Designing Mobile Learning Interventions for Language Learners

Abstract

This chapter presents a case of an EDR study completed at a Canadian community college and resulting in the development of an innovative educational intervention, Mobile–Enabled Language Learning Eco-System (MELLES), as well as corresponding MELLES design principles, which emerged from this interdisciplinary research experience. The first section of the chapter provides an overview of the educational problem targeted by the study, the purpose and outcomes of the research, as well as the overarching research question. The description of the EDR methodology then follows including its phases, cycles and micro-cycles. The MELLES study adopted the Integrative Learning Design Framework (IDLF) (Bannan, 2009) for design-based research and the corresponding nomenclature. Accordingly, we refer to the preliminary phase of conceptualization as Informed Exploration, followed by the design/development phase called Enactment, and the assessment phase referred to as Evaluation: Local Context. The Purpose and Outcomes and the Study Results sections of this chapter summarize the key outcomes of the study which included the development of a prototype MELLES educational intervention, replicable design principles guiding the creation of such an intervention, a refined theoretical framework of Ecological Constructivism and a comment on the professional development benefits reaped by the study participants and observers. With emphasis given to the praxis of the EDR approach, the Reflections section revisits the main features of the EDR method as distilled from our study, which demonstrates that EDR both enhanced the design and implementation of the study and was able to guide measurement of its efficacy in this context.