Reflection on Term 3 (Meta Project)
What...
At the beginning of the year, the meta project, though somewhat daunting, seemed 'doable'. I was confident in my technical skills before starting the course and hey, all I had to learn was the learning!
How wrong I was....the research paper (term 1) and the lit review (term 2) were tough but this was really difficult. Despite the early warnings to get started on the meta on time and to think about it, I was caught! The first big hurdle for me was coming up with a piece of research to do, that I was interested in and that would demonstrate my understanding of how learning and technology can come together.
I found this hard because, though I had my own experiences to draw on, learning theories were new to me and I was having trouble relating them to practical things I could do for the project. I went around in circles in April, coming up with the technical ideas but not being able to back them up with pedagogical theory. My supervisor, Macu, tried to give me avenues to explore and between us, we eventually came up with the idea of transferring the principles of the WebQuest to mobile learning.
This left with just about a month to do the whole project, from lit review to design, implementation and findings. I implemented the project in the week before the deadline, having put a lot of effort into the design and development stage. I wrote up the discussion, findings and conclusions with no contact with my supervisor as it was over a weekend before the deadline.
I found the discussion forum within WebCT to be a great support during the whole course but particularly whilst working on this project. It was useful on a number of levels. Peer support was really good for exchanging thoughts and ideas about approach and the structure of the paper. Information and pointers that had been received from supervisors were shared with others who didn't have the same supervisor.
I used it to throw out a request for inspiration for a primary school topic on which to base my mobile learning experience. I reckoned that whilst I was lacking in inspiration, some of my classmates, particularly those who are primary teachers and knew the curriculum, could help. And I was right in that - Karen suggested the minibeasts theme and pointed me to some useful resources where I found out more about the topic and how it fits into the Science curriculum.
The social aspect of the forum was great as well, especially when burning the midnight oil to get the paper written during the last week. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one struggling to get things finished or being still working at midnight. There was encouragement for flagging spirits and putting the thing in perspective - it wasn't a full scale dissertation, after all.
So what...
Again, as when I did the lit review assignment, once I had my idea, I got started by using a concept map to give myself a visual representation of the points I wanted to make in the lit review. I reused some points about m-learning (mobile learning) from my lit review but also did a lot more reading on collaboration and, more importantly, contextual learning. This gave me more to work with - I tried to focus my research on showing that mobiles could help to make learning more contextual.
The research seminar speakers in term 2 had all focussed very much on the importance of having a specific research question. Talking to my classmates, it became clear to me that this was something that is perhaps down to the approach of the researcher. Macu didn't emphasise this so much but she did try to get me to clearly state what the learning aspect would be in my research (so I was relieved to hear from her that my first draft of the lit review section was getting there). I suppose now that whilst there may be differing ways of saying it among researchers - it's the research question or it's pinning down what theory or hypothesis is being tested - it all comes down to the same thing ultimately - research has to be focussed and not going off on tangents.
I was also reminded by my supervisor that the meta project was more about proving a concept; the time given for it did not allow for making a fully-featured technical artefact or, in my case, going into too much detail on the pedagogyical theories underpinning my project. It would be easy to get carried away and I probably spent a bit too much time adding functionality to my artefact that I could have got by without, at the expense of time spent working on the paper and the actual implementation.
The participants for my research were 5th class primary school children (aged about 11). At the start of the year, I didn't think I would do my research with children, because my teaching experience has been at third level. In the end, it was practicalities that caused this to be the way - it was exam time at the college where I was teaching and I didn't have ready access to third level students or other adult learners. I did have contact with a primary school through a friend and the teacher there was willing and helpful to me in working with six of her class. This influenced the selection of a topic for the MobiQuest, but really, the subject matter was irrelevant - what was important was that there was learning taking place in an authentic context, so I could show that mobiles could help with contextual learning.
The children I worked with were very happy just being allowed to bring their mobile phones to school (and with the prepaid credit I gave them to cover the cost of text messages they sent me during the exercise). I think that what is really needed is some changes in attitude within the education system to acknowledge the positives of mobile learning and that we can use children's own embracing of this technology to improve their learning experiences.
Now what...
Printing, binding and handing in the meta project brought me a great sense of relief and unburdening, coupled with the knowledge that I could easily have spent a few more days fleshing out the findings and conclusions sections. But I was happy to let it rest by then, and relax after the very busy few weeks. It was also a good feeling to have completed this first year of the course, feeling some sense of achievement.
Something I realised while floating about on my surf-board last weekend (the June bank holiday) was that I am now much more interested than I was before in children's learning and in their development. This is a culmination of things really - I worked with children of varying ages in Ethiopia, helping them learn English. I see very young children more often now as I have friends who have young families. Having learned something about the theories of learing and development (such as Skinner and behaviourism, Piaget and cognitive psychology), I am finding it fascinating to watch children do things and interact with the world around them. With the older children, such as those with whom I did my project, I find it interesting to think more about how they are taking things in from the world around them and how they are connecting those with knowledge they already have.
Before this, I didn't think I wanted to work with children in an educational capacity but now I think that I could do this and I know that I enjoy working with them. Maybe I'll take the time to read more about child psychology and development in the future.
My original thoughts about the possibilities for ICT in education (as in my Vision website) and my lit review assignment on the potential for m-learning in Africa are still on my mind. This project has given me another direction but it is also something that could be implemented, perhaps with different research questions and/or goals, in developing countries.
