Mobile Collaboration Tips

Analyze your current mobile devices and methods of collaboration. It involves identifying your target learners, the subject of learning, and the mobile devices they are using.

Clarify the specific task you want the learners to achieve using mobile collaboration. Vice versa, it also helps you to choose the appropriate collaboration tools for specific tasks.

Learners may use a variety of devices to participate in mobile learning, such as different operating systems such as iOS and Andriod, or different browsers such as GoogleChrome, Edge, Firefox, or different devices such as smartphones, iPads, and laptops.

To ensure the possibility of different technological affordances working smoothly together, choose highly compatible and easily accessible platforms to work together.

Social interaction is a critical factor in facilitating collaboration. Enhancing learners' online social presence could bring them close together, which in return, benefits the learning outcomes.

Lev Vygotsky believed that learning occurred socially. He says, "development cannot be separated from the social context". Hence, enhancing online social presence through focus groups, small groups, blogging and content-sharing can create a sense of belonging and recognition.

Other than technological factors that affect mobile collaboration. Please be mindful of how social and online interactions affect learners.

Be generous with your words of encouragement, intervene timely and act justly if unpleasant situations happen between learners. A healthy learning environment would prompt learners to exceed what's needed to be done than simply making it to the finish line.

BC Teachers are offered professional development days within their contract to explore new teaching strategies. As mobile collaboration has become large within education (remote settings, virtual parent/teacher meetings, staff meetings, etc...), it is important to enhance teachers understanding of the possibilities of what could mobile collaboration bring to education endeavour. A great way to deliver this opportunity would be by a MOOC. Therefore, several students across the province, country, or world can collaborate using the mobile available tools.