#295 Presentation

Monday 16 April 14:00 - 14:30 Bowett Room

Mobile Learning with OCW - Generation of smarter learners

Satoshi Yamawaki, Castalia Co. Ltd.,  Japan

Conference Theme: Innovation

Summary: OCW in near-future mobile learning: Smartphones and tablet devices changing forms of learning experiences

Abstract: Smartphones and tablet devices, which have drastically changed the forms of communication in recent years, will surely change the forms of learning as well in the course of the near future. With this in mind, we are exploring the near-future potential of OCW in mobile learning. The key to the permeation of OCW lies in figuring as to how to set people’s hearts and interests towards academic contents.
Learning experiences do not only generate from topics taught in schools and universities, but also from unexpected moments of daily lives, something that you catch a glimpse of by chance, and when you suddenly feel the urge of gaining knowledge in order to do something new. Mobile technology provides us with the input capability for informal learning experiences, and moreover, accumulates those inputs to clouds.
Our company, Castalia, casts a spotlight on mobile technology and aims to bridge informal and formal learning experiences by providing platforms of mobile learning. On iUniv, our social learning service platform, users can share their knowledge with other learners by putting social annotations onto our collection of over 70,000 OCW/OER and other lecture audio and visual materials to date. The Fusen™, our social annotation feature, has a timed comment function that holds playback time information of audio and visual contents. iUniv is a web-based application optimized for use on iPads and Android tablets.
Whereas iUniv provides high-context learning experiences, we also offer Goocus to provide low-context learning experiences. Goocus, our smart Wikipedia reading application, considers the searching process a learning experience. The words searched on Goocus, which is a Smartphone-based application available on iPhones and Androids, will be accumulated on its database and at the same time be shared through Facebook and other network services.  For example, you can search the information of a specific location on Goocus by using the GPS.
We consider the searching process on Goocus, which has a low-context nature, an informal learning experience. And we believe that the input process of word searching lead to an output process of viewing and listening to academic contents such as OCWs. Goocus provides tools to collect new information and acquire knowledge.
Our company, Castalia, is confident that the usage of OCW on our mobile learning platform will generate a whole new breed of learners.