M-learning successfully underway at Howick College

Nathan Kerrs’ (left) and Robert Douglas’ work has won a number of national and international awards

Howick College in East Auckland has undergone a M-Learning Capability (MLC) pilot project, which aimed to highlight early evidence of how mobile devices may help re-define teaching and learning in the decade ahead.

The project was a collaboration between the school, the University of Waikato’s Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, NetSafe, Vodafone, and Manzana.

Howick educators, Nathan Kerr and Robert Douglas, continued their earlier work in collaboration with the eLearning unit of the MoE. In 2007/2008, both teachers and their students worked out how to send and receive interactive study notes on their mobile phones.

Dr Noeline Wright, senior researcher of the project, said the University became involved, as “the mLearning project was an opportunity to understand what happens when mobile devices are used for learning purposes in school contexts.”

The project was undertaken across various subjects (Geography, Food Technology, Japanese, ESOL, and Classic Studies), and year levels (Y9 to Y13).

The key point retrieved from student interviews was that the students enjoyed using their mobile devices for learning: they carry them all the time and are very familiar with how they work. Students designed the content and saved it onto their devices, making it available for easy review.

In languages classes, narrating their files helped students hear their pronunciation and reinforce specific vocabulary and its contextual uses (such as the weather, or giving directions). In geography, their volcanology topic files provided content for mid-term exam preparation.

The study notes were ‘zapped’ into the mobile devices via the students’ BlueTooth functions contained in their mobile devices. If BlueTooth was not available, the study notes were transferred via mini/micro SD card exchange.

The project arose as the students wanted their mobile devices to have greater multi-media functions - such as video editing, scientific calculator function, and document reader software. The students wanted their mobile devices to be a “communications Swiss army knife” and to help them improve learning by allowing them to study “anywhere, anytime”.

The project itself has been seen by many overseas observers to be the first step towards helping schools not becoming “pen and paper islands, in a digital sea”.

Vodafone’s CEO, Russell Stanners, says, “Vodafone is incredibly excited to help Howick College and the MoE further develop mLearning. Mobile phones are a key part of young people’s lives and mLearning provides an opportunity to embrace this new technology in a safe and controlled environment turning the mobile phone into a tool for learning.”

Howick’s principal, Mr Iva Ropati, said, “The project was highly successful in engaging students in a different type of learning. Many of our students are already heavy users of mobile devices and this project showed exciting early examples of 21st-century teaching and learning approaches.”