JISC Mobile and Wireless Technologies Review
Student Survey. “Ownership of personal technologies” stated the introduction, “is now pervasive and use of the internet, including Web 2.0 technologies, is commonplace” (p.3). The case study featured in ‘Effective Practice in a Digital Age’ reflecting upon Southampton Solent’s use of iPod Touches with students spoke of mobile devices enabling learning to be “timely, spontaneous and flexible” (p.28) whilst the Director of ILT at Kingston College was quoted as stating that, “Students’ mobile phones are sacred to their sense of personal and social identity: in many cases, they have made a considerable financial investment in their choice of phone and selected tariff… Mobile phone ownership is a clearly lifestyle issue for students; it is not a simple matter to invade that aspect of their lives. You have to accept there are boundaries between personal and institutional technologies that it is not always profitable to cross.” The use of specific, student-owned technologies is of particular importance when students have a disability that may impede their learning (p.9). JISC TechDIS blog about accessibility considerations relating to specific devices such as the Apple iPad (www.techdis.ac.uk/blog) but fund, through a scheme called HEAT (www.techdis.ac.uk/ getheatscheme), institutions to develop and share good practices relating to the inclusive use of technologies. Inevitably, many HEAT projects involve mobile devices and multimedia. For those institutions wanting to develop inclusive practices, but for whom the HEAT scheme may not be appropriate, JISC TechDis have two resources that may be of interest. ‘Upwardly Mobile: Getting Started in Inclusive m-Learning’ (www.techdis.ac.uk/ upwardlymobile) is a DVD-ROM that provides guidance on creating and distributing inclusive mobile learning practices. ‘GoMobile! Maximising the potential of mobile technologies for learners with disabilities’ is a publication that, in conjunction with MoLeNet, draws on the “experiences of those working in the vanguard of mobile learning and inclusivity in independent specialist colleges and further and higher education institutions” (www.molenet.org.uk/search/resource-30492.aspx). In 2010 JISC published ‘Effective Assessment in a Digital Age’, a much-anticipated resource that, amongst other things, talked of ‘moments of contingency’: “The concept of ‘moments of contingency’ [is] a pivotal factor in making assessment formative. These are critical points in the teaching and learning process where the flow of instruction cannot be predetermined. Technology does not create these moments but can enable spontaneous change to occur through affordances which can be exploited in the assessment design – for example, harnessing the portability of mobile phones to capture
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