A concept map approach to developing collaborative Mindtools for context-aware ubiquitous learning

Recent advances in mobile and wireless communication technologies have enabled various new learning approaches which situate students in environments that combine real-world and digital-world learning resources; moreover, students are allowed to share knowledge or experiences with others during the learning process. Although such an approach seems to be promising and innovative, researchers have indicated several problems when applying it to practical applications, in particular, the lack of proper strategies or tools to assist the students to learn collaboratively in such a learning scenario with abundant content. Students might feel interested when using the mobile devices to learn; however, without proper assistance or guidance, their learning achievements are usually disappointing. To cope with this problem, this study proposes a concept map-oriented Mindtool for collaborative ubiquitous learning. Experimental results from a natural science course in an elementary school show that this approach not only enhances learning motivation but also improves the learning achievements of the students. Introduction Owing to the advance and popularity of computer and network technologies, computer technology-enhanced learning has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years (Ge & Land, 2004; Liaw, Huang & Chen, 2007; Williams van Rooij, 2009). Although several studies have demonstrated the benefits of learning with computers (eg, Pena-Shaffa & Nichollsb, 2004; Tsai & Tsai, 2003), educators have emphasised the importance and necessity of ‘authentic activities’ in which students can work with problems from the real world (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Chu, Hwang & Tsai, 2010; Minami, Morikawa & Aoyama, 2004; Wenger, 1997). That is, it is important to place students in a series of designed lessons that combine both real and virtual learning environments (Hwang, Tsai & Yang, 2008). Recent advances in wireless communication and mobile technologies have provided an opportunity to accomplish this objective. With the help of these new technologies, individual students are able to learn in real situations with support from the computer system and to share knowledge or experiences with others by using a mobile device with the wireless communication facility. Moreover, via the sensing technology, the learning system is able to detect and record the learning behaviours of the students in both the real world and the digital world. Such a new technologyBritish Journal of Educational Technology Vol 42 No 5 2011 778–789 doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01102.x © 2010 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2010 Becta. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. enhanced learning approach has been called context-aware ubiquitous learning (u-learning), and it not only supports learners with an alternative way to deal with problems in the real world but also enables the learning system to interact with the learners more interactively (Chu, Hwang & Tsai, 2010; Hwang, Kuo, Yin & Chuang, 2010; Hwang, Tsai & Yang, 2008; Ogata & Yano, 2004; Yang, Okamoto & Tseng, 2008). On the other hand, Vygotsky (1978) indicated that knowledge can be constructed through social interactions among peers. Interactions with peers face to face in the real world enable students to reflect upon different past experiences and thoughts. Vygotsky further emphasised that cognition originates from social activities, so learning is not only learners’ reception and adaptation of new knowledge but a process of merging into a knowledge community (Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell & Haag, 1995; Vrasidas, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978). Norman (1993) further indicated that thinking can be divided into two categories; that is, experiential thinking and reflective thinking. Experiential thinking refers to a learning process of decisions or personal experiences, while reflective thinking shows deeper reflection that happens when students add novel descriptions, revise old ones and compare the two to construct their knowledge. According to Burleson (2005), awareness and reflection can help develop students’ meta-cognition to enhance their learning and creativity abilities. Therefore, it is important to enable students to construct knowledge and to experience reflective thinking through interaction with peers. Although mobile and ubiquitous learning seems to be a promising learning approach to support situated learning with peer communications, without proper support, these new learning scenarios might be too complex for the students, and the learning achievements could be disappointing. Educators have indicated that ‘technologies should not support learning by attempting to instruct the learners, but rather should be used as knowledge construction tools that students learn with, not from’ (Jonassen, Carr & Yueh, 1998, p. 1). Among the existing technologies, computers have been recognised to be the most effective tool for supporting learning and instruction, such that the learners function as designers, and the computers function as Mindtools for interpreting and organising their personal knowledge (Jonassen, 1999; Jonassen et al, 1998; Kommers, Jonassen & Mayes, 1992). Therefore, it has become an important and challenging issue to develop collaborative Mindtools to assist learners to interpret and organise their personal knowledge in a context-aware u-learning environment. To cope with this problem, this study presents a collaborative Mindtool for mobile and ubiquitous learning based on the concept map approach. Moreover, a learning activity has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the innovative approach. Experimental results show that the learning achievements of the students who learn with the collaborative Mindtool achieve significantly better results than those who participate in tour-based mobile learning or the traditional concept map approach.