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This article presents the results from a questionnaire filled out by 147 lifelong learners. The primary aim of the questionnaire is to analyse learning practices of adults, and to recognize patterns of lifelong learners in order to support them with technology. These patterns capture the context in which lifelong learners are more willing to learn, that is, the day of the week, duration, location, activity being performed, type of device being used, way to interact with their devices and how these aspects can affect when an adult student takes the initiative to learn. Moreover, this article examines previous publications on surveys, questionnaires and information collected with the same objective, to corroborate and contrast the findings. The contribution of this paper is identifying and describing patterns in which lifelong learners are more willing to build personal learning ecologies when supported by mobile devices.
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Everyday patterns in lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies
Bernardo Tabuenca, Stefaan Ternier and Marcus Specht
11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning
October 2012, Helsinki (Finland)
Open University of the Netherlands
page 2
Contents Problem definition Aim of the research Aim of this survey Working definitions The experiment
• Method • Demographics • Lifelong learning • Type of mobile device • Motivation • Patterns based on type of
device
• Patterns based on type of learning activity
• Patterns based on contents • Behaviour checking
notifications • Linking locations, activities in
physical spaces Conclusions References
page 3
Problem definition The involvement of adults in lifelong learning activities in Europe has been decreasing between 2005 and 2010 (Eurostat, 2011). Lifelong learners are confronted with a broad range of activities they have to manage everyday:
• Learning • Working • Everyday life throughout the day
Lifelong learning contexts: • Traditional formal programs • Non-formal education • Informal learning • Job training
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Problem definition Wong L-H (2010) Identified ten seams by which learning experiences are disrupted: • No support of informal and formal learning activities • No support for learning activities across locations, devices and
environoments. • Lack of support for ubiquitous knowledge access. • No suppport for multiple learning tasks and switching between
them • Linking learning activities with everyday life activities and the
physical world objects
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Aim of my research Development of integrated personal learning ecologies for efficient lifelong learning support. This research is focused on the combined and simultaneous use of several devices and information channels: 1. Devices need to be aware about the other devices and
interfaces that are present in the same setting. 2. An underlying educational design needs to be defined in a way
that it can make use of multiple interfaces or information channels.
3. Interfaces must get appropriately integrated in order to facilitate seamless interaction in a personal learning ecology.
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Aim of this survey • Identify patterns in which lifelong learners are more
willing to build personal learning ecologies. • Analyse learning practices in adults.
Day of the week Duration Location Activity being performed Type of device being used Way to interact with mobile devices
• Contrast our results with previous publications
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Working defini6ons Learning
“Taking the initiative to learn something actively. It can be related to work, current studies or self-fulfilment”
Learning activity (Vavoula & Sharples 2002) “The distinct acts that the person carries out during reading, discussing, listening and making notes”
Mobile device “regular phone, smartphone, tablet, multimedia player and laptop when used not always in the same place”
Personal Learning Ecology “integrated information technology devices and objects that are present in the physical environment of learners and couples these devices and objects with learning activities”
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Method An introduction section was included in order to explain the aim of the questionnaire and working definitions The questionnaire is composed by 21 items: • 5 multiple choice questions • 6 single select questions • 9 matrix selection questions • 1 open answer question
Topics of the questions: • 4 about demographics • 3 about mobile usage patterns • 2 about how timing and
content are related • 7 questions linking activities,
locations, and ways of interaction with mobile devices
• 1 identifying difficulties when learning with mobile devices,
• 3 about motivation, • 1 how familiar are they with
the concept of lifelong learning
Are we sharing the data? Yes! http://hdl.handle.net/1820/4296
Survey demographics
86
61
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Male Female Gender
43 50
27
14 13
0 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
<25 25-‐34 35-‐44 45-‐54 55-‐65 >65 Age
# lifelon
g learne
rs
# lifelon
g learne
rs
Survey demographics
99
48
11 3 1 0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Profesional Status
# lifelon
g learne
rs
27%
16%
10% 10%
8%
5%
2%
22%
Computer sciences
Engineering
Natural sciences
HumaniFes
Business
Law
Medicine
Other
% lifelong learners; N=147
Profesional domain
Lifelong learning “All learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competences within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective”
European comission (2011)
21.7
78.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
No Yes
Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner?
Type of mobile device The presence of mobile devices in lifelong learners’ daily activities is a fact: • 70.06% of the respondents use portable computers
every day
• 56.46% of the respondents use smartphones every day
• 17.68% of the respondents use tablets on daily basis
Mo6va6on to learn during the day
% lifelong learne
rs; n
=147
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
00h -‐ 06h 06h -‐ 08h 08h -‐ 10h 10h -‐ 12h 12h -‐ 16h 16h -‐ 20h 20h -‐ 00h
Mo6va6on to learn during the day Smartphone users
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
00h -‐ 06h 06h -‐ 08h 08h -‐ 10h 10h -‐ 12h 12h -‐ 16h 16h -‐ 20h 20h -‐ 00h
Lifelong learners that do not use smartphone every day Lifelong learners that use smartphone everyday
% lifelong learne
rs; n
=147
Mo6va6on to learn during the day Tablet users
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
00h -‐ 06h 06h -‐ 08h 08h -‐ 10h 10h -‐ 12h 12h -‐ 16h 16h -‐ 20h 20h -‐ 00h
Lifelonglearners that do not use tablets Lifelong learners that use tablets
% lifelong learne
rs; n
=147
PaOerns based on type of device
Hourly device usage across the day
Eoff, B. D. (2011)
PaOerns based on type of device
Daily device usage across the week
Eoff, B. D. (2011)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Non smartphone users Smartphone users
Usage of smartphones during the week
Tabuenca B., Ternier S. and Specht M. (2012)
% lifelong learne
rs; n
=147
PaOerns based on type of learning ac6vity
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 mins 1 min 5 mins 30 mins 60 mins More than 60 mins
Gaming
Listen
Read
Watch videos
Write
# lifelon
g learne
rs
PaOerns based on type of content
Arbitron M. (2012)
Behaviour checking no6fica6ons
Lopende tekst • en opsommingen
Linking loca6ons, ac6vi6es and interac6ons with mobile technologies
Linking loca6ons, ac6vi6es and interac6ons with mobile technologies. Preferences regarding genders.
Discussion and conclusions
1. Portable computers are the most used type of device. 2. Individuals that own a smartphone reported to be
more constantly moFvated to learn during the day than non-‐smartphone users.
3. Individuals that own smartphone use them constantly during the whole week. The rest of the individuals reported lower usage during working days and an increase during the weekends.
4. “Listening” is the most compaFble learning acFvity when performing other tasks at the same Fme. It is also the one where adults spend more Fme and in longer Fme-‐slots.
Discussion and conclusions
5. There are two different behaviours when adults check their mobile phone for a new SMS, missed call, email or any other noFficaFon. There is a group that only checks incoming noFficaFons when the device warns them with an alert. There is another group that check it conFnuously.
6. There is an associaFon between the learning acFvity being performed (reading, listening, wriFng, or watching) and the concrete locaFon where it takes place.
7. Learning acFviFes are mainly performed when adults are with their legs stopped. • The “reading” and “wriFng” learning acFviFes mostly take place being
sat (sofa, desk, train, bus and toilet) or lying on somewhere (bed). • Si=ng in the sofa is the concrete place where adults reported the
higher acceptance when carrying out any learning acFvity. • However, the “listening” learning acFvity that takes part more evenly
in the different locaFons, on-‐the-‐move and embedded in different acFviFes.
Discussion and conclusions
8. Men and women behave in a differently when making use of their mobile devices. Not only in the way to perform learning acFviFes depending on the context, but also in the way to adend to an incoming noFficaFon on their mobile phones.
9. Lifelong learners reported that their learning experiences are disrupted. Finding a suitable Fme slot to learn during the day is the most frequent difficulty reported by parFcipants.
10. There is a high rate of individuals that are not familiarized with the concept of “lifelong learning”.
Future research Evolving and maturing the “Ecology of Smart Learning Objects Design Framework” with empirical data
Ecology of Resources. Luckin (2010)
Ambient InformaFon Channels model. Specht (2009)
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References • Arbitron, M. (2011). No prime time for Smartphone. Retrieved from
http://www.zokem.com/2011/06/no-prime-time-for-smartphone • Eoff, B. D. (2011). How We Use the Tools We Choose: A Week of Worldwide Usage Data. Retrieved
from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/does_your_device_change_the_way_you_use_info.php • European C. (2011). Making a European area of lifelong learning reality. Retrieved from http://
www.bologna-berlin2003.de/pdf/MitteilungEng.pdf. Eurostat. (2011). Lifelong learning statistics. Retrieved from http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Lifelong_learning_statistics
• Eurostat. (2011). Lifelong Learning statistics. Report. Brussels: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Lifelong_learning_statistics
• Luckin, R. (2010). Re-Designing Learning Contexts: Technology-Rich, Learner-Centred Ecologies. Learning. Routledge.
• Specht, M. (2009). Learning in a Technology Enhanced World. Heerlen: Open University of the Netherlands. http://hdl.handle.net/1820/2034
• Tabuenca B., Ternier S., and Specht M. (2012). Orchestration of smart learning objects in a learner-centred ecology of resources. Heerlen: Open University of the Netherlands. (On review in Journal of Education, Technology & Society)
• Vavoula, G., & Sharples, M. (2002). KLeOS: A personal, mobile, Knowledge and Learning Organisation System. Proceedings of IEEE International Workshop On Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education
• Wong, L-H. (2010). What Seams do We Remove? - The Ten Dimensions of Mobile-assisted Seamless Learning. ICCE.
