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Abilene Christian University to Advance the Future of Books, Student Engagement in Year Three of its Mobile-Learning InitiativeABILENE, Texas --(Business Wire)-- With a fall 2010 freshman class of digital natives and a campus fully saturated with iOS devices, Abilene Christian University's (ACU) mobile-learning initiative, Connected, enters its third year with dozens of real-world projects designed to find new ways to learn, work and collaborate in the digital age. ACU's mobile-learning initiative, which is based on Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, has attracted partners including Cambridge University Press, Alcatel Lucent (News - Alert), Inkling, McGraw-Hill and GetYa Learn On. ACU's 5,000-student/faculty campus is the test-bed for the partner projects. Over two years of empirical investigations of the impact of mobile learning on student outcomes at ACU have shown that:
2010-2011 CONNECTED RESEARCH PROJECTS Inkling / McGraw-Hill / ACU Digital Book Pilot Classes As part of ACU's partnership with Cambridge University Press and Alcatel Lucent to research the future of digital books, 50 students taking ACU's fall 2010 economics course, Principles of Microeconomics, will explore Apple's (News - Alert) iPad using McGraw-Hill's digital text, "The Micro Economy Today 12/e" by Schiller and Inkling's iPad app that displays interactive digital textbooks. "The students and their instructor will be regularly surveyed throughout the semester," said Scott Perkins, Ph.D., coordinator of research for ACU's mobile-learning initiative. "These surveys will provide insight on the benefits and challenges of using a digital platform for an entire college course - feedback that will likely reach to the upper levels of corporate interest." A second Inkling / McGraw-Hill / ACU pilot will occur in ACU's Marketing Strategy course. The text, "Marketing 10/e" by Kerin et al, will be delivered on iPad. In addition to this digital text, students will also use iPads as survey/data collection devices, involving the assessment of the microeconomics pilot class as well as their own class. "What we're discovering in mobility is driving new needs for flexible texts, and that's driving lots of creative thinking and activity for us about digital texts," said Dr. William Rankin, ACU's director of educational innovation. "But before we head down that road, we want to understand how digital texts influence learning and how people interact with digital texts." Prototype testing from ACU's partnership with Cambridge University Press and Alcatel Lucent's Bell Labs (News - Alert) are planned for later in the fall 2010 semester on the ACU campus. 2010-2011 Mobile-Learning Fellows / Projects Each year ACU names a handful of Mobile-Learning Fellows, ACU faculty selected through a competitive, peer-review process to examine a topic or issue relevant to the initiative. Mobile-Learning Fellows / Projects selected for 2010-2011:
Exploring the iPad as an Educational Tool A new generation of mobile devices is changing the education landscape, offering students opportunities for dynamic, individualized learning. Abilene Christian University faculty members have experimented with iPhones and iPod touches in education for the past three years. With the introduction of the iPad in the spring of 2010, ACU faculty will explore the use of this new touchscreen device as an educational tool. Individual and small team iPad projects for the coming year include, but are not limited to:
GetYa Learn On (GYLO) The GYLO-ACU research collaboration will be expanded to also compare student experiences using GYLO's Statistics I application on the iPhone (News - Alert)/iPod touch verses the iPad in an introductory-level course. Three Interrelated Mobile-Learning Initiatives A three-year, $1.8 million contribution from AT&T (News - Alert) will support building the infrastructure for three initiatives that will serve as a laboratory for the ongoing exploration of mobility in education:
ACU Online ACU's Leadership of Digital Learning program, a graduate certificate designed to produce innovative K-12 leaders for the 21st century classroom, provides each student with a 3G-enabled Apple iPad, connected to new learning applications embedded in the curriculum. 2010-2011 DEVICE BREAKDOWN ON THE ACU CAMPUS Freshmen - iPhone 4 Sophomores - iPhone 3GS (same phone as given freshman year, fall 2009) Juniors - upgrading to iPhone 4 (first class given devices in fall 2008) Seniors - iPod touch (fall 2010 will be first year with devices) All Faculty - iPhone 4 iPads - 150 units split between students and faculty ABOUT ACU'S MOBILE-LEARNING INITIATIVE, CONNECTED In a world of search engines, social networking, and mobile computers, students have access to more information than one could process in a lifetime, Abilene Christian University launched a mobile-learning initiative, Connected, in 2008. The initiative trains students to not merely consume these vast amounts of information, but to assess information, to synthesize thoughts, to generate new ideas, and to contribute meaningfully to conversations of global importance. ACU is committed to exploring how these technologies can be used to help people learn in new ways and discovering how these tools can aid us in its mission to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world. U.S. News & World Report named ACU one of "America's Best Colleges" in 2011 ranking 19th overall; ranked first up-and-coming school in its 14-state western region and ranked second for undergraduate quality teaching in its region. In 2010, Forbes rated ACU in the top seven percent of colleges and universities in the USA. Nearly 5,000 students attend ACU, including about 630 graduate students, from 49 states and provinces in the USA and about 40 nations. For more information visit http://blogs.acu.edu/connected http://issuu.com/abilenechristian/docs/acumobilelearningreport2009 iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc. |
