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Over the past two weeks, in my EDU 625: Integrating Technology into Learning course, we looked at virtual environments in learning, and mobile learning. I found the material covered in both of these units to be extremely interesting. Last week I delved pretty deep into the domain of 3D virtual worlds and learning in my online discussion boards, as such environments are part of the norm in gaming -- and I am a gamer. I also took a deep dive into the world of mobile learning, and had a good "aha!" moment while going over the material -- more to come on that in a bit.
First, 3D virtual worlds and learning. I really enjoyed the unit on mobile learning as I actually play some of the games we went over. I even tried some new 3D environments such as Second Life and Kitely. I ended up doing a learning challenge using my favorite 3D virtual environment in education: Minecraft. I have been singing the praises of Minecraft in education since I first started the M.Ed program, so if there was ever going to be a case made, or a unit to go all in with Minecraft, this was it. And honestly, showing how Minecraft can be used to help in education is easily one of the highlights of my entire educational journey thus far -- and I already have one master's worth of studies to boot!
We can use Minecraft, or other 3D environments, to allow learners to be exposed to -- and visually explore settings -- all advantages as stated by Calongne (2008). There is a high level of interactivity and engagement that comes with 3D worlds when utilized effectively. For me, 3D games have been a way to “visit” and be with my friends during the pandemic, highlighting how effective the games can be when it comes to human interaction. 3D games provide a world for us to explore and provide objectives for us that we can decide we want to complete. There is a part of the human connection that these games afford; and that human connection, that “stimulation” as stated by Calongne (2008), cannot be understated in online learning; a human connection online learning is often lacking.
In our most recent unit, we learned about mobile learning. I talked at length in my discussion boards how I feel that mobile learning most be easily to use, as I consider ease of use to be the biggest barrier to mobile learning. In our text, we were introduced to various concepts in the domain of mobile learning, and the two concepts that most resonated with me were the "Mobility and Perceived Enjoyment” and “Flow Theory” concepts. Both concepts are important to me personally, because as a learner, I want to be engaged and enjoy my content; or I just tune out and can’t focus – despite my best efforts.
With the Mobility and Perceived Enjoyment concept, a learner will become more engaged in learning based on how the content is delivered. Learners can pick and choose when they learn, with complete freedom to chunk their learning as they see fit (Wankel & Blessinger, 2013). Be it on subway, the comfort of a couch, and so on, the ease in which a learner can just jump into their world of learning with mobile designed content is unmatched when the content directly allows for the natural use of mobile technologies. This process naturally leads to the concept of flow theory. According to Wankel & Blessinger (2013), flow theory is the idea that learners will focus with absolute attention to their learning content, tuning out everything, even their own self-consciousness, allowing for students to learn and absorb information at their highest ability. Simply put, if you are enjoying what you are doing, you are more likely to do it with all of your attention and focus.
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My "aha!" moment occurred when I formed a connection to what I learned in the mobile learning unit, to my experiences in instructional design as whole. Whenever I design anything in learning, my chief consideration above all else is ensuring that all students can easily access the content. But I was not consciously aware of just how important this was to me. I just always design with the end user's experience in mind and did not really think about it. Maybe I think this way because I learned about UDL (Universal Design for Learning) before I even considered a career in education, and the chief goal of UDL is to remove barriers to learning. But my "aha!" moment made me consciously aware of this thought process and how this thought process ties into my education and instructional design.
I can design the best educational resource in the world, and if students cannot reliably access the content, all that design is useless. Mobile learning highlights this importance. With a mobile device, you have one small window on one small screen open at a time, using your fingers to interact and navigate which can often make for a very inaccurate screen pointer. With such a limited amount of input and screen space, it is critical that mobile content be designed effectively, or it will fail before it even begins. And that is mostly on us, the educators, not the students.
As educators, we need to remove barriers to learning before the learning even starts to ensure that the focus and energy of the students can be solely on the learning process. Students have enough on their plates with the stressors that come with life and school. With effective design, we can try to minimize student stressors by allowing students to get right to the content so they can learn. With all of the work and stress that comes with being a student, the least we can do is give our students the best learning experience possible.
References:
Calongne, C. (2008). Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World. EDUCAUSE Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2008/9/educational-frontiers-learning-in-a-virtual-world
Wankel, L A. & Blessinger, P. (2013). Increasing Student Engagement and Retention Using Mobile Applications : Smartphones, Skype and Texting Technologies. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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