University of Maryland Mobility Initiative

University of Maryland was interested in exploring how students used mobile devices to enhance their educational experience with a specific focus on teaching and learning. They also wanted to see how mobile support could be raised to the enterprise level - which is something we're interested in exploring as well.

In Fall 2008, they recruited a group of 175 students who owned iPhones and iPod Touches (40/60% split). They started with campus navigation, clicker uses, and mobile access to Blackboard. In the second year, they had a set of loaner devices that they loaned out for use to 10 faculty fellows who had submitted proposals on how they expected to use them in their courses. In the third year, they added a Digital Cultures and Creativity program with 55 students in an existing community of students who have classes together (interesting approach that may related to something like our Paterno Scholars). They also added a mobile app programming competition.

Overall, they have had fairly low student participation in ongoing meetings to discuss their use of mobile devices. They are thinking of revising the program to be a 1-credit honors course to put more of a structure around the program and more of an incentive for ongoing participation.

In one of courses, "Information 3.0", (either in year 2 or 3) that integrated iPod Touches into their course, students were asked to maintain a blog on a topic of their choice and use the iPods to record interviews with people who have expertise in that area to post to the blog. They also had to explore different mobile apps. A final project was to explore the use of mobile devices by their peers and report on those results to the rest of the class.

They have a class specific app that aggregates feeds from the university, feeds from the local zip code, class-related tweets, technology-related news, a mobile-friendly HTML page with links to assignments and such, class videos, etc... Very interesting - I could see doing something like this with the globalization program within the Schreyer Honors College instead of creating a web interface for aggregating information about different regions of the world (okay - that was a bit cryptic, but it will serve more as a mental note for myself and Cole will understand what I mean). Ron said that he would be happy to share the code for his app and let other people modify it - WOOT!

URL of the Information 3.0 course:
http://info3pt0.blogspot.com

As part of the Digital Cultures and Creativity project, all of the students got iPads that they use in multiple classes. They were asked to do things like spend 15 minutes researching a topic like "jailbreaking the iPad" and then having a debate about it by the end of class. The student presenter (Victoria Lai) is using multiple e-Reader apps and online periodicals like the Wall Street Journal that the class was asked to read throughout the semester. She also uses a variety of to-do and reminder apps. Interesting - she has a net book as well, but finds herself reaching for the iPad when she needs quick information or to read because it is quicker and more convenient. She is part of a group that is working on a new web site for honors students. She uses her iPad for design meetings as well as to test how the site will look on mobile devices. She is a computer science student who is currently working with a group of students on a project for the mobility contents where they are creating floor plans for university buildings. Overall, VERY interesting to see how use changes when a student is going to keep a mobile device (versus having it on loan), is using it in multiple classes, and is using it along with others in a cohort who have them as well. This may have implications for the iPad project that the Hazleton campus is working on with its honors students.

A few more details about this program. Ron Yaros is the faculty member in charge of the Digital Cultures and Creativity project. It is a two-year project with a focus on people who are doing innovative things online: artists, musicians, game designers, bloggers, etc... Students are asked to bring iPads with them to class. Students are only asked to download free apps. Although students were originally expected to program their own apps, but that is more difficult than originally thought because of the requirements. However, it's a good idea for something like a university-wide mobility contest that would involve a team of writers, programmers, artists, musicians, testers, etc... Ron has found that the iPad is a great common artifact since it lends itself easily to discussions of a broad range of topics from copyright and intellectual property, history, and science.

There has been some negative student media coverage around this project because the university spent money on providing iPads to a select group of students. Students are responsible for replacing the iPad if they lose or break it. If they complete the two-year DCC program, the iPad is theirs to keep. If they leave the program early, they need to either return it or pay for it. There are some technical limitations on the device because it doesn't have a camera or real GPS. However, none of these issues compare to the kind of educational explorations that they've been able to do.

More on the Digital Cultures and Creativity Project:
http://dcc.umd.edu

Although they are Apple-specific now, it appears that all of their pedagogical applications would work on a wide variety of devices such as Android-based tablets. They are planning to extend this program to include all honors students (1000 students) and expect that this program will go away in 3 years as mobile devices become ubiquitous.

Best source for links to all of their mobility information:
http://mobility.umd.edu

Just as a side-note, I'm seeing more people actively using iPads at this conference than their laptops. Considering that they are one year old and the budget issues, that's an amazing indication of penetration, at least within the educational technology mental space.