Mobile learning/Cases/Maths

Mobile Learning of Mathematics

• The Math4Mobile project examines the opportunities of ubiquitous and personal technologies for educational purposes, specifically of using the mobile phone for teaching and learning mathematics. http://www.math4mobile.com/

Readings

Daher, W. (2010), 'Building mathematical knowledge in an authentic mobile phone environment', Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 26 (1) , 85-104. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/daher.html

Although many researchers have examined knowledge building in traditional settings and distance learning, few have examined middle school students' building of mathematical knowledge using mobile phones. The present study uses two well-known models of knowledge building to carry out the examination: the interactive analysis model of knowledge building phases developed by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson 1997 and the six themes model of knowledge building characteristics developed by Scadamalia and Bereiter 2006. The findings show that the middle school students participating in this research went through all the knowledge building phases suggested by Gunawardena, Lowe and Anderson 1997. They further experienced other knowledge building phases that fit the authentic context in which they learned. Participants advanced their knowledge of ideas as a community, collaborating to carry out authentic activities using mobile phones. They demonstrated constructive and critical use of information in general and of authoritative information in particular. Participants worked as mathematicians, especially during the second part of the experiment, when they suggested real world phenomena to explore using the mobile phone. My conclusion suggests learning mathematics by carrying out authentic activities using mobile phones, to encourage and enrich the mathematics knowledge building of students in K-12.

Botzer, G. & Yerushalmy, M. (2007), Mobile application for mobile learning, in 'International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age'. http://www.math4mobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Mobile-Application-For-Mobile-Learning.pdf

The paper presents a pilot case study intended to examine how socio-cultural and situated learning aspects are reflected in learning experiences within a novel mobile learning environment, Math4Mobile, a cellular application for mathematics learning. The case study focused on four students in a mathematics methods course who were engaged in a mathematics project based on the cellular applications. We found that use of the cellular environment enhanced the participants’ engagement in the modeling of real life scenarios and contributed to collaboration between participants. These effects can be attributed to the mobility, flexibility, and availability of cellular tools, and they point to a possible contribution of mobile tools to mathematics education.