BETT 2012 talk

1. User Generated Contexts:
Use of mobile technologies by primary
school children in five schools in North
East Lincolnshire
BETT 2012
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6058
John Cook
Learning Technology Research Institute
London Metropolitan University

2. Structure
• The talk will first provide an introduction to
– the theory behind the Socio-Cultural Ecology (Pachler, Bachmair
and Cook, 2010)
– the notion of User-generated contexts (Cook, Pachler and
Bachmair, 2011)
• Look at case study: 5 schools NE England

3. Jargon Buster
• MOBILE LEARNING. “Mobile learning – as we
understand it – is not about delivering content to mobile
devices but, instead, about the processes of coming to
know and being able to operate successfully in, and
across, new and ever changing contexts and learning
spaces. And, it is about understanding and knowing how
to utilise our everyday life-worlds as learning spaces.
Therefore, in case it needs to be stated explicitly, for us
mobile learning is not primarily about technology.”
(Pachler, Bachmair and Cook, 2010, p. 6)

4. Framework : “Socio-Cultural Ecology” (Pachler,
Bachmair and Cook, 2010)
• Grounds readers by offering
– theoretical and conceptual models
– analytical framework for understanding the issues
• Recommendations for specialised resources
• Practical examples of mobile learning
– in formal (school) as well as informal educational
settings
• Particularly with at-risk students

6. Macro framework:
Socio-Cultural Ecology
• Structures (digital tools and media)
– structural properties are instantiated in practice (so links to cultural practices)
– educational institutions no longer define alone what learning and knowledge are
and they are certainly no longer the only, even the main location where learning
and knowledge can be accessed and takes place
– From push to pull, change of mass communication and media convergence
– individualised mobile mass communication and social fragmentation into different
milieus
• Agency (capacity to act on the world)
– formation of identity and subjectivity
– environment a potential resource for learning
– different habitus of learning and media attitudes; a new habitus of learning is one
of the characteristics of at risk-learners
• Cultural practices (routines in stable situations)
– Institutional settings, be they school, university, the work place etc.
– Media practices in everyday life (includes informal/non-formal)

7. Micro framework: User-
Generated Contexts
• Cook, Pachler and Bachmair (2011)
suggest we should be looking at the
student- or user-generated contexts
• The nature of learning is being
„augmented‟
– Citizens/users are now actively engaged in
generating their own content and contexts for
learning
– Calling this User Generated Contexts (UGC)
• For me UGC is a micro view of „context‟

8. User-Generated Contexts
(Cook, Pachler and Bachmair (2011)
• Users of mobile digital devices are being
„afforded‟ synergies of knowledge distributed
across local, augmented and virtual:
– people
– communities
– location
– time (life-course)
– social contexts and sites of practice (like socio-
cultural milieus)
– systems, structures and media

9. User-Generated Contexts
• mobile digital devices are mediating access to
external representations of knowledge in a
manner that provides access to cultural
resources.
• This dynamic digital tool mediation of meaning-
making allows users to negotiate and construct
internal conceptualisations of knowledge and to
make social uses of knowledge in and across
specific sites or contexts of learning.

10. Case study:
5 Schools NE England
• In June 2011 gave talk in the Faculty of
Education, University of Hull
• Made various visits to Schools in the North
East of England to discuss a planned
project.
• Kevin Burden (coordinating project) from
University of Hull has subsequently been
collaborating with me

11. • Project investigate the use of mobile
technologies by primary school children
• Five schools in North East Lincolnshire
(September, 2011 onwards),
• see:
http://handheldlearningproject.wikispaces.
com/

14. http://handheldlearningproje
ct.wikispaces.com/East+Rav
endale+Primary+School

15. http://handheldlearning
project.wikispaces.com/
Sinehills+Primary+Scho
ol

16. Kevin Burden
• Just completed an initial parental survey
• Interviewed each head in December to get
a feel for early progress
• Some themes
– increased parental engagement,
– greater creativity in the curriculum
– new forms of literacies are beginning to
emerge.

17. Kevin Burden
• There are now over 700 personal devices
across the alliance
• This is also emerging as a significant
factor
– pupils have 24/7 access to the device)

18. Kevin Burden
• “I have run the socio-cultural framework
past the teachers involved and will be
using it again on 12th Dec when we have
our next project meeting. I think they find it
hard to understand or articulate in its
present form but I suspect that most of the
constructs behind the model are actually
present, they just don't have the same
vocabulary”

19. Kevin Burden
• “In future work, a key approach will be
the use of action research champions to
help explore how the socio-cultural
ecology can be used to used help
teachers move away from technological
determinism and articulate or
conceptualise there practice in a wider
frame.”

20. Conclusions
• User Generated Contexts seen as
effective way of viewing what is going on,
• How many different user generated
contexts?
– Parents
– Teachers
– Heads
– Children
– Researchers

21. Conclusions
• Home-school links enhancement of
learning
• Outside in, inside out …

22. References
Cook, J., Pachler, N. and Bachmair, B. (2011). Ubiquitous
Mobility with Mobile Phones: A Cultural Ecology for
Mobile Learning. E-Learning and Digital Media.
Special Issue on Media: Digital, Ecological and
Epistemological.
Pachler, N., Bachmair, B. and Cook, J. (2010). Mobile
Learning: Structures, Agency, Practices. New York:
Springer.