 was set to silent. There is now a steady stream of Bluetooth information across the classroom. Some of this is curriculum based, much of it is not. Pictures, text, drawings, applications, games all move seamlessly around. We now have a set of class rules, which we have agreed upon, about what is proper use of a device during lessons. 

Like many other primary classrooms the seating in our room was based around tables. Six tables, each seating a maximum of 6 children, although most of the time some tables were not full. When the children are using books or pens and paper or traditional classroom mediums, one can see at a glance from anywhere in the room whether a child is on task. If they are discussing in groups or pairs, then checking that they are on task is more difficult, but still perfectly feasible. However, give the children small handheld mobile devices then the situation changes. How do you know what they are doing? Are they writing or searching the internet or are they playing a game on their handheld? There is no way of telling unless you can see what they have on their screen. First implication then, the room layout has to change. The teacher needs to be at the centre of things, to be able to move easily between the different groups and talk partners to see, hear and know what learning is happening in their room.

This immediately brings other issues. If the teacher is stationed in the middle of the room, how is power going to be pushed to their laptop or computer? It is still essential that this is connected to the interactive whiteboard and that it should be easily accessed. If the children are not facing the board, do they need chairs that swivel so that they can easily turn round. If the children are not writing on paper, do they need to be sat at tables? They will need desk space when they are writing, but at other times a group may be discussing something or recording which needs a different kind of environment.

What should the children be doing if the teacher is explaining something? Should they really be sat up straight listening? Is this what we as adults do? Are they allowed to take notes as they go along, through using spider diagrams or similar? If they are really taking control of their learning then they should know how best that they learn. If there is a presentation prepared for the interactive whiteboard, should it be available on the learning platform for the children to download? Some children will go further ahead than others- should they all be limited to the speed of the slowest child or of the teacher?

The interim report, written for SEGfL is available at


The project has been supported by Uniservity, Wokingham LA, Nokia and NexGen Solutions.