PART 2

1)   Is Mobile learning for you?? What type of mobile device you have and how could you use it for mlearning? What does research say about  the future of mlearning? Read the following articles to reflect  in your blog:

 Mobile learning is becoming very popular around the world especially in developed countries due to its affordability and portability; however, I’m not sure if this type of learning will suit my needs since I like to have a person guiding me face to face in any learning journey.

 It was only two months ago that I bought a HTC Smartphone, I was reluctant to do it because I felt that it would only generate unnecessary expenses. It didn’t take me long to learn how to use it since the Android interface is so friendly, I don’t use it to take any formal courses but I have learned facts about cooking, travelling and history while surfing the web.

 The scope of mobile learning is huge since we I can use my smartphone to do many tasks I used to do in my laptop for example; I can watch videos, download podcasts, apps and other content. And as researchers have predicted learning is being centred on the individual and involve making connections to resources and other people. However, new pedagogies are required to take advantage of all these powerful devices that we use on the go daily in order to educate people.

 

PART 1

TASK 1: Try one of the iTunes U universities and see what is being offered in your area of interest. (you must install iTunes on your PC before you try this). Give details of the podcast you listened including the link.

After installing iTunes on my PC I searched the iTunes U section. I found many interesting podcasts of diverse topics. As my husband is an architect and very often I don’t know much about what he talks I decided to search podcasts related to architecture, there are so many that it was difficult to decide which to listen to. Finally, I listened to : The Voice of Drawing, History, Meaning and Resistance, Part 1. This was a symposium at Yale University and there was a panel which assembled historians, an artist, and an architect to reflect on this emergence, the development of drawing practice, the impact of digital technologies, and the values at stake in this historic transition of media. The speakers were: Victor Agran from Yale University, Cammy Brothers from University of Virginia, Deanna Petherbridge from University of the Arts, London and Juhani Pallasmaa. It was a very long podcast because after the presentation there was a moderated discussion among the speakers and audience. I found the material interesting and I now know more about drawings in the architecture profession.

You can listen it at :

http://itunes.apple.com/mx/itunes-u/is-drawing-dead-ysoa-symposium/id514592160

TASK 2:Look at some of the MOOC sites and search for a course in online education or e-learning and see if you could enroll in the course. Give some details about the course including its goals, duration, work involved etc.

I looked at 3 MOOC sites: KhanAcademy, Academic Room and Coursera. I decided to enroll to Coursera courses because they are well structured and guided. The only disadvantage is that most are under development and will start next year.

One of the courses I enrolled was: The Science of Gastronomy by King L. Chow who is a Professor of Life Science and Biomedical Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The aim of this course is to help students recognize the importance of scientific principles being applied in everyday life; so that they will appreciate and be able to apply some of these principles in their future cooking practice. Participants in this course should have little science background. The duration of the course is 6 weeks and the workload per week is of 3 to 4 hours.  Some of the activities that I’ll be doing are watching lecture videos and experimental video demonstrations, taking quizzes and doing assignments and trials at home.  There is no information provided if after completing the course participants will receive a certificate signed by the instructor as in other courses.

I received an email as to confirm my enrollment and all sounds very interesting. I hope I can learn new and useful things in this course.

You can find more information of the course here: https://www.coursera.org/course/scigast