Teaching development grants final and financial report: Promoting mobile learning in the EdUHK and beyond through further development of a mobile learning community

In recent years, the fast development of mobile technologies has greatly enriched and assisted students’ subject learning in higher education, and more and more lecturers have started using mobile technologies (smart phone, tablet, pocket pc, notebook, etc.) to assist their teaching. This project aims to showcase the vitality and creativity of tertiary students of different levels (undergraduates, masters, doctorates) and from different disciplines (Science, Social Science, Education, Arts and Humanities, etc.) in mobile learning, and lecturers’ good practices of utilizing mobile technologies in assisting their teaching, with the ultimate goal of promoting mobile learning in the HKIEd and beyond. From 2013 to 2015, through a Community of Practice (CoP) project led by the current PIs, a Mobile Learning Community (MLC) was established successfully in the HKIEd. Although the CoP project was a success, without funding support, it is hard to sustain the meaningful community activities. In this newly proposed project, we aim to promote mobile learning in the HKIEd and beyond through further development of the Mobile Learning Community we have established. First, we aim to expand the membership of the MLC, and include members from sister institutions in Hong Kong, and from overseas institutions. A survey among HKIEd staff members about their current practices regarding the use of mobile technologies in their teaching will be conducted, and follow up interviews will be carried out, so as to identify and promote good practices of mobile-assisted teaching. Students’ mobile learning stories will also be collected and shared. Furthermore, we will conduct a series of seminars/workshops/sharing sessions on mobile learning by students and staff from HKIEd, and invite experts in this area from outside HKIEd to give public lectures on mobile learning. E-portfolios about students’ mobile learning experiences and teachers’ mobile-assisted teaching experiences will be compiled and uploaded onto the MLC website. Large number of App reviews related to different subject learning written by students will be uploaded onto MLC website for sharing as well. A Facebook page will be created to allow community members to exchange ideas about mobile learning conveniently. It is hoped that, through this project, an extended and intensive study of the use of mobile technologies by students and academic staff can be carried out, which will shed light on how mobile technologies can be integrated into existing technology use in higher education and enhance students’ subject learning.