ascilite 2007 Workshop

Forming teams and preparing proposals for mLearning research to enhance student learning

Objectives	mLearning is the facilitation of learning and delivery of educational materials to students using mobile devices via a wireless medium By the completion of the workshop participants will be able to: Identify their preferred mLearning research directions and interests, Form collaborative mLearning research project teams with other workshop participants, Understand a learner-centered approach to the processes, phases and activities involved in planning and designing mLearning research projects, Develop a draft proposal for project funding including concept, rationale, objectives, outcomes and deliverables, Develop a draft project timeline and budget with examples from the facilitator's successful Carrick proposals.
Intended audience	Conference participants who are interested in getting involved in mLearning research and development projects. No prior experience is required though enthusiasm for mLearning and research is helpful to maximise your workshop outcomes.
Facilitator	Andrew Litchfield BA Communications, MAdultEducation is the Coordinator of the IT Education Research Group and Senior Lecturer Learning and Teaching, in the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney. His academic experience also includes lectureships in Media Communications and Educational Technology. He has successfully facilitated many conference workshops in learner-centred, innovative educational project planning, design and management. Andrew has extensive professional experience as a media producer, and in the planning, design and management of innovative small and large scale educational projects. He has produced numerous award winning video and mixed media projects in the 1980-90s, established Australia's first multimedia communication undergraduate subjects in 1993-4, and has lead several successful, local area based, academic staff capacity building projects in innovative ICT teaching research and development. Andrew is the co-leader of a 2006 Carrick Project TeCTra - supporting student self and peer assessment in large groupwork projects and a team member of a 2007 Carrick Project, iCurriculum - developing an evidence based curriculum design, graduate attributes, criterion based assessment and eportfolio information tool. His research interests include the diffusion of innovations, new technologies in education, media and education, curriculum design and change, and the design of educational mixed media and online learning resources. Email: ajl@it.uts.edu.au
Details of activities	In this workshop we aim to discuss and extend the mLearning research suggestions identified in the facilitator's ascilite Singapore 2007 Conference paper "Directions for mlearning research to enhance active learning" (Litchfield, 2007). We will form teams around these and your other project ideas and start the project proposal process to develop partnerships for future mlearning action research collaborations. Our five suggested action research directions are all significant issues in mLearning and all need to be better investigated: mobile supported fieldwork, fostering interactivity on campus using mobile devices, ubiquitous learning supported by mobile devices, mLearning for each discipline, strategies for low cost mLearning use. To enhance student learning, we start developing project proposals informed by the facilitator's learner-centred design framework that examines project proposal, resource development and educational design processes and activities. Workshop participants examine the activities required to successfully plan and design mlearning research projects including timelines and budgets. Plan of workshop activities Introduction Identifying your mLearning research and development interests and project ideas Forming initial project teams around common mLearning research interests Understanding learner-centered project proposal, resource development and educational design processes, phases and activities Developing your project concept, rationale, objectives, outcomes and deliverables, Developing a project timeline and budget, Conclusion and workshop evaluation.
References	Litchfield, A. (2007). Directions for mlearning research to enhance active learning. In Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/litchfield.pdf Litchfield, A. (2000). Diffused staff development to support integrating information technology into the curriculum. Proceedings ASCILITE 2000, Coffs Harbour, Australia. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/coffs00/papers/andrew_litchfield.pdf Litchfield, A. (1999). Designing multiple media learning resources. Paper presented at EDMEDIA'99 World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications, Seattle, USA, June. Raban, R. & Litchfield, A. (2007). Supporting peer assessment of individual contributions in groupwork. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 23(1), 34-47. [recipient of an Outstanding Paper Award, ASCILITE 2006] http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/raban.html