I promised a blog post on the course Workshop 2 for pre-masters, how I felt as a teacher, and what I learned from it. Well, here it is!
As you know I gave students the assignment to design, develop and evaluate a mobile learning experience. The only demand was that the experience had a clear link to the curriculum, and it would last for max half a day, 2-4 hours.
I provided the students with some literature on mobile learning, and gave them some examples (presentation by Wies Coppes).
My reasons for giving such an open assignment:
– Since students were going to design for an actual school, and connect to the curriculum and instruction of the school, it would be strange if I was to decide what students had to design, or restrict students to a certain form of mobile learning.
– I could not provide students with technology like PDA’s, so they had to make use of technologies available at school. If I would have said: design a mobile learning quest with GPS, this would cause difficulties.
– It is a pre-master course, so students need to show they are capable of designing, while making use of literature, making choices, and not just following a schedule.
– Since I want to use a similar task for the bachelor version of this course next year, I wanted to see what the bottlenecks were, so I can structure the assignment more for the bachelor students.
This deserves an explanation. Atelier 2 or Workshop 2 is a course in the bachelor program (at the end of the first year). For pre-master students it is also a compulsory course. Bachelors have more design courses after this, for pre-masters it is the only design course. In fact, Atelier/Workshop 2 for the pre-masters is what Atelier 5 is for bachelors. In Atelier 2 bachelors ‘only’ follow the design process, and show they are capable of performing the correct analyses. They receive a very structured assignment: ‘design a webquest’. Since the webquest has a specific structure, the focus of Atelier 2 is on the correct analyses (context, target group), content of the quest and evaluation. Students do not have to make many instructional choices, since the quest always has an assignment, sources, and so on. To be short: the assignment is design a good quest, do not think about other possible instructional options. In Atelier 5, they receive an instructional problem, without the solution. So here, it is up to them to use literature, perform analyses, and so on, to first find the most suitable solution and then design and evaluate it. It requires much more from them than just knowing how to perform a context analysis.
So, in fact, workshop 2 for pre-masters is what workshop 5 is for the bachelors. That’s why the assignment was so open.
For the bachelors, this was the last year we used the webquest assignment. I want to use a mobile learning assignment in the coming year. By using this assignment for the pre-masters this year, I have a better idea what needs to be structured for the bachelors, to make the assignment suitable for them.
So, after this long introduction, I will very briefly mention how I felt, and what I learned 
– I still believe the choice for such an open assignment was the right one. For reasons, see above. I know students had difficulties, but they all managed, and learned a lot. Premasters need to be at Atelier 5 level, and this was the way to check that.
– I need to provide students with more help at the beginning. How to approach a school, when to approach a school, make sure they don’t approach a school too soon, and not too late!
– I was a bit disappointed when students were not willing to go into the deep and see the assignment as an opportunity to learn a lot, and show their capabilities. It seems they feel more comfortable with safe assignments, doing things they already know. I wish they would remember that they are not following this course to please me, but to develop and educate themselves!
– I was very proud with the actual products! The reports showed however, that thinking about a solution to the instructional problem of the school, using literature on mobile learning, account for the choices you make is difficult. Perhaps something we should pay more attention to in the entire program, not just this course.
– I will give bachelor students the assignment to design a mobile quest or something like that. Like the webquest, the structure is fixed. This means students can focus on content and evaluation, after performing the necessary analyses.
But most of all I learned again that this is the best job in the world, and that these assignments in real practice are the heart of Educational Science in Twente. Best of all: thanks to this course all participating schools are exploring mobile learning and want to do more with it in the future!
p.s. : the good reader may have raised his or her eyebrows. Because: how can I say that ‘Since students were going to design for an actual school, and connect to the curriculum and instruction of the school, it would be strange if I was to decide what students had to design, or restrict students to a certain form of mobile learning.’ And at the same time, when explaining the web quest assignment for bachelors, say: ‘To be short: the assignment is design a good quest, do not think about other possible instructional options.’ Ah, well, yes, you are right. This does not match. After all, the web quest also has to match the curriculum and instruction of the school. However, with the premasters we start with the question of the school, are there any instructional problems, motivational problems? And can we solve them with designing a form of mobile learning? The bachelors in fact start from the notion that web quest can be used as an additional assignment, or can replace a chapter in a book, or from the perspective that students need to learn how to use sources for information, and the web quest is a nice way of using the Internet, without the pitfalls of the Internet. And of course, goals of both courses (Workshop 2 vs. Atelier 2) differ. And sometimes you just can’t have it all!
