Book Image

Moodle for Mobile Learning

By : Mark Aberdour
Book Image

Moodle for Mobile Learning

By: Mark Aberdour

Overview of this book

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous and offer many new possibilities for learning. Moodle, when combined with a mobile device, opens up a new world of possibilities to teachers, instructors, and training professionals to develop their courses. The learning experience can be hugely improved by playing to the strengths of mobile devices, and Moodle for Mobile Learning helps you do just that."Moodle for Mobile Learning" is a practical, hands-on guide that provides you with ideas and step-by-step exercises that will help you leverage the features of mobile devices in your Moodle course designs. It also aims at providing you with hands-on knowledge in creating mlearning courses so that you can create your own effective mobile learning interactions.Looking at the underlying theory of mobile learning, "Moodle for Mobile Learning" aims to enable you to apply this to course design using Moodle. Organized into key sectors including schools, further and higher education, and workplace learning, this book will take you through a number of clear, practical recipes that will help you to take advantage of mobile technology in your Moodle course design.You will learn how to develop your mobile learning strategy and whether to use a mobile friendly Moodle theme or a Moodle mobile app to deliver your strategy. There are certain types of learning activities that are perfectly suited to mobile delivery. We look at delivering podcasts, engaging with social media, setting up photo, video and audio assignments, setting up eBook and App libraries, uploading audio assignment feedback, submitting reflective logs, using chat and messaging tools, using web conferencing and much more.Mobile devices already form the backbone of your learners' daily lives. If you want to use Moodle to bring those devices into the learning process, then this is the book for you.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Moodle for Mobile Learning
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Appendix
Index

The capabilities of mobile devices


Anyone can develop mobile learning. You don't need to be a gadget geek or have the latest smartphone or tablet. You certainly don't need to know anything about the make and models of devices on the market. The only thing the learning practitioner really needs is an understanding of the capabilities of the mobile devices that your learners have. This will inform the types of mobile learning interventions that will be best suited to your audience. The following table shows an overview of what a mobile learner might be able to do with each of the device types. The Device uses column on the left should already be setting off lots of great learning ideas in your head!

Device uses

Feature phone

Smartphone

Tablet

Gaming device

Media player

Send texts

Yes

Yes

   

Make calls

Yes

Yes

   

Take photos

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Listen to music

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Social networking

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Take high res photos

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Web searches

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Web browsing

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Watch online videos

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Video calls

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Edit photos

 

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Shoot videos

 

Yes

Yes

 

Yes

Take audio recordings

 

Yes

Yes

 

Yes

Install apps

 

Yes

Yes

 

Yes

Edit documents

 

Yes

Yes

 

Yes

Use maps

 

Yes

Yes

 

Yes

Send MMS

 

Yes

Yes

  

View catch-up TV

  

Yes

Yes

 

Better quality web browsing

  

Yes

Yes

 

Shopping online

  

Yes

  

Trip planning

  

Yes

  

Bear in mind that screen size will also impact the type of learning activity that can be undertaken. For example:

  • Feature phone displays are very small, so learning activities for this device type should center on text messaging with a tutor or capturing photos for an assignment.

  • Smartphones are significantly larger so there is a much wider range of learning activities available, especially around the creation of material such as photo and video for assignment or portfolio purposes, and a certain amount of web searching and browsing.

  • Tablets are more akin to the desktop computing environment, although some tasks such as typing are harder and taking photos is bit clumsier due to the larger size of the device. They are great for short learning tasks, assessments, video watching, and much more.