My previous ideas have not really tied in with my dissertation, therefore I decided to come up with something that did to same me time on research and to fit the brief closer.
I decided to look a bit closer at Gordon Pask’s Conversation Theory that I mentioned in my dissertation and base my project on a mobile learning application that would integrate this theory/model.
Gordon Pask
The Conversation Theory developed by G. Pask originated from a cybernetics framework and attempts to explain learning in both living organisms and machines. The fundamental idea of the theory was that learning occurs through conversations about a subject matter which serve to make knowledge explicit. Conversations can be conducted at a number of different levels: natural language (general discussion), object languages (for discussing the subject matter), and metalanguages (for talking about learning/language).
In order to facilitate learning, Pask argued that subject matter should be represented in the form of entailment structures which show what is to be learned. Entailment structures exist in a variety of different levels depending upon the extent of relationships displayed (e.g., super/subordinate concepts, analogies).
The critical method of learning according to conversation theory is “teachback” in which one person teaches another what they have learned. Pask identified two different types of learning strategies: serialists who progress through an entailment structure in a sequential fashion and holists who look for higher order relations.
To help bridge the digital divide in education, technology that is widely available in developing countries needs to be used. These technology are mobile phones. According to Pask’s conversation theory, the best way to learn is by communicating, which is the primary role of mobile phones. Due to the fact that many people in developing countries have older handsets, not all modern features are present to them so a simple learning application would work best.
To get to the same level of literacy, people need to learn from each other by teaching others what they know and learning what they do not know back.
Based on this concept I came up with an idea of a social knowledge sharing mobile application (multiplatform but on iPhone for this project). Question and answer system is the best way to learn from each other through technology. This would be the basis of this application.
The features of this application would include:
- User gains points when they answer the questions, the higher the rating of their answers the more points they get.
- Earned points can be used to ask questions.
- To gain more points users can ‘drop’ facts in various locations around the world using GPS where others can ‘pick them up’ then rate them.
- When the app is on, a user’s location would be registered for local questions.
- Local questions are conversations between people in the same area.
- A user can search for another user in the same area at the time and ask them a question.
- Local search would sort people in the area by their expertise on the topic searched.
- Users can gain expert levels for topics that they gain the most points for.
The desired outcome for this application would be: People all over the world can find out anything they want to know quickly and virtually free (just at the cost of Internet connection on their phones / Wi-Fi)
