Week 8 – Lisa G

I’m responding this week to Heather Zimmerman’s “Facilitating Place-Based Learning in Outdoor Informal Environments with Mobile Computers.” I’m vacillating between whether I find this article incredibly smart because it provides a very simple framework in which to make mobile-based learning more purposeful or meaningful (through a direct connection to place), or, if I find it uncompelling because the parallels they draw between placed-based education and mobile learning are so obvious, bland, or tame.

Statements like, “mobile technologies afford capabilities such as photo and video display that can be used to highlight important cultural, ecological, geographical, historical, and/or geological aspects of a place so learners compare and contrast characteristics to build explanations,” cause me to feel the assertions are so watered-down that it’s hard to construct an argument in favor of their framework. Reading this reminded me of watching moms on Facebook make remarks that they believe are incredibly informed, but that their children shrug at, or are embarrassed by.

However, their three guidelines may prove more useful than this initial impression if they can be harnessed and energized to direct student or user activity with greater momentum. Perhaps we can infuse these three guidelines with a bit more pizazz tomorrow, so we have some weighty indicators with which to evaluate our designs’ effectiveness in building some kind of local community or greater sense of perspective taking.