 Good day, everybody, and welcome to this webinar on the mobile learning ecosystem. At the end of this webinar, you will be able to identify the various components of the mobile learning ecosystem and understand how they come together to contribute to the effectiveness of mobile learning. You will understand how the interplay of these different elements impacts the effectiveness and quality of mobile learning. But before we actually look at all the elements of the system, it would be helpful to define what mobile learning is. The definition has been discussed in literature over the years, starting with the focus on the mobile technologies and then shifting to the role of the mobile learner and the mobility of a mobile learner, including the mobility of location, times, and context. For the purpose of this webinar, let's define mobile learning as learning or training that results in knowledge construction, skill, development, or performance support. Learners participate in this learning across various times, various locations, and settings. And yes, that learning is enabled by mobile technologies, that by mobile infrastructure, and by the devices which are handheld a little bit bigger, they fit in your pocket, they fit in your purse on, or maybe a bag like iPads, they are definitely portable. What characterized of these devices, they're connected or capable of being connected and always on. And obviously, they are personal. Many people would say they were ubiquitous. They are available all the time, everywhere, whenever you need them. But the actual definition of mobile learning truly depends on the needs of the learners we are working with and the context in which we are designing and providing that learning. This image demonstrates the various categories of the mobile learning ecosystem. I've tried to isolate the most vital dimensions of mobile learning ecosystem, but obviously they do not work in isolation. All these various categories overlap, interplay, and it's the relationship between them that actually makes the mobile learning happen. I will spend a little bit more time on every single one of these dimensions on the next slide. So we will start with the temporal, then go into transactional, physical, technological, and pedagogical dimensions of the system. So let's have a look at the temporal dimension. We're looking at the time of learning, when we're learning, how long we're learning for, within what limits. We always talk about mobile learning being flexible, time flexible, but it's very important when that learning is actually, well, when the episodes, learning episodes are conducive to knowledge construction. So we're looking both at these learnable moments at the right time and place for learning as the convenience of the learner. What we're looking at is mobile learning taking place both within schedules and outside of schedules. It may be scheduled as a component of a class, but usually it is augmenting the learning that takes place in the classroom. So yes, mobile learning is time flexible or time bound. It can be a brief learning event, or it could be a serious of those events that we go into and come out of at our convenience, or it could be a more focused, longer learning episode. We could be starting at a time that is convenient for us, pause for some time, and then return to the learning later on. So it's very important that when you design mobile learning, we take that into consideration. And it's not always that the learner or the teacher, the expert, the facilitator chooses the time of learning flexibly. As I said before, quite often we have to plan ahead what the most conducive to learning environment is and work it into our instructional design. But yes, there are opportune times where we can focus a little bit on our private practice, learning, be it even road memorization or listening to a podcast, answering to an email, asking a quick question over a text. And these are the learning activities that can be completed, for example, on the bus while you're waiting in the lineup. Even when you're watching TV, I don't know if I recommend that. But yeah, we all do that. We all pick up our phone and ask a quick question. Now, that might be, it doesn't have to be, but it might be part of our learning process. So as you can probably hear by now, the mobile learning as far as the time that we're spending on it should be rather chunked up. But it could also take a little bit longer period of time when we focus on a learning activity, be it an individual or collaborative learning activity. So it could be totally time flexible, or it could be attached to a particular moment and place in time. So I just mentioned the place of learning. Obviously the time and place of learning are interwoven, and the two of them have to interplay for effective mobile learning to take place. When we look at the physical dimension of mobile learning, we are actually asking ourselves, where does the learning take place? What is the layout of the setting? And what are the physical limits we are working with? And yes, the mobile technologies do let us navigate across various locations, various spaces, making more learning flexible. And this is one of the main benefits of mobile learning. But we also have to remember that some of the learning is actually context dependent. It's our interaction with the context we are learning with that brings in additional information. So it is important to understand that it's a spectrum of flexibility. Once again, with the time dimension, the place depends on what the learning outcome really is. Is it just listening to a podcast on the bus or at home, or is it actually focusing on some context embedded learning activity that involves other players as well? For any learning tour carer we need both the internal cognitive processes that we also need to communicate, to collaborate, to enter into a transaction with others, with other learners, with our facilitators, experts, passers-by, etc. So here we are talking about the transactional dimension of mobile learning. As you see, I divided it into three categories, the first one being interpersonal, the activities, the learning activities that are happening within the individual. These are the internal learning processes like thoughts, ideas, reflections. They are like within your private space, within your mind. And then we go to the personal space. It's an intersection of your interpersonal spaces. It's the zone of interaction with external artifacts, actions, information, tools, and any other context. It's like writing an email, reading a book, listening to a podcast. And then we move over to not so private space anymore, to a space where we share the interpersonal space, the social and public zones within which learning also takes place, and good learning, mobile learning takes place. So we're really looking at the dimension at this space where we exchange information, share information, share learning, collaborate, either within an ad hoc community or an established community. So here we will be looking at tools like Facebook and more like the one that we are participating in right now, or just going into a cafe and just learning and reflecting within your own private personal space. How do you take learning into a cafe or onto a bus? Well, that would be the portable technologies, which takes me to the next aspect of mobile learning. The technological dimension of the ecosystem. So what tools are we using? How are we using them within what infrastructure is the questions that we have to answer for the design of mobile learning and the usage of the right technology to take place? I like to think of the mobile technologies as the tools, as the enablers of what is a good mobile learning design. But these are vital enablers. This is a very important component that actually allows, affords, the flexibility for the learner and for the expert, for the professor, to communicate and learn and exchange information anytime anywhere in at the right time at the right place. The technology and the main role of the technology would be really to enable access to content, access to other learners and to the experts. While you are actually interacting with the technology, you also certain cognitive processes take place as well. And on top of that, the technology allows you to capture the context around you, allowing you to interact with the setting in which you are learning. Allowing you to create artifacts which support the learning processes and the learning outcomes, as well as share those artifacts at the end. The mobile technologies let you use educational apps, educational games that are designed for the particular device. And on top of that, they offer tools like augmented reality that allow for the empowerment and engagement of the learner in the actual learning process. So yes, once again, the mobile technologies are vital enablers of what mobile learning is all about. And finally, the pedagogical aspect of mobile learning. It is crucial how we approach the learning teaching relationship, why we are doing things that we are doing, what are the right approaches, the right theories to be implemented in the learning that we are designing, who is doing what, what materials are we using and what mobile learning, what learning, e-learning frameworks and models are we going to incorporate. We have to look into what really works in that unique environment of learning that is done on the go of learning that it's often situated embedded in a particular context in that learning that doesn't have the expert present in person there all the time, but still requires the guidance and facilitation of the expert from time to time. So we have to look very carefully of what particular strategies work in this unique mobile learning context. We have to design appropriate activities for the learners to be engaged, for the learners to actually do the learning themselves, what procedures and what content and materials are we going to put together and how are the students going to access them. Also, very important, what type of scaffolds and supports are we going to offer to those students so that they are not lost in the mobile learning process, both using sometimes new to them technology, but also taking upon themselves a new approach to learning, to learning that's often spaced out, chunked up in a bite size pieces that have to be put together in a seamless way. So what models and theories of teaching and learning are really the most appropriate for once again, rather unique approach to learning, learning on the go, learning often outside the classroom formalized environment and very often having elements on just informal learnable moments and formal learning episodes that students get involved in is situated learning what we should be really looking at the activity theory. I propose ecological constructivism that actually involves an element of interaction with the context around you and learning from the context around you. The context or activities are very powerful when you really look at where mobile learning takes place and how we're going to assess the learning of our students. We've spent a little bit of time looking at the vital elements of the mobile learning ecosystem. I discussed the five aspects of the system rather briefly, but I encourage you to think of them as interrelated. They coexist and have to be considered together. They have to be considered and looked into in much more detail for mobile learning to be designed effectively and to actually have effective outcomes. The elements that we've talked about, they evolve. They evolve as the pedagogy of mobile learning evolves, the technology and capabilities affordances of their progress. And as they evolve, the whole system emerges into something new and it offers quite an array of possibilities and benefits as well as challenges. So I encourage you to look into the benefits and the challenges of the five elements of the ecosystem in a little bit more depth. I hope you enjoyed the webinar and you learned what you were hoping to learn. Now you should be able to identify the various aspects of mobile learning. You should be able to understand what constitutes mobile learning and what contributes to its effectiveness. I'll see you in the next webinar. See you then. Bye.