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EOI (Spain's School of Industrial Organisation)

EOI is a business school in Spain pioneering specialised training programmes around business skills and improving companies. It delivers over 80,000 hours of classes per year between its two campuses in Madrid and Seville.

Background

Mobile learning philosophy at EOI is focused upon:

  • integrating the possibilities offered by mobile devices to develop an open and networked education
  • accessing information from anywhere and at anytime
  • facilitating in which different people make connections


EOI has been working since 2009 using Google’s free Android Mobile operating system, 
creating Creative Commons licensed content by building within platforms such as Moodle. They also make use of social networks to promote knowledge sharing. "We see education as something that is not one way (teacher to student), but something global where everyone can enrich their knowledge" says Tíscar Lara, Vice Dean of Digital Culture at EOI.

 

 

Experiences

The EOI Mobile learning project started in 2009 as result of a deep process of reflection which led to an institutional Strategic Plan towards 2020. It analysed the trends in ICT education uses across the world, identifying the combination of connectivism, design thinking, open content and mobile learning as the underpinning methodology for EOI in the future. After setting the pedagogical framework, the second decision was to choose the software and hardware to facilitate mobile learning within the School. Since EOI is committed to supporting free software and open knowledge, it appeared that the best option in this case was Google’s Android mobile operating system.

In the EOI model, both the hardware and the 3G connectivity is free for the students; the school pays for the total cost and gives them the devices for their personal and educational use. At the end of the academic year, the students keep the devices for themselves. The mobile learning project is now in its third year and, since 2009, has reached around 1500 students studying towards an MBA or other professional Masters degree.


Each year EOI chooses what it feels to be the best Android device available in the market, focusing especially on the improved screen specifications available. In 2009 students were given an HTC smartphone, in 2010 a Samsung Galaxy 7-inch tablet and in 2011 an 8.9-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. The provision of mobile devices by EOI guarantees  student access to their personal learning environment anytime and anywhere. The ‘standard’  applications and platforms used at the school include Google Apps for communication and collaboration, blogs as personal portfolios and social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) for knowledge distribution and sharing.

According to Tíscar Lara, mobile learning is as much about identity as it is technology:

 

"One of the key points of learning at EOI is the building of digital identity by producing and sharing knowledge, so the mobile devices are used in two directions: as a way of using the open content produced by EOI in different formats (docs, video, audio, wiki, etc.) and by different agents (from researchers to professors, but also by students in their regular assignments and collaborative portfolios) and as a enviroment for interaction from the classroom to the open social media networks."

 

 

Lessons learned

 

Not so digital natives

"We needed to organise training courses and tutorials in order to bring effective mobile learning to the classes" says Lara. There are staff dedicated to help teachers become profficient with mobile technology and open education. EOI offers continuous training for teachers so they can learn how to enhace students’ learning by using mobile learning methodologies.


EOI also noticed that students themselves needed some guidance to use the devices creatively and to their full potential. "In their first week at EOI, all of our students have an intensive mobile learning course to explore their devices but also to learn how to use the collaborative tools, how to blog, how to communicate in social networks, how to share knowledge with creative commons licences, etc." Lara adds.

Structural changes

Introducing mobile learning in the class goes beyond simply using the mobile device to Access knowledge. As Tíscar Lara notes "it is a trojan horse that forced us to make changes around the way we conceive teaching and learning, in the way of how physical spaces are designed and also in the way of how the core syllabus is organised in terms of schedule, assignments and evaluation."


Mobile learning at EOI has provoked a series of structural changes in the school, such as transforming the library in a place for collaboration rather than merely individual study. It also allows for more time to be given to online homework and ‘flipped’ education by students working together whilst in school and accessing content at home.

Unexpected uses

Effective mobile learning requires design, organisation and guidance to lead to intended results. However, it often produces unexpected results and benefits when students experiment. This, in turn, can create some worries for the staff teams in charge of the mobile learning project evaluation. In the EOI experience, as Lara comments "we have learned that it is important not only to accept it but also to promote it by encouraging the students, and also the professors, to be creative and explore mobile learning far beyond we can envision it from the institutional point of view. This sense of freedom is very positive to make mobile learning a viable methodology for personal and professional learning.  

 

 

Conclusion

Mobile learning at EOI has produced a richer learning process for the students and teachers because of the more personalised content and greater interactivity afforded by the devices.


On the other hand, mobile learning has also meant a cultural change for both students and professors. They need to be digital ‘savvy’, to understand the complexity of digital society and culture, to experiment with collaborative tools and open knowledge, and to building their digital identity as professionals.