Despite the increasing popularity and adoption of mobile devices by young peoples, universities and schools are only recently starting to consider if and how these technologies can be harnessed for formal learning and there is a dearth of research-informed advice and guidance to support educators in integrating them into their practices to effect pedagogical change. This is particularly noticeable in Teacher Education which straddles both the Higher Education and school sectors, helping to prepare new teachers, and in turn students, for the challenges of the 21st century. What little research exists suggests teacher educators and lecturers, are ill-prepared to grasp the opportunities which mobile phones and the tablet computers offer, and are unaware of the pedagogical transformations which might be achieved if they are harnessed effectively. Emerging research undertaken by members of this project team show that teacher educators and other academics are interested and excited about the opportunities to embrace mobile technologies in their teaching but are also ignorant about what constitutes good practice in this field or how to go about implementing such pedagogies at both an individual and institutional level. This cross-sectoral project addresses these needs and in so doing it meets a number of key European priorities identified by all of the project partners including those of 'modernising practices (in this case pedagogies) in Higher Education, revising and strengthening the professional profile of the teaching profession, and utilising ICT as a vehicle to support and transform learning. It would be impossible to leverage such changes without a cross-sectoral partnership which brings together academics, teacher educators and school teachers working across boundaries around this common theme of developing 21st century pedagogies. This partnership consists of three European universities which specialise in preparing and training new teachers (Hull, Bergen and Karlsruhe) along with two other universities who have been included because of their specific skills and expertise in the design and construction of multimedia artefacts for mobile learning (Stuttgart) and the design and theoretical modelling of mobile learning scenarios in teacher education (UTS, Australia). Three secondary schools complete the partnership (Hull; Bergen and Karlsruhe) and these have been selected because of their existing involevment and support for European intercultural actitivities, their expertise in using technology, and their direct involvement in the preparation of trainee teachers. Together the partnership offers a complementary blend of expertise skill sets to achieved the overall ambitions of the project and to establish the basis of an ongoing European/International m-learning network. To achieve these ambitions project partners will adopt a Design Based Research (DBR) which will work with partners to iteratively construct four outcomes which include a mobile learning toolkit to support educators in evaluating and implementing mobile learning pedagogies; a set of e-Books across a range of curriculum areas to exemplify how teachers and students can use mobile technologies to co-author original materials; an online training course in iTunesU to support educators in using mobile technologies, and a set of academic publications to validate and further disseminate the outcomes of this project to a wider audience. As a result of this project teacher educators and teachers will have a greater understanding and ability to incorporate the use of mobile technologies into their practice in ways which brings about significant pedagogical change. They will have access to a European wide network of practitioners and resources/training materials that helps them to exploit the unique affordances of these technologies and in so doing enables them to prepare trainees and students to be more skillful in the use and application of digital literacies and other 21st century skills, thus helping them to become more employable and better learners. In the longer term this network and the resources created by the project will contribute to establishing Europe as a centre for innovation and excellence in the use of mobile learning and associated pedagogies in teacher education and higher education and will act as a beacon for modernising of the teaching profession more widely.
Context The MTTEP project addresses challenges facing teacher educators in using mobile technologies to enhance the practices of both preservice and inservice teachers. It contributes towards the further professionalisation of teaching in Higher Education. Many researchers have highlighted the value of mobile devices in schools but evidence collected by the research team (see Kearney and Burden, 2017) reveal how infrequently teachers use mobile devices in their daily practices. More disturbingly, this research shows how ill prepared teacher educators in HE are to use mobiles and therefore to prepare their trainee teachers to use them in the classroom. The MTTEP project seeks to address this problem. Objectives; The project aims to develop and disseminate resources that will support teachers and teacher educators in particular, in using mobile technologies more effectively. These include: 1. the development of a mobile learning toolkit to enable them to evaluate and develop their use of mobile technologies for pedagogical purposes 2. the establishment of a mobile learning network for teacher educators to support individuals and their institutions in the sharing of good practice and sustain the project outputs Number and profile of participating organisations The project involved three institutions of teacher education (ITE) in Europe and one in Australia. Each university was partnered with a school in their own country identified for its excellence in using mobiles. These included The University of Hull (UK) and Lentiz Revius Lyceum* (Netherlands); Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Metis vgs Bergen school (Norway); and University of Education Karlsruhe and Rennbuckel Realschule Karlsruhe (Germany). Additionally the partnership included Stuttgart Media University, for their expertise in media and graphics. * Lentiz Revius Lyceum replaced Thomas Ferens Academy, Hull, early in the project when the school was forced to withdraw for management reasons. This change was approved by the British Council. Description of undertaken main activities Project partners worked on four intellectual outputs (IOs) and various other activities to achieve the project objectives. In year one they focused on the production of a series of exemplary iBooks (IO3) to capture and illustrate good practice in mobile learning in teacher education. In year two the focus shifted to the development of a pedagogical framework (iPAC) and a series of video case studies illustrating best practice in the use of mobile technologies. In year three these resources were amalgamated into a single mobile learning toolkit, hosted on a separate website (http://www.mobilelearningtoolkit.com/). Partners also developed an innovative rubric to evaluate apps in year three and an online course to assist new adopters in using the toolkit. Throughout the project the academic partners also produce academic outputs (5 journal articles) as part of IO4. All of these resources were shared and further tested with participants at the final LTTE event in June 2017. In addition the project hosted two multiplier events to disseminate the emerging outcomes in Karlsruhe ( 2015) and Bergen (2016). Results and impact attained The project achieved, and in some cases exceeded, its original objectives and it has already had a major impact on teacher educators which will be extended through an Erasmus+ extension project (www.deimpeu.com ) funded in 2017. The main results of the project are a mobile learning toolkit and a mobile learning network for teacher educators. The toolkit includes: 1. three multimedia iBooks deposited in the Apple iTunes Book store which have been downloaded over three thousand time 2. a bespoke theoretical framework for using mobile devices (iPAC) that has been used in many other projects including three extension projects 3. a unique set of evaluation tools that can be used to measure and evaluate current practices with mobile tools. These have been used elsewhere including by Apple UK as part of resources for teachers and teacher educators 4. a database of video case studies illustrating different ways of using mobile technologies and an expandable template that other users can adopt to design and submit their own video case studies. 5. a rubric to evaluate the pedagogical affordances of different apps 6. a twelve week online course about mobile learning in teacher education and schools that institutions can adopt and adapt to suit their particular circumstances Additionally, and as importantly, the project has seen the establishment and launch of a bespoke mobile learning network for teacher educators which is the first of its kind worldwide. The network has already received in excess of one hundred applications for membership from individuals and institutions and held its first meeting at the LTTE event in Hull in June 2017. It will be formally launched at the MITE conference in Galway, in January 2018.