Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Education Pedagogies Erasmus Project

Project Title

Mobilising and Transforming Teacher Education Pedagogies

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships addressing more than one field

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

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.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 448133 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF HULL & Country: UK

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
• HOCHSCHULE DER MEDIEN
• Metis videregående AS
• Lentiz | Reviuslycum
• PAEDAGOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE KARLSRUHE
• Rennbuckel Realschule Karlsruhe
• HOGSKOLEN I BERGEN