Devices and Design : Improving online learning experiences for adult students with low level digital skills

A reflection for Adult Learners Week 1 - 8 September 

I'm thinking 🤔 a lot about the devices my students are actually using in this period of the health emergency to participate remotely - at least 3 of my 14 only have mobiles (though luckily all Smartphones). 

This obvious ‘disadvantage’ has led me to start designing my lessons “to maximise viewing for mobile”. It’s also part of a strategy to give students with varying levels of digital competence choices in terms of the type of ‘workbook’ they wish to work in. 

Nearly everyone has graduated to working through Google Docs now (I can even correct, comment and chat with them at the same time as they write!) but there is the option for anyone to either download the workbook in Word or PDF. 

The PDF version is probably the best alternative for those struggling to view and work with the document through a tiny screen. It is also a basic ‘entry level’ alternative for students new to class who might be overwhelmed and are only capable at this stage of downloading and printing out. It is easily printable for those who want to write by hand, photograph the pages and return it to me by txt or email. 

Some interesting observations from the end of Term 2 gleaned from my students’ learning plan review/interview sessions:

• 3 of then 13 had their own dedicated devices, apart from a mobile, peripherals (printer) and had a good internet connection (predictably those performing at the top of the class);
• 4/13 had devices, peripherals and connectivity they had to share with other family members which limited their ability to study;
• 6/13 had very limited access - usually just a mobile phone and a small amount of data on often over-priced phone plans. Half of these learners also had no other family members to help or support them in setting up hardware or negotiating technological problems and challenges (they are the students typically performing at the bottom of the class - another predictable correlation).

So you can see the logistical difficulties my adult learners have been working against for 16 weeks now. There have been, however, improvements and advances made. Three students from the most disadvantaged group have in the last 5 or 6 weeks either bought or got their hands on laptops or tablets and now have home internet plans. 

It’s the three remaining students with unchanged, resource poor situations who concern me. If there were no health emergency , if there were no lockdown or curfew, I’d be on their doorsteps. 

And yet there is a silver lining  - or at least some personal consolation - to this dark cloud hanging over us. I would never have gained such an insight into my students’ lack of resources - in effect their material poverty - nor devised the strategies I have to ensure our class continues and actually functions better than in did in the f-2-f environment we had in Term 1, if it were not for the prolonged time afforded us to learn together online.

 

#2, 2010: Phlog Me

Was with Michael today up in Ballarat planning sessions and strategies for taking on the Barwon Region as part of the Ementor/Champion project and along the way MG introduced me to "Phlogging" (and it didn't hurt a bit!)

In a nutshell PHLOGGING = phone blogging

Yep, we were just wrapping our heads around creative uses of "Blogs" and now we've got Phlogs to contend with :-o Actually, it's a simple extension of blogging and another easy-to-use voice technology with some wonderful possibilities for teaching and learning.

Stay tuned as Michael and I phlog together as a part of the Ementor/Champion Project. We are building a dialogue over the coming weeks using mobile and conventional telephony via ipadio.com

We have set up a Wordpress blog for our voice journal at: http://yum.vic.edu.au/barwon/

Depending on the results of this experiment we will hopefully be able to draw in our Barwon participants. At the very least we will have yet another very interesting tool to present amongst a kit bag of new and old tricks and techniques for elearning.

It might come as a surprise to you but I actually don't own a mobile phone but that does not deter the use of ipadio for Phlogging.

We discovered the conventional apparatus plugged into the wall works just as well as your Nokia or Apple Thingamejig. You call a 1800 number, key in your pin and start recording! The recording is created and almost instantaneously some very smart voice to text conversion software (SpinVox) is activated creating (an albeit imperfect) script of your verbal input.

This excites me as I can see an immediate and simple use of this technology for my ESL and Adult Lit students who are adept (if not totally addicted and almost physically attached to their mobiles).

The bonus is the voice to text generated script which can be edited and recycled. You can save the script for discourse analysis in the classroom afterwards.

I imagine creating questions on a website or blog and getting my students to "phone in" their answers anywhere, anytime. They could do their oral presentations from a mobile phone, do on the spot commentaries during excursions and I have only just started thinking about what we could do as a group if the Speaker Phone function were turned on.

Have a read of the EDUCATION section on the ipadio site to gauge broader, potential uses. Here's an intereresting snippet:

Mobile technology is playing an increasingly large role in the classroom - most students have a phone of their own, so why not use a device that they're familiar with to engage them with education? ....

... In brief, Ipadio technology links up the telephony networks with the internet, enabling the live broadcast of audio directly to the internet... all from a standard telephone. There's never been an easier way to record oral assessments, create revision podcasts or collect homework.

For more about educational uses click here

It's the potential applications (not the technology per se) which really stirs the imagination. Michael and I talked a lot about this today ...embracing the principle of "applying technology" and developing new techniques as opposed to getting caught up in the worship and hyped-up promotion of applications and technologies for their own sake. It's how you use the tools, not the tools themselves that are important.

Using ipadio.com, the recording can be easily embedded (see the example above) or else if you use Wordpress the file can automatically be fed into your blog and become a posting.

Will keep you posted on further developments.

A brilliant day MG. Enjoyed the exploration and play, the demonstrations, examples of student work from Moodle, the discussion about facilitation techniques and management inside Elluminate. Learnt more in a day than thrashing around on my own at home for weeks.

PS. thanks to you and Erin for the delicious chicken salad and umpteen cafe lattes and cups of tea. Loved YUM headquarters too - very tasteful indeed.

Looking forward to the Barwon Roadshow.

Dale