Case Study East Park Infants School and PDAs

W505 Mobile Learning
Stage 2 – 1: Mobile technology for classroom teaching


Title: Case Study East Park Infants School

General information
At East Park Infant School, a whole year 1(Y1) class, aged between 5-6 years was equipped with 30 handheld computers (PDAs). Though the students’ families generally had low incomes, most agreed to contracts with the school to eventually pay for ownership of the PDAs. The devices were equipped with applications for students to play, interact with, and learn from and students would be able to use them for 18 months in their primary school.



Analysis

1. Technology
The personal desktop assistants or PDAs students were issued and used run applications installed on SD cards accessed through their internet browser. The PDAs were equipped with styluses, had integrated cameras for photo taking, and were easily portable. They were not at this stage connected to the school’s wireless network or internet. Students could press various picture or icon links to access the various activities as some students were not yet able to read the text. Applications utilized included a numbers game, storyboarding game, word and matching games, and also a sketch game for simple animation drawing.

2. Learning design
Students were responsible for bring their PDAs to class fully charged, though about 3 PDAs from each class would not be adequately charged for use on average. Students learned the use of their PDAs through inputting sequences of simple instructions which achieved the required results.

Students would often move back and for between working on the PDAs and writing on printed paper in class. Ebooks were not used as they were not yet available for that level. Outside of school, students visited a canal and took pictures to report and relate their experiences to family. Students also took pictures of things such as kittens to present at school and some families used the devices to push forward into future lessons and materials.


3. Pedagogy
The various activities that were made accessible to students through using the PDAs were impressive. Students could enjoy engaging and interactive methods of learning and practicing new learning materials such as numbers and vocabulary. This learning mode would benefit more kinesthetic and hands-on learners. Learning was flexible in that some activities were could be completed on the PDAs, some on paper, and some utilizing both.

Critique
This case meets my criteria for mobile learning in that mobile devices allowed users to access learning tools and applications. Stores of knowledge such as dictionaries or other content could be accessed if downloaded onto the devices but could not be accessed through the internet. Also, collaborative learning activities could not experienced while students were outside classrooms, though the devices could assist in classroom collaborative activities.

I believe it’s a good thing that students in this case have become so familiar and comfortable with using technology devices at such a young age though I caution teachers to keep reading and writing standards consistent. Are students learning to write with spell check on? Is that a good thing because it gives students instant feedback, or will students come to rely on it and not be able to write or spell properly on their own without the help of devices?

Making the devices available to connect to each other on a wireless network could have been beneficial for students. They could have played games with or against the other students in the class and the competition may have made the activities all the more compelling. I feel the applications didn’t properly utilize the potential for collaborative interactions between students. Finally, it would have been great if student progress could be posted online and made available for their parents to track.