Designing Ubiquitous and Universal Learning Situations
Integrating Textbooks and Mobile Devices
NISHINOSONO Haruo,

HARA Kiyoharu

Professor

Associate Professor

KURODA Yasufumi,

MOCHIZUKI Shiho

Associate Professor

Graduate Student

Bukkyo University, Kyoto, Japan
Developing learning with textbooks and mobile devices for large classes
We will introduce a procedure for developing instructional materials which are used in
the conventional full-time teaching environment and can be implemented further in thecorrespondence course of Bukkyo University, which has a fifty year long history in distance
textbook-based learning.

In spite of the rapid development of ICT, textbooks and printed

materials are still the most effective and economic media for disseminating distance education
on a large scale, for reaching remote areas as well as economically deprived populations.

Ourattempt to develop this learning system will be useful in those situations where large groups ofstudents in a course are moving on and off campus with a poor availability of PCs, but affluent
with mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDA.
Instruction for large a number of students in universities is still in the form of lectures
which students attend passively, especially in our Japanese culture.
to be knowledge consumers, not knowledge producers.

Students are presumed

Among the critical and urgent

issues to be solved in higher education is the one that will result in the students’ active
involvement in learning and creative participation, on as well as off campus.

The firstsolution to this issue is to provide students with opportunities to participate in active discussions
and collaborative team working.

Undergraduate students in the introductory ‘Instructional

Technology’ course are requested to create one imaginary school per team with the intention of
introducing innovative lessons instead of the present passive and monotonous lectures.
They review the structure and system of present school education from a holistic viewpoint andsubmit final reports showing what they have created and proposed during the team work as wellas through individual learning.

From the very beginning of formulating imaginary schools

in the team working stage to the final individual report writing, students follow the instruction
provided by textbooks, respond to questions through mobile devices and discuss issues with
their peers in the bulletin boards implemented in their mobile phones.

A large number ofstudents, one to two hundred, in the above mentioned course have to express new ideas in theirteams of five to six members each, discuss issues and elaborate on them with their peers,produce a series of PowerPoint slides and instructional materials collaboratively using a limited
numbers of PCs, and finalize their personal reports by the end of the half-year course.

This

learning process is managed with workbooks and reference materials, communication tools suchas mobile devices synchronized with the printed materials, and with a collaborative platform ofa limited number of PCs.
Theoretical background of instructional development
Article 26 of the Japanese National Constitution and UNESCO’s 1985 Declaration of
the Right to Learn provide a philosophical background for realizing a ubiquitous and universal
learning, or u-Learning.

Our national constitution maintains that ‘All people have theright to learn corresponding to their ability’.

In spite of this declaration for the equity ofnational education, the Japanese school education has developed more based on the nationalinterests and less on individual abilities.

The theoretical background of this solely

textbook-based instruction helps to focus our view critically on the design technology forstudents’ creative and active involvement in learning.

A recent technology for distancelearning tends to depend heavily on sophisticated ICT, especially multimedia and broadband.
Adaptation of a simple hardware technology, however, reveals the essential and appropriatetechnology for critically effective and economic distance instruction.

The authors presumed

that active learning can be realized by integrating the structural and procedural components ofinstruction rationally.

Our instructional strategy for producing textbooks is to follow themodeling procedures of ‘Structure model MACETO’ and ‘Process model ITISCA’.
MeaningAction

Outcome

Learn
ing
Tools

Internalconditions
Externalconditions
Contents

Environment

Figure 1 Structure model MACETOThe Structure model abbreviated MACETO consists of Meaning, Activities, Contents,Environment, Tools and Outcome.

This model is utilized to describe the instructional

design in its initial stages and thereby to clarify the whole structure of the course.
Instructional design starts from understanding the attitude and intention of the learners, taking
into account the meaning of learning, learners’ activities and anticipated learning outcomes.

It is very crucial to find an authentic theme suitable to enhance the learners’ interest andmotivation.

After clarifying these internal conditions, designers proceed to thearrangement of external conditions to stimulate the learners and promote their learning.

Wealso produce instructional modules consisting of printed materials and ubiquitous devices suchas mobile phones and PDA.
The Process model ITISCA is applied to develop segmental instructional modules forgenerating specific learning events during the course.
LessonsIA TC IS

12

14

These modules are described inIntention of developer
Taxonomy of instructional objectives
Individual/Team/Cohort learning
Sequencing of the module
Contents of learning
Assessment criteria

15Figure 2 Process model ITISCA

terms of ITISCA, or Intention of the developer, Taxonomy of instructional objectives,
Individual/Team/ Cohort learning, Sequencing of the module, Contents of learning andAssessment criteria.

One course is usually 15 lessons per semester.

For each lesson,

students receive three to seven modules, each of which has usually one to four pages, andgenerates distinctively different learning events.

Each module has unique and specificcharacteristics and aims, and is described in the terms of ITISCA.

The introductory course,‘Instructional Technology’, is composed of about sixty modules, of which some are compatible
to modules applicable to other courses.

They are all stored and managed by an Accesspackage for common use by developers.
Empirical Approach for u-Learning Development
Teaching is a complex and changeable enterprise.

Printed materials are the mostsuitable media to accommodate ceaselessly changing instruction.

In this circumstance, theApplication ofscientific findings
Unexperienced

Experiences ofother developers
Intuitive andcreative ideas

Instructional
development

Tacit knowledge
Experienced

Figurative andiconic knowledge
Formal knowledge

Figure 3 Empirical approach for u-Learning development

Scientificinvestigation

procedure shown in Figure 3 is adopted to develop a ubiquitous and universal learning
environment, or u-Learning.

We start with empirical, tacit knowledge and intuitive ideas todesign learning events, which are entirely free from specific media.

The instructional

events are described in intuitive images at the beginning of the course and gradually infigurative and iconic models and judgmental propositions for effective instruction.

In thisframework, media are not the starting point for developing instructional materials.

Theexperiences of instructional designers and instructors are crucial and indispensable to create andimprove instructional materials.
Instructional technology for distance learning can base its theoretical background on
empirical as well as scientific knowledge.

The judgmental procedure of planning,designing, developing and implementing the course materials depends on the teachers’ empiricallaws, describable in the form of a figurative presentation of images and models of learning
situations and judgmental propositions.

A mobile device system named ‘l-support’ can be

introduced for the management of students’ learning, and to provide e-mail and internetfunctions entirely compatible with the ordinary internet functions of PCs.

u-Learning

Synthesis

ImagesAnalysis

Category
Educational
norms

Synthetic
concepts

Analytic
concepts

Creative process
Models
Propositions,or empiricallaws

Figure 4 Procedure of empirical research on u-Learning

Usually teachers work on the PCs while students work on their mobile phones, PDA
and/or PCs compatibly.

In this situation, scientific findings are not sufficient to solve

problems which emerge from the real and complex instruction.

Creative thought isindispensable to develop efficient and effective distance learning without an excessive cost.
Conclusions
Two courses, ‘Introduction to Instructional Technology’ and ‘Instructional Technology
for Informatics’, are being developed.

Both adopt printed materials and ubiquitous devices

in their curricula.

In the process of their development, more than thirty different iconic or

figurative models and more than sixty propositions have been developed and tested for validity.
Four graphs introduced in this paper and ten propositions described in the appendix show
examples of principal models and propositions created during the process of instructional
development and validity testing.

Results from this u-Learning project are the printed

materials themselves, the software implemented in the ubiquitous devices, and conceptual
products such as figurative models and judgmental propositions.

These are being

improved ceaselessly and accumulated in a database.
References
Gagne, Robert M., Leslie J. Briggs, Walter W. Wager (1992): Principles of Instructional Design,
4th ed., Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,Nishinosono, Haruo (1978): Two Symbol Systems for Designing the Instructional Process,Educational Technology Research Vol.2, No.1, Tokyo
Nishinosono, Haruo (2002): Instructional Development for Knowledge Creation in
Large-scale Classes, Proceedings of SITE2002, March 18-23, 2002, Nashville,
Tennessee, pp.2558-2562
Polanyi, Michael (1983): The Tacit Dimension, Peter Smith,(Appendix)
Some instructional propositions emerged from this project. (5 propositions out of 65)- Transformation from image to key concept, graphic presentation and modeling isindispensable but hard to achieve in student teachers with success.
Modeling requires a
great leap from the previous step.
- Realization of autonomous learning requires cultivating the students’ heightened attitude
towards learning.
To cultivate such an attitude, it is effective to require repeatedly thesame behavior of filling in the framework sheet (MACETO format) before students canorganize learning by themselves.
- Alternative strategies of degrees of freedom in learning:
1. When we increase the degree of freedom in learning and give more initiative to the students,
learning results in a wide range from excellent to poor in quality and quantity.
2. When we decrease the degree of freedom in learning and give less initiative to the students,
learning results in a reliable but mediocre outcome of both less excellent and less poor
quality.
- To manage a large group of students to learn autonomously, it is effective to form groups andclusters of groups, encourage active participation and let them recognize their responsibility
towards autonomous learning.
- To make learning meaningful, it is effective to start the lesson from one’s earlier experiences
relevant to instructional contents.
NISHINOSONO HaruoProfessor at Bukkyo University, Kyoto, Japan
E-mail:nisinohr@bukkyo-u.ac.jp
URL: http://www.bukkyo-u.ac.jp