MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICES IN

HIGHER EDUCATION

Student perspectives on learning with cellphones,

smartphones & social media

Abdallah Albataineh
RESEARCH QUESTION

“What are students' experiences when

mobile computing devices are integrated
into higher education courses?”
 “Present in-depth perspectives of instructors and students
about their experiences of Implementing mobile computing
devices.”
 “Present paper will focus only on students' experiences and
perceptions mobile computing devices brought to learning
and the roles social media played”
INTRODUCTION
 Most of literature focuses on using Mobile Devices to
access University resources.
 Other Studies focused on using mobile devices for direct
instructions.
 Students driving the adoption of mobile computing
devices in higher education, 67% of students use their
mobiles for academic activities.(ECAR 2012 Survey)
 Opportunities provided by Mobile Device adoption
(Access to Content, and Interaction)
(Cavus & Ibrahim, 2008, 2009; Kukulska-Hulme & Shield, 2008; Nihalani
& Mayrath, 2010; Richardson & Lenarcic, 2008; Shih & Mills, 2007)
 Interaction and communication can enhance learning
(Rodriguez, 2011)
 Other researches aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of
implementing mobile devices, or draw students
attention.
FOUNDATIONS OF MOBILE LEARNING
 Learning delivered and supported by MOBILE
computing devices
- Anywhere, Anytime learning (Access to Knowledge).
- Everywhere carried device
- Friendly and Personal
(Traxler (2007))

 LEARNING IS FORMAL AND INFORMAL

- Formal: Highly structured, Institutionally Sponsored, Certificate or
credit upon completion. Learners engaged with materials prepared by
teacher and used during a program.
- Informal (no conclusive definition): Learning from daily works or
activities. Learners may use Mobile to Research, investigate, or collect
information that may be used later in their formal learning.
- Some research argued that Formal and informal are accomplished in
combination (Billett (2002))
MOBILE LEARNING FOUNDATIONS (CONT.)

 Learning is CONTEXT AWARE and AUTHENTIC

- Suited in the environment that is meaningful for the learner
- Learners Can personalize the way they interact
- Customize the Access and transfer of the information to
build the knowledge to meet their Educational goals based on
their needs and abilities (Student Driven).
- Learning across contexts and at different times may stay
fragmented and Incomplete. (Traxler (2010) and Tella (2003))

- To be Authentic, Faculty members (Instructors) must

effectively lead the ways to implement devices in learning. (Ng
et al., 2010).
SOCIAL MEDIA
 Term “SOCIAL MEDIA” revealed coined after the emergence of
Web 2.0.
 “A group of Internet based applications of Web 2.0, and that
allow the creation and exchange of user generated content”.
 Social means exists in Social Space.
 Media means that the interactions mediated through Social
Networks using Digital Networks and Digital Devices.
 Social Networks, Media Sharing, Publishing Tools (Wiki), RSS
Feeds (Blogs), Republishing Tools.
 Social media tools in learning promotes a more student-
centered course. (Greenhow (2011))
 These tools allow students to interact and collaborate with each
other and instructors and “promotes personal choice,
customization and student familiarity”
(Hoffman, 2009, para. 23)

 Learning as a Conversation Notion (Learning events don’t

HALT but continue through other Networks) (Sharples, 2000; Sharples,
Taylor, & Vavoula, 2010)
 Without structure, social media can negatively impact student
learning. (Light (2011))
 APPLICATIONS OF MOBILE LEARNING & SOCIAL
MEDIA
CREATE CONTENT, INTERACT, COLLABORATE

 Engaging learners with constant connectivity:

- “Mobile devices allow learners to access content and
communicate with classmates and instructors, no matter where
they are”
(Cavus,Bicen, & Akcil, 2008; Shuler, 2009)
- “enable learners to find, identify, manipulate and evaluate
existing knowledge and successfully integrate and communicate
this new knowledge into their work” (Brown, 2005, p. 300)
- Collective Intelligence: Create a User Generated content
through collaborative activities.

 Fostering collaborative learning

-Mobile devices provide learners opportunities to
collaborate, discuss content with classmates and
instructors, and create new meaning and understanding.
- Social Media Tool allowed for students to collaborate and
share with each other in learning.
 APPLICATIONS OF MOBILE LEARNING & SOCIAL
MEDIA
CREATE CONTENT, INTERACT, COLLABORATE

 Enabling authentic learning on the move

- Mobility with learning “enables knowledge acquisition
across context and environments, rather than simply
exploiting handheld devices for the fruition of learning” (Ruta
et al. (2010))

 By using the applications available on mobile devices as

well as social media tools, a personalized, authentic
learning experience can be created for learners(Archambault,
Wetzel, Foulger, & Williams, 2010;Shuler, 2009) .
METHODOLOGY
METHODOLOGY (QUALITATIVE STUDY)
 Context and participants
- Only handheld devices, including cellphones and smartphones
were used in this study with the following characteristics: (a)
persistent access to the Internet, (b) a variety of downloadable
applications, (c) used as a communication device, specifically phone
and SMS (text) messaging, and (d) small enough to carry in a pocket or
handbag

- The criteria for inclusion (University, Instructors, Students) were as

follows:
(1) The context of this research was both public and private four-year
higher education institutions.
(2) Instructors who had used and implemented mobile computing
devices as operationalized above in their learning environment for at
least two semesters.
(3) Had used mobile computing devices to facilitate teaching and
learning
- Instructors interviewed.
- Students Invited to participate.
METHODOLOGY (QUALITATIVE STUDY)
 Data collection:
Data collected using the following protocol:
1. What are the changes to the learning environment when mobile computing devices
are integrated?
 2. Can you describe the course where you used mobile computing devices?
 2a. Tell me how that is different from a course not using mobile computing devices?
 2b. Tell me what your role was in interacting with the mobile technology?
 2c. Tell me about your teacher's expectation of your interaction with the mobile
computing device? What did they expect from you?
 2d. How did that impact your understanding of the content?
 3. What did you use the device for in the course?
 3a. How did you interact with classmates/teachers using the device?
 3b. What type of activities did you use the device for in your course?
 4. What changes to do you see in the learners when you used the mobile computing
devices?
 4a. Tell me about the experience of using mobile computing devices in the learning
environment.
 4b. Tell me how that's different from a course not using mobile computing devices.
 5. What change did you see in the learner's behavior? What types of change did you see
in the student interaction with the content?
 5a. Tell me about the student interaction with the devices — what course related
activities did they use it for?
 6. How were the devices used for communication?
METHODOLOGY (QUALITATIVE STUDY)

 Data analysis: Inductive analysis was used to

abstract the data. (Cresswell, 2007)
-
 Rigor & trustworthiness
- Three Strategies used (Member Check, Peer
Debriefing, Audit Trail)
FINDINGS & INTERPRETATIONS
1. ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE DEVICES FOR
STUDENT LEARNING

 Accessing information quickly:

- Constant Connectivity (Resources, Internet).
“You can go to any source you want to within
seconds.”
- Mobility (Small to carry in Pocket, Easily Accessible)
 Positives:
- Student access to Course Materials.
- Upload their Posts to Course Site.
- Instructors provide Course Documents to students immediately
 Communication:
Ability to Communicate with classmates and Instructors
allowed through the Constant connectivity and Varity of
applications installed on the devices which allows.
 Have instructor's instructions while learners out of class
make them “Fully Productive”
 Collaboration (Informal Learning) while gathering
information from outside.
“It was the whole new experience of having an out-of-class experience
while still having instruction, instruction from the professor and it still
being active communication…it was constant: Text message, email.”

 Discussions In small groups, Posting comments to

course content, get immediate feedback.
 Enablers: Constant Connectivity, Social Networking
 Positives:
All of above make learning more Effective and
Efficient
 Variety of ways to learn:
Students Interaction with course content takes
several forms:
Voice & Video Memo uploaded to the site to be discussed
in the class (Student-Centric Learning).
 Communication and Discussion about the Course Content.

 Enablers:
Constant Connectivity, Text Messaging, Social Networking Tools
 Positives:
 Honesty coming from Responding Anonymously.
 Immediate feedback.
 Social Media Connections (Researchers, Scholars, Instructors,
etc..)
“When I started taking this class though, I think I started understanding
how Twitter can function as, umm, a tool for learning. Following scholars
for instance, that we've been reading in this class has been really neat to
actually have a personal connection with them almost because you see
what they are doing in their day-to-day. They're posting some of their
favorite articles, some of their favorite theorists.”
 Situated Learning:
 Mobile computing devices also allowed for interaction with the
course content and other classmates in a highly situated and
contextualized way.
 “Situated learning proposes that LEARNING TAKES PLACE
IN THE SAME CONTEXT IN WHICH IT IS APPLIED,
typically in a real world setting)”
 “Learning is a social process situated in a specific context and
embedded within a particular environment”.
 “social interactions and learning in situ are critical components
of situated learning.”
 Situated Learning vs. Informal Learning (Unstructured).
 knowledge gained from the daily activities
 Situated Learning Relays on individual's interpretation and
the authenticity of the context.
 LEARNING ACTIVITIES — WHETHER FORMAL OR
INFORMAL — THAT EMBED AUTHENTIC PROBLEMS
AND CONTEXTS CAN BE CONSIDERED SITUATED.
 Situated Learning (cont.):
 Enablers: Constant Connectivity, Blogs, Text
Messaging, Video Sharing

 Positives:
Make important connections among
instructional content and authentic contexts
2. FRUSTRATIONS FROM LEARNING WITH
MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICES

 Anti-technology instructors in other classes

 instructors not knowing how to use the technology
appropriately or even a generational difference in their use for
“I learning.
have a professor who is anti-technology, so… The
technological advances that we have today, well, in “My other instructors don't even
this case I think the iPhone has extremely helped, want to see them in class.”
with speed, with communication and the information,
the speed of that processing and when a teacher
doesn't take advantage of that, you are not using the
full potential available to you to help your students.”

 Universities provided inconsistent messages about the use

of mobile computing devices University of Northbrook was working to
Lakeshore University provided students with
devices and instructors with implementation provide university-related applications for
support. Yet, all instructors were not willingly the mobile device but did not support their
taking advantage of those opportunities. use in learning.
 Device challenges
 Applications that did not work as well as had been anticipated
to collect information for class.
 Technologies still proved challenging to the students.
 Devices as a distraction
 The allure of social networking applications
that were not being used for class potentially
threatened their concentration.
DISCUSSION & IMPLICATIONS
 Create and interact with course content, collaborate, and learn
during the course of their daily lives often with Web 2.0 and
social media tools
 By quickly accessing course documents and uploading and posting
course content anywhere, students highlighted the advantages
of using mobile devices in learning and spoke of the value of
mobile learning.
 Students were able to situate their learning in the context of the
environment.
 Difference between implementation of mobile computing devices
and other university-supported technologies is that mobile devices
are student driven.
 Students may drive technology integration; however, it is the
instructor who must lead effective ways to implement devices in
learning.
 Student participants often seemed to blur the lines between the
use of the social networking tools and the mobile device, making
little distinctions among mobile services, such as text messaging,
and social media, such as Twitter.
 Student participants within their courses seemed to blur the lines
between formal and informal learning.
CONCLUSION
 Mobile computing devices and the use of social
media allow student interaction with content.
 potential learning occurs regardless of location.

 acknowledged that mobile learning offers much

more educational potential than simply accessing
resources.
 Continuous research on mobile learning and
social media can determine if a true impact is
being made on an instructor's teaching and the
student's learning.
Thank You