Lecture Notes in Educational Technology

DanielChurchill
JieLu
ThomasK.F.Chiu
BobFox Editors

Mobile
Learning
Design
Theories and Application
Lecture Notes in Educational Technology

Series editors
Ronghuai Huang
Kinshuk
Mohamed Jemni
Nian-Shing Chen
J. Michael Spector
Lecture Notes in Educational Technology

The series Lecture Notes in Educational Technology (LNET), has established itself
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educational policy, pedagogy, learning science, learning environment, learning
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Daniel Churchill Jie Lu

Thomas K.F. Chiu Bob Fox

Editors

Mobile Learning Design

Theories and Application

123
Editors
Daniel Churchill Thomas K.F. Chiu
Faculty of Education Faculty of Education
The University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong Hong Kong
Hong Kong Hong Kong

Jie Lu Bob Fox

Educational Resources Centre, BGI College, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Genomics University of New South Wales
Shenzhen Sydney
China Australia

ISSN 2196-4963 ISSN 2196-4971 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Educational Technology
ISBN 978-981-10-0025-6 ISBN 978-981-10-0027-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015955878

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Foreword

What Will They Think of Next?

This book arrives at an exciting time. The technology stories that circulate in the
media talk about access through WIFI anywhere and diminishing (or at least
increasing variability of) device size. So it is not unexpected that a group of
scholars should start discussing the possibilities and opportunities of such devel-
opments in how we can learn and collaborate in such a digital world that has broken
away from traditional classrooms. Daniel Churchill, his co-editors and the con-
tributors have created a text that summarises what designers and researchers believe
are the range of influences that this emerging eld is facing. In the rst part of six
sections, the chapters deal with the denitional and emerging nuances being
identied with the eld of study. The key concepts are not unexpectedly: mobility,
interactivity and collaboration, and augmentation. But as the later chapters explore
it is also about how the world can be represented, accessed and overlaid with digital
support. Overall, the opportunities of mobile learning and the barriers it breaks by
social and other forms of communication and collaboration promise more that the
rather limited and still largely didactic e-learning models available in many edu-
cational ecosystems.
In the second part, the focus shifts to the current adoption of mobile learning and
how students perceive its value. Importantly, trends that have been noted here have
been the possibilities of working on real-world contexts with overlays of digital
structures and mentoring. The third part explores the combination of technology,
pedagogy and context improving the flexibility of the new mobile learning contexts
to provide increasing student personalization and to collect data of individual
learning styles and strategies. This long hoped for adaptive learning system
approach has been a goal of learning technologies for many years but it has largely
eluded many designers; the different chapters illustrate how mobile learning con-
texts support collaboration and sharing in ways that have not been designed into
most standard eLearning contexts.

v
vi Foreword

The next two sections of this book focus on how mobility and the combination
of technologies can t in learning broadly and in specic discipline domains. The
writers have written about particular strategies and the t with each discipline.
This emphasis is important, early approaches to learning science did not identify the
importance of domain knowledge and how it could be could supported and
enhanced with the combination of elementstechnology, learning approach and
pedagogical context.
In the last section, the one chapter seeks to explore how future options might
influence how mobile approaches might effectively support learning in a digital age.
In this summarization, the possibilities of mobility and smart devices support a
learner to explore their world by providing an organising lens to display the evi-
dence and to aggregate it in ways that support the learners meaning-making.
I believe that the chapter raises both the plus and minus sides of this new learning
ecology; this combination enables convenience of access to ideas and tools to
support creation of many ways and modalities of representing them, and also to the
increasing loss of personal privacy as the learner collates and makes sense of the
phenomena they are studying. Overall, this book pulls together all of the elements
that have been used as a solution to student motivation, increasing impact, sup-
porting diversity and enabling personalization of the tools that support mLearning.

John G. Hedberg
Macquarie University
Preface

This book has been written and published at the time of growing interest in and a
need for mobile learning in education at all levels. The chapters in this book are
primarily concerned with theories and practices related to the adoption of mobile
and emerging technologies in education. These chapters are collected from three
sources. The rst source comprises a pool of papers directly submitted for con-
sideration for inclusion in this book. The second source includes papers from a
small number of invited authors. The third source comprises a small number of
rigorously selected papers from the pool of papers presented at the International
Mobile Learning Festival (IMLF). The IMLF conference is a regular international
gathering of scholars and educational practitioners interested in mobile and
emerging learning design. The conference features evidence-based developments
surrounding mobile and emerging learning design for the twenty-rst century
learning.
Educational usages of e-books, streaming videos, podcasts, social networking,
cloud computing, blogs, multimedia and video editing and many other mobile
applications have been adopted by innovative educators and institutions around the
world. To scale-up these innovative practices mediated by mobile technologies,
there is a pressing need to harness research studies with a solid theoretical under-
pinning, and empirically validated practical recommendations to inform research,
practices and policies. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to update contem-
porary developments surrounding theories and applications of mobile technologies
in education at all levels. In particular, attention is given to emerging learning
design models as well as exemplary cases of adoption of mobile technologies.
It can be suggested that mobile technology today offers a spectrum of tools for
teachers, educational opportunities as well as new options for studenttechnology
partnerships in learning. Empowered with interactive multimedia presentational
capabilities, handheld technology permits the delivery of a range of multimedia
material such as video, audio, graphics and integrated media. When appropriately
designed for the context, educationally useful digital resources for learning can be
effectively delivered via mobile technologies to students at any time, inside and

vii
viii Preface

outside of classrooms. The powerful technical features of mobile technologies, and

available mobile applications powered with social media and cloud computing
enable new forms of learning platforms which can serve contemporary pedagogies
across a variety of educational contexts (see Churchill and Churchill 2008; Evans
2008; Kaleebu et al. 2013, Lai et al. 2007).
Relevant studies report a variety of issues in relation to use of mobile tech-
nologies in education. Examples of issues reported include use of mobile
technology during classes, enabling teachers and students to share les; allowing
students to ask anonymous questions, answer polls and give teachers feedback (e.g.,
Ratto et al. 2003); deliver an intelligent tutoring systems and quizzes (e.g., Segal
et al. 2005); the dissemination information, the collection data during eld trips and
the support of students inquiries (e.g., Churchill et al. 2010; Jong and Tsai, in
press); supporting computer collaborative learning (e.g., Roschelle and Pea 2002;
Zurita and Nussbaum 2004); using mobile instant messenger to support second
language learning (Lai, in press); the improvement of literacy and numeracy for
disadvantaged young adults (Attewell 2005); as a personal technology for lifelong
learning (Sharples 2000); as personalized learning environments (e.g., Song and
Fox 2008); as instructional tools and a replacement to laptops (e.g., Shen et al.
2009); as a tool for learning on the move (e.g., Wong et al. 2010); as a mediating
tool for ubiquitous, seamless, authentic and situated learning experiences, (e.g.,
Hedberg 2014; Looi et al. 2010; Wong and Looi 2011), teacher use of iPads as a
transformative strategy (Churchill and Wang 2014), and so on. Liu et al. (2014),
who conducted a comprehensive analysis of the literature on mobile learning from
2007 to the present, argue that the most contemporary studies explore issues from
four distinct perspectives, which include comparison studies (e.g., studies of
learning outcomes), non-comparison studies (e.g., studies of communication and
collaboration with mobile technology), mobilized learning studies (e.g., studies of
learning outside of classrooms) and academic content studies (e.g., studies of
mobile technology in natural science education).
For Liu et al. (2014), the key problem with the research and practice on mobile
learning is a weak connection and even complete absence of any connection to
learning theories. This connection is essential if the new theoretical frontiers and
affordances of mobile technology are to be explored. Therefore, for the effective
integration of mobile technology in education, an appropriate learning design that
builds on sound learning-theoretical foundation is essential. From the literature, it
has been suggested that mobile learning has been designed according to three
paradigms, including (see Churchill et al. 2014): learning with mobile technolo-
gies (e.g. Anderson and Blackwood 2004; Churchill and Churchill 2008; Song and
Fox 2008), learners on the move (e.g., Gu et al. 2011; Seppl et al. 2003; Wong
et al. 2010), and dynamic, seamless and ubiquitous learning experiences (e.g.,
Wong and Looi 2011; Kearney 2014; Song 2014; Ting 2013). For Churchill,
Lu and Chiu (2014), the most critical aspect of effective mobile learning today is
integration of mobile technology, social media and a learning design. A learning
design should serve as a powerful intervention strategy to transform teacher
thinking in a productive direction (e.g., Churchill et al. 2013; Churchill, Fox and
Preface ix

King, Chapter 1 in this book). This book proposes the RASE learning design
framework, which emphasizes four core components to a mobile-enabled learning
environment, namely resources, activity, support and evaluation.
This book comprises 24 chapters written by authors and co-authors from across
the world. The book is sorted into the main six parts as follows:
Mobile Learning Designexplores learning design frameworks and approaches
for integration of mobile and emerging technologies in education, including the
RASE (Churchill, Fox and King), authentic learning approaches (Burden and
Kearney), social media and collaboration (Cochrane and Narayan) and
Activity-theoretical perspective (Rozario, Ortlieb and Rennie). An additional
chapter by Notari and Hielscher provides a useful classication/ontology of
educational Apps. Understanding of this ontology might contribute to a more
effective integration of Apps into learning designs. The nal chapter by Kidd
and Crompton explores augmented reality, its affordance and possibilities for
application via mobile learning technologies.
Mobile Learning Adoption and Student Perceptionattention is given to the
issues of acceptance, adoption and student perception related to educational
integration of mobile learning technology. The issues addressed include adop-
tion factors (Balakrishnan and Lay), student conception of mobile learning
(Khan, Abdou and Clement), student concerns and attitudes (Putnik), and stu-
dent usage and perception (Hu et al.). The chapters in this part provide unique
perspectives on some specic applications of mobile technology, such as in
interactive lectures, and integration with a learning management system.
Mobile Learning Analyticsexamines the important and increasingly emerging
issue of learning analytics, and explores how mobile technology might be
adopted to provide more systematic understanding of student engagements.
Tam, Yi, Xu and Lam explore learning analytics in the context of application of
a cloud-based technology platform, while Wong provides a unique perspective
on flipped classrooms, and how mobile technology might assist the process of
examining student learning.
Mobile Learning Across the Curriculumexplores the integration of mobile
technology across the curriculum and educational entities. This part explores
integration into K-12 education (Turner; Wang), early childhood education
(Tavernier), out-of-the-class learning (Hayes and Weibelzahl) and workplace
learning (Gu). Though there is no specic focus on higher education in this part,
the concepts and ideas introduced are highly applicable and useful to this sector.
Mobile Learning in Subject Domainsprovides more specic perspectives on
the integration of mobile technology in specic curriculum areas and topics,
including Geometry (Crompton), Healthcare (Cook and Santos), college English
education (Wang and Cui), English vocabulary learning (Sytwu and Wang) and
Mathematics (Khoo; Chiu). This part highlights the need for further research
and documentation of practices in the development of emerging literacies related
to mobile learning. For now, however, the reports on English and Mathematics
education appear to dominate the discussion.
x Preface

Future Developmenta single chapter by Pegrum is included in this

part. The chapter offers an outstanding conclusion to the ideas presented in this
book and sets the context for further development, underlining various aspects
and factors surrounding effective adoption of technologies in education.
In summary, contemporary mobile technologies offer a set of tools and affordances
for the advancement of teaching and learning. Furthermore, research and practice
should incorporate not just mobile technology, such as smartphones and tablets, but
the need to follow developments with emerging technologies, such as a variety of
wearable devices (e.g., glasses and watches), internet-of-things and other
emerging technological innovations that introduce and make possible educationally
useful affordances at new levels. A stronger connection between mobile technology
integration and learning-theoretical frameworks is essential to guide research,
practice and policy. Rather than focusing on technology, a key proposition of this
book is to lead education integration of mobile and emerging technologies through
an appropriate evidence-based learning design framework. Equally important is the
achievement of curriculum specied outcomes; the development of new literacies;
learner satisfaction; relevance of educational activities given the work practices of
young individuals; and more effective work management, change and performance
by teachers. The potential of intellectual partnerships with mobile and emerging
learning technologies is promising, however, without empirical research input, a
learning design framework and relevant policy, success will be hard to realise.
Further studies are required to investigate aspects of such methodologies, frame-
work and policies. In addition, research needs to pay attention to aspects of the
design of mobile learning Apps across various categories ranging from multimedia
content, communication, digital storytelling to social networking and cloud
computing.
In conclusion, on behalf of the editorial team, I wish to give special thanks to the
authors and reviewers of the papers, and others who assisted in the development of
this project. Working with more than 35 authors and co-authors from across the
world has been a challenging but rewarding experience for the editorial team.
Special thanks to the Mobile Learning Faculty Research Theme of the Faculty of
Education, The University of Hong Kong, Consultants International for Human
Development and the International Mobile Learning Festival for the support
invested in this project. In the future we intend to expand this collection through
further involvement with scholars and practitioners and their participation in forums
such as the IMLF conference. I am sure that this book will contribute to the
advancement of knowledge and practice in the implementation of mobile and
emerging learning technologies.

Daniel Churchill
Preface xi

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Attewell, J. (2005). Mobile technologies for learning. London, UK: Learning and Skills
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Churchill, D., & Churchill, N. (2008). Educational affordances of PDAs: A study of a teachers
exploration of this technology. Computers & Education, 50(4), 14391450.
Churchill, D., Kennedy, D. M., Flint, D., & Cotton, N. (2010). Using handhelds to support
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Churchill, D., King, M., & Fox, B. (2013). Learning Design for Science Education in the 21st
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Churchill, D., Lu, J, & Chiu, K. F. T. (2014). Integrating mobile technologies, social media and
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Contents

Part I Mobile Learning Design

1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments . . . . . . . 3
Daniel Churchill, Bob Fox and Mark King
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Kevin Burden and Matthew Kearney
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development
and Collaborative Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Thomas Cochrane and Vickel Narayan
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies: An Activity Theory
Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Roy Rozario, Evan Ortlieb and Jennifer Rennie
5 Educational Apps Ontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Michele P. Notari, Michael Hielscher and Mark King
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Susan Herrington Kidd and Helen Crompton

Part II Mobile Learning Adoption and Student Perception

7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures: The Key
Adoption Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Vimala Balakrishnan and Chin Lay Gan
8 University Student Conceptions of M-learning in Bangladesh . . . . 127
Md. Shahadat Hossain Khan, Benadjih Oiriddine Abdou
and Che Kum Clement
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Zoran Putnik

xiii
xiv Contents

10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student

Usage and Perceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Xiao Hu, Leon Chi Un Lei, Jinbao Li, Nathalie Iseli-Chan,
Felix L.C. Siu and Samuel Kai Wah Chu

Part III Mobile Learning Analytics

11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning
Analytics on Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Vincent Tam, Alex Yi, Di Xu and Edmund Y. Lam
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics
for Flipped Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Gary K.W. Wong

Part IV Mobile Learning Across Curriculum

13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic . . . . 221
John Turner
14 Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere Are We
in the Harnessing of Mobile Technology in K-12
Classrooms in Hong Kong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Tianchong Wang
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator for iPad
App for Early Childhood Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Monika Tavernier
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication: Impact
on Immediacy and Affective Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Paul Hayes and Stephan Weibelzahl
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning
Environment for Workplace Learners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Nicole Gu

Part V Mobile Learning in Subject Domains

18 The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning
and the Affordances of This Approach for Geometry
Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Helen Crompton
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art
and Case of Mobile Help Seeking Tool for the Health
Care Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
John Cook and Patricia Santos
Contents xv

20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College

English Education: The Reality and Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Zhuo Wang and Yang Cui
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities with Viewing
and Representing Skills in Preschool Mathematics Lessons . . . . . . 351
Kay Yong Khoo
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order
Thinking Skills in Mobile Multimedia Environments . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Thomas K.F. Chiu
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences
on Mobile-Based Augmented Reality English Vocabulary
Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Tong-Ann Sytwu and Chien-Hwa Wang

Part VI Future Developments

24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Mark Pegrum
About the Editors

Daniel Churchill is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The

University of Hong Kong. He has been teaching for more that two decades at
universities around the world, including Europe, Australia and Asia. He specialises
in educational technology, education system development, and multimedia design.
Over the years, he has been active in researching topics including learning 2.0,
mobile learning, e-learning instructional design, learning objects, and teacher
professional development. He is a recipient of a prestigious HKU Outstanding
Teacher Award, and the Macromedias Award for the Best Multimedia on the
Internet. Also, Dr. Churchill is active as a novelist, and his latest novel The
Refugees has been published and distributed globally in 2015.
Jie Lu currently is director of educational resources centre, BGI College. She
received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Hong Kong in 2012 and worked
as postdoctoral fellow from 2013 to 2014 at the same university. Her research
interests include learning engagement, mobile learning and educational application
of social media.
Thomas K.F. Chiu Thomas Chiu, an experienced educator, is a lecturer in Faculty
of Education at the University of Hong Kong. He published papers that specialize in
mobile learning, multimedia learning and technology adoption in reputed journals
and has been serving as editors and reviewers of repute. With solid software
technology knowledge and teaching experience, he developed large scale computer
applications, and also designed and delivered IT training courses. He has won
several awards including teaching, and design of digital educational materials and
learning systems. His research areas include learning design, ICT educational
policies and big data in education.
Bob Fox Deputy Director, Learning and Teaching Unit at The University of New
South Wales (UNSW). He holds concurrent appointments as Honorary Professor,
Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Adjunct Professor,
School of Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW. He was awarded

xvii
xviii About the Editors

HKUs University Teaching Fellowship for excellence in teaching. His research

interests focus on technological practice and change in higher education; building
institutional capacity and staff capabilities; teacher professional development;
innovative use of new technology; blended learning, BOOCs and MOOCs; learning
environments and the impact of technology on physical learning spaces.
 Part I
Mobile Learning Design
Chapter 1
Framework for Designing Mobile
Learning Environments

Daniel Churchill, Bob Fox and Mark King

Abstract In this chapter the RASE learning design framework is proposed as a key
strategy for utilizing multiple affordances of mobile learning technology. This
learning design framework is based on the premise that an effective learning
environment must include and integrate at least four core components, namely:
Resources, Activity, Support and Evaluation. The activity component is the most
important, requiring students to engage with intellectual and knowledge-based
developments. Mobile technology offers a number of affordances that support
learning, including: Resources, Connectivity, Collaboration, Capture,
Representation, Analytical and Administration tools. Effective use of mobile
technology includes deployment of these affordances in the learning design in a
way that supports different components of the RASE framework and achievement
of set learning outcomes. This chapter presents and discusses concepts, arguments,
and a discussion of an example of an app that integrates multiple affordances,
supported by all components of the RASE learning design framework.

1.1 Introduction

Mobile devices such as tablets, mobile phones and iPods are being increasingly
used in education around the world. Since 2011, the annual Horizon Report has
emphasized the importance of mobile technology, and coupled with cloud com-
puting, these technologies will continue to have a major impact on education

D. Churchill (&)
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: dchurch@hku.hk
B. Fox
M. King
The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
e-mail: bobfox@unsw.edu.au
M. King
e-mail: mark.king@unsw.edu.au

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 3

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_1
4 D. Churchill et al.

(see New Media Consortium 2011). Educational uses of, for example, e-books,
digital videos, podcasts, social networking, cloud computing, and many other
mobile apps have been adopted by different groups of innovative educators and
institutions around the world.
Mobile technology offers a spectrum of tools for teachers, twenty-rst century
educational opportunities and new options for student-technology partnerships in
learning. Empowered with interactive multimedia presentational capabilities,
mobile technology enables the delivery of a range of multimedia material such as
video, audio, graphics and integrated media. If appropriately designed for the
context, educationally useful digital resources for learning can be effectively
delivered via mobile technologies to students at any time, inside and outside
classrooms. Furthermore, features of mobile technologies, and available mobile
applications powered with social media and cloud computing enable new forms of
learning platforms that can serve in a variety of educational contexts (see Churchill
and Churchill 2008; Evans 2008; Lai et al. 2007). However, for Liaw et al. (2010)
although mobile technologies have power to improve education, there is a lack of
recommendations for educators, as the current research and practical recommen-
dations are still in an embryonic stage. For Churchill et al. (2014), mobile learning
has been designed following three paradigms, including: learning with mobile
technologies (e.g. Anderson and Blackwood 2004; Churchill and Churchill 2008;
Song and Fox 2008), learners on the move (e.g. Gu et al. 2011; Seppl and
Alamki 2003; Wong et al. 2010), and dynamic, seamless and ubiquitous learning
experience (e.g. Wong and Looi 2011; Kearney 2014; Song 2014; Ting 2013).
However, we nd these paradigms to be incomplete, and that a more comprehen-
sive and applicable framework for learning design is needed to provide teachers,
educational policy-makers and researchers with a representation of how affordances
of emerging technologies can be utilized in the context of teaching and learning. In
this chapter, we explore the RASE (Resources-Activity-Support-Evaluation)
learning design framework (see Churchill et al. 2013), and discuss how it can be
utilized to integrate affordances of mobile technologies in a learning environment.

1.2 RASE Learning Design

The central idea behind the RASE learning design framework is that Resources are
not sufcient for full achievement of learning outcomes. In addition to resources,
teachers need to consider the following:
Activity for students to engage in using resources and working on tasks such as
experiments and problem solving leading through active experience towards
achievement of learning outcomes.
Support to ensure that students are provided assistance, and where possible with
tools to independently or in collaboration with other students, solve emerging
difculties.
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 5

Evaluation to inform both students and teachers about progress and to serve as a
tool for understanding what else needs to be done in order to ensure learning
outcomes are achieved.
Figure 1.1 is a visual representation and summary of the RASE learning design.
The RASE learning design framework builds upon important theoretical work
and concepts described below.
Constructivist learning environment (Jonassen 1999). In this view, learning
should be arranged around activities, and occur in an environment that supports
knowledge construction, as opposed to knowledge transmission. Knowledge
construction is a process where students individually construct their under-
standing of the content of the curriculum based on exploration, social engage-
ment, testing of understandings and consideration of multiple perspectives.
Activity Theory (Engestrm 1987). Activity Theory species the components
that are part of a human activity system. To understand what is learning, it is
important to understand the specics of this activities, as well as tools used in
the process, the rules and the division of labor, community involved in the
process, parallel and vertically related activities, interactivity, and
contradictions.
Problem solving (Jonassen 2000). For Jonassen, learning is most effective in the
context of the tasks in which students engage to solve ill-structured, authentic,

Fig. 1.1 The RASE learning design

6 D. Churchill et al.

complex and dynamic problems. These kinds of problems are signicantly

different from logical, well-structured problems with one solution. These types
of problems are dilemmas, case studies, strategic decision-making and planning,
all of which require students to actively engage in deep reflection, consideration
of theoretical perspectives, the use of tools, creation of artefacts and analysis of
various possible solutions. Students learn through complex problems, and not
through the absorption of ready-made knowledge, rules and procedures.
Problem-based learning (PBL) (Savery and Duffy 1995). Savery and Duffy
propose PBL as an optimal design model for student centred learning. Similar to
those approaches above, the PBL builds upon constructivist philosophy and
contends that learning is a process of knowledge construction and social
co-construction. A key feature of the PBL is that students actively work on
authentic tasks, and construct knowledge in contexts that reassemble those in
which they would use that knowledge. Creativity, critical thinking, metacog-
nition, social negotiation, and collaboration are all perceived as a critical
component of a PBL process. One of the key characteristics of PBL is that
teachers should not primarily be concerned with the knowledge students con-
struct, but should focus, more attention to metacognitive processes.
Rich environments for active learning (Grabinger and Dunlap 1997). Similar to
Savery and Duffy, Grabinger and Dunlap propose PBL as a highly effective
educational intervention. However, in their approach, further attention is given
to the context of the environment in which PBL occurs, considering components
and complexities that such an activity requires. In particular, emphasis is placed
upon making students more responsible, willing to provide initiatives, reflective
and collaborative in the context of dynamic, authentic and generative learning.
This approach also emphasizes the importance of the development of lifelong
learning skills.
Technology-based learning environments and conceptual change (Vosniadou
et al. 1995). In this view, the central role of technology is to support students
conceptual changes and concept learning rather than simple knowledge transfer.
Students construct mental models and other internal representations via attempts
to explain the external world. Students often bring prior misconceptions to
learning situations.
Interactive learning environments (Harper and Hedberg 1997; Oliver 1999).
Oliver proposes that a learning module must contain resources, tasks and sup-
port to serve the complexity required for learning. For learning to take place, a
task must engage students to make purpose-specic uses of resources. The
teachers role is to support learning. These three integrated components will lead
to interactivity essential for learning.
Collaborative knowledge building (Bereiter and Scardamalia 2003). Knowledge
building is a theoretical construct developed by Bereiter and Scardamalia to
provide interpretation of what is required in the context of collaborative learning
activity. Personal knowledge is seen as an internal, unobservable phenomenon,
and the only way to support learning and understand what is taking place is to
deal with so-called public knowledge (which represent what a community of
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 7

learners know). This public knowledge is available to students to work on,

expand and modify through discourse, negotiation, and collective synthesis of
ideas.
Situated learning (Brown et al. 1989). Brown and colleagues build upon the
Activity Theory perspective to emphasize the central role of an activity in
learning. An activity is where conceptual knowledge is developed and used. It is
argued that this situation produces learning and cognition. Thus, activity, tools
and learning should not be considered as separate. Learning is a process of
enculturation where students become familiarized with uses of cognitive tools in
the context of working on an authentic activity. Both activity and how these
tools are used are specic to a culture of practice. Concepts are not only situated
in an activity, but also are progressively developed through it, shaped by
emerging meaning, culture and social engagement. Brown and colleagues
strongly suggest that activity, concept and culture are interdependent, in that
the culture and the use of a tool determine the way practitioners see the world,
and the way the world appears to them determines their cultural understanding
of the world and of the tools To learn to use tools as practitioners use them, a
student, like an apprentice, must enter that community and its culture (p. 33).
Hence learning is a process of enculturation, where students learn to use a
domains conceptual tools in an authentic activity.
What can be observed from these theoretical approaches is that an Activity is
central to learning. Learning is an experience where learners construct and use
knowledge. Furthermore, each of the four components of the RASE is discussed is
more details.

1.2.1 Resources

Resources include (a) content (e.g. digital media, textbooks and a lecture by a
teacher), (b) material (e.g. chemicals for an experiment, paint and canvas) and
(c) tools that students use when working on their activity (e.g. laboratory tools,
brushes, calculators, rulers, statistical analysis software and word processing
software). When integrating technology resources in teaching, it ought to be done in
a way that leads students to learn with, rather than just learn from these resources.
In this way, students can develop elements of their overall new literacies. There are
various software tools that students can use in learning (e.g. Mind Mapping tool
such as MindMeister, image/video editing tool such as iMovie, professional tools
such as AutoCAD and Mathematica, and model building and experimentation tools
such as Interactive Physics and Stella).
8 D. Churchill et al.

1.2.2 Activity

An activity is a critical component for the achievement of learning outcomes. It

provides learners with an experience where learning occurs in context of emerging
understanding, testing ideas, generalizing and use of knowledge. The following are
two key characteristics of an effective activity. An activity must be
learning-centred
It must focus on what learners will do to learn, and how their rather conceptual
changes will develop, rather than on what students will remember to reproduce
at examinations.
Resources are tools in students hands, which assist them to complete tasks.
Teachers are facilitators who participate in the learning process as partners and
critical friends.
Learners produce artefacts that demonstrate their learning process, not just
outcomes.
Learners learn about the process by actively experimenting with approaches and
reflecting on effective strategies (metacognition).
Learners develop new literacies required for twenty-rst century learning,
working and living.
Furthermore, an activity must be authentic. This means that:
It should contain real-life scenarios and ill-structured problems.
It should reassemble professional practice and thinking.
It should use tools specic to professional practice.
It should result in artefacts that demonstrate professional performance (intel-
lectual and practical knowledge use), not only knowledge.
The following are examples of what an activity may be:
A design project (e.g. design an experiment to test scientic hypothesis).
Case study (e.g. a case of how a scientist identied new physics regularity).
A problem solving learning task (e.g. minimizing friction in a design of ski).
Develop a documentary movie on a specic issue of interest (e.g. GM food pros
and cons).
A poster to promote a controversial scientic issue (e.g. Nuclear energy).
Planning a history day in your school (e.g. create a model and display to inform
about ancient Egyptian culture).
Develop as software to control mechanical transfer of power (e.g. use Scratch to
design a digital model to assist an analytical task)
Role-play (e.g. defending science experiment with small animals).
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 9

1.2.3 Evaluation

An activity engages learners in working on tasks, and developing artefacts that

evidence their learning. This evidence of student learning enables the teacher to
monitor student progress and provide further formative guides to help improve
students learning achievement. Outcomes of an activity can be a conceptual
artefact (e.g. an idea or a concept presented in a written report), a hard artefact (e.g.,
a model of an electric circuit), or a soft artefact (e.g. a computer-based creation).
Artefacts produced by students must undergo peer and expert review and a revision
before nal submission. This process may also involve learner/group presentations
and peer/expert feedback. Also, students need to record their progress, so they too
can monitor own learning and the improvements they make. Rubrics can be pro-
vided to enable students to conduct self-evaluation as well. The produced artefacts
ought to be evaluated in ways that students can reflect upon feedback and take
further action towards a more coherent achievement of the learning outcomes.
Evaluation of learning is an essential part of effective learning-centred experiences.
It needs to be formative in order to enable students to constantly improve their
learning, and provide feedback on progress.

1.2.4 Support

The purpose of support is to provide students with essential scaffolding while

enabling the development of learning skills and independence. Support might
anticipate students difculty, such as understanding an activity, using tool or
working in groups. In addition, teachers must track and record ongoing difculties
and issues that need to be addressed during learning, and share these with students.
Four modes of support are possible: teacher-student, student-student,
student-artefact (additional resources) and student-community (seeking assistance
from other people and sources). Support can take place in a classroom and in-online
environments such as through forums, Wikis, Blogs and social networking spaces.
Also, support can be seen as anticipatory of student needs. Depending on the
course, proactive support structures such as FAQs can be planned and implemented
in light of such needs. The objective of anticipatory support is to ensure students
have access to a body of resources when they need help, rather than being
dependent on asking teachers for help. Here are some specic strategies:
Build a body of resources and materials which form a FAQ Page
Create a How Do I? or Help Me Forum
Create a Glossary of course-related terms
Use checklists and rubrics for activities
Use other social networking platforms and synchronous tools such as chat and
Skype.
10 D. Churchill et al.

Overall, support should aim to lead students to become more independent

learners. For example, before a student can ask a teacher for help, they must rst
ask their classmates through one of the forums and/or search the Internet for
solutions to their problem(s). In this way, students are expected to take responsi-
bility for their learning and to support other students in their cohort.
Designing learning environments based on the RASE, whether for online,
blended or classroom based learning, should have integration of all four compo-
nents. Learning design usually begins by articulation of an activity for learners to
engage. Planning evaluation would then take place, followed by provision of
resources and support.
Furthermore in this chapter, possibilities of how mobile learning might support
the RASE will be examined through consideration of affordances of mobile
technology.

1.3 Affordances of Mobile Learning Technologies

and the RASE Learning Design

Studies report a variety of possibilities in relation to use of mobile technologies in

education. Examples of issues reported include: use of mobile technology during
classes, enabling teachers and students to share les; allowing students to ask
anonymous questions, answer polls, and give teachers feedback (e.g. Ratto et al.
2003); delivering an intelligent tutoring system and quizzes (e.g. Segal et al. 2005);
disseminating information, collecting data during eld trips and supporting stu-
dents inquiries (e.g. Churchill et al. 2010); supporting computer collaborative
learning (e.g. Roschelle and Pea 2002; Zurita and Nussbaum 2004); improving
literacy and numeracy for disadvantaged young adults (Attewell 2005); as a per-
sonal technology for lifelong learning (Sharples 2000); as a personalized learning
environments (e.g. Song and Fox 2008); as instructional tool and a replacement to
laptops (e.g. Shen et al. 2009); as a tool for learning on the move (e.g. Wong et al.
2010); as a mediating tool for ubiquitous, seamless and situated learning experi-
ences, (e.g. Looi et al. 2010; Wong and Looi 2011), and so on.
An affordance is a useful concept that can be applied to interpret how teachers
engage technology in their practice. Norman (1988) denes affordances as the
perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties
that determine just how the thing could possibly be used (p. 9). For Barnes (2000),
a teachers use of new technology in teaching and learning is carried out with a
belief that this technology will afford learning in some way. Affordances can
include actual uses, and those uses that emerge in teachers practice. Therefore, how
mobile technology will be used in education depends largely on teachers under-
standings of affordances of this technology.
What do we know about educational affordances of mobile technology at this
stage? The literature related to early adoption of mobile technology suggests that it
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 11

might assist students to learn anytime, anywhere, by empowering them to access

internet resources and run experiments in the eld, capture, store and manage
everyday events as images and sounds, and communicate and share the material
with colleagues and experts throughout the world (Sharples et al. 2002, p. 222).
For Luchini, Quintana and Soloway (2004), the key benet of such mobile tech-
nology is that powerful personal devices can provide access to tools and infor-
mation within the context of learning activities (p.135). For Hsieh, Jang, Hwang
and Chen (2011) mobile technology has potential to support students reflection
leading to improved learning achievement when there is an appropriate match
between a teachers teaching style and students learning style.
Klopfer and Squire (2005) describe ve potential educational affordances of
PDAs: (1) portability, as mobile technology can be taken to different locations;
(2) social interactivity, as mobile technology can be used to collaborate with other
people; (3) context sensitivity, as mobile technology can be used to gather real or
simulated data; (4) connectivity, as mobile technology enables connection to data
collection devices, other handhelds, and to a network; and (5) individuality, as
mobile technology can provide scaffolding to the learners. Patten, Snches and
Tangney (2006) present a framework that consists of the following affordances of
PDA technology: administration, referential, interactive, microworld, data collec-
tion, location awareness and collaboration. Liaw, Hatala and Huang (2010) suggest
ve affordances of mobile technology for education: (a) educational content and
knowledge delivery, (b) adaptive learning applications, (c) interactive applications,
(d) individual applications and (e) collaborative applications. Churchill and
Churchill (2008) expanded upon these studies and examined a teachers use of PDA
technology. Their study articulated a number of affordances of PDA technology
including as a multimedia access, connectivity, capture, representational and ana-
lytical tool. In our own study of teacher use of iPads in higher education (see
Churchill and Wang 2014), we explicated a set of categories of apps utilized by
educators. These include: (a) productivity, (b) teaching administration, (c) note
taking, (d) communication, (e) cloud management, (f) social content creation and
(g) content accessing tools.
These affordances from these reports are sorted through our analysis into
emerging groups of affordances that include (see Table 1.1): (a) resources tool,
(b) connectivity tool, (c) collaboration tool, (d) capture tool, (e) analytic tool,
(f) representation tool, and (g) administration tool. These groups are used as an
analytical framework for understanding affordances that emerge in this study.
The following is a brief description of these key affordances of mobile
technology:
Resources A variety of multimedia resources can be delivered using this tech-
nology, such as e-books, web pages, presentations, interactive resources, audio
les and video segments. These resources can be accessed at anytime, any-
where, by connecting to the Internet mobile network or wireless network con-
nections, from the memory of the device or storage card if the resources were
previously downloaded, or through synchronization of the device with a
 12

Table 1.1 Affordances of mobile learning technology

Klopfer and Patten et al. (2006) Churchill and Liaw et al. (2010) Churchill and Wang (2014) Summary of affordances emerging from
Squire (2005) Churchill (2008) across these studies
Portability Administration (7) Multimedia access Educational content and Productivity tools (3, 6) 1. Resources
(1) knowledge delivery (1)
Social Referential (1) Connectivity tool (2) Adaptive learning applications Teaching Administration 2. Connectivity
interactivity (3a) (1) tools (2, 7)
Context Interactive Capture tool (4) Interactive applications (3) Note taking tools (4, 6,) 3. Collaboration
sensitivity (4) resource (1)
Connectivity (2, Microworld Representational tool Individual applications (6) Communication tools (2, 3) 4. Capture
3) environment (1) (6)
Individuality (1) Data collection (4) Analytical tool (5) Collaborative applications (3) Cloud management tools 5. Analytical
(3, 4, 7)
Location Social content creation 6. Representation
awareness (4) tools (2, 3, 4, 6)
Collaboration (3) Content accessing tools (1, 7. Administration
5)
a
Corresponds to an affordance listed in the summary (nal column)
D. Churchill et al.
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 13

computer. A variety of apps available for mobile devices support delivery and
access to resources such as e-books, multimedia material and video content, as
for example, iBooks, Kindle, YouTube, Perfect Reader, iTunes and iTunesU.
Connectivity tool Mobile technology empowers students to connect to each
other, facilitators and experts in the eld, exchange ideas and les, socially
construct and negotiate meanings, manage activities and negotiate roles in their
projects, etc. Connection might be established synchronously and asyn-
chronously over mobile telephony and wireless networks that support voice and
multimedia data transmission. These include tools that support communication
and social networking, such as for example apps as Facebook, Skype, Google
Hangouts, WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, FaceTime, Facebook and MyPad.
Collaboration tool This affordances enables student to co-design artefacts that
demonstrate their learning, collaborate on projects a problem-based task, and
share roles and responsibilities. Also, these include tools that allow connectivity
to the Cloud, network drives and a computer and co-development of resources.
Examples of apps include Air Shawing, FileBrowser, Dropbox, ZumoDrive, Air
Drive, AirDisk. Goodle Drive and Ofce2HD.
Capture tool Mobile technology is equipped with capture capabilities that
include capture of video, audio and still photographs. Students might, for
example, photograph and videotape machines and people during their industry
visits, or photograph diagrams from a book or catalogue (e.g. by using apps such
as Genius Scan, Cam Scaner, Dragon, ProCapture or Movie Pro). The capture
affordance also includes audio capture (e.g. Smart Voice Recorder App). For
example, students might interview experts and capture their own audio notes, or
capture characteristic sounds of a faulty engine. There is a possibility for spe-
cially designed extensions and consoles to be attached to a mobile device and
used to capture, store and process other kinds of data such as, for example,
recording global positioning of certain air pollution sources.
Analytical tool A mobile device might be used as an analytical tool to aid
students tasks. For example, these might include standard, scientic and gra-
phic calculators such as Algeo Graphing Calculator App, or specially designed
analytical tools created by teachers and designers to allow students to analyse
certain data.
Representation tool Mobile technology might be used by students and teachers
to create representations which demonstrate their thinking and knowledge.
These might be, for example, mind maps, captured and edited images, audio and
videos. Apps such as iMovie, HansOn, Bamboo Paper, Penultimate, AudioNote,
Draw Free, iPocketDraw. Blogsy and Wordpress enable content creating and
editing via mobile devices directly to blogs and websites.
Administration These include mobile tools that support classroom teaching,
such as those that support connection to a projector, mark-book, presentation
tools and classroom management tools. Examples of apps used are Moodle,
Clicker School, TeacherPal, Prezi Viewer, Slides Shark, LanSchool Teacher.
A variety of productivity apps can support a spectrum of administrative
14 D. Churchill et al.

activities of teachers, for example apps such as Mail, iAnnotate, Docs2PDF,

Neu.Annotate, PDF Notes and Dragon.
We can use this set of affordances to assist us in understanding how mobile
technology supports the RASE learning design and its component. Some of these
possibilities are presented in the Table 1.2:

Table 1.2 Affordances of mobile learning technology and how these might support components
of the RASE learning design
RASE Affordances supporting RASE elements
Component
Resources ResourcesVariety of multimedia resources and tools can be delivered via mobile
technology (e.g. e-books, Youtube videos, PDF documents, SlideShare
presentations, lecture recording, and learning object). These can serve to support
students learning activities occurring in a variety of other contexts and platforms
(inside and outside of a classroom, with or without use of other technologies and
resources, etc.)
ConnectivityEnables access to resources via Cloud, or resources can be
distributed to learners via these tool
Activity Representationnumerous apps are available which, for example, support content
editing and creation of multimedia (e.g. iMovie), building models (e.g. Autodesc
ThinkerPlay) and mind maps (e.g. SimpleMind)
Connectivityapps such as Skype, WeChat, WhatsApp, Adobe Connect, etc. all
support connectivity and synchronous engagement and le sharing
Collaborativeapps supporting Cloud-based applications such as Google
Docs/Sheets/Slides, can be used to support, for example collaborative project
report development, nancial analysis spreadsheet, or and an online presentation
of a proposal
Analyticalapps such DataAnalysis by Data Evaluation Systems can be used to
assist analysis of data. Use of Cloud-based applications, such as Google Sheets,
can enable collaboration on analytical tasks. Some conceptual representation
resources might be effectively utilized for analytical purposes (see Churchill 2013)
Capturethis affordance enables learners to capture data in multimedia forms and
use in learning activities such as, digital storytelling, project documentation, or
development of presentations
Support ConnectivityThis affordance empowers students and teachers to remain
connected continuously, seek and provide support and monitor emerging learning
difculties
Resourcesapps with multimedia resources can be used as additional information
to be provided to students based on emerging difculties
Evaluation AdministrationA spectrum of apps available can be used to assist teachers
administration. However, in context of RASE, apps such as Easy Assessment -
Rubric Creation & Assessment Tool for Teachers can be used to create and
administer rubrics for evaluation. Google Cloud apps might be used to create
rubrics and collect evaluation data, annotating PDF apps can support effective
feedback, while EdModo or similar learning system supporting mobile application,
might be used to create and administer surveys
ConnectivityThis affordances can effectively be utilized to communicate with
students and provide feedback on their progress and completion of learning
artefacts
CollaborativeCloud-based application supporting collaborative artefact
development would provide a teacher with and app for easy access and features for
providing feedback and initiating improvements
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 15

1.4 A Case for an App that Integrates Multiple

Affordances of Mobile Technology and Supports
the RASE Learning Design

Mobile technology and its affordances might serve a single or multiple components
of a learning design (or even part of a component). Different strategies might be
used to achieve other requirements of a learning design that mobile technology
cannot meet. However, mobile technology alone, in rare cases, might be able to
support all the four components and integrate multiple affordances in a single
learning environment. In this part of the paper, the authors will describe a case for
an app designed with an aim to bring together multiple affordances and support
multiple components of the RASE learning design.
In 2009, one of the authors met an exceptional teacher of Chinese as a Foreign
Language at the University of Hong Kong. The teacher was dedicated and keen to
solve some on fundamental problems in teaching Chinese as a foreign language she
understood exist in context of her practice. Over the years, she experienced chal-
lenges in teaching of Chinese characters to non-Chinese students. Specically, the
teacher understood that it was difcult for her students to learn order of strokes. In
her current practice, she would write a character on the white board, explaining
stroke order and students would follow by completing exercised prescribed in their
book.
To assist this teacher with content of Chinese Character Writing, we designed
Mobilese App that allows a learner to examine characters from a set of 200
Chinese simplied characters via a mobile device. The 200 characters were care-
fully selected and included in the Mobilese by the participating Chinese language
teacher. At the home interface the learner could select one of the displayed char-
acters, or narrow down their choices by selecting one of the categories that classify
characters according to a number of strokes required to write it. Alternatively, a
learner could search for a character according to so-called pinyin (pronunciation
written in alphabetical characters).
Once a character is selected, it will be displayed, and a learner will be able to
preview and practice writing it by recreating the correct stroke order. Unique to the
approach is that a learner cannot write a character in any incorrect order, that is,
rather than receiving a feedback for being incorrect, he or she must discover a
proper sequence in his or her own way. Another unique feature of this resource is
that of similar characters. The teacher, based on her almost 40 years of teaching
experience, understood that her students often make mistakes and mix-up characters
that are somehow similar. Such characters have been identied and the feature
created to allow students to preview similar characters, and focus on specic
aspects of these characters that cause mix-up. An additional functionality allows a
learner to examine history of a specic character, listen to pronunciation in
Putonghua and Cantonese versions, and explore examples of words in Putonghua
and Cantonese that use that character. The interface of the Mobilese App is pre-
sented in the Fig. 1.2.
16 D. Churchill et al.

Fig. 1.2 Interface of the Mobilese app

This rst design an app for Chinese character learning utilized on Resources
affordance of mobile technology. Therefore, this app was capable only of con-
tributing to the Resources component of the RASE learning design (and possibly
Support component). It had not utilized any other mobile affordance. Our further
effort concentrated on exploring utilization of other affordances as a mean of cre-
ating possibilities for support of other components of the RASE.
As public interest in the Mobiliese grew, soon there were a number of schools
interested to use this digital resource in their context. One of international schools
from Hong Kong become in particular interested in Mobilese, however, they
required certain modications, and wanted it to be available for implementation via
iPod Touch mobile devices. We saw this as an opportunity to further develop our
idea of integrating affordances of mobile technology, and supporting components
across the RASE. We have begun redevelopment of the Mobilese with integration
of new features, and reorganization of content according to the schools needs, and
in the way that is suitable for their early primary learners and the Chinese language
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 17

curriculum. The schools principal, Chinese language curriculum leaders and

technology coordinators favoured this proposal, and soon the school was ready to
provide substantial funding and enter in the collaborative project agreement for
redevelopment of this digital resource for learning via iOS devices.
A considerable redesign was made from the initial version of the Mobilese.
Although the fundamental idea of character learning through visuals and interac-
tivity remains the same in the both digital resources for learning via mobile tech-
nology, the redesigned digital resources focused on traditional rather than simplied
characters according to the specic curriculum of Chinese language at the school.
Additional functionalities and arrangements were build in the resources in a way
that reflect the recommendations from the schools teachers and the curriculum
leader, advices of experts from the team, and a number of affordances of mobile
technology. The new version of the app was named iMobilese.
In the iMobilese, similar as in the previous design of the Mobilese, a learner was
able to select a character from the list of 200 included in the app. The menu for
selecting characters has taken a new approach. Characters on the menu are sorted by
default according to a number of strokes in ascending order. However, a learner was
able to rearrange these in alphabetical order according to pinyin, or according to
units predened flexibly by teachers according to the schools curriculum pro-
gramme. A learner could preview how characters are written in stroke-by-stroke
order, examine similar characters, and explore words using those characters.
However, there were a number of new features. First, a learner is now able to mark
a character he or she is exploring as favourite, need to learn or known for ones
that are learnt already. This information is then made available for easy reference at
the main interface where a learner selects characters to explore. A learner could then
quickly access a list of character he or she marked as favourite, need to learn or
already known. This information was saved, and could be examined by a teacher or
parents. In this way certain aspects of Connectivity affordances have been build in
the app as a mean of providing for Support component of the RASE. The main
interface of the iMobilese is shown in the Fig. 1.3.
An additional feature was integrated allowing a learner to save his or her own
attempts of independent writing of characters for later preview, or for emailing to
the teacher or other students. Further attempt in the redesign was made to integrate
Capture affordances of mobile technology. While viewing specic characters, a
learner can record his own voice for purposes of comparing own pronunciation to
pronunciation of an expert, which is available in the resource. In fact, by using these
features a learner could capture any audio, such as audio notes, or record a teacher
or a class friend. Furthermore, a learner could take photographs of objects, people,
book pages and scenes that they associate with a specic character. These audio
recordings, photographs taken and images of characters written by a learner were
saved on the device used. The learner could later use these media les in creating
presentations with SonicPics (app favourably suggested by the teachers involved in
the project). These were just a small step forward towards utilizing Representation
affordances in support of Activity component of the RASE, while supplementing
limitations of iMobilese with use of other app available for mobile devices.
18 D. Churchill et al.

Fig. 1.3 Interface of the iMobiles app

The iMobilese also includes three practice resources designer with intention to
serve as support resources: (a) Word Maker, used by learners to match two char-
acters and form a word, (b) Pinyin Match, engages learners in associating characters
with correct pinyin, and (c) Hear and Match, learners hear a sound and select a
related character. Practices calculate the number of correct matches within a minute.
Results of the practices were stored on the device and could be accessed by a
teacher. The practices have been developed based on the worksheet exercise that
teachers used in their teaching.
Ther iMobilese remains to largely provide Resources affordance and support
Resources component of the RASE. The remaining components of the RASE
were achieved by other ways. Here is how the iMobilese was used:
The app was used in combination with workbooks (served as an Activity
component). For example, learners used the iMobilese to explore demonstra-
tions and practice writing in correct stroke order rst. They then used the
workbook to practice handwriting with pencils while writing down a word
constructed with the character. They referred to the iMobilese when encoun-
tering unknown characters.
The iMobilese was used by learners to independently explore writing and
speaking. Learners in groups received a worksheet with a list of characters they
needed to review and practice. They took screenshots of their writing and
recorded their speaking of a sentence constructed with the character. In most
cases, learners played back their recordings immediately.
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 19

The iMobilese was used to support practice-based group learning for reinforcing
pinyin pronunciation and listening skills. Learners were grouped to use Pinyin
Match and Hear and Match practices under the supervision of a teaching
assistant. They showed their scores and competed with one another.
The app was used to facilitate characters meaning making by taking photos of
real-world objects. Learners drew a picture on a white paper that was related to
meaning of a character, and then took photos of the drawing and kept it in the
iMobilese. In another example, learners took their iPod Touches home and
captured photos of the real-world objects that associate them with characters
they were learning.
Although iMobilese was an important step forward, it still fall short of utilizing
multiple affordances of mobile technology, and the RASE components. A logical
progression of iMobilese was to develop it in the iPad version, which would pro-
vide more possibilities. Although both, small devices and tablets, essentially used
the same systems, and the same apps can be delivered via both, the large screen size
of iPads assured greater design flexibility, functionalities and integration of tools
made possible by this technology.
The author met a director of a technology company from Hong Kong who
showed interest in iMobilese. An idea emerged to explore development of a
commercial iPad app for learning of Chinese characters, that can be used by variety
of audiences, such as school learners, independent learners across the Globe, lan-
guage schools, corporate training, etc. Subsequently, the director made a decision to
invest in the development of such resources, and made an offer to the author to lead
this project. From the authors perspective, having unconstrained budget to develop
and experiment with multiple affordances was an ideal situation, and soon the
agreement was formalized, and the design process begun.
Most immediate idea was to redesign iMobilese, given the larger screen area,
and expand on its content to include up to 1,000 characters. However, further
thinking lead the author to ambitiously pursue other possibilities, including
development of this resource in a platform that makes possible variety of activities,
such as digital story telling (Representation affordance) and social networking
(Connectivity affordance), and provides a tool for teachers to manage processes of
learning in their own way (Administration affordance). The new app was labelled
Chinese Learning Apps System, or CLAS. Screen capture of the prototype of
CLAS is presented in the Fig. 1.4.
The new app is more complex, and there are variety tools incorporated by
building upon different affordances of mobile technology. The new app is not only a
digital resource for learning, but it incorporates features of learning management,
social networking and representational tools in a platform that supports learning
activities.
In addition to the development of this app for Chinese language, the author is
engaged in designing a similar app for mathematics education. This app will
contain a collection of conceptual representation resources for mathematics edu-
cation (Resources component of a learning design). Learners will be able to
20 D. Churchill et al.

Fig. 1.4 Interface from the iPad version of app for Chinese character learning

explore these resources in various ways, engage with tools supporting Activity,
such as annotation, digital storytelling, concept mapping, while teachers will have
an additional component that allows them to set up activities for students
(Administration affordance) for individual or group work (Collaboration affor-
dance). Build in communication features (Connectivity affordance) will assist the
Support and Evaluation components of a learning design. This project is in a
very early stage; however, some preliminary designs have been put in place.
1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 21

1.5 Conclusion

Overall, contemporary mobile technology has matured sufciently to support

integration of multiple affordances in a learning environment. A learning envi-
ronment is articulated based on learning design. In this chapter we proposed that a
learning design framework composed of the four components: Resources, Activity,
Support and Evaluation, is the most suitable for contemporary learning-centred
pedagogy. We call this approach to learning design the RASE. Designers of
multimedia resources should consider this recommendation when developing apps,
that support the integration of multiple affordances in order to design resources that
can support teachers in delivering learning designs based on the RASE, fully
beneting from the use of mobile technology. These key affordances of mobile
learning technologies include: Resources, Connectivity, Collaboration,
Representation, Capture, Analytical and Administrative tools.
In conclusion, we emphasize a special form of resource suitable for learning
design with the use of mobile learning technology; what we call Conceptual
Representation Resource. Over the last decade, we have conducted extensive
research on the design and educational uses of learning objects (see Churchill 2005,
2007, 2008, 2013, 2014; Churchill and Hedberg 2008; Jonassen and Churchill
2004). The concept is broadly understood as a specic form of cognitive structure
that enables a knower to understand new information, and engage in specic dis-
ciplinary thinking, problem solving and further learning. The literature underlines
the importance of conceptual learning, and refers to evidence that incomplete
conceptual knowledge and misconceptions seriously impede learning (see Mayer
2002; Smith et al. 1993; Vosniadou 1994). Models have been described in the
literature as effective tools for conceptual learning. Their educational use has been
in the areas of model-centred learning and instruction (e.g. Dawson 2004; Gibbons
2008; Johnson and Lesh 2003; Lesh and Doerr 2003; Mayer 1989; Norman 1983;
Seel 2003; van Someren et al. 1998). A conceptual resource is designed to represent
a specic concept (or a set of related concepts) and its properties, parameters and
relationships. A learner can manipulate these properties and parameters with
interactive components (e.g.,sliders, buttons, hotspot areas, text input boxes) and
observe changes displayed in a variety of modes (e.g. numerical, textual, auditory
and visual). These resources require little contact time for maximum learning and
conceptual knowledge to be constructed, thus holding potential to be the most
appropriate multimedia design for mobile apps for learning. This form of resources
can serve as external supplements to learners conceptual knowledge limitations,
thus serving as important resources in learning activities requiring conceptual
knowledge to be represented. In addition to serving as resources in learning design,
these apps can serve as Analytical tools within an activity requiring the collection
and processing of certain data from which conceptual knowledge can be derived.
Furthermore, design of these kinds of resources might integrate other affordances of
22 D. Churchill et al.

mobile technology, such as capture, posting of content and communication. Mobile

technologies enable these resources to take on authentic contexts, moving between
classrooms, laboratories and the external real world and used by students inde-
pendently beyond their schools and whenever needed.
In summary, affordances of contemporary mobile technologies offer a set of
tools for effective integration in teaching and learning. For this effectiveness to be
achieved, it is becoming essential that an evidence-based learning design frame-
work be in place. We call upon further studies to investigate aspects of the
framework proposed in this chapter and we recommend that further research gives
attention to aspects of design in mobile learning apps.

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1 Framework for Designing Mobile Learning Environments 25

Author Biographies

Daniel Churchill is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong
Kong. He has been teaching for more that two decades at universities around the world, including
Europe, Australia and Asia. He specialises in educational technology, education system
development, and multimedia design. Over the years, he has been active in researching topics
including learning 2.0, mobile learning, e-learning instructional design, learning objects, and
teacher professional development. He is a recipient of a prestigious HKU Outstanding Teacher
Award, and the Macromedias Award for the Best Multimedia on the Internet. Also, Dr
Churchill is active as a novelist, and his latest novel The Refugees has been published and
distributed globally in 2015.

Bob Fox Deputy Director, Learning and Teaching Unit at The University of New South Wales
(UNSW). He holds concurrent appointments as Honorary Professor, Faculty of Education,
University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Adjunct Professor, School of Education, Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences, UNSW. He was awarded HKUs University Teaching Fellowship for excellence
in teaching. His research interests focus on technological practice and change in higher education;
building institutional capacity and staff capabilities; teacher professional development; innovative
use of new technology; blended learning, BOOCs and MOOCs; learning environments and the
impact of technology on physical learning spaces.

Mark King is a psychologist and cognitive ethnographer working in the areas of human
interactivity and learning. He is currently developing methodologies for studying human learning
within distributed cognitive systems, including an eye-tracking methodology for investigating the
co-synchronization of language behaviour and visual perception between persons in learning
events. He currently serves as the Head of Educational Design and Development at UNSW
Australia.
Chapter 2
Conceptualising Authentic Mobile
Learning

Kevin Burden and Matthew Kearney

Abstract Conventional accounts of authentic learning focus on contextual factors:

tasks, processes, how situated the learning is and the extent to which learners engage
in simulated or participative real-world activities. This paper theorises how ubiq-
uitous mobile technologies are fracturing the boundaries that demarcate traditional
accounts of authentic learning affording new opportunities to reconceptualise what
authenticity means for learners when they use a boundary object such as a mobile
device. Whilst some of this has been captured previously with terms like seamless,
contextualised and agile learning, this paper argues that the concept of authentic
mobile learning is a highly fluid construct which will continue to change as the
technologies develop and as the pedagogical affordances become better understood
by educators and end-users. The paper offers a three-dimensional model of authentic
mobile learning and argues that further empirical research is required to understand
what is authentic mobile learning from the perception of learners.

2.1 Introduction

Authenticity remains a concept that is referred to by many, yet poorly dened

(Barab et al. 2000, p. 38)

Contemporary endeavours to understand and dene mobile learning

(m-learning) draw attention to the situated and seamless nature of activities that are
mediated through the affordances of mobile technologies, describing these as

K. Burden (&)
The University of Hull, Kingston-upon-Hull, UK
e-mail: k.j.burden@hull.ac.uk
M. Kearney
University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia
e-mail: Matthew.Kearney@uts.edu.au

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 27

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_2
28 K. Burden and M. Kearney

authentic learning (Herrington and Kervin 2007; Herrington et al. 2008). Learners
are considered to be more engaged in contexts which offer high levels of personal
signicance and cultural relevance. In terms of personal signicance, they act as a
bridge linking new information and theories to learners life world outside of formal
education and in terms of cultural relevance they enculturate the learner into the
practices of the community helping them to think like a member of the discipline
(Lombardi 2007; Meyers and Nulty 2009; Stein et al. 2004). Despite considerable
research associated with authentic learning (Barab et al. 1989; Brown et al. 1989;
CTVG 1990; Petraglia 1998; Radinsky et al. 2001), there are to date relatively few
studies which have analysed how mobile technologies support and enhance
authentic learning and reciprocally how far authenticity is an inherent characteristic
of mobile learning itself (Herrington and Kervin 2007; Herrington et al. 2008;
Herrington and Oliver 2000; Kearney et al. 2012; Kearney et al. 2015).
Recent data, collected by the authors from an international survey of educators
using mobile technologies in their teaching and learning, highlights one of many
confusions associated with the twin concepts of authenticity and mobile learning.
Participants consistently ranked the construct of authenticity as high, with a mean
average of 2.4 on a scale of 1 (low) to 3 (high), when describing a learning scenario
where they had used mobile technologies for pedagogical purposes. This high
ranking of authenticity by the teachers was despite the fact that 82 % of their
self-reported scenarios were situated in formal institutional settings such as schools
and universities which might normally be considered rather inauthentic settings
(Kearney et al. 2015). This paradox forms the focus for this article which seeks to
theorise the concept of authentic learning with mobile technologies. Although
authenticity and the learning theories associated with it are often described
alongside mobile learning many of the underlying concepts and approaches which
have been adopted to enact them as pedagogy are based on a range of assumptions
about learning which are rarely articulated or fully explained (Radinsky et al. 2001,
p. 406; Selwyn 2014).
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2.2 outlines the background of the
paper by exploring why authentic learning is considered important. Section 2.3
seeks to dene the term authentic learning identifying two interpretations which are
evident in authentic mobile learning. The main body of the paper, (Sect. 2.4), brings
together existing research about authentic learning to facilitate and support mobile
learning. In so doing, it identies three distinct and recurring denitions. These are
subsequently presented as vectors in a three-dimensional orthogonal model which is
offered as an original way to conceptualise authentic mobile learning (Sect. 2.5). In
this nal section, we discuss the implications of these theorisations and consider the
utility of the proposed model for better understanding the phenomenon of mobile
learning and authenticity.
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 29

2.2 Why Is Authentic Learning Important?

The concept of authentic learning is not new and may have reached its zenith in
Europe during the Middle Ages when it functioned as the primary mode of
instruction in the craft guilds where apprentices honed their skills vicariously
alongside a master craftsman (Lombardi 2007, p. 6). The advent of industrialisation
brought about the need to train a mass labour force meaning the apprenticeship
model of learning declined and was supplanted by less direct but more cost-efcient
institutional systems of mass education (Klopfer et al. 2004). Only in recent years
has the interest in more authentic real-world learning resurfaced alongside theories
of situated learning (Brown et al. 1989) and cognitive apprenticeships (Collins
1988; Collins et al. 1989). Much of this renewed interest can be traced to economic
and technological imperatives which have combined to make authentic learning
both economically viable and pedagogically appealing.
The economic drivers stem from the structural shifts in post-Fordist capitalism
which have seen the decline in traditional labour-intensive industries and the
emergence of new forms of production which are largely immaterial in nature,
based on the manipulation of networked knowledge and ideas (Lazzarato 1996;
Selwyn 2014). These structural shifts demand a new set of skills and dispositions
for a largely immaterial workforce which include creativity, networking, coopera-
tion and autonomy (Selwyn 2014).
Technology is also an important driver in the renewed popularity of authentic
learning since computers and, more lately, mobile technologies have matured to the
point at which previously inefcient models of learning are once again feasible.
Mobile technologies are relatively ubiquitous, small and discreet making them ideal
for many work-based learning tasks such as capturing images, notes and reflections
in situ (Burden et al. 2010). Todays mobile devices are invariably networked
which allow learners to participate in real communities of practice such as Science
Citizen projects where they are supported by genuine professionals, akin to the
traditional apprenticeship model, although at a greatly reduced cost.
Given this resurgence of interest in models of authentic learning and the
world-wide technological shift to post-PC devices (PPD) such as mobile phones
and tablet computers, it is timely and important to better understand the assump-
tions which underpin the concepts of authenticity and mobile learning. Therefore,
this article addresses the following research questions:
What assumptions underpin the concept of authentic learning with mobile
technologies?
What functional value do these conceptualisations serve for educators and the
wider academic community seeking to further exploit the potential of mobile
technologies?
30 K. Burden and M. Kearney

2.3 Dening Authenticity

The Oxford dictionary denition of the term authentic reveals two etymological
strands upon which similar but signicantly different interpretations of the phrase
have gradually emerged. In its original form, deriving from the Greek term au-
thentikos, authentic is dened as meaning of undisputed origin, not a copy or
replica and this interpretation has been appropriated into the legal lexicon where
synonyms like genuineness, bona de and veritable are used to imply the
integrity and originality of a person, object or act.
The second etymological derivation, which has become the more commonly
used (at least since the eighteenth century) stems from a more representative
understanding of the term associated with secondary rather than direct experience.
An account of an eye witness is described as authentic if it is accurate in its
representation of the facts. Authenticity, in this second sense of the term is a
measure of reliability and correspondence between the original artefact (e.g. an
accident in the street) and its secondary representation (e.g. by an eye witness). In
this secondary interpretation, various proxies such as trustworthiness and authori-
tative certication replace the certainty afforded by direct sensory rst-hand pres-
ence (Russell 1959) and in this sense authenticity is a measure of delity and
correspondence between the primary account and its second-hand representation.
When the term authentic is used in association with learning, both the direct and
representative etymological denitions are invoked; but until recently with the
emergence of ubiquitous ownership of mobile devices authenticity has most
commonly referred to the representative interpretation, whereby students tackle
real-world problems and challenges through a simulated, rather than a direct par-
ticipatory interface. Technology and the affordances of mobile technologies chal-
lenge these traditions in ways which will be discussed later in the article.

2.4 Authentic Learning and Mobile Technologies

The term authentic learning is used in various different ways in the eld of edu-
cational technology and this section explores three different descriptions based on
studies of mobile technology use reported in the research literature.
In the rst of these authenticity describes the context of the learning activity and
the extent to which this is participative or simulated. In these descriptions,
authenticity is judged by the extent to which students engage in activities and tasks
like those undertaken by professional communities of practice in so-called
real-world settings. The second denition relates more to the nature of the tasks
and activities undertaken. In these cases, authenticity is a measure of the degree of
agency granted to students which is also correlated with the extent to which the
learning activity is predened or emergent, planned or unplanned. The third de-
nition of authenticity is embedded within the students personal goal structures and
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 31

emotional engagement with the learning activity. From this perspective, authen-
ticity is a measure of how far learning activities engage students lived experience,
enabling students to nd meaningful connections with their current views, under-
standings and experiences (Stein et al. 2004, p. 240).

2.5 Unpacking Authentic Learning

It is generally agreed that authentic learning ideally requires students to tackle

real-world problems located in contexts that mimic the work of professionals and
discipline experts (Collins 1988; Herrington et al. 2008; Lombardi 2007; Maina
2004; Renzulli et al. 2004).
In general, learning environments are considered authentic when there is a similarity
between the structured learning activities and some meaningful context for that activity
(Barab et al. 2000, p. 38)

In traditional educational paradigms, participative authenticity requires learners to

be physically located in the community of practice or professional setting itself as in
the apprenticeship model; whereas simulated authenticity allows learners to be
located in their normal spaces and contexts where the conditions of the real-world
contexts are replicated. Technology blurs these distinctions and mobile technolo-
gies are causing them to fracture in ways which are not yet fully understood or
appreciated.

2.5.1 Participatory Contexts

In participative authentic contexts, learners participate in genuine real-life com-

munities as legitimate peripheral members (Lave and Wenger 1991) gradually
learning the practices, stories and languages of the community or what has been
described as the ordinary practices of th[at] culture (Brown et al. 1989, p. 34). In
effect, learning is a socio-cultural process of identity formation as novices are
enculturated into the dominant practices of the community gradually gaining status
as experts. Learning is considered to be highly authentic because it is situated in the
same context that it will be used making it personally meaningful for the learner.
A practical example using mobile technologies would be use of the sense-it
app which supports learners in measuring and investigating real-world phenomena.
It is based on the principles of Citizen Science whereby members of the public use
the app on their mobile device to collaborate with professional scientists, con-
tributing to observation and measurement data such as species identication and
air/water pollution monitoring (Henerodotou et al. 2014). A similar participative
project using mobile devices was reported by Scanlon et al. (2014) who explain
how users of the iSpot application were able to participate in location-based science
32 K. Burden and M. Kearney

activities based on the local environment, sharing their ndings and data with
professional scientists and other activists in an online community of practice.
A simple but highly effective example of participative authenticity is reported by
Ebner (2009) who undertook a study of academics using Twitter on their mobile
phones as a back channel at an academic conference. Delegates tweeted their
responses and impressions of each presentation and these tweets were simultane-
ously projected on a large screen behind the presenter. In this respect, delegates
were physically situated in a highly authentic context (the conference) and were
also participating in a genuine community of academic practice, as were those
lurkers who could not attend the conference directly but could follow and partic-
ipate online.
In these examples of participative authenticity, mobile technologies mediate how
learners work alongside professionals gradually acquiring the habits and cultural
trappings of the community as in a traditional apprenticeship model. However, in
many of these examples the learner does not need to be physically located in the
actual community since this can now be achieved through virtual participation even
from within a formal setting such as a classroom or conference venue. In this sense,
mobile technologies are blurring the boundaries or seams between formal and
informal learning contexts enabling learners to work in ways which are often
described as seamless and unbounded (Looi et al. 2010).

2.5.2 Simulated Contexts

Previously, most authentic learning activities have been simulated in a practice

eld (Brown et al. 1989; Collins et al. 1989) such as the classroom due to the
logistical problems associated with direct participation including costs, time and
concerns about personal safety. In these benign spaces learners simulate the tasks
and processes of real-world contexts. Many apps and tools are now available which
mimic the tools and processes used by professionals in the real-world such as
measurement tools (e.g. virtual wind tunnels, oscilloscopes and laminators) in
science. Where these have been used effectively, such as the connected classroom
project (Foley and Reveles 2014), they use real-world online resources to engage
students in authentic but simulated science inquiry. In this example, students used
handheld devices within the classroom to share data from their own experiments
with other students and schools allowing them to compare and analyse across larger
data sets and collaboratively identify trends as a community of science learners
(Burden and Kearney 2016).
In a similar case study Jones et al. (2013) discussed how their nQuire software
tool was used on mobile devices to enable science students to take greater
responsibility for their own inquiries without adult help. These inquiries were
engaging and personally relevant and allowed students to continue their inquiry
seamlessly across different contexts such as an after school club and home. These
tools and apps have the potential to support highly authentic forms of simulated
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 33

learning both in formal and hybrid spaces (see below) but empirical research to date
suggests they are often used by teachers for low level, unrealistic tasks which bear
few resemblances to authentic practices (Kearney et al. 2012, 2015).

2.5.3 Hybrid Contexts

Current advances in mobile technologies have fractured the traditional boundaries

between participative and simulated contexts. In some cases, this has seen students
participating virtually from within formal contexts in genuine and real communities
such as the nQuire project described above (Jones et al. 2013). In these contexts,
learning takes on a hybrid complexion which combines features of both a direct,
participative and indirect simulated model of authentic learning, and many of the
technology projects which have explored these spaces report that they combine all
of the best qualities of simulations with the additional benets of high ecological
validity acquired through participation in a genuine community.
The combination of augmented reality (AR) applications and mobile devices
frequently results in hybrid models of authenticity referred to as participatory
simulations (Barab and Dede 2007). Wong and Looi (2011) for example, docu-
mented a series of games played in a physical environment but augmented by
virtual artefacts through the mediation of a mobile device (they called this mixed
reality learning). Mobile devices with location-based sensors allowed users in the
study to interact with explorations, experiments and challenges for inquiry and
game-based learning. Lui et al. (2014) described an immersive, cave-like rainforest
simulation (called EvoRoom) and a mobile inquiry platform (called Zyeco) that
enabled users to collect and share data. Students were co-located in an immersive
and physical digital space, collecting observational data from both the classroom
(Evoroom) and out-of-class settings (such as parks or museums), and exploring
peers data using large visualisations displayed at front of room.

2.6 Is Authentic Mobile Learning Predened

or Emergent?

Despite advances in mobile technologies which have afforded learners greater

agency in how they access information, where they situate their learning and how
they present the outcomes of this as assessment artefacts, some authors have noted
the reluctance of educators to cede signicant control of learning to students
(Kearney et al. 2015). This is reflected in the extent to which learning is predened
or is left more open ended and emergent in design.
34 K. Burden and M. Kearney

Williams et al. (2011) dene emergent learning as learning which arises out of
the interaction between a number of people and resources, in which the learners
organise and determine both the process and to some extent the learning destina-
tions, both of which are unpredictable (p. 3). There is an implicit assumption in
many of the studies on authenticity that learning is likely to be more unplanned and
emergent than predened or prescribed when students tackle ill-dened problems
that defy simplistic or quick solutions. Over prescription and unnecessary inter-
vention by educators is included as one of Herrington et al.s list of inauthentic
strategies for mobile learning (2008).
Some researchers have identied planning related to learner generated contexts
as a signicant vector in understanding how mobile technologies can make learning
more authentic (Toh et al. 2013). These studies show how students spontaneously
used their mobile devices to capture and share images or video clips related to a
personal interest or hobby (e.g. bird watching) without the direction or prescription
of a teacher or adult (Jones et al. 2013). These examples often occur in informal
settings outside of institutional control but there is no reason to suppose this kind of
incidental learning with mobile technologies, could not, and is not taking place
within formal settings in the form of serendipitous learning (e.g. where a learner
uses their mobile device to capture an idea or inspirational thought) (Toh et al.
2013; Williams et al. 2011).
One area where emergent learning is more evident is in mobile games-based
applications where players can engage in highly realistic simulations and
problem-solving exercises that mimic many of the tasks undertaken by real pro-
fessionals. Gwee et al. (2010) reported one such mobile simulation which featured
year 9 social studies students using the game Statecraft X on their iPhones to learn
about the concept of governance through role play. What distinguishes the game is
the amount of spontaneity and lack of planning. Students worked largely at their
own pace without interventions or schedules to regulate them.
These discussions then invite questions as to the extent to which authenticity can
or should be designed into the learning experiences of students when they use
mobile technologies (Barab et al. 2000; Petraglia 1998). This raises an obvious
tension as it is difcult to visualise how instructors can design learning activities
that are entirely emergent since the very act itself assumes a degree of deliberate
intent. For some researchers, the solution is to deny the legitimacy of preauthen-
tication altogether by which they mean they reject the notion that designers or
teachers can construct predened authentic tasks, even if these have real and
practical use to a genuine community of practice (Barab et al. 2000). They argue
that these elements of authentic learning cannot be predened because they do not
guarantee buy in from learners. If the learner does not personally perceive the
context to be authentic it cannot be preauthenticated or designed by some other
person. In this sense authenticity is manifest in the flow itself, and is not an
objective feature of any one component in isolation (Barab et al. 2000, p. 38).
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 35

2.6.1 Personal Commitment of Learners

In considering the nature of authentic learning, it is important to identify for whom

the learning will be authentic (Barab and Duffy 2000). Most descriptions of authentic
learning describe it from the privileged perspective of the instructor or designer and
it difcult to appreciate to what extent learners themselves perceive a learning
practice to authentic, or what indeed learners think authentic means. However,
ultimately authenticity lies in the learner perceived relations between the practices
they are carrying out and the use value of these practices (Barab et al. 2000, p. 38).
This is partly a methodological concern and there is an urgent need for
researchers to design more authentic methods and tools which will gain access to
this largely missing learner perspective. This is a genuine concern since designing
realistic, real-world tasks or contexts and processes that mimic or place learners in
actual professional communities may count for little if the learner does not perceive
these artefacts to have personal signicance and meaning in relation to their desired
learning objective.
It is very important to consider what is meant by authenticity and to whom - who is the
judge (the educator; the learner or the community upon which they try to emulate?) (Barab
and Duffy 2000).

Indeed there is a concern amongst some that what constitute genuine real-world
communities of practice for adults may be far from authentic from the perspective
of learners who may speak an entirely separate discourse based on the curricular
language with which they are familiar (Heath and McLaughlin 1994). These critics
argue that teachers should attempt to locate authentic learning in what they term
institutions of curricular authenticity where familiar curricular practices, lan-
guages, norms and traditions are the Lingua franca. This position is further sup-
ported by Hiebert et al. (1996) who argue that students can be engaged in deeply
contextualised and authentic tasks within the curriculum as long as they are per-
sonally challenged to engage with the underlying concepts and deep structures of
the discipline itself.
These considerations therefore foreground a critical third constituent in authentic
learning which is the emotional and extra-rational dimension of learning and the
commitment of the learner whilst also highlighting one of the more substantial
epistemological challenges in the eld of authentic learning: how can we capture
and understand the learners emotional sense of engagement and commitment?
This denition of authenticity correlates how well a learning activity matches a students
personal goal structures (Heath and McLaughlin 1994) or the extent to which learners
themselves problematize the elements that make up the context (Stein et al. 2004, p. 240).

In many of the case studies reported in this paper, we can infer that learners were
highly motivated and engaged in the mobile-learning activities which are described
but meaningfulness is a difcult construct to capture and few of the studies detail to
what extent the mobile activity enabled learners to develop personal meanings, or
indeed why. One exception is the pilot study for the Ecomobile project
36 K. Burden and M. Kearney

(Kamarainen et al. 2013). This project explored how the use of a mobile AR
application (FreshAIR) could be combined with probeware tools and software to
enable students to understand the ecosystem of a pond in ways which resembled
real scientic practice. Feedback and video evidence from students undertaking the
project indicate that it was highly engaging and had considerable personal signif-
icance for students working in their local environment. They appear to have
engaged with the topic on a highly personal level despite the fact it did not feature a
genuine professional community of scientists as such.

2.7 Discussion and Implications

Derived from the above denitions and examples, we propose the following
orthogonal model as a means of further conceptualising authentic mobile learning
(see Fig. 2.1). We identify Context as a critical vector in understanding how and
where the learning activity is situated and use the terms simulated and partici-
pative as the binaries for this continuum. These are not proposed as normative
labels since there is no implication here that either form of authenticity is neces-
sarily more desirable than the other.
The second axis called Planning Design measures the extent to which the
learning activity is planned or unplanned in a similar way to the model developed
by Toh et al. (2013). However, given the emerging affordances of mobile tech-
nologies we place greater emphasis on the agency of the learner in co-negotiating

Fig. 2.1 A conceptual model of authentic mobile learning

2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 37

and designing these contexts. Hence this vector is used to measure both the degree
of agency granted to the learner and the extent to which the learning activity as a
whole is preplanned or emergent.
Third, we include a vector capturing the Personal Relevance and consequent
engagement of the learner since this has emerged across many studies as a highly
signicant but often neglected element of authentic learning. Unlike the other two
vectors which are not normative, this vector is more judgemental since it is
recognised that learners will elect to disengage from learning which holds little or
no personal signicance or meaning for them.

2.7.1 How Does the Model Work?

To illustrate how this three-dimensional model might further support the concep-
tualisation of authentic mobile learning, we have populated it with the three
mobile-learning scenarios described earlier in the paper represented by the letters A,
B and C (see Fig. 2.2 and Table 2.1).
In terms of the context vector, only the Twitter example (C) was classed as
participative since it was set in a genuine real-world context in this professional
learning scenario (an academic conference) accessible in both a physical and virtual
manner through the mobile device. In the Ecomobile example (A), students par-
ticipated in real-world tasks and processes using tools in a real-life way and in
relevant informal settings but they did not engage with a real community of

Fig. 2.2 Authentic mobile learning examples

38 K. Burden and M. Kearney

Table 2.1 Characteristics of exemplar authentic mobile learning scenarios

Exemplar Context Planning Personal
design relevance
A Ecomobile project (Kamarainen et al. Hybrid Predened High
2013)
B Statecraft X mobile learning game (Gwee Simulated Emergent High
et al. 2010)
C Twitter back channel in an academic Participative Emergent High
conference (Ebner 2009)

practice, even though this might have been feasible with the mediation of mobile
technology. Therefore, the context was identied as a hybrid. The mobile game
example (C) was entirely simulated in terms of context since there was little attempt
to involve students in a genuine governance community.
Both examples B and C were classed towards the emergent end of the planning
design spectrum since neither was heavily predened or structured. In the case of
the mobile game (B), students were not restricted by xed schedules and could
engage at their own pace. This was also true in the case of the Twitter, for example
where participants were left to determine how and when they would structure their
responses (if at all). The Ecomobile example (A) was more predened by the
teacher who had devised many of the tasks in advance even though most if it
occurred in an informal setting outside of school.
Finally, although students were not directly questioned about their levels of
personal engagement in any of these three exemplars, we might infer that moti-
vation and engagement was high judging by the amount of activity which occurred,
often unsolicited as in the mobile games example, and this suggests all three
examples had high personal meaning and signicance from the perspective of
learners themselves.

2.7.2 Returning to Research Questions

As shown in even these few examples understanding what is authentic about mobile
learning is not straightforward or unproblematic. Therefore this model offers a novel
way of conceptualising these issues which rejects simplistic solutions that frame
authentic mobile learning in terms of mutually exclusive binaries. Traditionally, this
is how authentic learning has been framed epitomised by the dictionary denition
duality between rst-hand direct experience which equates with the participatory
model of authentic learning and, indirect, second-hand experience which equates to
the simulated model of authenticity. This article has argued that this traditional
duality is no longer valid when students have access to and use mobile devices,
blurring the boundaries between simulated and participative forms of real-world
learning, between predened and emergent models of learning and between high or
low levels of personal engagement and meaning making.
2 Conceptualising Authentic Mobile Learning 39

The concepts of boundary crossing and boundary objects which are inherent
features of Activity theory (Engestrm et al. 1995) are useful ways of thinking about
authenticity and mobile learning because they focus on learning which transcends
conventional boundaries such as home/school, formal/informal, physical/virtual
using mobile devices as cultural objects which mediate these crossings. Here,
boundaries are understood as a social cultural difference between systems, practices,
or social worlds, leading to a discontinuity in action or interaction between these
systems (Snoek 2013, p. 309). In effect, mobile devices full a bridging action since
they enable learners to cross-traditional boundaries such as the student who joins an
authentic community of scientists on Twitter posting and following tweets as a
legitimate member of the community, but from within a formal classroom setting
which would traditionally be bounded both physically and culturally in such a
manner that this was not feasible. Whilst the mobile device acts as a boundary
crossing object in these cases it does so within culturally dened boundaries and
practices of the traditional classroom setting. If the teacher, and indeed the institution,
prohibit the use of technology across contexts in this seamless fashion (Jones et al.
2013; Wong et al. 2015), or if they attempt to pre authenticate or overly predene the
learning outcomes, it is unlikely these opportunities to cross-boundaries will be
ceased upon, or alternatively they become a form of subversive activity undertaken
by students looking to escape the rigidity and sterility of classroom learning.
What this chapter has also attempted to highlight is the primacy of affective factors
such as perceptions of personal relevance on the part of the learner which is so critical
in authentic learning. Research in the pre-mobile era already suggested that
authenticity was not a commodity which could be objectied and designed into the
context or tasks itself (Barab et al. 2000) but rather it was highly ephemeral and
closely associated with the personal perceptions of the individual learner. Current
research into authentic mobile learning has identied a signicant list of character-
istics that are deemed to make learning more authentic (Herrington et al. 2008) but
there is little empirical evidence of what these factors mean from the perspective of
learners themselves. There is an urgent need, therefore, for the mobile-learning
research community to better understand how this kind of data might be elicited and
how it would then be used to support in the design of more meaningful and engaging
authentic mobile learning scenarios. In this respect, we still face the same episte-
mological and methodological challenges that were highlighted by researchers
investigating the potential of rst generation computers to enhance authentic learn-
ing: A major challenge for instructional designers is to develop learning environ-
ments that incorporate authentic tasks in realistic contexts (Barab et al. 2000, p. 60).

2.8 Conclusion

At the beginning of this paper, we identied a conundrum which questioned why

educators associate mobile learning so closely with authenticity if most of their
learning tasks are situated in formal settings such as schools and universities? The
40 K. Burden and M. Kearney

paper has posited that no single criteria or characteristic makes a learning activity
authentic (Banas and York 2014) and it has also argued that traditional denitions
of authenticity are in need of revision and upgrade to better reflect the boundary
crossing potential mediated by mobile devices. Although formal settings such as
schools and universities might once have been considered contrived contexts for
learning compared to genuine real-world settings such as work placements or
apprenticeship this denition is rooted in pre-mobile notions of space and time
(Traxler 2009) which are no longer as applicable as they were previously. The
conceptual model proposed in this chapter (see Fig. 2.1) has a practical orientation
for learning design in mobile environments since it highlights three critical vectors
that need to be considered carefully in order to maximise the authenticity of any
mobile learning experience. Further research is also required to investigate to what
extent educators and learners are reconceptualising their thinking about authentic
learning when mobile devices are used seamlessly across the traditional boundaries
between formal and informal contexts, virtual and physical worlds and planned and
emergent spaces. This paper offers a model to initiate and support this process.

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New York: Routledge.
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in the light of activity theory. Teacher Development, 17(3), 307321.
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a university course. Studies in Higher Education, 29(2), 239258.
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Author Biographies

Kevin Burden is a Reader at the University of Hull (UK) in the Faculty of Education where his
research focuses on the interface between learning and technology. He is the author of over fty
research and conference papers/chapters and has produced many major reports for governments
and industry.

Matthew Kearney is a staff member from School of Education, University of Technology,

Sydney, Australia. His main research interests are in the area of technology-enhanced learning in
K-12 and teacher education contexts. He has written conference papers for prestigious
international and national conferences and produced major research reports for Australian
industry and government partners.
Chapter 3
Mobile Social Media: Redening
Professional Development
and Collaborative Scholarship

Thomas Cochrane and Vickel Narayan

Abstract In this chapter, we explore a developing model for scaffolding and

supporting professional development for higher education lecturers via mobile
social media. The framework involves the establishment of communities of practice
comprised of lecturers and mobile learning researchers exploring the potential of
mobile social media to enable new pedagogical strategies. We identify three key
elements of the framework illustrated by two case studies: modelling a community
of practice, redening pedagogy and designing an appropriate technology support
infrastructure.

3.1 Introduction

As academic advisors, the authors of this chapter are primarily interested in

challenging and enabling lecturers to explore reflective pedagogical practice that
leads to the design and facilitation of engaging and authentic learning experiences
for students. A common entry point into discussions around new pedagogical
practices is typically around strategies for managing students use of mobile social
media (msm) during class time. A typical enquiry from a frustrated lecturer is:
How can I stop students updating their Facebook status on their phones while in
class? A standard strategy is to require students to turn off their phones while in
class, or ban the use of phones during class time. The disruptive nature of mobile
devices has been thoroughly discussed within the literature (Anderson and McGreal
2012; Sharples 2001). However, in a world where cellphones will soon out number
the number of people on the planet (International Telecommunication Union 2014),
and students are increasingly expected to bring their own device (BYOD), a more

T. Cochrane (&)
V. Narayan

Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
e-mail: thomas.cochrane@aut.ac.nz
V. Narayan
e-mail: vickel.narayan@aut.ac.nz

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 43

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_3
44 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

creative response is needed. Our response to the disruptive nature of student-owned

devices in classes is to encourage the engagement of these devices within the
learning environment, thus leveraging their disruption of teacher-directed para-
digms to enable new pedagogical strategies that are more democratic and
student-centred. While mobile learning (mlearning) encompasses a wide variety of
devices and approaches, we have focused primarily upon the integration of mobile
social media (msm) into the curriculum in authentic ways, moving beyond the
substitution of mobile devices as classroom response clickers and PODCast players
(for example). The potential of mobile social media in education is in leveraging the
potential for ubiquitous connectivity, collaboration, contextual awareness and
multimedia content production and sharing that these tools afford.
In order to effectively conceptualize the potential of msm, lecturers need to
experience and embed the use of msm within their own personal and professional
practice. For lecturers to effectively integrate the use of msm into their curriculum,
they rst need to understand the potential of msm to form the basis of
user-generated content, and communication and collaboration for participation
within authentic learning communities. We have found that creating a peer support
group in collaboration with educational technologists (via the formation of an
intentional community of practice) is one way to facilitate a safe environment for
exploring curriculum integration of msm (Cochrane and Narayan 2013).

3.1.1 Why Mobile Social Media?

Smartphones and tablets are powerful computing devices with unique affordances
that enable learning and collaboration across multiple contexts. These mobile
devices facilitate rich-media production and sharing in the form of images, video,
audio and geolocation data, and they can be used to rethink collaboration and
develop the potential for enhanced engagement and learning outcomes. Large-scale
mobile learning research projects in the UK (Attewell et al. 2010) and Europe
(Unterfrauner and Marschalek 2010) have demonstrated that mlearning can
empower marginalized learners, and Australian research has shown mlearning can
be a catalyst for enabling authentic learning (Herrington et al. 2009). Similarly, the
UNESCO (2013) mobile learning report identies a range of unique benets of
mobile learning, including:
Expanding the reach and equity of education
Facilitating personalized learning
Providing immediate feedback and assessment
Enabling anytime, anywhere learning
Ensuring the productive use of time spent in classrooms
Building new communities of learners
Supporting situated learning
Enhancing seamless learning
Bridging formal and informal learning.
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 45

We are particularly interested in mlearning as a catalyst for enabling new peda-

gogies that focus upon student-generated content in a range of different learning
contexts.

3.1.2 Communities of Practice and Social Scholarship

Communities of practice is a social learning theory articulated by Lave and Wenger

(1991) and developed (Wenger 1998; Wenger et al. 2002, 2009) across a range of
applications and contexts. The concept of COPs has found wide acceptance in
educational contexts. Key principles of COPs include: the validity of peripheral
participation within a community as members move from observation of more
experienced peers to active participation within the community (in our case we are
concerned with drawing groups of lecturers into our COP beyond the initial
enthusiastic early adopter core group), the glue is the domain or shared interest (in
our case this is exploring the potential curriculum impact of a framework for msm),
and the brokering of the reied activity of the COP to the wider community (in our
case this is the transferable pedagogical practice). Wenger et al. (2005) have pro-
posed the benets of social media for supporting communities of practice and
developed strategies around technology stewardship for guiding COPs in their use
of social media (Wenger et al. 2009). While social media is not specically
designed for educational use, epistemologically social media aligns with the main
values of social constructivism that is at the heart of communities of practice and
many new pedagogical frameworks. Social media also provides a set of intercon-
nected collaborative tools for establishing digital identity and collaborative
user-generated content beyond the institutional limits of traditional learning man-
agement systems (Herrington et al. 2005).
Social media can also be utilized to transform scholarship from a largely solo
pursuit of publication in high-impact peer-reviewed and subscription-based jour-
nals, books and conference proceedings. Boyer (1990) is one of the authoritative
voices on the scholarship of teaching and learning. It can be argued that Boyers
model requires update in light of the development of the open scholarship move-
ment (Garnett and Eccleseld 2011) and the emergence of social media tools
facilitating collaborative research (for example researchgate.net). For example,
Greenhow and Gleason (2014) argue that Boyers four-dimensional framework of
scholarship can be re-envisioned via social media as a framework for social
scholarship. These four dimensions include: the scholarship of design (SOD), the
scholarship of integration (SOI), the scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL)
and the scholarship of application (SOA). Social scholarship is dened by
Greenhow and Gleason as Social scholarship seeks to leverage social media
affordances (i.e. promotion of users, their inter-connections and user-generated
content) and potential values (i.e. knowledge as decentralized, co-constructed,
46 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

accessible and connective) to evolve the ways in which scholarship is accomplished

in academia (2014, p. 3). However, Greenhow and Gleason note that we need
more examples of social scholarship in action, within each of the four domains and
across them (2014, p. 9)this is one of the goals of our framework that we
explore later in this chapter.

3.1.3 An MSM Framework for New Pedagogies

Our mobile social media framework for lecturer professional development lever-
ages the effectiveness of mobile devices for enhancing learning outcomes in a
tertiary setting. It builds on successful collaborative research carried out across two
different higher education institutes involving over 60 mlearning projects since
2006. The framework has three key elements that scaffold and support the inte-
gration of mobile social media for new pedagogical strategies:
Establishing lecturer communities of practice to learn about the affordances of
mobile devices in relation to new modes of student learning;
Redesigning the curriculum in response to shifts in conceptions of teaching;
Collaborating with ICT services to develop the necessary infrastructure to
enable mobile learning across the campus (for example: wireless networks,
flexible learning spaces and mobile presentation technologies).
The framework is a blend of concepts that builds on the evidence of over 60
projects, and includes aligning theoretical perspectives such as: the concept of the
PedagogyAndragogyHeutagogy (PAH) continuum (Luckin et al. 2010), and
Puenteduras (2006) SAMR model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modication,
Redenition) of educational technology transformation and Sternberg et al. (2002)
conception of three levels of creativity. Using this developing framework, the
researchers have demonstrated how mlearning can enable authentic learning
(Herrington et al. 2009) through implementing msm for curriculum change and
development (Cochrane and Bateman 2013). The PAH continuum is used as a
guiding framework to measure a range of teaching and learning strategies from
teacher-directed pedagogy, to student-centred andragogy and student-determined
heutagogy (Table 3.1).
In this chapter, we illustrate the effectiveness and scalability of this framework
across two educational contexts, and examine the effectiveness of this framework
for supporting professional development. The establishment of COPs supports the
exploration and implementation of a range of practical strategies for lecturers to
utilize the unique attributes of mobile devices for designing transformative teaching
and learning practice, and empowering learners to become creative self-directed
graduates.
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 47

Table 3.1 A mobile social media framework based upon the PAH (modied from Luckin et al.
2010)
Pedagogy Andragogy Heutagogy
Locus of Teacher Learner Learner
control Content delivery Teacher as guide Teacher co-learner
activity
Digital assessment Digital identity Digital presence
types
Teacher-delivered Student-generated Student-generated
content content contexts
Teacher-dened Student negotiated Student negotiated
projects teams projects
Cognition Cognitive Meta-cognitive Epistemic
level SAMR Substitution and Modication Redenition
(Puentedura Augmentation Reflection as In situ reflections
2006)
VODCast
Portfolio to eportfolio Prezi on iPad Presentations as
PowerPoint on iPad New forms of dialogue with source
collaboration material
Focus on productivity Mobile device as Community building
Mobile device as content creation and Mobile device as
personal digital curation tool collaborative tool
assistant and
consumption tool
Creativity Reproduction Incrementation Reinitiation
(Sternberg
et al. 2002)
Knowledge Subject understanding: Process negotiation: Context shaping:
production lecturers introduce and students negotiate a students create project
context model the use of a choice of mobile social teams that investigate
range of mobile social media tools to and critique
media tools appropriate establish an eportfolio user-generated content
to the learning context based upon within the context of
user-generated content their discipline. These
are then shared,
curated and
peer-reviewed in an
authentic COP
Mobile Enabling induction Enabling Enabling collaboration
social media into a supportive user-generated content across user-generated
affordances learning community and active contexts, and active
participation within an participation within a
authentic design COP global COP
Ontological Learning about: Reconceptualising the Learning to become:
shift Reconceptualising role of the teacher Reconceptualising the
mobile social media: role of the learner
from a social to an
educational domain
48 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

3.2 Methodology

The projects focus upon establishing a collaborative partnership similar to that

advocated by Gunn and Steel (2012, p. 11) involving learning designers, educa-
tional researchers, teachers, technologists and academic support staff. The projects
are driven by a reconception of pedagogy rather than technological determinism,
whereby mobile social media provide the tools for this pedagogical reconception.
The establishment of a community of practice around each project provides the
pedagogical and technical support structure for a shift in conceptions of learning
and teaching. This involves an ontological shift (Chi and Hausmann 2003),
reconceptualizing the role of mobile social media from a purely social domain to an
educational domain, and reconceptualizing the roles of the teachers and learners,
moving away from a teacher-directed content delivery mode towards a
student-determined learning paradigm (heutagogy).

3.2.1 Method

In this paper, we illustrate the implementation of our mobile social media frame-
work within the context of two case studies. The data collected was largely qual-
itative, triangulated with quantitative survey data. Each case study was comprised
of a Community of Practice of researchers and lecturers nurtured via a variety of
msm tools linked via a Google Plus Community and curated via a project Twitter
hashtag. Wordpress blogs are used to collate and share the outcomes of each COP
with a wider audience. Data collection included: a survey at the start of each
individual lecturer project to establish the participants previous experience of
mobile devices and social media in learning, the collation of participating lecturers
and students social media eportfolioseffectively their own learning journals of
their experiences throughout the projectand focus group discussions at the middle
and end of each project. At the end of each semester, we encourage participants to
reflect critically on their journey by collaborative publishing of msm implementa-
tion case studies in appropriate conference proceedings and journal articles. These
peer-reviewed reflective practice case studies are used to inform the design of the
next iteration of projects. All participants are informed of the aims and requirements
of each research project, and are asked to sign informed consent forms as approved
by the institutions ethics committee. An example timeline of the stages for each
project is shown in Table 3.2.
Data analysis tools included discourse analysis of participant blog posts using
collated word clouds, and transcription of participant reflective videos that were
uploaded to YouTube and embedded in their blogs. Mobile social media (for
example: Blog posts, YouTube videos, Twitter, Google Plus, Vine and Instagram
videos) is curated via project hashtags allowing the collation of all social media
generated as part of the project. Analysis of the curated social media outputs utilizes
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 49

Table 3.2 Framework implementation stages

MSM project stages Timeframe Process and outcome
Establish weekly COP of academic Semester 1 Establish a COP of interested
advisors and practitioners team lecturers within a Department.
Establish support requirements and Lecturers reflect upon their prior
infrastructure needs, including WiFi pedagogical beliefs and practice
coverage and production of mobile Lecturers share their current course
airplay screens outlines and assessment strategies for
collaborative editing via Google Docs
Completion of an initial survey that Lecturers develop competency with
explores participants prior mobile devices
pedagogical beliefs and practice
Establish lecturer eportfolios Lecturers explore msm pedagogies
Establish a collaborative research Lecturers develop pedagogical msm
agenda and research questions, and activities based on social
establish ethics consent procedures constructivist pedagogies
BYOD mlearning projects with staff Semester 2 Students establish mlearning
and students eportfolios using their own devices
Increased student engagement
Implementation of the mlearning Flexible learning
activities within each course and Facilitating social constructivist
assessment pedagogies and bridging learning
contexts
Academic advisors collaborate with End of Feedback gathered from students via
participating lecturers to publish and Semester 2 end of project iteration surveys and
present case studies based on project focus groups, informing collaborative
implementation, these then inform the research writing based on prior and
design of the following iteration of redeveloped course outlines and
the projects outcomes via Google Docs
Conference papers, journal
publications and symposia

tools such as TAGSExplorer (Hawksey 2011) and tagboard (http://tagboard.com/)

for graphic analysis of how mobile social media enables (or not) collaboration and
communication. This enables identication of emerging themes, and triangulation
against the observation and identication of critical incidents from COP
discussions.
Building a COP is based upon establishing relationships and a sense of trust. The
authors identify lecturers in various departments of the institution who are seeking
to explore innovation in teaching and learning, and then invite them to gather a
group of like-minded peers around them to form a collaboration between the lec-
turers and the academic advisors. While we have worked across many different
curriculum contexts over the past 6 years, the participants of the two example COPs
in this paper are drawn from three higher education contexts including: Journalism,
Law and Communication Studies. Each of the 10 participating lecturers are
exploring, designing and integrating mobile social media into their own curriculum.
50 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

Fig. 3.1 A typical msm COP meeting

3.2.2 Establishing the COPs

Each COP is designed to become a model for participants to apply to their own
teaching practice contexts as they explore the integration of msm into the cur-
riculum they teach. We begin by negotiating and establishing a range of
core-supporting mobile social media tools to enhance the weekly face-to-face COP
meetings usually held at a local caf with free wi access (Fig. 3.1). We also spend
time collaboratively exploring the mobile social media framework and collabora-
tively discuss ideas for applying this to one anothers teaching contexts.

3.2.3 MSM Tools

A Google Plus Community was established as a hub for each of the two example
COPs for scheduling events, posting resources and engaging in discussion relating
to organizing the COP and implementing the framework. The cross-platform
Google Plus mobile App and the Hangouts App enabled participants to connect and
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 51

collaborate from a variety of locations. The G+ community was made public, but
contribution was allowed by invited users only. This was important to allow
peripheral participation by interested people around the world, while allowing
moderation of content by the core group of participants and wider invited partici-
pation for feedback and input. A Twitter hashtag (for example #mojomlaw) was
dened for each COP to curate the use of mobile social media associated with the
projects, and a regularly auto updating TAGSExplorer spreadsheet for visual
analysis of collaboration via Twitter was created. As Fig. 3.1 shows,
TAGSExplorer allows identication of core participants as major nodes and link-
ages to peripheral participants either following the project or having remote input
into the project conversations. This was particularly useful in brokering the activity
of each COP to a wider audience of peripherally interested peers within their
departments, and time-based snapshots of TAGSExplorer Twitter analysis indicates
the growth of these peripheral connections and conversations graphically.
TAGSExplorer also provides a motivating tool for students as they can graphically
see the impact of their Twitter conversations within the community around the
hashtag. In the example from the 2013 mobile Journalism course shown in Fig. 3.2,
we can see the largest conversational node is the course lecturer, but there are also
signicant student nodes that developed over the timeframe of the course.

Fig. 3.2 TAGSExplorer for #autmojo2013

52 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

We explored the use of several mobile social media Apps such as Vine and
Vyclone, giving the participants their rst experience of becoming mobile content
producers and publishers. Participants were asked to experiment with a variety of
mobile social media. A Wordpress blog was created as a public face for each COP
(for example http://ejeteam.wordpress.com), where participants can post project
progress updates, examples of redesigned activities and assessments and examples
of student work as part of the project outcomes. Google Docs was designated as a
way of sharing and collaborating on our project outlines, goals and curriculum
redesign plans. Other mobile social media curation tools used included a tagboard
for the project hashtag to curate a social media stream from Twitter, Vine, Google
plus and WhatsApp (for example https://tagboard.com/mojomlaw).

3.2.4 Social Scholarship

At the core of our msm framework is a new collaborative approach to curriculum

design and reflective research informing ongoing iterative development of the
participants teaching practice. Brokering these experiences and the resultant
implementation strategies forms the basis of our social scholarship outputs. We
briefly explore the implications of Greenhow and Gleasons (2014) approach to
redening Boyer (1990) in light of social media.

3.2.5 Scholarship of Design

For scholars and graduate students who embrace these practices, the benets may
be a better contribution to the knowledge base, a more participatory research
process, enhanced reputation, expanded denition of expert and democratized
access to expertise (Greenhow and Gleason 2014, p. 5). Utilizing Google Docs for
collaborative research writing allows a new dimension to traditional publish or
perish approach to academia. Our COPs include academic advisors as educational
researchers as well as educational practitioners collaborating to improve practice via
reflective and theoretically informed critique via peer-reviewed publication. We
have COP participants establish their own research proles on Researchgate.com
for sharing and disseminating their reflective practice publications beyond the
connes of traditional journal and book publishers. The use of a common hashtag
for enabling curation of all associated social media created as part of each COP
project provides a rich source of both quantitative and qualitative data (for example
https://tagboard.com/mojomlaw).
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 53

3.2.6 Scholarship of Integration

Epistemologically, Boyers conception of SOI resonates with social constructivist

values of knowledge as accessible and co-constructed by a broad base of users
(Greenhow and Gleason 2014, p. 6). Each COP is made up of an interdisciplinary
team linked via mobile social media that provides the basis for a wide range of
creativity to be brought into collaborative curriculum design. The use of mobile
social media also allows input and peripheral participation from a global source of
experts in a variety of contexts.

3.2.7 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Scholars who practice a social SOTL may benet from an increased ability to
facilitate active, cocreated learning experiences through social analytic feedback.
Students and instructors may also benet from the diversity of perspectives that can
be brought into the learning process via social media (Greenhow and Gleason
2014, p. 7). We used both synchronous (Google Plus Hangouts) and asynchronous
(Google Drive) mobile social media tools to collaborate upon curriculum redesign
as a diverse interdisciplinary group.

3.2.8 Scholarship of Application

Reconsidering SOA through the lens of social scholarship values and social media
affordances, therefore, suggests expanded sites and methods for application
scholarship that address community challenges (Greenhow and Gleason 2014,
p. 8). We used Google Spreadsheets to create an interactive curriculum design
rubric based upon our mobile social media framework as a guide for all of the
lecturers participating in the project.

3.2.9 Establishing a Technology Infrastructure

Because the msm framework is concerned with developing transferable strategies

for BYOD mlearning, the choice of mobile social media tools was dened by
availability across a range of mobile devices, including: smartphones and tablets.
However, to keep the procurement logistics of the projects as simple as possible all
of the participating lecturers were supplied with an iPhone 5S and an iPad Mini
Retina. Other elements of a supporting infrastructure included the provision of a
robust WiFi network throughout the institution, and the development and deploy-
ment of wireless screen mirroring facilities for mobile devices.
54 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

3.3 Discussion

Our developing mobile social media implementation framework involves three key
elements: modelling a community of practice, redening pedagogy and designing
an appropriate technology support infrastructure.
Creating a sense of community was achieved utilizing the mobile social media
tools that we wanted the participants to experience themselves and build on within
their own teaching practice. The mobile-friendly Google Plus App and Hangouts
App were particularly powerful for this purpose (Fig. 3.3).
In general, we nd that the biggest conceptual shift for the COP participants is
how to redesign curriculum activities and assessments to leverage the unique
affordances of mobile social media without reverting to merely replicating current
practice and pedagogies. In this section, we provide two brief examples of cur-
riculum redesign of learning activities and assessments from two different profes-
sional development COPs.

Fig. 3.3 Example MoJoMLaw google plus community

3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 55

3.3.1 Journalism and Law

In 2011, we established the enhancing journalism education (EJE) mobile social

media community of practice (COP) that continued throughout 2012 and 2013. The
impact of the reied activities of the EJE COP was used to broker pedagogical
change throughout the journalism department and has resulted in signicant col-
laborative curriculum redesign, reconceptualizing learning from a predominantly
teacher-directed pedagogy towards student-determined heutagogy. In 2014, we
established a combined mobile journalism and mobile law lecturers COP
(MoJoMLaw) to build up the momentum achieved within the journalism depart-
ment throughout 20112013, and broker this pedagogical change into the context of
the Law curriculum. The goal of the COP is to explore the potential of a
cross-faculty collaboration to support pedagogical innovation, particularly in the
shared overlap of the two curriculums. The MoJoMLaw COP met regularly
face-to-face at a caf that provided free WiFi and good coffee for nurturing the
social fuel to sustain the COP. A Google Plus Community was established as a
virtual community hub for the COP (http://bit.ly/mojomlaw), and a common
hashtag was used to collate and curate the social media stream (for example using
Tagboard to curate Twitter, Vine, Google Plus, Instagram at https://tagboard.com/
mojomlaw/) around the project (#mojomlaw).
The MoJoMLaw COP also explored the relevance of blogging for creating
student eportfolios, and invigorating lecture participation via facilitating
backchannel conversations using Todaysmeet or Twitter. Another area of explo-
ration included new modes of classroom presentation and collaboration via wireless
screen mirroring from mobile devices. This was facilitated by the design and
deployment of Mobile Airplay Screens (MOAs) (Cochrane et al. 2013).
The impact of the mojomlaw COP is illustrated by the resultant redesign of a
cross-faculty course: Journalism Law and Ethics. The course began using Storify in
2013 to replace the traditional essay as well as bringing in a course blog on
Wordpress. Both were popular among the students. We also began informal links
with the law school that provided two lecturers to give the two lectures in the
course, as well as two joint classes where a well-known lawyer and a leading judge
gave guest talks. This has built into the beginnings a collaborative research project
about the effect of social media on reporting the courts and the jury process.
Table 3.3 outlines the changes to assessment practices as a result of implementing
our framework for mobile social media within the course context. The integration of
social media within the course enabled a more flexible link to authentic student
projects beyond the classroom, and the establishment of shareable eportfolios of
their work as outlined in Table 3.3.
Table 3.4 shows a comparison of the change in curriculum activities in the
context of the redesigned Journalism law and ethics curriculum.
56 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

Table 3.3 Comparison of original and redesigned assessment activities

Previous assessment criteria Redesigned assessment criteria
Assessment 1: Students each took part in a Assessment 1: Students in groups of three
series of ethical scenarios through online select a case that has been considered by one
proprietary software. They could compare of the media regulators. They then present
their responses to other students but could not that case in full to the class using Prezi or any
discuss these online presentation tool of their choice and
lead a class discussion. Following the class,
the group members each write up the case
including their response to it in a post on the
Wordpress blog set up for the class. All other
class members comment on one of the posts
Assessment 2: Essay of 1,500 words typed up Assessment 2: Essay of 1,500 words collated
and handed in as hard copy in and published on Storify.com and
including material from at least three different
social media platforms
Assessment 3: An in-class law test Assessment 3: An in-class law test

Table 3.4 Mobile social media in the Journalism Law and Ethics curriculum
Pedagogy Andragogy Heutagogy
Activity Assessment Assessment 2: 2014 Assessment 1: 2014
types 1-3: 2013
Assessment Digital identity Digital community
3: 2014 building
Digital assessment Student-generated content Student-generated
contexts
Teacher-delivered Student negotiated teams Student negotiated
content projects
Teacher-dened Mobile device as content creation Mobile device as
projects and curation tool collaborative tool
Simulated
environment

3.3.2 Communication Studies

This project was focused around the redesign of a course titled iCommunicate, and
featured the use of wireless mobile device screen mirroring via our custom design
MOAs. A COP was established with the two lecturers at the beginning of 2013 with
an aim of helping them learn and utilize msm as a mechanism for enabling students
to explore different communication genres and techniques. Prior to this project, the
iCommunicate curriculum was taught by facilitating a series of media production
lab sessions where the students were shown how to create podcasts as an outcome
in the learning process. After three iterations over the last year of working with the
lecturers and redesigning the course, the curriculum now features students nego-
tiating a project in groups of two to three to explore an appropriate communication
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 57

Table 3.5 Example assessment redesign

Previous assessment criteria Redesigned assessment criteria
Assessment 1 Assessment 1 (Sliding scale) 40 %
Production of a podcast for Creation of a 35 min preview of the project chosen by the
communication purposes group. Reflective documentation of the process by each
member on the group blog
Assessment 2 (60100 %)
Production of a movie that is entirely shot using a mobile
device. Creation of an augmented layer using Wikitube and
publication of the video on YouTube. Individual member
reflections on the group blog that documents the process
and learning

Table 3.6 Mobile social media in the curriculum

Pedagogy Andragogy Heutagogy
Activity Assessment Assessment 1: 2014 Assessment 2: 2014
types 1: 2013
Digital assessment Digital identity Digital community
building
Teacher-delivered Student-generated content Student-generated
content contexts
Teacher-dened Student negotiated teams Student negotiated
projects projects
Mobile device as content creation Mobile device as
and curation tool collaborative tool

genre and how msm enables and enhances communication with an intended
audience. As a result, the course now has embedded within its facilitation and
assessment approach several msm tools including: Augmented Reality, a Google
Plus Community that facilitates social and collaborative learning, a group
WordPress blog and YouTube for students to publish their nal project output.
Table 3.5 outlines the changes to the assessment in one of the course taught as
part of the degree.
Table 3.6 provides an overview of the proposed changes to the curriculum in a
course on the pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy continuum.

3.3.3 Designing an Appropriate Technology Support

Infrastructure

Key to supporting a BYOD strategy is the provision of a robust wireless infras-

tructure and interactive screen mirroring to allow inherently personal small-screen
mobile devices to be used as collaborative group tools. The academic advisors
negotiated with their institutions IT department to enable screen mirroring
58 T. Cochrane and V. Narayan

Fig. 3.4 MOA and mobile video streaming in action

protocols on the WiFi network (such as Apple Airplay, Miracast and Chromecast).
In particular, we developed moveable large-screen wireless displays that we nick
named MOAs or Mobile Airplay screens (Cochrane and Withell 2013) in reference
to an extinct flightless bird native to New Zealand. These MOAs (in the background
of Fig. 3.4) were then deployed as part of each COP project to enable new forms of
msm interaction in classes, such as displaying a real-time discussion and back
channel via Twitter or Todaysmeet, hosting remote participation via Hangouts or
live streaming events via Apps such as Bambuser (Fig. 3.4).

3.3.4 Future Research

As the case studies develop and progress, they will provide rich data on the
application of our mobile social media framework within a variety of educational
contexts.

3.4 Conclusions

We have found that establishing communities of practice has been an effective

methodology for supporting lecturers to explore the integration of mobile social
media within the curriculum to enable new teaching and learning strategies, and to
3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 59

critique and rene these via collaborative scholarship on reflective teaching prac-
tice. We hope that our experiences will provide a useful example for others to
follow. Our goal is to identify and articulate a developing theoretical framework for
professional development implementing effective mlearning, resulting in a range of
practical strategies for students and lecturers to utilize the unique attributes of
mobile devices for transforming teaching and enhancing learning. Two case studies
illustrate the three key elements of the framework: modelling a community of
practice, redening pedagogy and designing an appropriate technology support
infrastructure. These are founded upon developing an explicit culture integrating
the collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning. We argue that mobile social
media provides a platform for developing both a culture of collaborative scholar-
ship and student-determined learning.

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3 Mobile Social Media: Redening Professional Development 61

Author Biographies

Thomas Cochrane is an Academic Advisor at AUT University's Centre for Learning and
Teaching (CfLAT). In 2011 he was awarded as an Ascilite Fellow. His research interests include
mobile learning, web 2.0, and communities of practice. Thomas has implemented over 50 mobile
learning projects. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications, receiving best paper awards at
Ascilite 2009, ALT-C 2011, ALT-C 2012, and keynoted at several international conferences: 2012
m-Libraries conference (UK), the launch of UWS massive iPad project (2013), IBSA VET
Practitioners Conference (Melbourne, 2014), and an invited speaker at EdMedia2014.

Vickel Narayan is a learning and teaching consultant at the Centre for Learning and Teaching
(CfLAT) at the Auckland University of Technology. Previously, Vickel was an Academic Advisor
(eLearning) at Unitec Institute of Technology from 2009 to 2011. He has a keen interest in Web
2.0 technologies and its potential to engage students and teachers in the teaching and learning
process. Vickel is particularly interested in exploring mobile Web 2.0 tools for creating, nurturing
and maintaining virtual communities, social connectedness, fostering social constructivism,
student generated context and context. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in mobile learning.
Chapter 4
Interactivity and Mobile Technologies:
An Activity Theory Perspective

Roy Rozario, Evan Ortlieb and Jennifer Rennie

Abstract Expert teachers are pragmatic in their curricular planning and instruction
through embedding the use of mobile technologies towards providing their students
with meaningful learning experiences. They use technology as a cornerstone within
their instructional design. This study examined how pedagogy, professional
learning and mobile technologies impact a teachers ability to utilise a
learner-centred interactive approach. Qualitative data were collected and analysed
using the six-step activity theory in conjunction with a case study design were data
was collected from four teacher participants through interviews, classroom obser-
vations and lesson plans. Data revealed that teaching and learning sequences
involving mobile technologies were found to have varying degrees of learner
teacher interactivities, ranging from complete teacher control to total learner con-
trol. This range of interactivity can serve as a teacher guide to mobile learning
design using appropriate pedagogy integrating apps in conjunction with other
classroom resources to yield improved student outcomes.

4.1 Background

The concept of interactivity is so widespread that it embraces many facets of society

including T.V., websites, online news, games, social networks, drama and mobile
devices (m-devices) (Coursaris and Sung 2012; Downes and McMillan 2000;
Larsson 2012). In recent years, the concept of interactivity has become rmly

R. Rozario (&)
J. Rennie

Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
e-mail: roy.rozario@monash.edu
J. Rennie
e-mail: Jennifer.rennie@monash.edu
E. Ortlieb
St. Johns University, New York, New York
e-mail: ortliebe@stjohns.edu

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 63

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_4
64 R. Rozario et al.

entrenched within educational discourse with the increased utility of mobile learning
devices, such as smart phones and tablet PCs in todays classrooms (Beauchamp and
Kennewell 2010; Beauchamp and Parkinson 2005; Holzman 2006; Koolstra and Bos
2009; Larsson 2012; Tanner and Jones 2007; Ting 2013; Toteja and Kumar 2012).
Yet, there remains an ongoing debate regarding the denition, theoretical nature,
structure and signicance of interactivity to student achievement (Coursaris and
Sung 2012; Kiousis 2002; Kirsh 1997; Koolstra and Bos 2009; Larsson 2012; Smuts
2009). Although there has been a tremendous growth and potential in the use of
wireless handheld mobile devices, the orchestration of mobile learning (m-learning)
has still been scarcely explored (Motiwalla 2007).
While interactive whiteboards (henceforth IWB), an example of technology
readily available in most classrooms, have been popular for over a decade, their use
in conjunction with other mobile technologies is neither widespread nor thoroughly
researched (Beauchamp and Kennewell 2010; Haydn 2010; Hennessy and London
2013; Maher 2012). Moss et al. (2007) call for more research to address the issue of
how mobile technologies can widely contribute to best practices in multimodal
learning experiences (Stokovski 2010). Further, there is a pressing need to examine
these from an activity theory perspective using interactivity as a measure (Miller
and Glover 2010). Its signicance is paramount to preparing twenty-rst century
learners to thrive and to advancing pedagogies that return the focus to content
acquisition rather than on searching for the next new technolog (Elias 2011,
p. 143).
Previous studies on mobile learning have predominantly focused on effective-
ness rather than its design (Wu et al. 2012), thereby overlooking the need for
orchestrating current classroom technologies with new m-devices. Understanding
interactivities among technology, students and teachers are necessary to advance
this agenda (Ting 2013). Research on interactivity has positioned it as a single point
of interaction rather than continuum of teacher- and learner-centred interactivities
(Banna 2011). This hybrid approach is invaluable in the design, application and
review of teacher pedagogy in relation to classroom mobile learning design. This
study attempts to identify the various points of interactivities by examining the
teacherstudent lived classroom practices with software apps on mobile devices
towards achieving their learning goals using the activity theory framework.

4.2 Theoretical Framework

In the area of humancomputer interaction (henceforth HCI), there is a dearth of

theoretical research (Kaptelinin and Nardi 2012; Kuutti 1996). In recent years,
research in HCI is afflicted by a Tower of Babel of incompatible, fragmentary
terminologies and undisciplined, bricolage design strategies. Activity theory as a
methodological and theoretical tool has grown in importance especially in the eld
of information systems (Allen et al. 2013) and has much to contribute to situated
learning pertaining to hybridising m-learning designs with other e-learning designs
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 65

(Pea-Ayala et al. 2014). That is to say, how IWBs can work in harmony with
classroom mobile technologies to orchestrate better interactivity. Activity theory
embraces interactivity while serving as an interactive teachinglearning approach as
it encircles the idea of examining human interactions in achieving their end goal,
placing emphasis on sociocultural elements of teaching and learning (Roschelle
et al. 1998; Ryu and Parsons 2009; Spikol et al. 2008). As viewed from an activity
theory perspective, activity is a valid indicator for measuring learnerteacher
interactivity (Miller and Glover 2010). According to Engestrm (2001), activity
theory provides the ideal ground analysis for events in classroom discourse where
the seemingly self-sufcient worlds and scripts of the teacher and the students
occasionally meet and interact to form new meanings that go beyond the evident
limits of both (p. 135136).
This concept is aptly summarised with Engestrms (1991, 1992) activity system
model in relation to this study (see Fig. 4.1). It illustrates how the teacher and/or
learner is the main focal point that drives all activities, actions and operations in the
activity system (classroom) in order to achieve the end goal (lesson goal). Using
activity as a unit of analysis, we can explore information behaviour within lived
events (Allen et al. 2011). The teacher can pragmatically select apps along with
other classroom technologies as a tool to help achieve their lesson goal. According
to Engestrm (1992), an activity system does not exist in vacuum (p. 19).
Activities involve human actors, who are motivated towards an object (goal)

TOOLS:
IWB, laptops, software,
CasCalculators, iPads, digital text
book, pens, paper, etc.

SUBJECT: INTERACTIVITIES OBJECT:

Teacher/Learner Lesson OUTCOME:
Objective Learning outcome

RULES: DIVISION OF
Curriculum, School LABOUR:
ethos, administration and COMMUNITY: Professional learning
management policy Classroom students, teacher colleagues, ICT provided by ICT
coordinator, management, school, parents, coach, management,
local community, online community, State education body,
colleagues, management, etc. etc.

Fig. 4.1 Adapted model of Engestrm (2001) Activity System in context of this research study
66 R. Rozario et al.

(Pietsch 2005) with their actions are impacted by tools, such as software in their
community representing learners, parents and school management as shown in
Fig. 4.1. The object of an activity system is the central characteristic of the system
and the belief of goal-directed behaviour is vital to the concept of activity
(Engestrm 2001).
Therefore activity theory provided a common orientation, structuring method
and a map that guided this research inquiry to capture interactivities during software
use in complex classroom settings (Roschelle et al. 1998). Activity theory provides
a lens for analysing activity and enables its use as a framework for determining the
components of the activity system as represented in Fig. 4.1 (Jonassen and
Rohrer-Murphy 1999; Karanasios et al. 2013). The various components subjects,
tools, objects, community, division of labour and rules in the activity system help
identify and explain the activities and interactivities taking place in the classroom.
For instance, a classroom observation of this study examining a lesson conducted
by a teacher brings to light the various components of the activity system and the
diverse motivations and contradictions faced by the actors towards attaining it.

4.3 Review of Literature

Below we review current literature and signicance of the concept of interactivity in

relation to mobile apps in classroom technologies and how they affect pedagogy
and professional learning. Literature gaps point to the need for mobile learning
designs to embrace tenets of interactivity for better synthesis of new and current
technologies in classroom settings.

4.3.1 Pedagogy

At the outset, it is important to make clear that although this study identies three
tensions, namely, pedagogy, professional learning and digital resources as factors
that affect the shape of interactivity, the ndings of this chapter focuses on the
tensions that occur within pedagogy. Although the applications of mobile learning
are widely accepted practice in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of educational
settings, yet it still remains underdeveloped in terms of its pedagogical consider-
ations (Park 2011). Central to any study on pedagogical interactivity is the notion
that teachers possess the skills to make technology work. Haldane (2007) notes that
digital technologies by themselves are not interactive but merely a medium
through which interactivity may, to a greater or lesser extent, be afforded (p. 258
259). While the software applications and Learning Objects enable interactivity, it
is eventually the user of the app who chooses the extent to take full advantage of the
softwares interactive potential (Alyani and Shirzad 2011). Further, classroom
technologies impact student-centred learning in ways previously not feasible
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 67

(Hennessy et al. 2010; Miller and Glover 2010) enabling learner interactions that
capture experiences in physical and social realms (Ting 2013).
Studies show that some innovative and creative teachers attempt to seek digital
resources in technologies to suit a learner-centred pedagogical style (see for
example, Maher et al. 2012). While some teachers initially use software for
teacher-directed activities, they generally move to using it collaboratively shifting
towards learner-centred pedagogy (Moir 2014). However, improving access to
technology alone does not translate to better pedagogy (Hennessy et al. 2010;
Hennessy et al. 2007). Some teachers use the apps to promote controlled
pre-communicative activities (Gray et al. 2005, p. 43). That is, the learning funnel is
controlled by the teacher, referred to as low-level funnelling questioning (Tanner
and Jones 2007, p. 38). What is needed is an interactive teaching
approach/pedagogy, which focuses on a dialogic rather than an authoritative inter-
activity to foster genuine learning (Beauchamp and Kennewell 2010; Hennessy and
London 2013). Interactivity can be supercial or deep varying from intra-activity,
surface interactivity, deeper interactivity, dialogical deep interactivity and full
interactivity based on the teacherpupil control of interaction (Tanner and Jones
2007, p. 38). Locally and globally, the current push is for a pedagogic change from a
didactic to an interactive approach to learning and teaching and interactivity as a
concept that drives this change (Miller and Glover 2010). Developing design prin-
ciple of mobile learning that blend mobile and non-mobile technologies is important
for the integration of technology into teacher pedagogy (Herrington et al. 2009).
Hennessy and London (2013) aptly summarise pedagogical change requires ped-
agogically oriented professional development (p. 17).

4.3.2 Professional Learning

ICT has the potential to increase student performance and improve teacher peda-
gogy, however, teacher practitioners struggle to keep pace with the influx of tools
within instructional technology in part due to inadequate professional development
and training (Clarke and Fournillier 2012; Oigara and Wallace 2012). In many parts
of the world, research has depicted that unidirectional investment on hardware such
as IWBs without detailed professional development does not automatically translate
to effective leaner-centred pedagogical practice (Becta 2003; Halford 2007; Lacina
2009; Moss and Jewitt 2010; Oigara and Wallace 2012; Somyurek et al. 2009).
Piecemeal teacher training has long been a hit and miss approach centred on the
technical features of the equipment (Hennessy and London 2013; Miller and Glover
2007). What is needed is using software technologies that bolster curricular content
in ways that are seamless and promote interactivity between and within teachers
and students alike. Professional m-learning design models need to focus on peda-
gogical aspects of interactivity, rather than effective application of their use to
specic technologies. This would enable teachers to be better equipped with the
skills that focus on these pedagogical principles of interactivity making it easier to
68 R. Rozario et al.

embrace newer technologies in synthesis with available m-devices in todays

classroom.
According to Hooper and Rieber (1995), there are ve stages of technology
adaptation: familiarisation, utilisation, integration, reorientation and evolution.
Generally, initial training is provided, but many teachers lack continued profes-
sional learning and support, which restricts the use and functionality of apps (Stein
2005a, b). Professional learning takes time; changes in pedagogy are subject to
investment, nature and format of professional development (Hennessy and London
2013). Teachers should be allocated time for software application and integration
with other classroom resources with emphasis on the principles of interactivity. The
lack of professional learning time for teachers to learn how to use and integrate apps
into their teaching can be a signicant deterrent to interactive classrooms (Hedberg
and Freebody 2007). ICT coordinators and ICT specialist teachers used their
non-teaching time to assist teachers with curricular integration of apps (Hennessy
and London 2013). Teachers need to be given opportunities to follow up these
sessions with sandpit time, that is, time to play, construct, trial, revise, collaborate,
discuss and rene lesson plans infused with apps at their own pace (Halford 2007).
Hennessy and London (2013) suggest formal training received outside the school
was benecial but in-house informal training and professional development con-
ducted by colleagues was more effective and useful. Hennessy and London (2013)
state that technology by itself has no transformative power (p. 24); however,
when supplemented with appropriate professional learning, digital resources and
learner-centred pedagogy, they become engines of change for connecting class-
rooms to outside lived worlds. Providing teachers ongoing professional learning
skills focused on tenets of interactivity in the use of m-devices is the key to
pedagogical change for successful integration of newer and current classroom
technologies.

4.3.3 Digital Resources

To include a dialogic rather than authoritative interactivity approach along with the
software features focussing on learner-centred interactivity is the key to pedagogical
change (Beauchamp and Kennewell 2010, p. 759). Endeavours must be made to
make available mobile digital resources such as games that enable active learner
technology interactivity so as to connect students lived experiences in-class and
out-of-class context (Masek et al. 2012; Wong and Looi 2011). Frameworks for
evaluating and selecting applications for mobile technologies in learning settings
are still at its developing stages (Sharples 2006) and should include and embrace
elements of interactivity (Beauchamp and Kennewell 2010). Selecting appropriate
applications for m-devices using rubrics and evaluative tools for teachers which
focus on their pedagogical beliefs to integrate technology into classroom practices
is absent in the literature (Green et al. 2014). Using iterative design models for
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 69

mobile learning apps focusing on tenets of pedagogical interactivity could be a

starting point of change towards this end (Marty et al. 2013).
Access to relevant educational websites and software applications is the rst step
towards positively impacting student learning in the digital age (Grifn and Woods
2006; Helfrich 2011). Selecting which apps to use must be done carefully and
critically as apps having varying degrees of usefulness and age appropriateness
(Sam 2012; Wang and Woo 2007). However, nding relevant and appropriate
mobile apps are not easily accessible and decisions have to be made based on
reviews (Hsu and Ching 2013). Teachers have even resorted to making their own
apps using App Inventor due to unavailability of suitable apps (Hsu and Ching
2013). Sharing digital resources amongst the teacher community within and outside
their school environment is a useful strategy to overcome difculties posed by their
learning curve (Ross 2011; Stein 2005a, b). Therefore, for successful implemen-
tation, efcacious linkages between pedagogical support systems are paramount.
Software applications allow teachers to attain their object; they determine how
interactivities and information are transmitted and displayed (Maher 2012; Sam
2012). When choosing app, teachers should give preference to apps that enable
active learnertechnology interactivity so as to connect students lived worlds
outside of the school context (Masek et al. 2012). Apps provide great potential to
facilitate simulative learning and less teacher talk and when used in conjunction
with m-devices harness their pedagogical capacity. Interactivities have been found
to be highest among learners in instances where simulation-based learning envi-
ronments were used compared to expository learning environments (Beauchamp
and Kennewell 2010). What follows is an investigation of how four classroom
teachers selected and used apps within their pedagogical design and instruction,
providing a window of the interactivities found from an activity theory perspective.

4.4 Methods

This research investigation utilised a case study design whereby data were collected
through classroom observations, teacher interviews, samples teacher lesson plans
using apps, journals and other resources used during class over a period of 4
months. A convenience sample was used for school selection, resulting in four
teachers opting into the study based on a rst-come rst-serve criteria. Further, a
purposeful sampling technique (Tongco 2007) was used to select lesson plans and
software apps used by participatory teachers for data analysis in order to cater to a
wide range of interactivities from learner-centred to teacher-centred approaches.
Thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes from eld notes recorded
from classroom observations and formal/informal interviews with the participant
teachers.
An adapted model of the summary of six-step process by Jonassen and
Rohrer-Murphy (1999) was used to collect data from an activity theory perspective.
70 R. Rozario et al.

Fig. 4.2 Adapted six-step model of Jonassen and Rohrer-Murphy (1999)

Two research questions guided this inquiry: What types of learnerteacher inter-
activities does the teacher facilitate when using mobile learning apps? What teacher
tensions affect interactivity within mobile learning app usage? (Fig. 4.2)

4.5 Findings/Discussion

Data analysis revealed that teachers tend to adopt various levels of learnerteacher
interactivities in the use of software apps. These interactivities will fluctuate
between teacher-centred to learner-centred approaches in classroom with the pos-
sibility of a contradictory situation of learner- and teacher-centred interactivity
occurring simultaneously. This trend was noticed when observing various inter-
activities during classroom observations of all four teacher participants. All teachers
also acknowledged during their interviews that with the use of apps by teachers and
students reflects a spectrum of interactivities rather than one point. Therefore, it
would be more appropriate to refer to interactivity as several points or a range of
interactivities.
In relation to research question one, What types of learnerteacher interactivities
does the teacher facilitate in the use of mobile learning apps, a range of points of
interactivity were recognised, that is to say the amount of teacher and learner
involvement with learning tools such as technologies and software applications
slides constantly from active learner or teacher participation to passive learner or
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 71

Fig. 4.3 Slides projected using the SlideShark app

72 R. Rozario et al.

teacher participation. During teacher interviews, this nding was regularly reiter-
ated reflecting a continuum of pedagogical interactivities occurring in the class-
room. As one teacher participant comments:
Most lessons, particularly the initial part of the lesson will usually be teacher focused and
hopefully moving towards student activity towards the second half of the lesson where to
some extent there is a way of them applying the theory or the content. There are lessons that
are much more student-focused and there are lessons that are teacher-focused but for me as
a rule I would try and have a combination of both within each lesson.

Using the app, SlideShark by Brainshark, Inc., one participatory teacher displayed a
slideshow from her iPad onto the IWB to demonstrate to students explicit directions
for the science experiment, a visual model of what would look like, and then follow
up pictures from each groups work (see Fig. 4.3).
Although the same slides were used at different junctures, the level of learner
teacher interactivity varied from complete teacher control to learner control and also
resulting in a juxtaposition of both at one given time depending on the use of
technology. For instance, during the rst use of the slide the classroom teacher was
in control of the teachinglearning process adopting a didactive teaching approach.
However, when using the same slides at the second time, although in appearance the
teacher was adopting a similar approach, the students were more learner-centred as
they were in control of the technologies and tools they were using.
The spectrum of interactivity occurs with the use of SlideShark and the IWB
ranging from teacher-centred, learner-centred, juxtaposition of learner and
teacher-centred coexisting simultaneously and a blended approach either inclined
towards active teacher control or learner control. Each of these categories and its
features are discussed below using additional classroom-based examples.

4.5.1 Teacher-Centred Interactivity

Some teaching and learning processes are focussed on teachers and their authority of
learning process (Tanner and Jones 2007), as they are actively involved and instru-
mental in classroom orchestration (Beauchamp and Kennewell 2013). This structure
results in learners playing a more passive role in the activity system. Examples of this
type of interactivity found from data analysis include: teachers controlling apps adopt
an instructivist pedagogy; performing activities such as delivering theoretical
knowledge with or without the use of embedded software in the technologies; pro-
viding overt instructions with or without the assistance of tools in the activity system,
providing information using websites, expressing their opinions and inclinations and
describing situations and scenarios. As the teacher exercised control over the use of
the SlideShark app during the delivery of lesson object Ionic bonds, the teacher uses
the iPad in conjunction with the app to explain this concept while learners are lis-
tening to instructions and demonstration of software applications by the teacher. The
activity is controlled and exercised by the teacher. In a short moment, thereafter,
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 73

teaching the same concept the teacher brings forward two learners to the IWB to drop,
drag and attach ionic bonds with other learners in the classroom providing feedback
and suggestions. This example demonstrates how in a matter of few minutes complete
teacher control can shift to learner control. Similar instances of this would be the
teacher using the app in conjunction with the IWB as an expert to explain a mathe-
matical concept while learners listen and thereafter apply that knowledge while using
iPads or Cascalculators.

4.5.2 Learner-Centred Interactivity

The characteristics of this category of interactivity are opposite to teacher-centred

interactivity and skew the interactivity towards the learner. Learners are more in
control of their learning, while teachers are guided by learners to attain the learning
goal. One of the teachers encouraged her students to use the app, Geoboard by The
Math Learning Center, which can be used on almost any m-device (see Fig. 4.4).
While the learners worked individually on making shapes and calculating area, the
teachers role involved facilitating, scaffolding, prompting with open-ended ques-
tions, observing, initiating discussions, enabling critical framing, learning from
student observation, inquiring, and supplying feedback. Representatives use a
selected iPad connected to the IWB and display the shapes, asking their peers
questions for testing their knowledge. This illustrates how learners can lead the
class in collaborative contributions to learning goals; learners conducting mathe-
matical shape manipulation using necessary tools; and learners working indepen-
dently on user-friendly and freely available software apps.

4.5.3 Blended Interactivity

In this category, both the learners and teacher are involved during the teaching
learning process and the level of interactivity can be slightly more inclined towards
teacher- or learner-centred interactivity depending on the activity conducted.
Multiple teachers utilised the app, Twiddla by Expat Software, to brainstorm and
visually display graphics and print onto a blank canvas. This app essentially
combines the functionality of an IWB with an iPad or mobile phone, allowing both
the teacher and students' use to contribute to the overall classroom learning expe-
rience by overlaying mathematical formulas, graphs and lines (see Fig. 4.5). In this
example, the teacher is, more or less, in control of IWB, while the students give
verbal contribution and use Twiddla to relay input from their groups. That is,
learners will be using the app while the teacher also facilitates its use and appli-
cation by scaffolding the learning process. In this instance, the tools, activities,
actions and operations in the activity system are juggled between learner and
teacher orchestration, and in accordance to the lessons objectives.
74 R. Rozario et al.

Fig. 4.4 Still image of

Geoboard app showing an
example of creating digital
shapes and calculating area

4.5.4 Juxtaposition of Teacher- and Learner-Centred

Interactivity

Sometimes teachers and learners have simultaneous access and control over mobile
technologies. Here, learners will use tools, such as laptops, CasCalculators and
software applications alongside teachers using IWBs. While teachers are in active
control and use of their IWB, learners are in control of other classroom technolo-
gies. There is a coexistence of teacher-centred and learner-centred interactivity
concurrently working in the classroom, resulting in a juxtaposition of pedagogies
and interactivities. The teacher generally will be in control of the class with the use
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 75

Fig. 4.5 Twiddla app showcasing teacher and student collective input

of the IWB and the related software applications using a teacher-centred approach;
the learner will simultaneously be using other classroom tools and artefacts, such as
laptops, iPads and software, applying his/her socioculturally and historically situ-
ated practices to attain the goal by using constructivist pedagogy.
Using the app, iPoe by iClassics Productions, S.L., one English
teacher-embedded interactivity within her poetry lesson, an area that is often
challenging for teachers to bring alive to reluctant readers. By combining visual
imagery, motion and brilliant graphics, iPoe, encourages students to experience
poetry rather than just read about it. This participatory teacher had her students use
their iPads afterwards to write similarly themed poetry, of which some student
samples would be displayed by the teacher onto the IWB for whole class sharing.
This juxtaposition of interactivity results in a position where the teacher is
adopting instructivist pedagogy, while the learners are applying constructivist
pedagogy in the learning process. This brings about a harmonising effect between
the teacher and the learner in relation to interactivity rather than discord sometimes
experienced at other stages of the interactivity spectrum. Harmony is experienced as
a result of a hybrid of pedagogies being achieved. Another example of this type of
interactivity was found when using the Hoodamath website, as learners were in full
control of their iPads and the teacher using the IWB led discussions on the concept
similar triangles. In this instance, the learners explored the online game and
learning by comparing similar triangles using their prior knowledge, while the
teacher used the IWB at the same time explaining concepts related to this topic.
It is clear that the level of interactivity between learners, teacher and technology
in classroom settings is constantly changing to reshape and develop to meet the
learning objectives. In fact, the precept of Engestrms theoretical framework is that
activity system is constantly developing (Engestrm 2010; Kaptelinin and Nardi
2012). This dynamic series of activities comes together to form the many points of
76 R. Rozario et al.

Fig. 4.6 Pedagogy as an activity system tension

interactivity possible within teaching and learning contexts which is represented in

the Engestrms activity theory as shown in Fig. 4.6. The pedagogical tensions
faced by teachers in the activity system. Here the teacher is constantly faced with
the tension of making pedagogical choices of having a leaner or teacher-centred
approach to teaching. The components such as the rules, community, division of
labour and tools either facilitate or hinder the teachers pedagogical approach and
thereby influence the shape of interactivity. For instance the teacher has the tension
of constantly having contradictions between the rules of the classroom, school and
Catholic Education Ofce (CEO, the Australian governing body for Catholic
schools) which affects the pedagogical choices. Many activity systems similar to the
below gure helped the researcher identify and analyse in step two of the theoretical
framework.

4.6 Conclusion

Using activity theory as a theoretical framework for this inquiry into the interac-
tivities found when teachers and students use digital technologies and apps, this
study sought to scrutinise, clarify and describe the many relationships between the
4 Interactivity and Mobile Technologies 77

learner, teacher and technology. The key ndings of this study may be summarised
as: rst, interactivity in the classroom is not a single point of interaction that
represents teacher-centred (didactive) or learner-centred (interactive) interactivity
but rather a spectrum or continuum of points that represents many shades of lear-
nerteacher interactions. The learnerteacher interactivity is ever-fluctuating when
apps are used in conjunction with other m-devices. Second, when software apps are
used in conjunction with other classroom technologies, there can be a coexistence
of a learner-centred and a teacher-centred approach, resulting in a hybrid teaching
and learning style. This juxtaposition of interactivities is more often made possible
with the use of m-devices resulting in a tool kit of pedagogical practices. Third, the
coexistence of learner and teacher-centred teachinglearning styles harmonises the
inbuilt contradictions that could exist within their interactivity. Fourth, the spectrum
points of interactivity are dynamic and ever-changing over time and can fluctuate so
dramatically that the likelihood of two learning episodes, keeping all factors con-
stant, are minimal, thereby making the contours of the interactivity unique and
unpredictable. Teachers have to constantly work on short and long-term changes to
keep up with this changing nature of the context and shape of interactivity. And
nally, a variety of teacher tensions affects teachers app usage along with other
classroom technologies and the level of interactivity in lessons.
Given the inconsistency, voids in existing literature, and novelty of the concept
of measuring interactivity in relation to teacher, learner and classroom technologies
in the eld of ICT, there is ample opportunity for research amongst scholars to
clarify, append, amend, improve and make relevant this concept in our twenty-rst
century learning environments. There are many factors directly and/or indirectly
influencing the shape of interactivity in relation to teacher pedagogy. For instance,
the study observed there are tensions encountered by teachers in nding and
preparing digital resources that are content relevant and interactive; teachers con-
stantly resorted to teacher-centred approaches in order to cover vast amounts of
curricula and in turn, impacted interactivity; teacher attitude and its relationship to
the shape of interactivity; availability and access to m-devices and supported apps;
developing an instrument to measure various levels of interactivity for reliable and
valid data collection and analysis. The juxtaposition of learner- and teacher-centred
interactivity appears to constantly reoccur when apps are used in conjunction with
m-devices. Therefore, the need for studies to determine these occurrences and their
influence on the orchestration of interactivities between apps and m-devices and
their impact on teacher pedagogy m-learning design has invaluable potential for
future scope of research in this area.
One of the most important considerations for selecting apps to use in the
classroom is the element of interactivity. Betcher and Lee (2009) point out that if
you dont learn to tap into the interactive aspect of technology, you may as well not
use [it] (p. 68). The proliferation of mobile technologies (Toteja and Kumar 2012)
provides more potential to tap into the interactivity and integration of the apps
within pedagogical planning and delivery (Churchill et al. 2014). However, in order
to achieve this feat, it is important that teachers can understand interactivity and
determine the factors that influence them. Using activity theory as a lens provides a
78 R. Rozario et al.

prominent starting point towards unearthing new discoveries related to context and
collaborative learning and its interactivity with m-devices and software applications
(Owen 2009). This study suggests that it is a difcult path; one that is not without
challenges. It requires researchers, teachers, learners, policy makers, governments
and others alike to play a signicant role in supporting teachers towards over-
coming these tensions related to bolstering interactivity in their classrooms.

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Author Biographies

Roy Rozario is a doctoral student and sessional staff member at Monash University with over 20
years of teaching experience at University and school level. He has a Masters and M.Phil. degree
in Economics, M.Ed (ICT), Grad. Dip. Ed. and Grad. Cert. Mathematics. His current doctoral
work is on mobile learning and interactivity
82 R. Rozario et al.

Evan Ortlieb is a Professor and Coordinator of the Literacy Program in the Department of
Education Specialties at St. Johns University in New York City. He is an internationally
recognized leader in the eld of literacy education withprevious work experience in Singapore and
Australia and whose expertise centers on struggling readers, literacy teacher preparation, language
diversity, and differentiated literacy instruction. He has published over 100 manuscripts that
substantiate some of his contributions to the eld including a book series entitled, Literacy,
Research, Practice and Evaluation, as well as new instruments and rened instructional practices
now being used worldwide.

Jennifer Rennie is a Senior Lecturer in literacy education at Monash University. Prior to working
in higher education she worked for several years as a primary and high school teacher in the
Northern Territory. Her current research interests are related to Indigenous literacies and reading
pedagogy. She has published widely in this area and has been the Managing Editor of the
Australian Journal of Language and Literacy since 2009. Her current research draws from both
cognitive and sociocultural theories and involves developing and implementing new ways for
thinking about how we work with struggling and disengaged readers.
Chapter 5
Educational Apps Ontology

Michele P. Notari, Michael Hielscher and Mark King

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of educational mobile apps as well as

different models of classication. It also sheds light on the complex mobile app
ecosystem from four perspectives: the learner, the teacher, the developer and the
distributor. It highlights the contradictions that arise from the different goals and
expectations from each perspective. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion
of the motivational aspects of games and their current role for educational mobile
apps as well as the future development of apps.

5.1 Introduction

Educational apps are transforming the education sector and to date have had a
signicant impact on both formal and non-formal learning ecosystems. Mobile
devices permeate our daily lives, providing unparalleled access to communication
and information. Looking over the horizon into the next decade and beyond, it is
clear that mobile learning will be embedded in an ecosystem that is increasingly
accessible, affordable and connected, and its impact on humankind will be profound.
Abundant literature has provided evidence of the uses, advantages, consequences
and concerns about mobile apps and their effectiveness in the education domain.

M.P. Notari (&)

HKU, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR China, PHBern, University of
Teacher Education, Bern, Switzerland
e-mail: michele.notari@phbern.ch
M. Hielscher
M. King
The Schwyz University of Teacher Education, Schwyz, Switzerland
e-mail: michael.hielscher@phsz.ch
M. King
e-mail: mark.king@unsw.edu.au

The University of New South Wales, Hong Kong, SAR China

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 83

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_5
84 M.P. Notari et al.

The mobile app market is growing rapidly in the various app-ecosystems (like
the Apple App Store with 1.5 million apps, the Google Play Store with 1.6
million apps, Windows phone store with 310000 apps, Amazon appstore with
250000 apps and the BlackBerry world with 135000 apps; total amount of apps
counted in July 2015, Statista (2015)). In the Apple App Store, 21.8 % of all apps
are games, 10.3 % categorized as business, and 9.8 % categorized as education
with about half of the educational apps being free (Statista 2015). McKinsey and
Company and GSMA (2012) revealed that 270 million apps linked to education
were downloaded in 2011more than a tenfold increase from 2009. These
statistics include the educational apps derived from educational web sites like Khan
Academy as well as standalone apps like Wheels on the bus (Wheels on the bus
2015). The categorization of the various educational and learning apps in the major
app stores is aligned to consumers and their shopping habits.
From a pedagogical perspective, Apps for learning can be classied in various
ways. One classication might focus on instructional design criteria or address the
learning goals of a given app (e.g. information transmission, communication or
collaboration, assessment centred, drill and practice, situated, knowledge build-
ing). Another classication system might focus on motivational domains via
gamication, reward systems or the amount of infotainment.
This work aims to create an educational prole that can be used by learners,
educators, researchers, parents, and app developers in order to empower them to
analyse Apps on the basis of clear and convincing principles (Wartella 2015). It is
built upon the philosophical denition of ontology (i.e., the nature of being,
becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their
relations) and not the denition used by the computer science community (i.e.
formal naming and denition of the types, properties, and interrelationships of the
entities that really or fundamentally exist).

5.2 What Is an App/What Is an Educational App?

A mobile app can be dened as a mobile technology used by an end-user for a

particular purpose (Nickerson et al. 2007). We use the term mobile App or App
as a self-contained program or piece of software designed to full a particular
purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device (the
Oxford dictionary 2015) or as self-contained program downloadable from one of
the common app stores. Various approaches to categorize or classify apps by
different criteria are in the literature, for example Nickerson et al. (2007) describe
the following seven dimensions for general app taxonomy:
Temporal dimension, dening when the user interact (synchronous/asynchronous);
Communication dimension, where the information flow can be uni- or bidi-
rectional (unidirectional: the information flows from the application to the user);
5 Educational Apps Ontology 85

Transaction dimension, where the app provides the capability to purchase goods
or services
Public dimension, where the app is public or limited to a specic group of users
Multiplicity or participation dimension, where the user interacts just with the
app or the user interacts with other users using the app.
Location dimension, where the app provides customized information or func-
tionality based on the users location.
Identity dimension, where the information is adjusted based on an awareness of
who the user is.
From an educational perspective those dimensions have limited use to the classi-
cation of apps for specic learning situations. One issue is that multiple denitions
of educational apps exist like. Apps that provide an interactive learning experience
on a specic skill or subject (Mobile Roadie 2015). More specically for this work,
an educational mobile app has a designed purpose relevant for learning either to
build up factional knowledge, to share and collaborate with others, or even just
helping with ordinary administration and organization tasks in daily school life.

5.3 Educational App Typologies

Several studies have attempted to classify educational apps and build taxonomies
from different pedagogical perspectives. Cherner et al. (2014) used three dimen-
sions: skill-based app (mainly factional knowledge building), content-based apps
(provide information like dictionaries or maps) and function-based apps (mainly
tools for presentations, sketches. communication and collaboration). Goodwin and
Higheld (2012) classied apps based on their instructional design: instructive,
manipulable and constructive.
There are many other classications in specic subject areas like math or lan-
guages focusing more on typical tasks solved with a given app (e.g. Handal et al.
2013). Some organizations and institutions offer mobile app rating databases like
Children Technology Review (About Rating 2015). There are also various websites
like Langwitches.org (Langwitches Blog 2011) where teachers attempted to cate-
gorize educational apps to help other teachers in the same area nd appropriate
apps. Most of those classications and reviews are a bit fuzzy and often imply a
specic use-case of an app, which might be used quite differently as well.
From a pedagogical point of view, the aim or purpose of an app can be cate-
gorized into the following six groups:
Knowledge & skill building appsThe largest group of educational apps uses
formalized content that can be easily checked by a computer. Most of those apps
have a well-dened setting with a specic instructive design. It became common
practice to use game mechanics-like levels, points and high scores to increase
motivation for solving repetitive tasks (drill & practice). There is a broad range
from simple calculation training apps to more complex learning games with a
86 M.P. Notari et al.

story and different tasks to master. They most likely address the rst two levels
from the bloom taxonomy: Remember (identify, recall) and Understand (com-
pare, match, classify).
Collaboration appsSeveral apps can help when students have to produce a
text or other media in a group. Also brainstorming or other resource collecting
tasks can benet from collaboration apps like the Google Docs App or Dropbox,
even so they are not categorized as educational apps in major app stores.
Learning and teaching support appsTimetable and homework schedule apps
to organize students task are quite common in major app stores. Especially for
language learning there exist various apps using the flashcard method. All those
apps allow the student to provide his/her own content to be trained. Support and
assisting apps do not provide learning content but help to apply learning
strategies. Teachers can nd a lot of administration and organization apps from
digital class books to learning material management. There are also several
classroom activity apps for teachers like clicker tools for polls that can be used
to engage students in teacher-centred lessons and lectures.
Communication appsStudents communicate a lot through apps like
WhatsApp, Skype or Facebook. Many classes for example have an own
WhatsApp channel/group nowadays. Timetable changes or information about
the next school-trip travels fast through such social networks. Such apps are not
listed as education apps in major app stores. Even so, they can play an important
role in digital learning scenarios. For teachers communication apps like Twitter
can also help to stay informed or to share teaching material.
Other tools and reference appsCalculators, periodic tables, lexica, maps
Goodwin and Higheld (2012) propose a classication for preschool children
following the pedagogical design of the app based on the learners locus of control
over the activities presented in the app and their level of cognitive investment. The
three broad classications are as follows:
Instructive appshave elements of drill-and-practice design, whereby the app
delivered a predetermined task that elicit a homogenous response from the
user. These apps require minimal cognitive investment on behalf of the learner.
Math Bingo by BCya.com is an exemplar of instructive design.
Manipulable appsallow for guided discovery and experimentation, but within
a predetermined context or framework. These apps require more cognitive
involvement than instructive apps, but less than constructive apps. An example
of a manipulable tool is Toontastic by Launchpad Toys.
Constructive appsare characterized by a more open-ended design that allow
users to create their own content or digital artefact using the app. Musical apps
and drawing apps are emblematic of constructive apps. Drawing Pad by
Darren Murtha is an example of this pedagogical design. Goodwin and
Higheld (2012).
5 Educational Apps Ontology 87

After all, synthesized from psychology, linguistics, computer science, animal

behaviour, machine learning, brain imaging, neurobiology and other areas, this
newly minted eld asks not merely what we should teach childrenthat is, what
contentbut also how children best learn the strategies they will need to cope
flexibly and creatively in the twenty-rst century world (e.g. Benassi et al. 2014;
Golinkoff and Hirsh-Pasek 2015; Pellegrino 2012; Pellegrino and Hilton 2013;
Sawyer 2006) Cited from Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015).

5.4 Educational Apps from Different Perspectives

In this section we would like to shed light on the educational mobile app market
without delving too deeply into an app categorization schema or model. Therefore,
our analysis provides perspectives from four different user groups: learners,
teachers, developers and distributors (store companies). In the following sections,
we will provide analysis from the above-mentioned perspectives to issues such as
affordance, needs, expectations, and constraints of educational apps. In order
to situate the varying perspectives, we will rst provide a short outline of the
analytical process (what we call learning) used when interacting with the edu-
cational app.
Nowadays, learning is described, dened, and interpreted in very different ways.
Therefore, we rst provide an overview of the many concepts of learning. We have
chosen a concept-mix (Notari and Doebeli 2010) that is relevant for the evolving
characteristics of educational apps. Learning is a social and active process (e.g.
Vygotsky 1978; Hirsch-Pasek et al. 2015; Dillenbourg 1999; Crawford 1996)
where social interactions play an essential role for development of cognition
(Kearsley 1994) and the cognitive theory for intervention strategies proposed by
Bandura (1977). Motivational learning strategy and self-determination described by
Deci and Ryan (2002), where the learner needs competence, autonomy and relat-
edness is crucial for the acquisition of skills in a world of increasing complexity and
the fast pace of change, is a lifelong learning process. For this reason, a distinction
is drawn between formal learning (scheduled and taught in a curriculum) and
informal learning (happening intentionally or inadvertently) (Cross 2006, p. 16).
Paavola et al. (2004) and Scardamalia (2003a) pointed out the importance of col-
laboration and knowledge building stating that knowledge building is a social act
performed by a certain number of people sharing and exchanging information
on/through their created artefacts. Collaboration is seen as mechanisms of inter-
action among the people involved, whether directly or through the created artefacts
(using technology) (Scardamalia 2003a; Scardamalia and Bereiter 2003b)
88 M.P. Notari et al.

5.4.1 The Learners View

The learner is the person who interacts with an educational app and learns some-
thing by doing so. The learner might have quite different needs and goals
depending on their age and topic being learned. Hirsch-Pasek et al. (2015) suggest
that children of the age between 0 and 8 years learn best when they are cognitively
active and engaged, when learning experiences are meaningful and socially inter-
active, and when learning is guided by a specic goal. Visual presentation, enter-
tainment, easy of use and narrative guidance e.g. by an appealing character are
typical characteristics of thousands of apps available in the app stores that are aimed
at the early childhood market.
At the age between 5 and 7 parents often try to foster their children to acquire
basic reading, writing and calculating skills as preparation for school. Such children
start learning using apps with written symbols or easy calculation apps. While the
entertaining part of such apps may be reduced, parents will seek well-tested apps
reviewed by professional educators.
For elementary school kids (712 years) many textbook publishers currently
develop mobile apps to accompany their books (Bird 2011). Apps for this age often
focus on factual knowledge building for math and language (especial rst foreign
language). They are often designed to accompany traditional textbooks and to help
learners to build skills. The learner will no longer only deal with an app for fun.
Aspects like efciency, completeness and a general t to current classroom activ-
ities will become increasingly important.
For high school students apps for the organization of the homework like
Myhomework (My Homework, Student planner 2015), timetables and note taking
apps like Evernote start to dominate the app stores. Also for the age of vocational
college and university education, self-organization and education management are
the dominating topics on the app market.
In the area of adult educational apps focus on self-controlled just-in-time
learning for improving language skills or prepare for tests like driving licence or
various business certicates.
For retired and older people the paradigm switches again from a just-in-time skill
learning to rather interest-driven learning.
Noessel (2003) describes the learners needs as representing the gap between
what the learner wants to get out of the learning experience and his or her current
state of knowledge, skill, and enthusiasm. He identies potential learning needs in
four different domains: cognitive, social, affective and psychomotor (Table 5.1).
Learners needs within a learning setting also depend on their motivation toward
the specic topic to learn their age and their mood. Unfortunately, there is no
universal method to increase childrens motivation to learn (Which factors affect
motivation 2015). Elementary school programs are focused on knowledge acquisi-
tion and learning process in general. By the end of elementary school, learning
interest may be decreasing due to a range of psychological factors, one of them being
inability to nd practical appliance of theoretical knowledge (Eccles et al. 1998).
5 Educational Apps Ontology 89

Table 5.1 Learners needs (Noessel 2003)

Cognitive Social Affective Psychomotor
Recognize good Communicate with Attain goals Be in a comfortable setting
questions peers
Ask good Give and receive Nurture positive attitudes Have transportation
questions support
Get help from Experience external Be open to feedback from Have child care
experts motivation others
Practice problem Make a difference Have time for reflection Get enough sleep
solving and self-assessment
Think Interact while Possess well-founded Have good diet/adequate
independently problem solving self-condence energy level
Create work Explore and Dene and respond to Exercise
products challenge locus of control
conventions
Process new Grow with friends Have a sense of belonging Have access to equipment
information and tools
Use learning Manage time and Understand motivations Engage in appropriate and
resources tasks of others timely demonstrations

In general, younger learners prefer gamied, not too repetitive content con-
structed in a narrative way. For adult learners the possibility to learn in small chunks,
so called microlearning and nanolearning (Masie 2006) might be more relevant for
the choice of a specic app. At any age the nancial factor might be relevant for the
choice of specic app; the cost factor will not be as relevant from the point of view of
the learner as it is from the point of view of the teacher or parent.

5.4.2 The Teachers View

A teacher will have a specic learning scenario or task in mind and wants to use a
suitable educational mobile app to support it. The teacher is often responsible to
choose adequate learning apps for his learners. In early childhood also parents
might be in the teachers role, at least for the selection process. Most of the parents
are no experts in media pedagogy and have to rely on what friends say, what they
get to know from their usual media channels or what they nd in the specic app
store. Low costs, a good visual presentation, user ratings and other non-pedagogical
attributes will most likely influence a parents choice.
Schoolteachers will look for apps with high learning value and good t to current
curriculum content. Depending on the type of activity and learning goal a wide
range of mobile apps will be suitable or not. The pedagogical typologies and
classication models mentioned in the beginning of this chapter can help teachers to
nd and evaluate an appropriate learning app. Most published research papers on
app classication models are teacher focused. From a very practical view, teachers
90 M.P. Notari et al.

might look for cheap, easy to use and distribute, platform-independent, and
learn-time efcient apps.
Textbook publishers already offer digital content in form of mobile apps in
combination with classic textbooks. Based on the best-selling educational apps in
Apples App store, an investment study recommends publishers to invest in col-
lections of small short-time activities that t in the typical class time schedule and
allow more freedom for teachers to use them in personal and adaptive learning
environments. This might also be an indicator of the preferred teachers use of
educational apps today.
The teachers profession also involves various administration, planning and
organization tasks that can be supported by mobile apps. There exists plenty of
class administration, homework schedule and binder apps that address teachers
rather than learners. Choosing appropriate tools is not easy and often legally
restrained, existing school infrastructure (like learning management systems) and
missing synchronization or export mechanisms will hold back teachers from using
them. Even so such apps are led in the education category of major app stores they
are no real learning apps and might need an own classication schema to help
teachers and developers to choose and categorize them better.

5.4.3 The Developers View

Production of mobile apps is a very new challenge for traditional educational

publishers. Technology is changing rapidly over the last few years. The rst Apple
iPad was introduced 2010 and only a few years later we see entire schools buying
tablet devices for the classroom. A wide range between schools with 1:1 tablet
infrastructure (each child has an own device), notebook pools, computer poolrooms
or just 23 computers in each classroom makes production of mobile apps almost
unpredictable for publishers. Schools with 1:1 equipment want content for their
devices.
Almost every school kid (>12 years) has a smart phone in Switzerland (JAMES
Studie 2014) but still, many schools prohibit the use of such devices. As if this was
not enough, the technical systems are incompatible (iOS vs. Android) and force
publishers either to choose one platform or produce multiple versions at greater
expense. From a technical perspective some incompatibility problems can be solved
by switching to HTML5 and so called hybrid apps (running on all platforms) in the
future. There still are some limitations on HTML5 and mobile web apps (i.e.
making use of hardware like the microphone) but situation continues to get better
with each major update of mobile device operating system and development
frameworks. Today as a traditional textbook publisher you can either wait until the
market and infrastructure situation in schools becomes a bit more settled or take the
risk and invest in an unsteady market and so being the rst and bet on the long run.
Right now it is almost impossible to make a positive return on investment calcu-
lation while the target group in schools is still small and initial expenses for
5 Educational Apps Ontology 91

building up frameworks and tools for content production are high. Today many
publishers try to combine traditional paper-based books with additional digital
content to reduce the risk and distribute the costs.
Besides the traditional textbook publishers, there are many new companies
producing educational apps very prot driven. Specialized on programming,
designing and marketing, such publishers often miss a pedagogical foundation and
evaluation. Hirsch-Pasek et al. (2015) surmised that only a handful of apps are
really designed with an eye toward how children actually learn. Fast-produced and
fast-selling content for a broad target audience is the key for high prots in the low
priced app store market. As a result many apps offer the same content with just a
slightly different audio visual presentation (Princess Lilifees Numbers vs. Captain
Sharkys Numbers, Animal touch sounds vs. Vehicle touch sounds and so on) sold
for a few or even less than a dollar. Competition on the market is hard and new
companies try to get into the market from all over the world every month. A study
from Shuler, Levine and Ree indicated in 2012 that within 2 years about 80 % of all
publishers with educational apps in the top 100 were replaced by new competitors.
The success or fail of a mobile app is not just a result of development quality but
also on how many users will notice an app in the huge collection of hundred
thousands of apps in stores. The most successful, best-selling learning app might
not be the most useful from a pedagogical perspective.

5.4.4 The Distributors View

Almost the entire distribution of mobile apps is handled via app stores preinstalled
with a given operating platform like Apple (iOS, App Store), Google (Android,
Play Store), Microsoft (Windows Phone Store) or Amazon (Amazon Appstore).
The stores act as gate keepers to the mobile app world and decide which content is
allowed or not and, almost with the same effect, which content is promoted and
shown to the store users and which is hard to nd. In all major app stores a share of
about 30 % of all incomes will directly go to the shop operator company. This also
includes any in-app-purchases after already installing an app for a fee or for free.
Some apps offer a subscription model that will require monthly or yearly payments
through in-app-purchases. The shop owner often prohibits selling subscriptions or
any additional content without taking his 30 % share which is one often stated
reason why textbook (and newspaper) publishers held back publishing in the stores.
The shops are organized in classic categories and a few top 100 lists e.g. of most
viewed, most bought or highest rated apps. The categories offered by stores like
Apple are still of little use for educators to choose appropriate apps and many of the
more useful application exist outside the education category (Murray and Olcese
2012). The iLearn II study (Shuler et al. 2012) reveals that 86 % of the most popular
apps in the education category in Apples App Store are not intended by their
developers to be used in school. The marketing and target audience are mainly
parents looking for apps to foster their young children especially in basic math,
92 M.P. Notari et al.

reading and writing skills at home. The study also showed that the major part
(80 %) of all educational categorized apps is made for children.
Almost 60 % of them are targeting very young children before and up to pre-
school age. While the average price for educational apps in Apples App Store has
increased from 1.13$ in 2009 to 2.14$ in 2011 it is still a market where mass
marketing (high sales, low prices) is the only key to success. This model is almost
carved in stone by the store operators to keep their devices attractive (high device
price but low content prices). For example Apple only offers xed prices to
developers to choose from and everything above a given price will require a special
approval. As a shop operator a major goal is to maximize the 30 % share prot by
advertising high selling apps. As a result apps for specic learning topics will be
less prominent advertised and harder to nd than those with a broad topic
addressing potentially many more users. As a result prot-driven developers will try
to concentrate on apps for broad topics as well, to increase their chance to get their
apps on the most valuable top 100 lists created by the shop operators (often based
on statistical data). For traditional textbook publishers it is very hard to be suc-
cessful in this marketing system, while not only providing mainstream content.

5.5 Why so Many Educational Apps Are Games?

From the view of developers and distributors we see the major part of the educa-
tional app market addresses young children in doodle and preschool age. The use of
such apps is most likely intrinsic motivation by the child who either likes to deal
with it or not. Therefore, in this target age almost all educational apps use some sort
of gaming mechanisms to engage children. We need to distinguish between dif-
ferent forms of educational games. The term digital game-based learning
describes the idea to build fully functional video games (with game rules and an
own game world) and cover one or multiple learning topics by deeply integrating
them in the game. The motivational parts of playing a game, like exploration,
challenges and competition, are used to encourage students to learn something or to
apply their knowledge; even without knowing that they actually learn while playing
the game. In contrast Serious Games transform real-world problems into a play-
able game world (typical a simulation) without hiding or mask the learning topic
behind a ctional game world. A good example for a successful serious game is
Democracy 3 (Democracy 3 2015) with over 200,000 copies sold. The game allows
the player to be president of a simulated democratic country who has to make all
kind of decisions. Keeping all parties of a society happy is almost impossible and a
real challenge. Also some video games cover school relevant topics like economy
cycles in Anno 1604 (Anno 1604 2015) or trafc simulation in Transport Tycoon
(Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTD)Online 2015) or SimCity (2015). Under the
term Serious Play there are various publications covering the use of such
non-educational games in formal learning settings. A different approach is
Gamication: the use of typical game mechanics in non-game environments.
5 Educational Apps Ontology 93

Instead of building a complete game, only mechanics-like high scores, points,

levels, badges and achievements are placed on top of more or less traditional
learning materials. The learning content is not hidden behind a complex game
world making the development much easier and cheaper.
While using games for educational software is an old concept since many
decades, mobile games and the way people play them on smartphones and tablets
opens new possibilities for adult education and lifelong learning scenarios. Prensky
briefly summarized the ideas, concepts and success factors in his book Digital
Game-Based Learning in 2004 (Prensky 2004).
Games and educational apps seem to be inevitable connected and market
development indicates a continuing growth of educational apps with various game
mechanics. As an educational publisher completely new skills and employees like
game designers, animators and programmers are required when building content for
the mobile app market.

5.6 Conclusion

In this chapter we pointed out different types of apps sustaining specic needs and
requirements of the target audience. We also tried to show different points of view
and different needs of learners, teachers, developers and distributors. In fact it turns
out to be difcult to nd the appropriate educational app for the specic need in
todays app store market. Educator web pages, reviewers and guides try to build up
rankings in order to help to nd the best and most valuable apps.
The goal of educational apps for preschool children proposed by Chau (2014)
might be also adaptable for all age categories, distinguishing apps for building
competencies, fostering condence, encouraging caring, promoting connection,
fostering character, and for encouraging contribution. Gamication will have a
notable impact on development of future educational apps specially affecting
motivational factors (Huotari and Hamari 2012). In future, gamication will not be
the only approach enhancing intrinsic motivation for the use of the apps. Due to the
increasing importance of non-formal education factors rising intrinsic motivation
will become increasingly important.
Another interesting future development of apps and educational apps may be the
trend called micro-moments, where people use their smart phone during small
amount of time performing relevant situated actions and take pertinent decisions in
that Micro-Moments (Consumers in the MicroMoments 2015). Such
Micro-Moment, where education might take place situated, in relevant moments
with appropriate tailored and individualized interaction.
To conclude, we contend that educational technologies are also subject to
constant theoretical transformations and are prone to inherit instability (Handal
et al. 2013). It is therefore highly predictable that future advances in human
machine relations, as Facer and Sandford (2010) have proposed, will undoubtedly
keep rearranging conceptualizations on a continual basis.
94 M.P. Notari et al.

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Author Biographies

Michele P. Notari is professor in educational technologies at the University of Teacher Education

in Bern, Switzerland and actually (20152016) spends a research year at the Faculty of Education,
the University of Hong Kong. He has published articles in key journals in the area of
technology-enhanced learning, a book and several book chapters related to collaborative learning
using participative technologies. He is guest editor of a special edition of the Journal of
Educational Research and Evaluation, board member of Wikisym, the international symposium on
open Collaboration, the international Conference on Mobile Learning, and International Mobile
Learning Festival. He holds a Ph.D. in education, master degree in biology and computer sciences
from the University of Berne, and a master degree in educational technologies from the University
of Geneva. His actual research focus is on using mobile and wearable technologies for conceptual
learning.

Michael Hielscher is a developer and researcher in the area of computer based learning
environments with a special focus on computer science education since 2005. He holds a Ph.D. in
Computer Science from the University of Mainz and currently works at the Schwyz University of
Teacher Education in Switzerland. He developed various educational software and mobile
applications widely used around the globe.

Mark King is a psychologist and cognitive ethnographer working in the areas of human
interactivity and learning. He is currently developing methodologies for studying human learning
within distributed cognitive systems, including an eye-tracking methodology for investigating the
co-synchronization of language behaviour and visual perception between persons in learning
events. He currently serves as the Head of Educational Design and Development at UNSW
Australia.
Chapter 6
Augmented Learning with Augmented
Reality

Susan Herrington Kidd and Helen Crompton

Abstract Perhaps no other digital technology has the potential for revolutionizing
the educational experience as augmented reality (AR). In this chapter the philo-
sophical, pedagogical, and conceptual underpinnings are unpacked regarding
learning with AR. Specically, AR is dened and the evolution detailed. Next,
some of the common usages of the technology are described, recommendations
given, and nally the future educational implications are presented.

6.1 Introduction

Perhaps no other digital technology has the potential for revolutionizing the edu-
cational experience as augmented reality (AR). AR is an interactive technology
which applies computer-generated information to incorporate detailed information
about locations or activities from the real world (Yuen et al. 2011). In this chapter
the philosophical, pedagogical, and conceptual underpinnings regarding learning
with AR are unpacked. Specically, AR is dened and the evolution detailed. Next,
some of the common usages of the technology are described, recommendations
given, and nally the future educational implications are presented.
For some, AR is considered to be the realm between reality and virtual reality
where countless educational opportunities exist (Pasarti et al. 2011). For example,
in New Zealand at the Arts Center of Christchurch, visitors are exposed to an AR
experience as they walk down into the basement room. As they enter the room, they
hear a voice of a man telling them to Come closer into the darkness. As the visitor
moves forward, a life-sized 3D image of an old man appears to be floating in front
of where they stand. This man explains what it was like working in that dark place a

S.H. Kidd (&)
H. Crompton

Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
e-mail: Susanherringtonkidd@gmail.com
H. Crompton
e-mail: Crompton@odu.edu

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 97

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_6
98 S.H. Kidd and H. Crompton

100 years ago. This old man is a virtual image of Ernest Rutherford, New Zealands
Nobel Prize winning physicist who performed his initial research as an under-
graduate at the University of Canterbury. Through the use of AR, the empty room is
turned into a unique learning experience (Billinghurst 2002). In the past 5 years,
AR applications have become increasingly more portable and available through
mobile devices (Yuen et al. 2011). The availability and portability of AR can
provide students with on-the-spot access to multi-sourced, location-specic infor-
mation which will foster continuous and universal instruction (Yuen et al. 2011).

6.2 Dening Augmented Reality

AR is a 3D technology that fuses the physical and digital world in real time
(Pasarti et al. 2011). In other words, digital information, such as text, images, and
video are layered and blended into our perception of the real world (Yuen et al.
2011). AR differs from virtual reality in that AR permits the user to view the real
world while simultaneously viewing the virtual layered imagery (Billinghurst
2002); virtual reality provides a digitalized representation of the real world. AR is
typically utilized and viewed through either a handheld or head-mounted display
unit. These handheld and head-mounted units can be used outside the classroom,
thereby eliminating the need for instruction to be limited to a specic environmental
context.
AR is unique in comparison to other computer interfaces as it can be used to
embellish real-world experiences, as opposed to simply separating the user from the
real world and thrusting them into a virtual reality (Billinghurst 2002). These
augmentations enhance an individuals perception and comprehension of what is
occurring around them (Yuen et al. 2011). The additional over-laid information
flows smoothly together as one visual, not appearing incongruous to the user (Yuen
et al. 2011).

6.3 Evolution of Educational Augmented Realty

Educational technology is a rapidly growing and evolving eld. Schools today must
prepare their students for a society that does not currently exist. As the world
becomes increasingly complex, this becomes more and more difcult (Ohidi 2006).
Ivan Sutherland created one of the rst head-mounted 3D displays in 1968, pro-
jecting a rudimentary framed graphical image into a room (Caudell and Mizell
1992). Tom Caudell, an engineer working for Boeing in 1992, designed a method
that could display cables and other parts of the aircraft, virtually, without having to
remove the shield of the machine (Caudell and Mizell 1992). Applications were
later developed that housed entire interactive translucent screens providing airmen
with basic flight information (Pasarti et al. 2011). AR rst appeared for the average
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality 99

consumer during a live sporting broadcast on television as the countrys flag could
be seen over the video of a sporting victory (Pasarti et al. 2011).
In the last 5 years, various new headsets have been made available to the public.
Google Glass is a type of Augmented Reality device worn on a spectacle type
frame. As the user wears the Google Glass, they can see in their top right eld of
vision a small screen that provides text feedback to verbal commands or tapping
and swiping the frame. Microsoft is advertising the Hololens that claims to enable
you to operate various computer programs, such as email and calendar, while
viewing them in real-world environments. For example, your calendar could appear
over your replace so you could check your schedule for the day.
The majority of headsets work with mobile phones that are slotted into the
headset. Cases are purchased for the headset to match the particular brand and
version of the phone. The user can download various VR applications to view with
the headset; some of these are specic to the headset and others can be accessed via
multiple devices. At the time that this chapter was written, there are four main
headsets available to the public; Occulus Rift, VR One, Poppy3D, and Google
Cardboard. The Occulus Rift can be used for playing immersive games and VR
movies. At the end of 2014, the VR One was available with opportunities to take 3D
sightseeing tours to famous destinations and tour VR museums. The Occulus Rift
and VR One offer 360 360 vision. Therefore, you can turn to your left or right
in a complete circle to look all around you, and you can also look up at the sky and
down at the floor.
AR devices can be expensive for whole class one-to-one purchases. For this
reason, other solutions have been made available. The Poppy3D provides 360
360 experiences and the ability to record video in one direction. Nonetheless, the
cheapest option at this time is to purchase Google Cardboard. As the name sug-
gests, this is a cardboard headset with a Velcro panel access to place your phone.
Using Google Cardboard some 360 360 experiences can be gained; however,
the quality does decrease to match the decrease in the cost of the headset.

6.4 Augmented Reality in Education

Technology has changed the way people work and socialize. A new generation of
students has emerged, who fully engage in the technological affordances available.
These technologies are seeping into educational practice as Sharples (2005)
describes:
Every era of technology has, to some extent, formed education in its own image. That is not
to argue for the technological determinism of education, but rather that there is a mutually
productive convergence between main technological influences on a culture and the con-
temporary educational theories and practices. (p. 147)

Pedagogies are also changing due to pressure from educators and governments
advocating for educational reforms to utilize these technologies for educational
100 S.H. Kidd and H. Crompton

purposes (Common Core State Standards Initiative 2010; Greenhow and Robelia
2009; Jonassen et al. 2008).
AR technology has matured to the point where it can be applied to a much wider
range of application domains and education is an area where this technology could
be especially valuable (Billinghurst 2002). An educators vision of omnipresent
learning could become a reality with AR, as students are able to access a vast array
of location-specic information that has been assembled and supplied by an
assortment of resources (Yuen et al. 2011). However, AR experiences must be
aligned with the students interests if they are to be educationally effective (Bujak
et al. 2013).

6.4.1 Educational Affordances

Using AR in K-12 can provide many pedagogical affordances (Billinghurst 2002;

Klopfer 2008) as AR can engage, inspire, and induce students to explore educa-
tional concepts from different perspectives (Kerawalla et al. 2006). As students use
the AR they are connected to a very stimulating multi-sensory experience. Learning
is hightened as the students engage in hands-on manipulation of materials and
handle the acquired knowledge in a new and interactive fashion (Wu et al. 2013).
Additionally, researchers have worked to implement AR within those educa-
tional genres which have historically proven difcult for students to acquire
real-world, rst-hand experience, such as physics and astronomy (Lee 2012). AR
technologies enable students to take greater control of the speed and direction of
their education, while also generating a genuine educational atmosphere conducive
to individuals with diverse learning styles (Hamilton and Olenewa 2010). In todays
schools, educators are requiring students to be critical consumers of knowledge and
not passive learners focused on memorization. Klopfer and Yoon (2004) found that
AR can be used to develop active learners as it can be used to develop and enhance
critical twenty-rst century IT skills.
It is suggested that the role-playing intrinsic to the AR experience may result in an
increased sense of condence and efcacy relative to the eld of study (Wasko 2013).
While partaking in virtual activities and by learning to assume virtual personas,
students can learn to separate themselves from negative self-concepts which could
potentially hamper their education (Steinkuehler and Williams 2006). Dede (2008)
posits that students show an increased ability to apply what they learn into a variety of
scenarios including both AR activities and real-life situations (Yuen et al. 2011).
Motivation is a reported benet as students attention is maintained throughout
the class and students reach higher levels of participation in educational activities
with less cognitive efforts (Di Serio et al. 2013). Students reported that using AR
programs increased their motivation for learning, made them feel more like active
investigators, increased their interest in the physical settings and content of the
experience, and helped them view issues from multiple vantage points (Wasko
2013).
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality 101

The instructional practice AR provides is unique for three main reasons; it offers
seamless interaction between real and virtual environments, it facilitates a tangible
interface metaphor for the handling of items, and it offers a smooth shift between
reality and virtually (Billinghurst 2002).

6.4.2 Learning with Others

Billinghurst (2002) conducted studies on collaboration and AR. These are ndings
come from that work. Within the classroom, students collaborative work efforts
improve when they are utilizing a shared workspace. However, this proves difcult
to accomplish when working on computer-based instruction. Inkpen (1997) pos-
tulates that students achievement improves when they are crowded around a
solitary computer, as opposed to working on individual machines. Group com-
munication patterns also change when students are seated in front of one computer
compared to when students have an open communication space between them such
as at a worktable. Students alter their gaze, mannerisms, and other nonverbal
actions when they are no longer facing each other around a workspace, but instead
sitting side-by-side in front of a joint computer workstation. The use of AR allows
students to be seated in a round table fashion, while simultaneously situated around
the virtual image. Billinghurst found that AR marries the desired group commu-
nication patterns of students seated around a joint workstation, with the instinctively
physical collaborative nature of students in front of a solitary computer. The end
result is an authentic conversation through technology.

6.4.3 Tangible Interface Metaphor

To express understanding in an instructional environment, tangible items are often

used. In a collaborative setting, these tangible items are utilized to launch a shared
understanding (Gay and Lentini 1995). Billinghurst (2002) found that the rela-
tionship between virtual and tangible items is very personal in AR and these tan-
gible items can be embellished in ways that are impossible in traditional settings.
The advantage is that students with little to no technology experience will still enjoy
a fullling interactive experience.

6.4.4 Transition

The extent to which the users world is digitally created can be used as the dening
range on a visual spectrum of computer interactions (Milgram and Kishino 1994).
Virtual imagery increases and the level of interaction with reality decreases, moving
102 S.H. Kidd and H. Crompton

from the left to the right on the spectrum (Billinghurst 2002). This spectrum
illustrates how AR technology can be transitioned from being introduced to grad-
ually increasing virtual depth.

6.5 Augmented Reality Programs for Education

AR programs could potentially enhance a myriad eld of study, from geometry

lessons, to 3D representation of cells in biology, to displaying molecular structure
in chemistry, and simulating a sport in physical education (Pasarti et al. 2011). AR
allows any subject to become more vibrant, appealing, and interactive (Pasarti
et al. 2011). Educational AR games and AR books are two such platforms.

6.5.1 AR Educational Gaming

Games are routinely used in the classroom to facilitate instruction in concepts that
are confusing or complicated (Yuen et al. 2011). AR technology has the potential to
assist educators by presenting difcult information, associations, and relationships
in alternative ways (Yuen et al. 2011). Educational AR games insert a layer of
information which augments users experience of reality (Klopfer and Squire 2008,
p. 205). This is often accomplished through handheld devices. Klopfer and Squire
refer to these AR applications as augmented reality educational gaming (2008,
p. 203). This layer of information connects the learner to a particular place, location,
or time. Educators are then able to manipulate this technology for instruction in
specic geographic locations, events in history, or science and mathematical con-
cepts (Klopfer and Squire 2008). Some of the most common examples of AR
gaming involve smart-phone applications which incorporate GPS information,
effectively connecting real-world information and virtual images (Yuen et al. 2011).

6.5.2 Augmented Realty Books

AR books may very well be the books that close the gap between the digital and
physical world and AR books can offer a vital conduit for students because through
the use of AR gear, users are able to experience three different levels of reality
while utilizing an interactive AR story book (Yuen et al. 2011). In the rst level, a
simple book could be utilized collaboratively by several users while actually
holding and using the book itself. In the second level, several users could view 3D
or animated-added AR content in an AR pop-up book. In the third level, AR gear is
used to allow users to fly or teleport into the 3D environment produced by the
book, and then participate in the story as it unfolds, interacting with virtual objects,
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality 103

characters, or even other readers (p. 132). This is the moment when users no
longer exist in the real world, but have transitioned to acting within a virtually
augmented, real-world setting and then become completely engrossed in an inter-
active and wholly virtual setting (Yuen et al. 2011).
Digital native students are attracted to the 3D appearance and interactive
activities that AR brings to the educational activities (Yuen et al. 2011). When these
3D appearances and interactive activities are melded with literacy, as in the AR
book, The Future is Wild: The Living Book, developed by Meatio in Germany
and launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2011, it demonstrates the potential for
readers to develop deeper connections in the book (Yuen et al. 2011).

6.5.3 Book Applications

There are various AR books available to the public. The MagicBook is an AR book
that Lee (2012) described as an enhanced version of a traditional pop-up book.
This AR interface system permits AR content to be produced for a traditional book
and then brings the story to life with animated and interactive models drawn from
the text or illustrations already in the book. Young children can imagine themselves
as active participants in a story as the MagicBook brings this dream to fruition using
a traditional book as the main interface object. These books remain traditional in
every way; turning pages, observing the illustrations, and reading the text without
the requirement of any additional technological device. However, with the use of a
handheld AR display, readers will now see 3D virtual models projecting from the
pages.
ZooBurst is another system which allows students to design their own 3D
pop-up books. Storytellers choose one of the books on the Website and then simply
hold the ZooBurst marker in front of their Webcam. The on-screen book is entirely
interactive and customizable; from arranging characters and props to uploading
personalized artwork, to changing the page, clicking on characters to see the dia-
logue, or tipping the pages in different directions to see it from different angles,
audio les can even be recorded. Another AR pop-up book is the Digilog Books
and when students wear the appropriate eye wear, 3D characters launch from the
pages. AR books can be used at the elementary school level to supplement
instruction on subjects such as geology; demonstrating the earths layers, their
relationships, differences, and roles (Yuen et al. 2011).
AR books will change the way stories are experienced; commanding increased
awareness from the storyteller on an array of concerns, such as the books structure,
value, and immersiveness and The potential of AR books to appeal to many types
of learners, through many paths, is undeniable and exciting for educators (Yuen
et al. 2011, p. 128). These AR interfaced books can change the way students and
teachers view and use traditional textbooks. Textbooks no longer need to be
stagnant wells of information (Billinghurst 2002). AR can transform the printed
104 S.H. Kidd and H. Crompton

page into an avenue with the capacity to transfer students into animated, interactive
virtual environments.

6.6 Teaching with Augmented Reality

AR for educational purposes has a foundation in constructivism and situated

learning theories (Wasko 2013). Collaborative assignments can be improved
through the use of AR (Kesim and Ozarslan 2012). AR can be used to position
students outside of the classroom in authentic situations and the capacity to offer
learners opportunities to test potential solutions to situations or problems and to
explore the outcomes for acceptability (Wasko 2013). The ability to experience
these types of issues is not available in our current environment, but through AR we
will be able to understand our current environment better (Wasko 2013).

6.6.1 Student-Centered Learning

Todays learners are encouraged to be active, reflective thinkers in the learning

process. This cultural and societal pedagogical shift from passive learners to active
participants has been driven by reactions to behaviorism, minority rights movements,
wider access to education, linguistic pragmatism, and increased internationalism
(Gremmo and Riley 1995). With the diachronic pedagogical advancements towards
student-centered learning, a concomitant progression can be found in technological
affordances manipulated to support those learning philosophies (Crompton 2013).
From the discovery learning of the 1970s, to the socio-constructivist learning
approach of the 1990s, educators have been working towards designing curriculum
and utilizing technologies to enable students to connect with the material and
understand the concepts being taught.
With the introduction of AR, educators have been provided with a way to push
the boundaries of traditional pedagogies. Components of constructivism are clear
within the design of AR learning environments as students are given the oppor-
tunity to connect educational concepts to form their own understandings (Wasko
2013). Students can investigate the world around them, learn through their suc-
cesses and mistakes, and nd multiple outcomes. The problem-based style of many
of the educational settings, along with the goal of reducing the margins between
learning and doing, are evidence of the sway the situated learning theory has within
AR learning environments (Wasko 2013). Another key element of this instructional
approach is that students experience the augmented version of the reality in the real
world, not as an avatar in a virtual world in their computer (Wasko 2013).
Barab and Duffy (2000) posit that once students enter the AR world or practice
elds, teachers objectives transition from conceptual learning to an authentic
educational experience that is very likely to require the use of learned skills or
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality 105

ideas. Students have the opportunity to experience and train for situations or
problems without the added risk of injury or mishap, such as natural disasters,
hazardous material concerns, or any other task which may be logistically or
physically too dangerous to perform in the real world (Wasko 2013).

6.6.2 Designing for Learning

Kirkley and Kirkley (2005) stated that with advances in computer technologies
and networked learning, we have exciting opportunities to design learning envi-
ronments that are realistic, authentic, engaging and extremely fun (p. 20).
Additionally, with the improvements in required hardware and software, an
increased number of students and instructors have the capacity to develop and
utilize AR enhanced instructional environments (Wasko 2013). Teachers can now
create interactive environments to enhance their lesson plans on everything from
specic historical landmarks or locations, specic time periods, or environmental or
weather situations like volcanoes or hurricanes which would be exceptionally
dangerous to explore rst-hand.
Cuendet et al. (2013) report of three things that must be remembered when
designing AR learning activities. The rst is that the AR system must be flexible
enough so that teachers can make necessary adaptations to meet the needs of their
students. Second, AR lessons should be the same content size and length as tra-
ditional lessons and from the same curriculum. Third, the system must take into
consideration the limits of the context.

6.7 The Future of Augmented Reality in Education

While AR technology is not new, its use in education is still in its infancy. In order
to determine how to best utilize this technology in the school environment, edu-
cators must continue to work with researchers within the eld (Billinghurst 2002).
Current research suggests that AR technology has potential as a practical extension
to textbooks and exercise workbooks, allowing for hands-on experiences to facil-
itate the lessons (Pasarti et al. 2011). AR is becoming more commonplace in
todays society. The accessibility and affordability of mobile devices and other
hardware with the capability to process and display information at rapid speeds has
made the potential use of AR possible (Yuen et al. 2011). However, as the tools
facilitating AR continue to evolve, so must the research and development of edu-
cational AR applications.
Experts reported in the 2015 Horizon Report K-12 Edition that AR as a visu-
alization tool is an important technological development and a way of teaching
complex thinking (Johnson et al. 2015). However, additional scaffolding and
support would be required to assist educators in developing a suitable instructional
106 S.H. Kidd and H. Crompton

framework, identifying possible answers to their issues, and decoding the clues
provided by the technological devices and embedded in the real-world environment
(Wu et al. 2013). It will become necessary to nd instructional designers who can
create the learning activities for AR systems in the future (Kesim and Ozarslan
2012).

6.8 Recommendations

As educators consider implementing AR in their educational activities, the fol-

lowing recommendations can help get the most out of the experience.
Provide multiple opportunities for students to collaborate and share their AR
experiences.
Provide opportunities such as eld trips to optimize ARs inherent mobile
capabilities.
Utilize AR as an additional learning platform in conjunction with other visual,
auditory, and tactile opportunities.
Connect AR experiences to educational standards.
Think outside the box, rather than try to t AR to a traditional approach.

6.9 Conclusion

AR offers extensive opportunities for educators to create authentic, engaging, and

customizable learning experiences for their students (Yuen et al. 2011). The unique
affordances of AR have pushed the boundaries of traditional pedagogies to enable
educators to provide rich, student-centered, learning experiences. AR technology
has the potential to be a powerful remediation and special education tool because of
its inherent mobile capabilities. Future researchers may consider how AR programs
could be used to help students who struggle with dyslexia or other reading dis-
abilities to read clearly. Perhaps AR programs could be individually designed as a
corrective layer for each students particular reading disability. As AR technologies
evolve future researchers could discover new affordances to learning using AR.
This chapter offers researchers, educators, and policy makers insight into the
educational opportunities for AR in K-12 learning. In addition, a set of recom-
mendations are provided to those who seek to employ these methods to enhance
learning opportunities. From one of the early AR devices developed by Ian
Sutherland in 1968, AR developers have made great leaps in technological
advancements. However, AR is only still emerging with many researchers, prac-
titioners, and policymakers eagerly waiting to see what AR learning opportunities
will be provided in future years.
6 Augmented Learning with Augmented Reality 107

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Author Biographies

Susan Herrington Kidd is an Elementary Education graduate student at Old Dominion

University, Virginia. She gained her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Arizona State
University. Kidds study and research interests include the utilization of technology to assist
students on the autism spectrum and the effective utilization of technology throughout K-12
education. Kidd exploits the affordances of technologies as she works as a substitute teacher for
Chesapeake Public Schools Virginia. This teaching experience has provided Kidd with
opportunities to work with diverse groups of students to better understand how technology can
be used to support all learners.

Helen Crompton (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology at Old Dominion

University, Virginia. Professor Crompton is a keen researcher and educator in the eld of
instructional technology. She gained her Ph.D. in educational technology and mathematics
education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is focused on mobile
learning and the effective integration of technology into K-12 education. Dr. Crompton works as a
consultant for two United Nations Agencies (United Nations, Educational, Scientic, and Cultural
Organization: UNESCO and International Telecommunication Union: ITU) to research, author and
edit publications summarizing research on mobile learning. Dr. Crompton is also a faculty member
for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), teaching the ISTE Standards
academy, consulting, and recently designing ISTEs self paced Mobile Learning Academy and
Verizons Mobile Learning Academy.
 Part II
Mobile Learning Adoption and Student
Perception
Chapter 7
Mobile Technology and Interactive
Lectures: The Key Adoption Factors

Vimala Balakrishnan and Chin Lay Gan

Abstract Lecture classes are fundamental and essential for teaching and learning
in higher education. The objective of this study is to investigate adoption factors for
promoting interactive lectures in higher education from reviews of technology
acceptance models, motivational factors, and cultural dimension theory. The study
aims to elicit key factors influencing mobile technology adoption in the classrooms
as an interaction tool, focusing on the notion of communication barriers caused by
classes with large number of students. Survey involving higher education students
enrolled in academic courses in Malaysia was conducted with a sample size of 396.
Factor analysis produced three key factors: User system perception (USP), system
and information quality (SIQ) and user uncertainty avoidance (UUA). Results of
regression analysis revealed UUA as the strongest signicant predictor of adoption
(beta = 0.225, p < 0.001), and a high proportion of UUA was strongly explained
by USP (r = 0.513) and SIQ (r = 0.537). This study underscores the need for
researchers to further explore blended learning pedagogies using mobile
technology.

7.1 Introduction

Despite huge advancement in mobile technology sophistication and its role in the
elds of e-learning and mobile learning, lecture classes are still fundamentally
important in higher education institutions. Face-to-face lecture classes where stu-
dents congregate at scheduled venues to listen and participate in learning activities
provide a myriad of learning opportunities for the students. The ability to engage in

V. Balakrishnan (&)
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-mail: vimala.balakrishnan@um.edu.my
C.L. Gan
Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia
e-mail: gchinlay@gmail.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 111

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_7
112 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

real-life discourses with their peers and lecturers are invaluable. Effective pedagogy
principles emphasize the importance of prompt feedback to students enquiries,
active participation and conducting collaborative activities in the classroom (Reeves
2006; Chickering and Gamson 1987). However, lecture classes with large number
of students conducted in huge theatre halls are problematic for a number of reasons.
Lack of opportunities for the students to ask questions or for lecturers to encourage
feedback and to engage in discussions with their students due to time constraint is
chief barriers (Dobson-Mitchell 2011; Tesch et al. 2011). In addition, students
personality traits such as shyness or introversion, and low language prociency
compound the problem further (Gan and Balakrishnan 2014; Stowell et al. 2010).
Incorporating effective use of the right technology in the classrooms can be the
solution to reduce some of the barriers preventing interactions in large lecture
classes. Students and lecturers alike are already using mobile technology for
numerous academic activities, for instance downloading learning resources on the
Internet, accessing their institutions learning management system to download
learning materials, to read the latest announcements and to open materials down-
loaded using tablets or laptops during lectures are common occurrences observed
among higher education students (Balakrishnan and Gan 2013). Technology-
enabled lecture halls that promote interactions and real-time feedback in
problem-solving scenarios suggest that benets gained outweighed possible tech-
nology distractions (Donovan and Loch 2013). Venema and Lodge (2013) study on
the use of digital ink technology to promote interactions in large lecture classes
produced promising results. Similarly, using instructional tools in the classroom
with the aim of promoting active learning resulted in increased students satisfac-
tion in aiding their participation during lectures, although such tools do not increase
their motivation level to study (Oigara and Keengwe 2013).
Similar ndings were reported by Chen and Lan (2013)s study on the use of a
personal response system in large lecture classes where the perceived benets of
incorporating technology in the classrooms to improve students learning experi-
ences were inconclusive. Other drawbacks observed were technology-induced
disruptions during lecture classes, the temptation among students to engage in
personal conversations using their mobile messaging applications, or discretely
playing online computer games (Scornavacca et al. 2009).
Therefore, using mobile technology in the classrooms bring has its benets as
well as disadvantages. Concerns of possible disruptions are serious and warrant
in-depth investigation towards drafting an implementation guideline for responsible
use of mobile technology in the classroom. Maturity among the students is
important to ensure students readiness for responsible use of such technology in
the classroom. Alzaza and Yaakub (2011), and Mahat et al. (2012) investigated
Malaysian higher education students readiness to use mobile technology, and
results suggested that students possessed sufcient knowledge and maturity to use
such technology responsibly. The ndings point to a growing awareness towards
use of mobile technology inside the classroom to facilitate students and lecturers
interactions in order to overcome communication barriers of large lecture classes
which are oftentimes unavoidable. Consequently, the present study aims to develop
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 113

and evaluate a conceptual framework for acceptance of mobile technology for

promoting interactive lectures by subjecting key determinant factors of adoption
intention elicited for statistical analysis.

7.2 Background Study and Hypotheses Development

This section presents the main theories from literature of past research studies on
technology acceptances, motivational theories, and cultural dimension theory. The
focus of the discussion is mainly on computing technology and information system
adoption studies across a wide range of domains.

7.2.1 Technology Acceptance Model (TAM, TAM2, TAM3)

The well-known technology acceptance model (TAM) hypothesized that perceived

usefulness and perceived ease of use impact user attitude and behavioural intention
toward subsequent acceptance of information system (Davis 1989). Perceived
usefulness is the degree in which one believes that using an information system will
improve productivity, whereas perceived ease of use is the degree in which one
believes using an information system will require minimal effort (Davis 1989).
A eld study (two existing systems with a sample size of 112 employees from IBM)
and a laboratory study (two new IBM PC-based graphics system with a participant
size of 40) to test the reliability and validity of perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness were conducted by Davis (1989). The study validated perceived ease of
use and perceived usefulness as strong predictors of system acceptance. TAM was
subsequently adopted and replicated in areas of email, voice mail, word perfect,
Lotus 123 and Harvard graphics system (Adams et al. 1992), database and
spreadsheet applications (Hendrickson et al. 1993), and voice mail and dial-up
system (Subramanian 1994).
TAM was later extended to TAM2, and included subjective norm, image, job
relevance, output quality, result demonstrability, experience and voluntariness
(Venkatesh and Davis 2000). TAM2 was found to be appropriate for predicting
acceptance in both voluntary and mandatory technology usage environment
(Venkatesh and Davis 2000). Venkatesh and Bala (2008) introduced TAM3 that
integrated TAM2 (Venkatesh and Davis 2000) and the extended TAM2 version of
Venkatesh (2000). The authors postulated that TAM3 does not have the cross-over
effects by suggesting that determinants of perceived ease of use and perceived
usefulness will have no influence on one another. TAM3 retained the determinants
of perceived ease of use and incorporated subjective norm, image, job relevance,
output quality and result demonstrability as determinants of perceived usefulness.
Recent studies proved that ease of use and usefulness are pivotal predictors of
technology acceptances. Calisir et al. (2014) study on web-based learning system
114 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

acceptance among college students revealed usefulness to be the strongest deter-

minant of behavioural intention, which was strongly influenced by information and
system quality, and ease of use. Similar study on e-learning technology validated
the importance of ease of use and usefulness as important determinants (Tarhini
et al. 2014; Lin and Wang 2012; umak et al. 2011). Ease of use and usefulness are
also vital as mediating factors, such as in the study of blended learning approaches
where usefulness strongly predicted attitude among the male respondents
(Padilla-Melndez et al. 2013). In another study by Huang et al. (2014), ease of use
and usefulness strongly influenced attitude towards behavioural intention to use a
disaster prevention education system.
Therefore, it is hypothesized that user acceptance of mobile wireless technology
(MWT) for promoting interactive lectures will be determined by ease of use and
usefulness. The conceptual framework proposed is presented in Fig. 7.1.

7.2.2 Intrinsic Motivator Theory

Social cognitive theory (SCT) is based on cognitive mechanisms that mediate

changes in events. According to the theory, people are neither driven by inner
forces nor driven by external motivations. They are, however, explained by a model

Fig. 7.1 Proposed conceptual

framework Ease of use H1

Usefulness H2

Enjoyment
H3
Self-efficacy H4 MWT adoption
intention
H5

Information
Quality

System H6
Quality

Uncertainty H7
avoidance
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 115

where a persons cognitive, behaviour, personal factors and environmental factors

act as determinants of each other. SCT was proposed as an attempt to explain
human behaviour by placing importance on the intrinsic factor of self-efcacy as a
direct determinant of a persons behaviour (Bandura 1977, 2001). In the context of
information system, a strong relationship between self-efcacy and system use was
found in a survey among Canadian managers and professionals (Compeau and
Higgins 1995). Self-efcacy was further tested in another study by Compeau et al.
(1999), and their results further validated self-efcacy as a key determinant of
computer acceptance. Self-efcacy was also deemed an important factor in a study
among older people or people with disabilities when using everyday technologies
(Laver et al. 2012). Self-efcacy also emerged as signicant predictor of usefulness
and behavioural intention in studying user behavioural intention to use Youtube
(Lee and Lehto 2013).
Another form of intrinsic motivator is enjoyment in performing a set of task,
without any need for external positive rewards or reinforcements (Scott et al. 1988).
Enjoyment and usefulness were revealed as strong determinant variables of inten-
tion to use mobile social network games (Park et al. 2014). A recent study on
e-commerce identies enjoyment and self-efcacy as signicant mediator variables
influencing perceived value towards consumer purchase intention for online content
services (Wang et al. 2013). The present study incorporates the constructs of
self-efcacy and enjoyment into the proposed conceptual framework to examine its
influence on mobile technology adoption for interactive lectures.

7.2.3 Delone and McLean Information System Success

Model

Various studies have acknowledged the importance of system and information

quality factors, and one of the model advocating both system and information
quality as predictors of system acceptances is Delone and McLean (D&M)
Information System (IS) success model. In the D&M IS success model, the
determinants that lead to intention to use and user satisfaction are information
quality, system quality, service quality, user satisfaction, and intention to use as
distinct factors but related dimensions of information system success (DeLone and
McLean 2003). Study by Lin and Wang (2012) that integrated D&M IS success
model with TAM reported information quality and usefulness as strong determi-
nants of e-learning. Both service and the content quality were found to be signif-
icant contributors in a study of an e-government website (Tan et al. 2013).
Information quality was also proved to be vital towards influencing use of an
online community municipal portal (Detlor et al. 2013). Information and system
quality were found to directly affect perceived user benets and satisfaction, which
in turn determined user continuance intention to consume and to provide infor-
mation in an information-exchange virtual community (Zheng et al. 2013). It is
116 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

therefore hypothesized that user acceptance of mobile technology for promoting

interactive lectures will be predicted by the quality of information and quality of the
mobile application functionalities.

7.2.4 Uncertainty Avoidance

One of the cultural national dimensions which is of particular interest in the study of
technology acceptance model is uncertainty avoidance. Uncertainty avoidance is
characterized as the absence of predictability, composition, and information.
Hofstede et al. (2010) dened uncertainty avoidance as the degree in which people
feel uncomfortable with the presence of uncertainties or doubts. The effect of
cultural influences such as uncertainty avoidance is gaining traction as a key
determinant of information system adoption in recent years. According to Ayoun
and Moreo (2008), people with high level of uncertainties have a higher stress level
in dealing with the future than those with lower level of uncertainties. Lee et al.
(2007) researched how people from various countries differ in uncertainty avoid-
ance and product uncertainty. Their ndings revealed a signicant relationship
between product uncertainty and cultural uncertainty avoidance.
Lin (2014) study revealed cultural differences influenced physicians perception
towards knowledge management system acceptance in healthcare organizations.
Differences in cultural background between Korean students and U.S. students
revealed Korean students to be more apprehensive towards new Web 2.0 tech-
nologies compared to their counterparts in the U.S. despite similar personal char-
acteristics (Yoo and Huang 2011). Similar results were also found in a study of
e-commerce adoption where respondents from different nationalities revealed cul-
tural influences to be signicant predictors (Ashraf et al. 2014). Cultural factors
were also signicant in the area of mobile health applications (Mohamed et al.
2011). Lastly, negative correlations were revealed between uncertainty avoidance
and cell phone and Internet subscription study by Matusitz and Musambira (2013).
Therefore, it is expected that the presence of uncertainty avoidance will influence
adoption intention in the present study.

7.3 Research Methods

The survey comprised of two main sectionsthe demographics section, followed

by ve item statements for each of the constructs identied (usefulness, ease of use,
self-efcacy, enjoyment, uncertainty avoidance, system quality, information qual-
ity, adoption intention). Respondents can rate their level of agreement for each item
statement using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree, 3 = Neutral, and
5 = Strongly agree). The study survey instrument was subjected to pilot testing
involving ten selecting students. All students completed the survey within 10 min,
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 117

Table 7.1 Respondents Frequency (%)

gender and education
background Gender Male 198 (50.0 %)
Female 198 (50.0 %)
Education Foundation 44 (11.1 %)
Diploma 70 (17.7 %)
Bachelor/Undergraduate 258 (65.2 %)
Master/Ph.D./Postgraduate 24 (6.1 %)

and feedback was gathered to redene ambiguous statements. Respondents were

recruited via email invitations sent to students of higher learning institutions in
Malaysia, and data were collected from April till November 2014. Students were
invited to ll up an online survey hosted by Google drive. Data from the online
survey was transferred into IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software and organized for
statistical analysis.
A total of 396 Malaysian students of higher education participated in the online
survey. Average age of respondents was 21 years old. Majority of the respondents
were undergraduates (N = 258, 65.2 %). None of the respondents are using mobile
technology to interact with their lecturers during lectures. Majority of the respon-
dents are using their mobile devices for learning purposes (N = 335, 84.6 %).
Table 7.1 tabulates the gender and education background of the respondents.

7.4 Results

7.4.1 Principal Component Analysis

Constructs identied from reviews of acceptance models, motivational and cultural

theories for examining adoption of mobile wireless technology (MWT) for inter-
active lectures, i.e. usefulness (U), ease of use (EU), self-efcacy (SE), enjoyment
(E), uncertainty avoidance (UA), system quality (SQ) and information quality
(IQ) with ve research items each were subjected to principal component analysis
(PCA). Examination of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of many
coefcients of 0.3 and above (with the exception of research item SE2 and research
item SQ2). Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value was 0.964, indicating sample size adequacy
and exceeding the recommended value of 0.6. Bartletts test of sphericity reached
statistical signicance, supporting the factorability of the correlation matrix
(x2 = 12979.32, df = 561, p < 0.001).
Principal components analysis (PCA) revealed the presence of four factors with
eigenvalues exceeding 1, explaining 54.2, 7.2, 4.1 and 2.9 % of the variance,
respectively. Examination of the scree plot revealed an uncertain break after the
third factor. Parallel analysis was then conducted and results revealed two factors
with eigenvalues clearly exceeding and the third factor just slightly exceeding a
118 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

randomly generated data matrix (35 variables and 396 respondents). Therefore,
three factors were then retained for further analysis and results explained a total of
67.07 % of the variance, with factor 1 contributing 55.52 %, factor 2 contributing
7.38 %, and factor 3 contributing 4.17 %.
Oblimin rotation was performed to aid the interpretation and solution revealed
the presence of simple structure with all research items loading substantially on
only one factor. The factors are named user system perception (USP), system and
information quality (SIQ) and user uncertainty avoidance (UUA). Solution revealed
strong loadings for USP from usefulness (U), ease of use (EU), self-efcacy
(SE) and enjoyment (E), suggesting that user perception towards system usefulness,
ease of use and their intrinsic motivations (enjoyment and self-efcacy) are tightly
interrelated. Only one research item from self-efcacy (SE) was removed for further
empirical testing (loading < 0.4). Pattern and structure coefcients for the three
factors are presented in Table 7.2.
According to Pavot et al. (1991), the survey instrument scale has good internal
consistency, and results are presented in Table 7.3.
The proposed conceptual framework was then updated. Figure 7.2 illustrate the
updated framework. The resulting hypotheses to determine adoption intention of
mobile technology for promoting interactive lectures are:
H1: User system perception positively influences MWT adoption intention.
H2: System and information quality positively influences MWT adoption intention.
H3: User uncertainty avoidance negatively influences MWT adoption intention

7.4.2 Pearson Product-Moment Correlation

The relationship between user system perception (as measured by USP) and
adoption intention was investigated using Pearson product-moment correlation
coefcient. There was a small, positive correlation between the two factors,
r = 0.151, n = 396, p < 0.005. The relationship between system and information
quality (as measured by SIQ) and MWT adoption intention echoed similar results,
with r = 0.171, n = 396, p < 0.005, suggesting small positive correlation. User
uncertainty avoidance (as measured by UUA) revealed moderate negative corre-
lation with MWT adoption intention (r = 0.254, n = 396, p < 0.005), with high
levels of uncertainty avoidance being associated with lower levels of MWT
adoption intention. Correlations of the factors are shown in Table 7.4.
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 119

Table 7.2 Pattern and Structure Matrix for PCA with Oblimin Rotation of three-factor solution of
research items
Item Pattern coefcients Structure coefcients Communalities
USP SIQ UUA USP SIQ UUA
U1 0.866 0.007 0.090 0.815 0.465 0.350 0.671
U2 0.864 0.001 0.018 0.854 0.509 0.425 0.730
U3 0.672 0.149 0.211 0.690 0.368 0.476 0.509
U4 0.792 0.080 0.025 0.827 0.543 0.424 0.688
U5 0.866 0.106 0.056 0.831 0.445 0.443 0.698
EOU1 0.881 0.009 0.046 0.863 0.514 0.411 0.747
EOU2 0.862 0.052 0.014 0.837 0.473 0.428 0.703
EOU3 0.927 0.014 0.102 0.882 0.516 0.380 0.786
EOU4 0.697 0.070 0.005 0.742 0.492 0.401 0.554
EOU5 0.858 0.111 0.052 0.898 0.599 0.448 0.814
SE1 0.748 0.174 0.062 0.821 0.591 0.416 0.692
SE3 0.779 0.150 0.015 0.861 0.610 0.464 0.755
SE4 0.583 0.086 0.156 0.714 0.520 0.500 0.538
SE5 0.703 0.232 0.004 0.840 0.652 0.481 0.740
E1 0.770 0.025 0.064 0.818 0.522 0.472 0.673
E2 0.685 0.061 0.164 0.806 0.561 0.548 0.676
E3 0.484 0.033 0.328 0.632 0.434 0.558 0.474
E4 0.715 0.006 0.190 0.809 0.526 0.554 0.681
E5 0.787 0.059 0.078 0.862 0.574 0.513 0.752
UA1 0.287 0.176 0.426 0.612 0.578 0.668 0.562
UA2 0.011 0.090 0.711 0.430 0.478 0.765 0.591
UA3 0.084 0.056 0.903 0.413 0.491 0.890 0.797
UA4 0.088 0.063 0.805 0.539 0.548 0.884 0.793
UA5 0.173 0.124 0.689 0.601 0.599 0.845 0.760
SQ1 0.076 0.714 0.044 0.376 0.692 0.389 0.483
SQ2 0.210 0.808 0.100 0.327 0.736 0.427 0.569
SQ3 0.027 0.713 0.137 0.526 0.803 0.534 0.660
SQ4 0.287 0.540 0.076 0.651 0.754 0.513 0.633
SQ5 0.347 0.510 0.019 0.663 0.728 0.470 0.610
IQ1 0.118 0.681 0.062 0.560 0.785 0.488 0.631
IQ2 0.245 0.669 0.007 0.651 0.821 0.492 0.712
IQ3 0.083 0.755 0.023 0.549 0.818 0.472 0.674
IQ4 0.199 0.739 0.013 0.650 0.866 0.512 0.776
IQ5 0.337 0.601 0.052 0.671 0.775 0.443 0.669
120 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

Table 7.3 Reliability analysis of each factor

Factors Number of Cronbachs Mean Standard
items Alpha Dev.
1. User system perception 19 0.97 4.05 0.93
2. User uncertainty 5 0.89 3.56 0.99
avoidance
3. System and information 10 0.93 3.73 0.88
quality

Fig. 7.2 Updated conceptual

framework User system
perception
H1

System and MWT adoption

H2
information intention
quality
H3

User
uncertainty
avoidance

Table 7.4 Correlations of the Variable 2 3 4

variables (N = 396)
1. MWT adoption intention 0.151 0.171 0.254
2. User system perception 0.601 0.513
3. System and information quality 0.537
4. User uncertainty avoidance
Note All correlations were statistically signicant (p < 0.005)

7.4.3 Standard Multiple Regression

Standard multiple regression was used to assess the ability of USP, SIQ and UUA
to predict levels of MWT adoption intention. The prediction model was statistically
signicant, F(3, 392) = 9.240, p < 0.001. However, the variables accounted for
approximately only 7 % of the variance of MWT adoption intention (R2 = 0.066,
Adjusted R2 = 0.059). MWT adoption intention was primarily predicted by user
uncertainty avoidance recording the highest beta value (beta = 0.225, p < 0.001).
User uncertainty avoidance accounts uniquely for about 3 % of the variance of
MWT adoption intention. Standardized regressions coefcients of the predictors
and their squared semi-partial correlations are shown in Table 7.5.
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 121

Table 7.5 Standard Model Beta sr2

regression results
User system perception 0.009 0.00005
System and information quality 0.045 0.00116
User uncertainty avoidance* 0.225 0.03312
Note Dependent variable was MWT adoption intention, sr2
squared semi-partial correlation, *p < 0.005

7.5 Discussions

The objective of this study is to determine crucial determinants of mobile tech-

nology adoption during lecture classes to promote interactivity between students
and lecturers of higher learning institutions. Review of literatures proved the
importance of the usefulness and ease of use factors (widely replicated and vali-
dated across technology acceptances studies) from Technology Acceptance Model;
intrinsic motivators conceptualized as enjoyment from motivational model and
self-efcacy from SCT; system quality and information quality from Delone and
McLean Information System success model; and uncertainty avoidance from
Hofstedes national culture dimensions. An online survey was distributed to
Malaysian higher education students to elicit perceptions of mobile technology
adoption during lecture classes to promote interactivity.
Results from principal component analysis produced three main factors (inde-
pendent variables). Good system quality features, for instance fast response speed
and clean, pleasing interface design are of utmost importance. Distinction between
system quality and information quality are presented in the proposed acceptance
framework, as information quality represents the quality of the data output pro-
duced by the system. Studies have included system quality and information quality
constructs (Wixom and Todd 2005). Predictably, both system quality and infor-
mation quality survey items loaded together, and the factor was named System and
Information Quality (SIQ). This can be attributed to the fact that the focus of the
study is on harnessing the use of an appropriate mobile messaging application to
increase interactions between lecturers and students in the classroom. With mass
and widespread downloads and use of mobile applications, distinction between
system quality and information quality may not be as pivotal as it may be for more
complex information system, such as decision support systems or knowledge
management systems used by organizations. Therefore, there may exist an expec-
tation among the younger generation for system quality and information quality to
go hand in hand. Uncertainty avoidance items loaded together and its name retained
as a factor.
Interestingly, survey items from usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment and
self-efcacy loaded together. This is in contrast to many past and current tech-
nology acceptances study in the area of information system adoptions, and is
suggestive of the lessening distinction of ease of use, usefulness, and intrinsic
motivators of self-efcacy and enjoyment as determinants of mobile technology
122 V. Balakrishnan and C.L. Gan

such as a messaging application. The vast majority of the studys respondents

(84.6 %) are already using mobile devices in their learning activities afrms the
convenience and practicality of mobile devices among the students. Park et al.
(2012) study among Korean universities students revealed attitude, which
encompasses their beliefs or perceptions towards mobile learning, as the most
important factor for successful implementation. Similar ndings were reported by
Shroff et al. (2011) in their study examining students behavioural intention to use
an e-portfolio system. Perceptions towards new technology may be representative
of the existing condence towards a systems expected usefulness, ease of use and
enjoyment. Therefore, the resulting factor is named as user system perception
(USP).
The study hypothesizes that USP and SIQ positively influences MWT adoption
intention. Results from correlation and regression analysis do not support these
hypotheses. This disputes previous ndings by Chong et al. (2011) on mobile
learning adoption in Malaysia where quality of system functionality were revealed
to be signicant, and ndings by Pay and Huang (2011) and Calisiri et al. (2014)
where system service and content, usefulness, and ease of use positively influences
adoption intention. However, Wang and Wang (2009) study on user acceptance of
web-based learning challenges the signicance of ease of use, and ndings con-
cedes weak role of ease of use as a predictor. Evidence was also found of the weak
signicance of ease of use towards predicting re-purchase intention (Jang and Noh
2011). Lee and Lehto (2013) study to determine the intention to use YouTube for
learning among students afrms the weak role of the ease of use as a predictor.
However, user uncertainty avoidance is revealed to be conclusive, supporting the
hypotheses that UUA negatively influences MWT adoption intention, thereby
providing a vital insight into the role of cultural and social influence towards the
study of technology acceptance, as evidence by the ndings by previous studies
(Ashraf et al. 2014; Matusitz and Musambira 2013; Lin 2014; Yoo and Huang
2011). Strong correlations were revealed between USP and SIQ towards UUA,
suggesting that UUA is intricately influenced by USP and SIQ even though USP
and SIQ do not directly influence MWT adoption.

7.6 Conclusion and Future Works

Lecture classes with large number of students suffer from low level of participation
and interaction among students and lecturers. Contributing factors are the layout
design of lecture halls, i.e. vast hall size and close seating arrangements (Geske
1992), students individual traits and background, i.e. shyness (Stowell et al. 2010),
language barriers (Krause 2005), cultural background (Beekes 2006; Van Dijk et al.
2001), and time constraints which limit lecturers opportunity to encourage inter-
activity in order to complete the required syllabus (Allen and Tanner 2005). In order
to overcome these barriers preventing interactivity in large lecture classes, it is vital
to exploit the numerous functionalities and advantages that MWT have to offer.
7 Mobile Technology and Interactive Lectures 123

Widespread use of mobile applications on increasingly sophisticated mobile

devices is fundamental across all walks of life. The effect across the higher edu-
cation landscape is enormous. The purpose of proposing a technology acceptance
framework for interactive lectures via MWT is to explore, understand and predict
factors that influence students and lecturers acceptance and use of MWT during
large lecture classes in order to increase the level of interactivity and participation of
the students with their lecturers.
Existing validated factors such as ease of use, usefulness, enjoyment and
self-efcacy may no longer be distinct entities, particularly in the area of mobile
technology and mobile learning and thus warrants further investigations. Factors of
cultural influence, students background, personalities or attitudes are growing in
prominence as antecedents of technology acceptance. Though the regression
analysis revealed user system perception, and system and information quality as
insignicant and non-predictive of MWT adoption for interactive lectures, strong
correlation among user system perception, and system and information quality with
user uncertainty avoidance suggest that user perceptions and quality of the system
functionalities and data output are pivotal in the area of mobile technology
acceptance.
Therefore, further analyses are justied, and reviews of new acceptances
framework or theories pertaining to mobile technology adoption are necessary.
Existing technology models such as TAM may no longer be sufcient in areas of
mobile technology acceptances among the younger generation. Future works will
focus on using advance statistical methods, namely conrmatory path analysis and
structural equation modelling to validate and strengthen the framework model
factors and proposed hypotheses. Common-source bias analysis should also be
conducted in order to address concerns over same-source biases when data are
collected via self-reported online survey. As the respondents were sourced from
large established higher learning institutions located in urban areas with strong
technology infrastructure support, results cannot be generalized as representative of
Malaysias higher education. Sampling of respondents from smaller institutions or
institutions located in rural areas should be included in the future. The ndings from
this study hopes to serve as a catalyst for future researches of mobile technology
acceptances in higher education.

Acknowledgments The authors extend their gratitude to University of Malaya (RP028A-14AET)

and Multimedia University for supporting the study.

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Chapter 8
University Student Conceptions
of M-learning in Bangladesh

Md. Shahadat Hossain Khan, Benadjih Oiriddine Abdou

and Che Kum Clement

Abstract This article presents emerging results from a phenomenographic study

that examines Bangladeshi university students experience of using mobile devices
in their learning. Three students from one renowned university participated in the
semi-structured interviews to explore their experiences of m-learning. The ndings
revealed that university students viewed mobile learning (m-learning) in four
qualitatively different ways that were: (i) storing learning materials; (ii) accessing
information and knowledge; (iii) effective learning tool; and (iv) effective tool for
collaboration. This study is constructed on previous studies of university students
conceptions of learning. However, the focus taken in this research was on the
experience of m-learning, as an emerging research area, which revealed new facets
of university learning. The ndings of this study play a signicant role in the faculty
development program and have an impact on the teaching and learning practices in
university education.

8.1 Introduction

Over the last few decades, most of the developing countries have been trying to
introduce Information Communication Technology (ICT) in their education sector
(Kafyulilo 2014). As such, ICT, in recent years, has gone on to become one of the
most crucial components that determine the basic competence of student learning
(Noor-Ul-Amin 2013; Potyrala 2001). This has been possible because of a number
of reasons. For example, Hammond (2014) claimed that some of the major reasons

Md. S.H. Khan (&)
B.O. Abdou
C.K. Clement

Islamic University of Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
e-mail: skha8285@iut-dhaka.edu; skha8285@uni.sydney.edu.au
B.O. Abdou
e-mail: obenadjih@gmail.com
C.K. Clement
e-mail: ieres2001@yahoo.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 127

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_8
128 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

behind the introduction of ICT in education being promoted in England was

because of the belief that ICT can have an impact on the standards, and provide
more vocational relevance in the curriculum and can be a catalyst for curriculum
reform (p. 192). On the other hand, Hammond, Reynolds and Ingram (2011)
reported that it offers a number of benets such as supporting personalized
pathways; monitoring progress; providing for anytime, anywhere learning;
enabling independent and collaborative learning and developing new modes of
learning (p. 191). All these reasons have led to the successful introduction of ICT
at different levels of education in almost all the countries in the world.
The trend goes well beyond this with the rapid advancement of mobile devices.
This new trend has led to the formulation of mobile learning or simply, m-learning
(Serin 2012). Considering its importance, the current Government of Bangladesh
has already introduced several initiatives to integrate different forms of ICT (mobile
devices for teaching and learning is one of the emerging areas of ICT) in both
higher education and secondary education (Karim 2010). Moreover, the present
Government realized that ICT is the key element to eradicate poverty from the
society, so is taking steps by integrating ICT in education. Due to this, the
Government has introduced a charter for change in the form of a long-term
development strategy called Digital Bangladesh. In order to make this vision a
success, universities have been deemed to be one of the pivotal areas in which
different forms of ICT, for instance mobile learning, could be put to full effect. This
emerging area is predicted to contribute enormously, particularly for producing
technologically rich manpower that could meet industrial requirement. This mass of
future graduates can also work in a technology-integrated environment for the
development of their country. It is important to point out that these benets will
show themselves only when the university students will start using mobile devices
effectively in their everyday learning process. To support this claim, research has
discovered that technology alone cannot lead students to learn (Koehler and Mishra
2005). Therefore, research needs to be conducted on how the students could use
mobile devices effectively in their learning. Considering this emerging demand, the
present study is proposed to investigate the experiences of university students on
applying mobile devices in their learning.

8.2 M-Learning and Related Literature to the Research

Problem

As m-learning is a recent concept in student learning, at rst we attempt to clarify

the term along with its possible benets from previous literature. According to Park,
Nam, and Cha (2012) m-learning can be claimed to be any educational provision
where the sole or dominant technologies are handheld or palmtop devices (p. 592).
These devices can facilitate learning at anytime and anywhere (Ozdamli and
Uzunboylu 2014; Serin 2012). In this study, m-learning is considered as a learning
8 University Student Conceptions of M-learning in Bangladesh 129

platform by using portable (mobile) devices such as cell phones, smartphones,

palmtops, tablets, and portable multimedia players. The use of these devices in
learning has eased the geographical barriers that existed among students as well as
provided a learning environment that is collaborative among different groups of
students (Ozdamli and Cavus 2011).
The advantages in using mobile devices in student learning are quite enormous.
The biggest advantages of using mobile devices are to provide student-oriented
teaching and learning contexts where the learning of the students generally depends
on their active involvement, and where teachers are generally seen as a facilitator.
For instance, Sha, Looi, Chen, Seow and Wong (2012) claimed that the collabo-
rative environment afforded to them by m-learning enables them to learn at their
own pace. It is considered as playing a vital role in simulating critical and logical
thinking from the students. Thus, the use of mobile devices provides myriad ways
of offering student learning opportunities in university-level education.
Considering the huge emerging benets, the popularity of using mobile devices
among students in developed and developing countries has been growing quite
exponentially. This has emerged because of the fact that most of the students have
owned these mobile devices in recent times. At this point, Bangladesh, despite
being a developing country, is following the same notion. It is found that majority
of university students in Bangladesh are in possession of their own mobile phones
or other forms of mobile devices simply due to technology being easily available.
The other reason for taking in mobile devices is to reduce the cost of Internet and to
compare it to that of the last few years. All these aspects bring a huge opportunity to
use mobile devices in Bangladeshi universities.
In addition to that, it is realized that there has been very little research in the
world (including Bangladesh) that explores the students experiences of using
mobile devices in their learning. The majority of the previous research on
m-learning mainly focused on identifying different factors of using mobile devices
in education (Al-Fahad 2009; Park et al. 2012); how mobile devices can facilitate
student learning (Rogers et al. 2010) or the students perceptions on mobile learning
(Hashim et al. 2014; Kafyulilo 2014) that were based on either a mixture of
quantitative and qualitative paradigm or other methodologies including surveys.
However, none was found to have been conducted with the use of phenomenog-
raphy as their theoretical and methodological perspectives. Whereas, a signicant
number of prior research investigated students conceptions of learning by using
phenomenography and subsequent studies showed evidence for contributing
improvement of student learning (Duarte 2007; Eklund-Myrskog 1998; Ellis et al.
2008; Vermunt and Vermetten 2004; Virtanen and Lindblom-Ylnne 2010).
Considering this gap (theoretical and methodological), it is urgent to conduct
research on students experiences of learning through these devices. These expe-
riences will be crucial for formulating instructional strategies (pedagogy) that will
assist the teachers in properly facilitating the teaching and learning practices. In
order to ll up this emerging gap, the main purpose of this study was to identify the
qualitatively different ways of experiencing the role of mobile devices in the
130 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

Bangladesh University students learning practices. In order to achieve this purpose,

the following research question was used to guide the study:
What are the qualitatively different ways in which university students under-
stand the role of mobile devices in their learning practices?

8.3 Methodology

This study was qualitative based and was carried out using qualitative research
methodology. It was conducted using phenomenography as its theoretical and
methodological framework. Phenomenography is a research methodology that is
used to qualitatively differentiate ways in which different people experience,
understand, and conceive a phenomena (Marton 1981). The main purpose of
phenomenography is the description of the various experiences and conceptions
that people have for a specic phenomenon (Khan 2014; Marton and Booth 1997).
Phenomenographically, a conception is considered to be the way in which one is
seeing or understanding something, or in other words, comprehending the exact
meaning of something to a specic individual (Sin 2010). In this context, it can
therefore be said that conceptions are always expected to be different when various
people are involved. Therefore, phenomenography was used in this study to
identify the different ways of students conceptions of m-learning in university
education. The nal outcomes of this research were revealed as the categories of
description.

8.3.1 Sample

Each student who was selected for this study, was considered to have experience of
using any mobile or handheld devices like smartphones, tablets, iPads, and iPod in
their learning for at least 6 months. It was required to have the minimum level of
experience toward the phenomenon and creating variations (getting participants
in-depth awareness) while taking the interviews. However, the degree of experi-
ences among different respondents and the type of handheld devices they use were
not necessarily the same and were tolerated to vary from one respondent to another.
In total, a sample of three students from the University of Bangladesh were
recruited by using purposive sampling technique. The main characteristics of the
students who participated were:
Disciplines: students were selected from two disciplines, one from electrical and
two from computer science.
Institutions: students were invited from an engineering university.
Study level: two from postgraduation and one from undergraduation.
8 University Student Conceptions of M-learning in Bangladesh 131

Experience of m-learning: 24 years.

Language: fluent in English.
Gender: three male students.

8.3.2 Data Collection

In this study, the major tool that was used for collecting data was the phe-
nomenographic interviews (kerlind 2005; Barnard et al. 1999; Bruce et al. 2004;
Harris 2011; Limbu and Markauskaite 2015). In the method of investigating the
students conceptions on m-learning in university education, interviewees were
asked to share their reflections on the role of mobile devices in their learning as well
as how these devices could be useful in their learning. A semi-structured in-depth
interview protocol was used to gather data and each interview lasted for about 40
50 min. Initially, the participants were asked about what aspect, for instance,
what does m-learning mean to you? In order to get a much deeper understanding,
the follow up questions were asked. For example, could you explain this further?

8.3.3 Data Analysis

The interviews were recorded by an audio recorder and each interview was listened
several times (kerlind 2005; Gonzlez 2009; Limbu and Markauskaite 2015). The
audio-recorded data was transcribed verbatim. This process was then followed by
reading the transcripts many times in order to get a deep insight of the various
experiences received from the participants (kerlind 2005; Limbu and
Markauskaite 2015). At this stage, similarities and differences from each transcript
were recognized and later followed the preliminary categories, which was then
checked with transcripts. The nal outcome spaces were conrmed based on back
and forth discussions with the research members. No category was identied
without supporting the quotations from the transcripts.

8.4 Results

The results revealed four different categories of description:

Category A: storing learning materials
Category B: accessing information and knowledge
Category C: effective learning tool
Category D: effective tool for collaboration
132 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

The detailed elaboration of each of those categories is followed by the most

appropriate quotations obtained from the interview transcripts. Some identication
numbers were used at the end of every quotation to help the researchers keep track
of the ones that have been used and to keep the interviewees anonymous in the
study.

8.4.1 Categories of Description

8.4.1.1 Category A: Storing Learning Materials

In Category A, mobile learning is viewed as a way of getting various learning

materials from different sources and storing them in these handheld devices for
further use as required. In this way, students will be able to get their learning
materials from different sources and store them in their mobile and later they can
access them. For instance, if a teacher gives a lecture using PowerPoint presenta-
tions, students can easily download those presentations from the sharing device
(teacher usually uploads that presentation for the students) by using their mobile
devices and save them. In that way, they have wider scope for keeping learning
materials safe. With reference to this argument, some participants stated that:
May be I came in a little bit late, but my friends took notes and I dont have that much time
to copy and write everything, so I just get my phone, take a snap of the notes and then when
I go back to my room Then I just read them direct. [B3]
You will get everything like PDF that you can put in your phone, you can even
download many books in your phone and pictures also. [B2]

Besides in this category, a mobile device is also seen as a recoding tool for future
learning. For example, the participating students mentioned that with their mobile
devices, they can record the lecture live during classes so that the teachers
explanations will be used later during their free time:
You can even make records. You can record the lectures [B2]

8.4.1.2 Category B: Accessing Information and Knowledge

Category B represents the view that mobile devices facilitate the access to infor-
mation and knowledge that are important in their learning. First, this perceived ease
of access to information was expressed in various ways. For example, the use of
free online and offline dictionaries that may have been installed in the phone, as
expressed:
I installed a dictionary application. In case I get a word that I dont understand, I use the
dictionary on my mobile phone then I can know the meaning of that word. [B1]
8 University Student Conceptions of M-learning in Bangladesh 133

Alternatively, participants also discussed that they can get the meaning directly
from the Internet in case they get a terminology that is new or ambiguous for them:
I can access the internet like google search in case I get a terminology that I dont
understand. I can search the internet and use it [B1]

Second, in this category, the mobile device is perceived as a way to access

knowledge. It is seen that students use different search tools such as Google, Google
scholar, and the likes by using their mobile devices to gain related knowledge that
provide them more explanations and clarications about a specic topic on the
Internet.
Then maybe another thing mobile devices, there are a variety and a vast number of apps,
educational apps. So I can just go to google play, search and then I can get a very long
list [B3]

8.4.1.3 Category C: Effective Learning Tool

In this category, learning with the help of mobile devices is perceived as an

effective learning tool. This effectiveness is perceived mainly through criteria such
as time-saving, cost as well as mobility. M-learning allows students to access a vast
variety of information and knowledge within the shortest time possible. It is viewed
that learning is much quicker in m-learning than it could be in the traditional or
other learning methods:
There, I will be wasting time writing everything down. But I just go direct, read, understand
then memorize. So it saves some time while revising. [B3]
If I just take a snap, it will take like a second but if my colleague decides to draw it in
his book, it will take him like 20 min. So in such a way, it saves time to me. [B3]

In this category, m-learning is also perceived to be cost effective. Although it

involves an initial cost to buy a mobile device but in the long run it saves students
money:
Then another thing [is that], it saves money. In which way? For example if a teachers gives
us a slide which has like 56 pages, it means if I print it will be costly. But if I just copy the
slide to my phone, I think in that way, it saves me some TAKA [Bangladeshi Currency].
[B3]

Additionally, this category viewed mobile device as a means of mobility in student

learning. University students in this category perceived m-learning as the learning
that occurs anytime and anywhere that students want. For example, the participants
stated that in most cases, they can move with these devices anywhere they go. It
enables them to access to whatever they want to learn at their convenient time.
It always depends but the major point is that its mobile. The mobility aspect. Its like
wherever I go I have my mobile phone [B3]
Mobile learning, I understand it by using some devices which you hold in your hands
and can have access to it anywhere and anytime for your use in learning. [B1]
134 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

In brief, in this category the use of mobile devices is seen as a time-saving cost
effective and portable devices for enhancing student learning in university.

8.4.1.4 Category D: Effective Tool for Collaboration

In this category, m-learning is viewed as an essential means for collaboration. For

example, phone calls from mobile phone or Skype could be used for direct com-
munication, text message from mobile or email could be used for sending infor-
mation to enhance their learning. Some of the participants mentioned that their
mobile devices enable them to communicate with their teachers, supervisors, col-
leagues as well as senior students in case they are in need of some assistance.
During that time, our teacher was not in the campus. Even he was not in Bangladesh. He
gave us his Skype and I used one time to ask him one question. I practice most of the
problems, I got some difculties. So I sent a message to the teacher through Skype, he
answered me and I got the answered, I practiced and it worked. [B2]
Also having communication with the teacher because I can easily consult the teacher
through the email for more clarication. [B1]

In addition to that, Category D presents another understanding of using mobile

devices in students learning which is direct (synchronous) and indirect (asyn-
chronous) collaboration among student and teacher and/or student and student. In
this point, students are seen to use different social media such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, and WhatsApp for stated collaboration. For instance, university students
in many cases used Facebook for collaborating with their supervisors when they
face any difculties with regards to their projects, theses and so on.
For example in this semester, I have a supervisor for my thesis. So in case I have a query and
he is not around, I just log into Facebook then I ask him via Facebook then he replies. [B3]
Collaboration is also seen while students work in a group. Students generally use their
mobile devices to get in touch with their colleagues (peer groups) to complete their group
works such as assignments, solving problems, group discussion. One of the participant
stated this in his response:
But remember you have to work on the assignment in time. So I may do something,
maybe my part, rst of all maybe we can divide the assignment. So I do my part, maybe go
to Facebook, send him what I have done, when he is at home. When he reads through he
also maybe sends me his. So by the time he comes back to school [B3]

8.5 Discussion and Conclusions

Before discussing the results, we would like to state the limitations of this study. The
participants were recruited from one university in Bangladesh and were small in
number. However, a sample of three is not an unusual practice in phenomenographic
research approach. For example, Forster (2013) interviewed three professionals from
nursing practice about their conceptions of information literacy. Moreover, the
8 University Student Conceptions of M-learning in Bangladesh 135

results depend on the setting or the context of each study; therefore, these results may
not be generalizable for other contexts. However, the aim of phenomenographic
research approach is not to provide generalizable results rather its focus is on a
particular phenomenon that needs to be investigated deeply.
Turning to discussion, the ndings are limited in scope in relation to previous
phenomenographic studies, because students experiences of m-learning are a new
area of investigation. However, the results of this study could be interpreted in a
wider context. The results revealed four qualitatively different ways of seeing
mobile devices in student learning: storing learning materials; accessing informa-
tion and knowledge; effective learning tool; and effective tool for collaboration. The
four categories are placed from lower level to higher level understanding.
Therefore, the four categories are broadly divided into two orientations: fragmented
orientation (Category A and B) in which the mobile devices are considered as a
way to store and access information in student learning. Students do not consider
mobile devices for constructing their knowledge or solving their problem or
engaging collaborative learning. It mainly focuses on students surface level of
learning. In contrast, cohesive orientation (Category C and D), in which the mobile
devices are viewed as a means to develop students understanding, to construct their
own knowledge, and to engage them in collaborative learning. It is mainly involved
with deep level of learning. These ndings are broadly consistent in previous
phenomenographic studies (Biggs and Tang 2011; Eklund-Myrskog 1998; Ellis
et al. 2008; Ellis et al. 2006; Lucas 2001). Generally, these studies reported stu-
dents conceptions of learning in different context and were broadly placed into
deep and surface level of learning. Nevertheless, the results provide emerging
conceptions of m-learning.
As m-learning becomes a growing concern in the teaching and learning practice
of a developing country, the role of using mobile in student learning is becoming a
major focus of research initiatives (Kafyulilo 2014; Rogers et al. 2010). It is sug-
gested then that the ndings of this study could be used to inform these initiatives, as
this study provides a second order experience (the ndings derived from participants
who had experiences of m-learning) of the investigated phenomenon. In recognition
of the signicance of these ndings, this research provides different ways of using
mobile devices in student learning, which is a potential input for improving teaching
practice. For example, it may help teachers to create different teaching approaches
that will match students learning approaches, which will guide university students
to make maximum use of mobile devices in their learning. The emerging results also
contribute the improvement of professional development program. In addition to
that, policy makers and curriculum developers could get empirical evidence about
students experiences so that they can develop a curriculum that will encourage and
promote the use of mobile devices in the university education. Previous research
reported that students conceptions of learning are linked with teachers conceptions
of teaching (Prosser and Trigwell 1999). Therefore, future research is proposed to
investigate Bangladesh University teachers conceptions of m-learning. The main
aim of conducting such future study is to nd out the relationships between students
conceptions of m-learning and teachers conceptions of m-learning. It is important to
136 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

acknowledge that our study reports a preliminary exploration of using mobile

devices in student learning, thereby suggesting a future investigation with a broader
sample from more than one university. It is also suggested to explore its analysis in
different dimensions to understand the investigated phenomenon in a more con-
clusive manner.

Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Bob Fox, Professor, School of Education, UNSW
for his useful suggestions.

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138 Md. S.H. Khan et al.

Author Biographies

Md. Shahadat Hossain Khan completed his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia. He
has been working as an assistant professor of the department of Technical and Vocational
Education (TVE), at the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh, since 2006. He has
a wide experience in ICT-enhanced teaching and learning at national and international levels. He
has wider expertise on TPCK Framework, m-learning in tertiary level, professional development
particularly focus on scholarship in teaching (student-centered teaching, ICT-integration).
Currently he is researching on Open Source Technology (OST) to integrate it into teaching and
learning context in higher education.

Benadjih Oiriddine Abdou has completed Masters of Science in Technical Education (MScTE),
Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been working as a Teaching
assistant of the department of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE), at the Islamic
University of Technology (IUT), Dhaka Bangladesh, since June 2015. He is currently working on
widening his knowledge on phenomenography and m-learning in university education.

Che Kum Clement Ph.D. is Chairman of the Department of Technical and Vocational Education,
Islamic University of Technology (IUT) Board Bazar, Gazipur, Bangladesh, a subsidiary organ of
the Organization of Islamic Cooperation comprising 57 countries. Before joining IUT he has been
working for the Cameroons Ministry of National Education as senior management staff in charge
of Vocational schools management at the Directorate of Secondary Technical and Vocational
Education, Republic of Cameroon. Che Kums research interest is on Curriculum development in
TVE, ICT in teaching-learning, competency based TVE and higher education and social change.
Chapter 9
Mobile Learning, Student Concerns
and Attitudes

Zoran Putnik

Abstract In this paper, examples of the current methods of employment in mobile

learning, both in schools and in independent projects is presented and commented.
After that, statistical data collected in a survey of students is given, concerning
students opinions about the use of mobile services in mLearning, reasons for such
a situation with, and attitudes about the future possible use. This data is accom-
panied with the ideas about the proper method of application of mobile learning not
only in formal environment in schools, but also in an informal environment.
Suggestion of this paper is to develop and organize mLearning as an addition,
enhancement and supplement to both classic classroom and already accepted
classic eLearning, because of ample additional possibilities for use of mobile
technology in any type of education.

9.1 Introduction

Possible changes in learning theories, due to the developments in information and

communication technologies, attract globally increasing interest internationally. An
intention to meet the needs of knowledge-based economy and society, and provide
high-quality living, initiated adjustments of technology-based learningfrom
computer assisted, through computer-based education, then over web-based
learning, nally touching elements of mobile learning.
Reason for this situation is quite obvious. Declaration that Todays exciting
opportunities require innovative thinking, practical know-how and tremendous
depth and breadth of expertise in SRI International (2013), describes in plain
words that the two main drivers for such transformation, which are not a surprise,
are: demand and supply.

Z. Putnik (&)
The University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
e-mail: putnik@dmi.uns.ac.rs

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 139

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_9
140 Z. Putnik

Demand because of rapid obsolescence of knowledge, need for a specic piece

of information and understanding at a specic moment, desire to satisfy learning
needs of distributed employees in a protable way, and enable anytime access to
lifelong learning. Similarly, supply since advances in the digital eld enables
construction of multimedia and interactive learning objects, and since Internet
access, both wireless and mobile, became standard at work and at home, because
technology and educational standards became more able to facilitate production of
reusable and compatible learning resources.
An easy conclusion comes from this. Knowledge-based society has new
requirements which nally could be gratied for both general education, and
on-time and in-place training. We are nally able to create settings for
well-informed and flexible people, erudite ready to be continuously (re)trained and
(re)educated. Not only in order to stay competitive as a workforce, but also for their
personal improvement, fullment and satisfaction. And, as noted in Homan and
Wood (2003), with wireless phones and handheld devices, the relationship
between the device and its owner becomes one-to-one, always on, always there,
location aware and personalizedexactly what we need for just-in-time education.
In addition to thatwhy stop only at education? As said in Traxler (2007), we
have to recognize that mobile, personal, and wireless devices are now radically
transforming societal notions of discourse and knowledge, and are responsible for
new forms of art, employment, language, commerce, deprivation, and crime, as
well as learning.
While most of the current papers discussing points about mobile learning try to
compare it with some other form of learning, or discuss technological issues of it,
this paper has different intention. By showing collected answers to a survey about
current and possible future use of mLearning at the Department of Mathematics and
Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, our idea is to show
the possibilities to use mLearning as an addition to all other forms of teaching and
learning, starting from classic classroom teaching, and going over well established
practice of eLearning at our Department that is in much more detail explained in
Putnik et al. (2014), Zdravkova et al. (2012), and Ivanovi et al. (2010). In a wider
sense, the idea is to let students select time, place and amount of learning, using
technology that comes so naturally to them who are digital nativesmobile
technology.

9.2 State of the Art

Common contemporary learning model includes ideas of learning content man-

agement systems (LCMSs). Reusable learning objects, digital learning activities
and available educational software, all of those are ready, created by subject experts
and instructional designers, with the help of interested learners fascinated to get
involved in this eld, as discussed in Putnik (2014). Created repositories of learning
objects are available to be accessed and searched, to allow users to share and
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 141

retrieve needed learning resources, according to their individual learning objectives.

However, such organization is still rather traditional in its nature. Interested learners
access common repository of learning objects, with the purpose of acquiring body
of knowledge, created so that it can be assessed later. What is missing here are
situation and circumstances, conversation, dialogue and exchange of opinions.
Such or similar claim is repeated in many research papers. For example, in
Homan and Wood (2003) authors say that With increased popular access to
information and knowledge anywhere, anytime, the role of education, perhaps
especially formal education, is challenged and the relationship between education,
society, and technology are now more dynamic than ever. Similarly, in Vavoula
and Karagiannidis (2005) authors claim The emergence of the knowledge society
poses new requirements for education and training: the knowledge-based economy
requires a flexible, very well-trained workforce; and the citizens of the information
society need to be continuously (re)trained in order to remain competitive
There are a lot of denitions of mobile learning, but even the most informal one
will satisfy a point we nd important to make. A large line of authors describe
mobile learning as learning that takes place using mobile and wireless devices, such
as personal digital assistants, tablet computers, or smart mobile phones. Such a
denition makes a distinction between mobile and other forms of eLearning con-
sidering specic type of equipment used. However, in our opinion, mobile learning
should be dened with the emphasis on something else, allowing for mobile
learning from the point of view of learner! Mobility in such a sense enables learning
to take place everywhere and in any situation. For example, doctors can recheck
their medical knowledge while doing the hospital rounds, computer experts can
update their expertise while xing a software bug, person can improve its language
skill while travelling abroad. Of course, as claimed in Motiwalla (2007) among
other papers, after reading and researching into attempts of mLearning usage
we know from these studies that mLearning approach must complement an existing
learning environment, developers must understand limitations of mobile devices
and use them for appropriate learning pedagogies
Generally speaking, the idea is not newserious projects and evaluations of
mobile learning are performed for more than a decade now. What follows are some
of the available results. In an introductory survey course in sociology described in
McConatha and Praul (2007), an opportunity to use mLearning product developed
by HotLava Software was offered. About 40 % of the students selected to use this
product, and access data via their personal devices. Their responses were collected
and analyzed, and their performance was compared to the outcomes of those stu-
dents who chose not to use mLearning tool. The conclusion was that students using
mLearning software demonstrated a higher level of knowledge on the subject
matter covered in the course, when compared to students choosing not to use the
tools.
Another example is given in Zanela Saccol et al. (2010), where a more specic
question was investigated. The actual possibilities of mLearning were researched
for the development of individual competences and for collaboration in the orga-
nizational setting. After developing a mobile virtual learning environment called
142 Z. Putnik

COMTEXT, the analysis was conducted about the training of IT professionals. This
analysis did not give such a complimenting result for mLearning. Or, to quote the
papers conclusion learners showed interest and excitement for the innovation
characteristic of mLearning However, excitement turns into frustration when
mobile and wireless technological limitations are faced, as well as the mobile
device ergonomic limitations. Since in our research, IT professionals are in
question, the result is of a larger interest, because we are also dealing with (future)
IT professionals, students of Computer Science at our Department.
In Fayyoumi et al. (2013) a situation and students satisfaction with mLearning
was studied in Arab countries. The results are very favourable, which probably
might be to a certain level connected with the facts that the research is (a) very
recent, which covers use of even smarter smart phones, and (b) conducted in rich
countries, which ensures that students do have necessary technical equipment.
Either way, data obtained within a survey shows that 70 % of the students agreed
that learning skills are enhanced through mLearning, 60 % claimed that mobile
examination is useful, while fascinating 96 % of students agreed that mLearning
is very useful and is very helpful for those students who live at remote areas and
cannot attend the university daily. This last fact should not be connected only to
living at remote areas, since mLearning has the same effect on students who are
employed, thus being limited by time and cannot attend university lectures because
of other obligations.
Finally, visiting the other part of the world through (Organista-Sandoval and
Serrano-Santoyo 2014), we can read about the situation and opinions on mLearning
in Mexico. Being the most recent study, it is not a big surprise to nd that about
97 % of teachers and students have some kind of cell phone or smart-phone, and
that about one of every four interactions with the mobile device has a concrete
educational purpose. While authors complain that in general the educational
use of the cell phone is mainly aimed to establish communication between the
students and to access information via Internet, we nd this fact exactly in line
with our ideas!
Smart phones and ability to access Internet at all times, which in turn includes
access to teaching and learning resources, is what gives mLearning its greatest
value. This, even without creation of any particular mLearning educational systems,
or repositories of obligatory teaching materials, facilitate the most of necessary
environment for just-in-time and just-in-place learning. At the same time, presented
examples of projects using advantages and possibilities of mobile technologies
show that mobile learning is, for some time now, able to take a step forward from
experimental pilot projects, towards institutionalized implementations. An example
of such use of mLearning is given in Corbeil and Valdes-Corbeil (2007) where it is
been said Instructional uses: Students can download audio and video lectures and
podcasts to their smart phones. They can play audio, video, and Flash movies;
display and edit text documents; access e-mail and Web contents; send IM and text
messages; and use the phone for mass storage.
All of the mentioned examples show, one way or another, that mLearning can be
an excellent extension and complement of formal learning and eLearning,
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 143

particularly in a sense of situation dependent, lifelong, or just-in-time learning. And

this is exactly the point we are trying to investigate in this paper and show that even
in a lesser economically developed country such as Serbia, student concerns and
attitudes towards mobile learning are rather similar to student opinions all over the
world.
While considering such a prospect, we must also make a comment on possible
problems in application of mobile learning in practice. Pretty much the same
inconveniences are mentioned in a lot of papers dealing with mLearning, so we will
just try to abstract them from for example Organista-Sandoval and Serrano-Santoyo
(2014), Frydenberg (2007), or Litcheld et al. (2007). The rst things usually
mentioned are:
Limited resources compared to desktop technologies;
Problems with compatibility between devices;
Different operating systems and applications, or simply
Fast progress and frequent innovations in the development of mobile
technologies.
Limited resources, same as with other technologies, are becoming less of a problem
with the growth and evolution of mobile devices. Still, while the problem of speed
or storage size for example will be or already are overcome, in our opinion, one of
the limitations will stay longer, and that is the size of the screen. Even with the
advancements in precision and screen resolution of mobile devices, the size itself
will for the most of users be everlasting problem. Yet, if we accept that as a fact,
work harder on the design of suitable user interface, and not limit ourselves only to
mobile technology for learning; this should not be a devastating fact.
Compatibility problem, as time passes, becomes less and less important also.
Mobile phone producers are trying to either make machines that are standardized
and similar to others, or to enable use of the same/similar operating system, which
helps overcoming the issue. Same situation as the one we encountered with desktop
technology is on the verge to happen with mobile devices. Device itself is one
thing, while the operating system is something else, not bound to the device, left for
user to select. This way, combined problems of compatibility and different oper-
ating systems and applications help solving each other. Companies that produce
games and utilities for mobile devices showed us that it is possible to cover wide
range of mobile platforms, so we are sure that this will be the case with mobile
learning also.
Finally, we mentioned problem of fast progress and frequent innovations in the
development of mobile technologies. While this can be a challenge and can cause
certain difculties, we should keep in mind that its not a technology that is in the
centre of teaching, but methods. Of course, let us also not forget that digital
natives can cope with any technological advancement much easier than us digital
immigrants can, as nicely explained in Prensky (2001). And, since they not only
like digital technologies, but use them as an integral part of their lives, if schools do
not join, students will feel even greater separation between school and life.
144 Z. Putnik

9.3 The Present Study

Going further in our research, besides analyzing general issues, obstacles, and
potential of mLearning, we tried to dig deeper into specic situation at our
country, and in particular at our institution. According to Wikipedia (2015) Serbia
is economically speaking not a highly developed country, suffering consequences
of wars, breakdown of the country of Yugoslavia, bombing and economic
sanctions, just to mention a few things. Still, before all of the these things, Serbia
and Yugoslavia in general, was one of the most developed countries of East
Europe with much more developed connections with the Western Europe and
USA than any of other so-called communist countries. The question we were
investigating was are there some traces of that left, and if people of Serbia, and
specically young people, are ready to accept the challenges of technological
development in all areas of life and in particular changes and developments in the
area of education. We tried to research into the situation considering the mobile
technology, phones, notebooks, tablets and similar tools and equipment, but
limited ourselves to the situation in education, and students attitudes and
standpoints in this area.

9.3.1 Current Situation in Serbia in General

Traditionally and historically, we can claim that Serbia is the country rather
fond of phones. Only 7 years after Alexander Graham Bell patented the tele-
phone in 1876, the rst phone conversation was conducted in Serbia in 1883
between the Geography Department of the Ministry of Military affairs and army
barracks in charge of engineering in Belgrade (Trnini 2013). Not long after
that, in 1899. the public phone trafc was started in Serbia using inductor phone
central, while in 1902. a new Siemens and Halske central with 1000 new
phone numbers was installed in Belgrade, because of the growing needs of
interested public.
Checking the World Factbook, we can also notice that Serbia, country of a
little more than seven million inhabitants, uses (data is from 2012) 2.98 million of
main lines, and 9.138 million of mobile phones. There are also about 4.107 millions
of Internet users (data is from 2009, from CIA The World Factbook for 2012.).
Data available at 100 People: A World Portrait mentions that 75 out of 100
people in the world owns a cell phone, and 30 are Internet users. Comparing to
situation in Serbia, we can notice that speaking of Internet Serbia is ahead of the
world average, while considering the mobile phones it is at the forefront of average
by far!
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 145

9.3.2 Specic Situation at the Department of Mathematics

and Informatics, Novi Sad, Serbia

Before presenting the data and results we collected, let us repeat in a few words a
basic idea behind the chapter.
Current research in the area of mLearning usually presents different results about
successful use of mLearning at Universities, but also in various informal educa-
tional projects. At the same time, we are at the point where some portion of our
teaching is delivered in some form reachable by mobile learning facilities, inten-
tionally or not. While originally it means that we are aware that some people will
interact and communicate with our teaching resources using mobile devices, further
it should lead us towards decision on how to publish and distribute this information
and these resources.
Creation of learning activities and teaching material suitable for mobile learning
should be governed by the ideas connected and guided to learning, not to technology
same as is the case with the implementation for any other technology-based
learning. Use of mobile devices is not the purpose, objective, or sole goalit is a
medium, an instrument to enable activities that otherwise were not possible, to
increase usability of those that had drawbacks because of technological reasons, all
in all to increase benets for learners. As a consequence, in our opinion it is denite
that the use of mobile technologies is suitable only for the part of learning activities,
while other parts are still better supported by some other types of technologies. And,
we are satised with that, because we conrm to the stand that learning cant be
managed, but can and should be facilitated (Ivanovi et al. 2014).

9.4 Methodology

9.4.1 Instrument

Study is focused on the attitudes and views of undergraduate students about the
possibilities of mobile learning. It is a quantitative research, and we developed a
short questionnaire to collect the data needed. As one of the common possibilities
with this type of study, we decided to use structure of close-ended, Likert scale
ve-point measure survey. For each question, students were asked to give opinion
ranging from 1 = strongly disagree, to 5 = strongly agree. The questionnaire was
distributed to students via e-mail, and it took only several minutes to complete,
since the questions covered only the basic opinions. This in turn leads to a high
response rate.
Survey was conducted on two occasions, with two generations of students of the
Department of Mathematics and Informatics, Faculty of Science, University of
Novi Sad. We narrowed our survey only to students of the Computer Science
direction.
146 Z. Putnik

Students were informed that, since data collection went through e-mail, their
answers will not be anonymous, so that they are allowed to refuse to answer the
survey. Great majority of students declared that they do not mind answering
publicly, actually that they wish that their opinion is heard and taken into account.
While it may be contrary to some other institutions or countries, this type of
behaviour is recognized at our Department earlier, as presented in Ivanovi et al.
(2013).
Survey took about 2 weeks each year, and rst time covered 178 students, while
the second time there were 138 students communicated. Not all of the students
answered and completed the survey, so altogether we collected 198 surveys for the
analysis.
Major descriptive statistics is presented in Table 9.1. The most of the respon-
dents, as can be noticed, have some type of mobile phone, but this time we didnt
investigated further into the type of the phone/tablet/e-book they use. Still such a
majority of students using mobile phones, together with their opinion about pos-
sibilities, with extremely rare persons being strictly against mLearning, shows that
there is a large space for improvement of the use of mLearning at our Department.
Considering the age of the respondents, it can be noticed that the most of them
are older students, students of nal year of bachelor studies (3.) nal year of
diploma studies (4.) or students of master studies. Does this mean that we can take
their opinions more seriously, we will not assess.
Also, we must make a comment about frequency of use of mobile phones.
While we honoured answers of I dont use mobile phones type and counted six of
those, we noticed that those same persons later answered that they sometimes read
they mail using their phone. We interviewed one of them in person and at least with

Table 9.1 Descriptive statistics of the respondents

Item Options Number of people Percentage (%)
(total is 198)
Gender Male 129 65.15
Female 69 34.85
Mobile device Phone 198 100
No phone 0 0
Year of study 1. year 5 2.53
2. year 11 5.56
3. year 73 36.87
4. year 52 26.26
Master studies 57 28.79
Use frequency Does not use 6 3.03
Calls and smss, rarely other functions 77 38.89
Calls, smss, often other functions 75 37.88
Everything available at the Department (calls, 40 20.20
smss, e-mail, instant messaging with LMS, Wiki,
Forums, learning resources, access to LMS,
contact with lecturers)
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 147

him, thing was cleared-up. I dont use refers to his beliefs, to the fact that he does
not like mobile phones, mainly for the privacy issues. Still, as a person of a modern
age and profession, he is aware that mobile phones are a necessity, he has one, and
having it he also uses, unwillingly, the most of its functions.
Of course, this fact throws a slight shadow on our statistics, since some of the
numbers do not t with answers to other questions, but we consider this a normal
and usual matter with such a large survey.
Numbers and percentages of students using mobile phones for other functions
here probably does not represent only their wishes, but mainly availability of
possibilities for use of mobile phones and mobile services of the LMS we
employed. The complete statistics will shed much more light on the topic.
Table 9.2 shows the results of students answers regarding mobile phones from
the viewpoint of their use in education. It can be separated into two groups of
questions, the rst one dealing with how our students use mobile phones at the
faculty and for which (educational) purposes.
The second group of questions tries to recognize the reasons for the situation,
and identify the causes and motives for the state of the art at the Department.
Finally, the third group contains only a single question, and tries to nd out
whether our students are willing to use mobile phones in their studies more than
they do now.
There are 12 items discussed, with the distribution of opinions presented, and the
mean score given in order to describe the strength of the item. There are only two
mean scores higher than three, showing that only reading e-mail as a service is
accepted at the moment. The highest grade after that one gets willingness of our
students to use mobile phones more in their education, having a mean value of
exactly 3.
The lowest mean score is gained for I do not use mobile phone question,
showing that our students are accustomed to mobile phones and use them in life
outside of the faculty. In our opinion, this suggests that with adding more abilities
for clever use of mobile phones for education, there is a chance for introduction of
mLearning at our Department.
The next two lowest mean scores are in connection of use of mobile phones for
access to forums and wikis available within our LMS, and for communication with
lecturers. Both of those low scores are easily explainable. Forums and wikis within
LMS are at our Department used for the obligatory assignments. Consequently, that
requires reading of posts of other students in forums, and of additions and changes
of wikis from other team members. Finally, it requires text typing, sometimes a lot
of text, perhaps even addition of some drawings, which is much more difcult
through the mobile phones.
The other low mean score is even easier to explain. Communication with the
lecturer by mobile phones requires a prerequisite that the lecturer agrees to
something like that, which is generally speaking not very likely. Namely, having
dozens or even hundreds of students looking for help/opinion/assistance at possible
weird hours is a good reason not to agree to that kind of communication.
148 Z. Putnik

Table 9.2 Percentage distribution of opinions about mobile phones in education

Item Strongly Disagree Slightly Agree Strongly Mean
disagree (%) agree (%) agree
(%) (%) (%)
What do I use?
I do not use mobile phone 180 7 3 2 6 1.22
I use mobile phone only for 71 28 32 31 36 2.66
calls and smss
Sometimes I use mobile 48 18 27 26 78 3.35
phone for reading e-mail
I use mobile phone to receive 99 8 25 25 40 2.49
notications from faculty
LMS
I use mobile phone to 138 24 21 5 10 1.61
communicate with lecturers
I use mobile phone for LMS 140 22 21 4 10 1.59
forums and wiki
I use mobile phone to 104 24 22 18 30 2.22
download learning resources
from LMS
Mobile phone is a usual part 80 34 41 17 23 2.33
of my studies, and I use it for
everything
Why dont I use it?
I do not use mobile phone at 121 19 30 10 18 1.91
the faculty because of the
high price of Internet access
I do not use mobile phone at 104 24 20 12 36 2.24
the faculty because my phone
is not good enough
I do not use mobile phone at 53 23 44 42 32 2.88
the faculty because that is
wrong, and I concentrate
better on written material
Do I want to?
I would like to have a 44 29 53 27 45 3.00
possibility to use my mobile
phone more for my studies

That the above is true is easily visible if we check the mean scores for other 3
possible uses of mobile phones in connection with the LMS, which are higher
almost by a whole grade on the average. Namely, possibility to download learning
resources, even with the recognized problem of small screen of mobile phones, is
graded higher and used more often. Even higher is a mean score for receiving
notications from lecturers. The most promising point is still the fact that even
with a lot of individual services with a mean score relatively low, bellow two, mean
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 149

score for the assessment if mobile phones are regular part of studies is higher than
that, showing that with some changes in the approach of lecturers, mobile phones
can be used to a much greater benet in education at our Department.
As mentioned, the nal big question is why do not our students use mobile
phones in their education more that they do? The rst two possibilities that come to
mind and that would easily explain the situation were in our opinion:
Its too expensive, or
My mobile phone is not strong enough.
The survey gives a denite No answer for the rst possibility. Almost 2/3 of the
respondents strongly disagree with the opinion that access to Internet needed for
mobile phone use is expensive, while only 9.09 % of students strongly students
agrees with that opinion.
The second opinion also has No answer almost to the same degree. More than
a half of students strongly disagree that their phone is not strong enough, while
mere 18.18 % see that as a problem. Considering the trends and developments in
the eld, it is only natural to expect that with time, number of those with weak
mobile phones can only drop down.
So, the situation might be explained by the answers to the third question within
that section of a surveyis it good to use mobile phones for learning? Are we
better suited or accustomed to use written material? Opinions about this question
are highly divided, and the distribution is very balanced. This probably can also
mean that we should re-phrase our denition of mLearning and think of it more as
the meeting point of mobile devices and eLearning pedagogy. Not dependent
anymore on use of computer laboratories, students can work on their knowledge at
their homes, on eld trips, or even while travelling to those eld trips.
There is only one question with more balanced answers amongst students. The
nal question Do you want to use mobile phones in your education more than you
do currently? has almost perfect balance between answers:
Strongly agree versus strongly disagree: 45 : 44;
Agree versus disagree: 27 : 29;
Slightly agree (or we can asses it as Im-not-sure): 53.
In our opinion, these answers show hidden fears behind it. Will use of mobile
phones put some more pressure on them? Require some additional work? Or will it
relax their studies and allow them to learn whenever they want and wherever they
want?
And this is the key question and the key point of our research, giving us
appropriate idea. We do not want to suggest introduction of mLearning into our
studies as an obligatory form, as a system that will require shopping for the
expensive and powerful equipment, learning of use of complicated applications, or
ruining ones eye health by trying to read and study on a small screen. The idea is to
organize mLearning as a welcomed supplement, as an ability to download, read,
listen, or watch learning resources when it is convenient for a user, but with a plenty
of other possibilities and types of learning materials. That will in our opinion attract
150 Z. Putnik

more students to use mobile phones in education, and connect the best of all worlds
and types of learning. The power of mLearning is highly increased by enhancing
existing blended learning courses with otherwise weakly existing features such as
notications, easy communication services, access to discussion/interaction ser-
vices, or personalized agents in non-productive, dead times.
It is easy to recognize that both undergraduate and master students are not
satised with the mobile learning and the fact that it is not offered currently at our
Department. Still, collected data proves that almost all of them are both equipped
for its use, and are using some of the services they chose. So, if we offer more
services, and yet do not force their use, we expect much better opinions of our
students considering mobile learning.

9.5 Conclusion

Lifelong learning, ubiquitous learning, learning anytime, by anyone in anyplace, we

can pick any of those buzzwords, and still end up with the more-or-less similar
concept. Today economy is knowledge based, and it requires well-educated and
flexible personnel, personas prepared to be continuously re-educated and re-trained,
in order to be and stay competitive with the others. Also, the rapid development of
learning theories and methodologies, together with the advances in information and
communication machinery, creates prospects for satisfying these needs, and
enables abandoning of (only) the traditional learning models. Incredible growth of
mobile and wireless technologies allows incorporation of learning into everyday
surroundings.
At the Department of Mathematics and Informatics of University of Novi Sad,
we created and distributed a survey to several generations of students of computer
science study direction. Except for some minimal number of students who declare
that they do not use mobile phones, the most of the other students opinions and
attitudes are almost unanimous. Collected answers to a survey about mLearning just
slightly simplied, show that our students are technologically equipped for it, are
accustomed to use of mobile phones, are not using services of mobile phones too
much in education, but, the most importantly, are willing to use them more. It is
simply our job to give them a better chance to do so.
This study is denitely limited not only in a sense of number of students sur-
veyed, but more importantly in a type of students analyzed. Results we gained for
students of computer science study direction may not be the same as for students of
some other directions, especially for some human or social sciences, we expect.
Still, as it was our hypothesis, students of computer science at the Department of
Mathematics and Informatics of University of Novi Sad showed very similar
opinions and attitudes to their colleagues of the same study direction all over the
world reported in research papers. Being the area of fast development, mLearning
requires constant insight into the views and beliefs of students, so an obligatory
9 Mobile Learning, Student Concerns and Attitudes 151

future direction of this research should be repeated and more detailed survey each
several years, or even more often. Advances in mobile technology and software
applications for mobile phones and tablets, lowering of prices for mobile services,
and constant unication and standardization attempts for information formats,
require regular alertness of educators in order to make the best use of possibilities
offered. Another possible direction of study that can be very interesting and perhaps
give some different results is to extend the study to students that are not so much
connected to technology by their interests and study direction.
Consequently, let us hereof forget about the assessments of mobile learning,
comparisons with eLearning, distance learning, or even classic classroom teaching,
and let us take whats usable from it. As cleverly noted long time ago in Tough
(1979), when the persons central concern is a task or decision, he will not be
very interested in learning a complete body of subject matter. Instead, he will want
just the knowledge and skill that will be useful to him in dealing with the particular
responsibility of the moment. To provide for such people, we should not stick just
to a single, traditional learning model based on the concept of one tutor, helping
students to acquire in-advance-dened knowledge, and later assessing and mea-
suring their success. We should give students a chance to choose their time and
amount of learning, select a problem or part of it to concentrate on, and present
them with enough learning resources that will satisfy any learning style and phi-
losophy. Mobile learning will never and should not replace either other types of
eLearning approaches or classroom teaching in our opinion. Yet, if applied prop-
erly, it can complement and append value to existing learning models and practice.
To apply mLearning properly, we must also consider and answer several wider
questions. How should a university lecturer plan hers/his activities to help students
accept mobile learning as a natural extension of other activities? What type of
resources and digital activities should be obligatory, what should be additionally
available? Should some of the resources become strictly mobile, or should there
always be a stable and classic variant of everything? Should lecturers wait for the
ofcial recognition of the need for mLearning at their institution, or should they act
as enthusiasts and start offering services and resources in mobile forms by them-
selves? The most of these questions are not only philosophical, they invoke also
some very practical, sensible, realistic, and useful conclusions, since dealing with
the proper development of any type of learning resources requires a great deal of
effort, and careful planning and realization.
Developments in information and communication technology, and particularly
in wireless and mobile technologies, can help us go away from traditional learning
models, because nowadays learning can be easily carried, brought or even
implanted into everyday environment. What makes mLearning thrilling is the fact
that even though most of the individual features contained in current mobile devices
are around for years, bringing all of them together in one small, powerful, and
always available device is new. Joining the features, functionalities, and ability to
go online ensures adoption of such devices even by the most unwilling users.
152 Z. Putnik

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Author Biography

Zoran Putnik is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Science, Department of Mathematics and
Informatics, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. He received doctoral degree (teaching computer
science) in 2014. His research interest is currently focused on e-learning and virtual learning
environments, and software engineering. He has published around 140 articles in proceedings of
international conferences and journals, and written several university textbooks. He participated
within 20 international and national projects, was a member of organizing committees of 17
conferences, and is a Managing Editor of Computer Science and Information Systems (ComSIS)
Journal.
Chapter 10
Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones:
Student Usage and Perceptions

Xiao Hu, Leon Chi Un Lei, Jinbao Li, Nathalie Iseli-Chan,

Felix L.C. Siu and Samuel Kai Wah Chu

Abstract This study investigated how often students used mobile phone to access
various activities on Moodle. A survey on self-reported usage was lled by 252
university students in courses offered by four different faculties at the University of
Hong Kong. Follow-up interviews were conducted to solicit students perceptions
on mobile access to Moodle and the underlying reasons. The results show signif-
icant differences in students usage of various Moodle activities via mobile phones.
Students responses also suggest that mobile access to Moodle is a necessary
complement to computer access but its limitation on usability and reliability may
have restricted its potential in enhancing teaching and learning.

X. Hu (&)
L.C.U. Lei
J. Li
N. Iseli-Chan

FelixL.C. Siu
S.K.W. Chu
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: xiaoxhu@hku.hk
L.C.U. Lei
e-mail: culei@hku.hk
J. Li
e-mail: jinbao@hku.hk
N. Iseli-Chan
e-mail: iselicn@hku.hk

FelixL.C. Siu
e-mail: flcsiu@hku.hk
S.K.W. Chu
e-mail: samchu@hku.hk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 155

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_10
156 X. Hu et al.

10.1 Introduction

The learning management system (LMS), Moodle, has been adopted by many
higher education institutions around the world. To date, Moodle has been registered
in more than 1800 sites over 120 countries, and is available in more than 60
languages (Kennedy 2004). Despite the increasing use of Moodle, concern has been
expressed as to how Moodle is being used (Carvalho et al. 2011).
With the rapidly increasing use of handheld mobile devices among staff and
students in higher education, it has become more and more common for them to
access teaching and learning-related information and services using mobile devices
(Peters 2009). A 2011 survey on mobile services in academic libraries in Hong
Kong and Singapore reveals that the possession rate of mobile devices was 93.4 %
among Hong Kong college students, and 61.9 % of them used smartphones to
access the Internet (Ang et al. 2012). It is not uncommon to see university students
use smartphones to access learning resources on Moodle and other LMSs.
However, how frequent students use Moodle via mobile phones to carry out dif-
ferent Moodle activities and the possible reasons behind such usage patterns have
rarely been formally investigated. The current research aims at lling this gap by
examining students frequencies of mobile access to Moodle for different activities
and exploring possible reasons behind the usage patterns.

10.2 Related Work

10.2.1 Use of LMS

Research has been conducted to describe and analyse the use of LMS in higher
education. Francis and Raftery (2005) dened three levels of LMS usage. The rst
level is for depositing materials and distributing information; the second is for
enhancing teaching and learning by using various tools in LMS for communication,
collaboration, assessment and quiz tests. The third and highest level is for sup-
porting fully fledged online courses where most learning takes place on the LMS. It
is indicated that even though an e-learning platform is available, the institutions
might not make full use of it (Nichols 2008). Carvalho and her colleagues (2011)
surveyed around 15,000 students for their use of two LMSs, Blackboard and
Moodle. They found that for the majority of students, the use of the LMSs was still
in the lowest level, that is for accessing learning materials and course announce-
ments. Only some of them used LMSs for sending emails or taking quiz tests. The
course forum, course chat room and virtual classroom were among the least used
functionalities.
On the other hand, the importance of learning through social interaction and
collaboration has been conrmed repeatedly (Tu and Corry 2003). Interaction plays
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 157

a crucial role in academic success and persistence (Shea et al. 2006), and it is
believed that knowledge construction begins when a student has engaged in a
collaborative activity, because knowledge is created in situation (Chavez 2011).
Therefore, educators increasingly make efforts to bring the use of LMS to a higher
level that involves more interaction and collaboration among students.
It has been shown that technology usage patterns could vary across users
experience and information technology competency. For example, a study on
organizational IT implementation (Venkatesh and Bala 2008) derived positive
relations between usage experience and technology usage. Research has also been
conducted to investigate whether Computer Self-efcacy (CSE) is related to users
perceived usefulness of e-learning (Hayashi et al. 2004). Different genders may also
affect technology usage patterns. Ong and Lai (2006) concluded that males and
females perceived e-learning differently, which influenced their behavioural
intention to use e-learning. Meanwhile, Horvata et al. (2013) claimed that males and
females were equally satised with Moodle quality characteristics. In terms of
students perception on Moodle, Kennedys (2005) study on Hong Kong students
attitudes towards Moodle found that students liked the convenient accessibility of
learning resources and the flexibility of organizing online materials on the Moodle
pages. Carvalho et al. (2011) also found that students mainly perceived helping to
nd necessary information as the most useful function of Moodle. As such, pre-
vious studies considering users experience, IT competency and genders have
focused on technology usage patterns and perception towards e-learning, leaving
the context of mobile access to e-learning less researched.

10.2.2 Mobile Learning

Mobile learning is thought to enhance opportunities for building a learning com-

munity, interaction and collaboration among students (Donaldson 2011). avus
et al. (2008) investigated students opinions of mobile learning by surveying 317
undergraduate students. They found that students learning greatly beneted from
using emails, forums and chat via mobile devices, and mobile learning was deemed
effective by students during their communication with other students and instruc-
tors. In their study, there was no statistically signicant difference in mobile
learning across departments, gender or nationality. In terms of mobile access to
LMS, researchers are divided as to their opinions towards the integration of LMS
into mobile learning. For instance, avus (2011) presented the benets of mobile
learning using LMS and advocated that the integration of LMS into mobile learning
would be a trend of learning platform in the future learning environment. On the
other hand, Kouninef et al. (2012) brought up some constraints of mobile learning
in using mobile technologies, including the small screen size and other device
158 X. Hu et al.

limitations. Besides, Ssekakubo et al. (2013) found that mobile phones were stu-
dents least used electronic devices for accessing LMS services and the main reason
was the inadequate design of the LMSs for mobile interaction.
Although a number of studies investigated how frequent students used Moodle
to accomplish various activities, there seemed a lack of a direct study relating the
frequency of mobile access of Moodle to the background of users. In this study, we
therefore attempt to identify students Moodle usage patterns across different dis-
ciplines, their Moodle experience, and IT competency levels and between genders.
Specically, the research questions this study aims to answer are: (1) how would
the frequencies of mobile access to Moodle activities vary across students in dif-
ferent disciplines, with different Moodle experience, IT competency levels, and
between genders? (2) why do students use (or not) mobile access to Moodle.

10.3 Methodology

10.3.1 The LMS and the Courses

Moodle (version 2.6) was used in all the courses included in this study at the
University of Hong Kong. Although there is a mobile app for Moodle, it cannot be
integrated into the Moodle installation due to information security implementations
in the University. Alternatively, the Moodle installation provides a Mobile Theme,
which is a custom-designed display for smartphone browser screens. When users
use smartphones to access Moodle, the Moodle server can detect the access device
and then automatically display the Mobile Theme. Students can use the Mobile
Theme to view course content pages, submit assignments and access a number of
the Moodle functions including Forum, Choice, Feedback, Quiz, URL and Wiki.
Seven courses of four instructors were selected for this study. The instructors
were in four different disciplines, Education, Engineering, Social Sciences and
Humanities and Arts. The four instructors used Moodle in different levels and
styles. The instructor from Social Sciences used Moodle as a repository of teaching
materials and a platform for making course announcements. Besides uploading
teaching materials, the instructor from Education also used discussion forums for
studentstudent and studentinstructor interaction. Links to external web sites were
also put on Moodle of this course. As for the course in Engineering, the instructor
used Moodle as a platform where students can read/download learning materials,
submit assignments, take quizzes, conduct group projects and receive feedback
from the instructor. The instructor from Humanities and Arts used Moodle to host
learning materials, send announcements and messages to students, answer questions
students raised, as well as Wiki and Glossary activities where students could post
course-related information they collected off-class. The Engineering course was a
Common Core course that could be taken by any year 1 and year 2 students across
the University. As the class size was big, there were six teaching assistants in this
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 159

Table 10.1 Distribution of Moodle activities across courses

Moodle activities Education Social Engineering Humanities and artsa
science
Course 1 Course 2 Course 3 Course 4 Course 5 Course 6 Course 7
Accessing 69 48 62 30 9 58 68
resources
Submitting 2 0 12 0 0 0 0
assignments
(assignment,
Turnitin
assignment)
Taking tests (quiz, 2 0 15 0 0 0 0
questionnaire)
Interaction 9 0 3 3 1 6 0
(discussion
forums, feedback,
chatroom, choice)
Collaboration 5 0 1 4 0 4 0
(wiki, glossary)
Total 87 48 93 37 10 68 68
Notes aThe instructor in Humanities and Arts taught four courses

course. The Education course was a Master level course and the other courses were
on the undergraduate level. Table 10.1 summarizes the number of various Moodle
activities across these courses.

10.3.2 Participants and Procedure

This study adopts a mixed method with survey and interview data collected and
analyzed.

10.3.2.1 The Survey

The survey was conducted in the last class of the courses. 389 students from the
seven courses were invited to participate in the survey. 253 students in total
responded to the questionnaire with valid answers (65 % response rate). The
responses were collected partially online (n = 142) and partially on paper (n = 111).
Table 10.2 presents the demographic distribution of the participants.

10.3.2.2 The Interview

After the survey data were collected, emails were sent to 80 survey respondents (20
from each discipline) to invite them to the follow-up interviews. Twelve of them
 160

Table 10.2 Demographic information of questionnaire respondents

N Gender Moodle experiencea IT competencyb
Male Female
Education 17 3 14 1.71 1 2.88 3
Social science 57 25 32 2.41 3 2.93 3
Engineering 125 91 34 2.16 2 2.74 3
Arts 54 15 39 2.93 3 3.19 3
All 253 134 119 2.35 3 2.89 3
Notes aRatings of Moodle experience are based on a 4-point Likert-type scale: 1less than 3 months, 2months to less than 1 year, 31 year to less
than 2 years, and 42 years or more
b
Ratings of IT competency are based on a 5-point Likert-type scale: 1not competent, 2of little competency, 3somewhat competent, 4
competent and 5very competent
X. Hu et al.
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 161

accepted the invitation and participated in the interviews (3 in the Education course,
3 Social Sciences, 5 in Engineering and 1 in Humanities and Arts). The interviews
were conducted partially face-to-face (n = 2) and partially through phone (n = 10).
After the interviews, each interviewee was paid 30HKD for their participation.

10.3.3 Instruments

A questionnaire asking about the experience of using Moodle of the selected

courses (Appendix 1) was used for collecting quantitative data. It included two
parts: demographic information and frequency of course Moodle use. Part 1 asked
for basic demographic information as well as their experience with Moodle and
self-perceived IT competency level; Part 2 asked about the frequencies of using
different categories of Moodle activities with variables in a 7-point Likert scale:
ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (several times a day). A semi-structured interview
protocol was designed to collect interview data. The main questions are shown in
the following:
What did you usually do when you access Moodle of this course via mobile
phones? Why and why not using it for other purposes?
Did you have any difculties in using Moodle of this course using either
computers or mobile phones? If yes, what were they?
What kinds of supports do you think would be helpful when you encountered
difculties in using mobile phone to access Moodle of this course?

Table 10.3 Descriptive statistics of frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones
Moodle activities N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Accessing resources 252 1 7 3.70 1.526
Submitting assignments 251 1 7 2.22 1.553
Taking tests 252 1 7 2.30 1.567
Interaction 251 1 7 2.06 1.457
Collaboration 252 1 7 2.08 1.508
Notes Ratings are based on a 7-point Likert-type scale: 1never, 2Once a month or less, 3
Once every 2 weeks, and 412 times a week, 536 times a week, 6Once every
day, 7Several times a day
162 X. Hu et al.

Table 10.4 Statistics of frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones across disciplines
Moodle activities Humanities Education Social Engineering Sig.
and Arts Science Kruskal
Wallis
Accessing N 54 17 56 125 0.002**
resources Mean 3.35 3.06 3.39 4.08
Median 4.00 4.00 4.00 4.00
Submitting N 53 17 56 125 0.000**
assignments Mean 1.38 1.53 1.50 2.99
Median 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00
Taking tests N 53 17 56 125 0.000**
Mean 1.41 1.00 1.50 3.22
Median 1.00 1.00 1.00 4.00
Interaction N 53 17 55 125 0.000**
Mean 1.69 1.35 1.62 2.52
Median 1.00 1.00 1.00 2.00
Collaboration N 54 17 56 125 0.000*
Mean 1.43 1.24 1.55 2.71
Median 1.00 1.00 1.00 2.00
Notes Ratings are based on a 7-point Likert-type scale: 1never, 2Once a month or less, 3
Once every 2 weeks, and 412 times a week, 536 times a week, 6Once every
day, 7Several times a day
**
Indicates signicance at p < 0.01 level

10.4 Results

10.4.1 Questionnaire Responses

Table 10.3 shows the statistics of student self-reported usage of Moodle via mobile
phones. Access to learning materials was the most frequent activity while inter-
acting with instructors and other students was the least frequent. It is noteworthy
that students responses varied from never to several times a day in all activity
categories.
Statistics across different disciplines are presented in Table 10.4. Students in the
Engineering course reported the highest frequency across all Moodle activities
accessed via mobile phones among all participating students. As the data are in
ordinal scale, the non-parametric KruskalWallis test is used to compare the fre-
quencies across courses. The signicance levels (p values) are reported in
Table 10.4. Statistically signicant differences were found in all ve categories of
activities: accessing resources submitting assignments, taking tests, interaction and
collaboration.
Experience of using Moodle may have affected students usage of Moodle via
mobile access. KruskalWallis tests revealed that students with different Moodle
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 163

Table 10.5 Descriptive statistics of frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones across
experience of using Moodle
Moodle less than 3 months to 1 year to 2 years or Sig.
activities 3 months less than less than more Kruskal
1 year 2 years Wallis
N Mean N Mean N Mean N Mean
Accessing 86 3.65 35 3.94 85 3.86 45 3.29 0.164
resources
Submitting 86 2.48 35 2.29 85 2.15 44 1.82 0.155
assignments
Taking tests 86 2.51 35 2.37 85 2.40 45 1.67 0.020*
Interaction 85 2.13 35 2.29 85 2.14 45 1.64 0.069
Collaboration 86 2.19 35 2.29 85 2.22 45 1.47 0.015*
Notes Ratings are based on a 7-point Likert-type scale: 1never, 2Once a month or less, 3
Once every 2 weeks, and 412 times a week, 536 times a week, 6Once every
day, 7Several times a day
*
Indicates signicance at p < 0.05 level

experience reported signicantly different usage frequency in taking tests and

collaboration (p < 0.05, Table 10.5). Follow-up pair-wise tests revealed that, for
both activity categories, students with 2 years or more experience with Moodle
actually reported lower frequencies than those with less than 3 months or 1 year
to less than 2 years experience (p = 0.02 * 0.04). There was no signicant
difference between other pairs of experience values.
Besides, difference in the frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones across
IT competency was also analysed. Table 10.6 indicates a statistically signicant
difference of access frequencies in interaction and collaboration activities
(p < 0.05). For interaction, a follow-up pair-wise test found that students who rated
themselves as not competent reported signicantly more frequent access than
those who rated themselves as somewhat competent (p = 0.02) or competent
(p = 0.03). For collaboration, students who rated themselves as not competent
reported signicantly more frequent access than those who rated themselves as
competent (p = 0.04). There was no signicant difference between other pairs of
IT competency values.
The study also compares the difference of reported usage frequency between
genders, and the statistics and results of MannWhitney tests are shown in
Table 10.7. There are statistically signicant differences in all activity categories but
accessing resources. Results showed that male students displayed a higher
self-reported frequency in Moodle activities including submitting assignments,
taking tests, interacting and collaborating with one another.
 164

Table 10.6 Descriptive statistics of frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones across IT competency
Moodle activities Not Of little Somewhat Competent Very Sig. KruskalWallis
competent competency competent competent
N Mean N Mean N Mean N Mean N Mean
Accessing resources 29 3.83 54 3.91 96 3.75 59 3.44 12 3.58 0.5
Submitting assignments 29 2.83 53 2.21 96 2.08 59 2.19 12 2.25 0.145
Taking tests 29 2.76 54 2.31 96 2.17 59 2.27 12 2.50 0.26
Interaction 29 2.79 54 2.09 96 1.96 59 1.93 11 1.82 0.018*
Collaboration 29 2.69 54 2.22 96 1.97 59 1.90 12 1.92 0.032*
Notes Ratings are based on a 7-point Likert-type scale: 1never, 2Once a month or less, 3Once every 2 weeks, and 412 times a week,
536 times a week, 6Once every day, 7Several times a day
*
Indicates signicance at p < 0.05 level
X. Hu et al.
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 165

Table 10.7 Difference of frequency of using Moodle via mobile phones between genders
Moodle activities Male Female Sig. MannWhitney
N Mean N Mean
Accessing resources 133 3.79 119 3.61 0.341
Submitting assignments 118 2.55 118 1.85 0.002**
Taking tests 133 2.74 119 1.80 0.000**
Interaction 132 2.31 119 1.79 0.040*
Collaboration 133 2.38 119 1.75 0.003**
Notes Ratings are based on a 7-point Likert-type scale: 1never, 2Once a month or less, 3
Once every 2 weeks, and 412 times a week, 536 times a week, 6Once every
day, 7Several times a day
*
Indicates signicance at p < 0.05 level
**
Indicates signicance at p < 0.01 level

10.4.2 Themes from Interviews

Table 10.8 presents several representative quotes from students responses to the
questions on how and why they used mobile access to Moodle to carry out the
corresponding activities.
All interviewed students answered that they used mobile phones to access
Moodle of their courses, because using mobile phones allowed them to access
Moodle at any place and any time. They could read learning materials and
important information such as assignment deadlines when no computer or Wi-Fi
connection was available. Mobile access also enabled them to read announcements,
comments and feedback as soon as they were available online. Students tendency
in using Moodle for resource depository and information retrieval in this study
demonstrated consistency with previous studies on students perception on Moodle
(Kennedy 2005; Carvalho et al. 2011). The students from the Engineering course

Table 10.8 Representative quotes from the interviews

Moodle activities Students responses
Accessing Student A: I would download some information [into my mobile phones
resources storage]. Whenever or wherever I want to view it, using mobile phones
comes in more convenient
Submitting Student B: If I need to submit assignments, I would not use my mobile, as
assignments the les are not in my mobile phone
Taking tests Student C: When I have turned off my computer, but I still want to change
the answers [of the previously completed quiz]. I would then quickly use
it [mobile phone]. It is more convenient this way
Interaction Student D: We preferred face-to-face discussion [to online interactions
with groupmates]
Collaboration Student E: [I] Never [used mobile access to Moodle for collaborative
projects]. There are too many words in the project. So it is difcult to
read on a small device
166 X. Hu et al.

(n = 5) also mentioned that they used mobile phones in class to access Moodle
because one of the course requirements was to complete a short quiz within 4 h after
each class. Therefore, when the students did not bring their laptop to class, they
would use mobile phones to nish the quizzes.
However, students also indicated that using mobile phones was not a preferred
method to access Moodle. Most of them referred to usability issues such as small
screens and an awkward keyboard. As a result, they would only be comfortable to
conduct simple and low-stake tasks using mobile access. It was a common theme
among students that the Mobile Theme of Moodle was inconvenient. To start a
Moodle session on mobile phones, they needed to launch a browser window/tab,
type in the URL, and log into the system. As the session expired after a short period
of idle time, students had to log in again virtually at each time of access. Besides,
the display of Moodle course pages on mobile phones was mentioned quite often
during the interviews. All the course pages contained a rich amount of information.
While the texts on the course pages were well displayed on computer screens, with
proper headings and indentions, the format could become cluttered on the screen of
mobile phones. Moreover, a majority of interviewed students preferred face-to-face
discussion when working on collaborative projects, rather than using mobile phones
for online interaction. Mobile interaction was only a choice when group members
could not gather at the same time. Last but not least, several students mentioned that
they did not know how to upload les to Moodle from their mobile phones or to
nd les to be downloaded from Moodle.

10.5 Discussion

Both the survey and interview data indicated that students used mobile phones to
access Moodle for learning materials much more often than for other activities
(Table 10.3), which indicates that the use of mobile access to Moodle was still at the
lowest level as suggested in Francis and Raftery (2005). One possible reason is that
the usability limitations of mobile access discouraged the students from using it for
complicated tasks (e.g., Wiki edits, discussion posts) or activities that were deemed
not urgent. Such usability limitations echo with the view of Kouninef et al. (2012)
on the constraints of mobile learning using mobile technologies. In addition,
depositing learning materials is the most widely used function of Moodle across all
courses in this study, and there were much fewer Moodle activities related to
interaction and collaboration across these courses (Table 10.1). Also, a possible
reason for limited interpersonal interaction on Moodle is its inadequate design for
mobile interaction (Ssekakubo et al. 2013), though usability issues like small
screens seem to outweigh this technical inadequacy.
The distribution of Moodle activities shown in Table 10.1 could partially explain
the signicant differences on students self-reported Moodle usages via mobile
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 167

phones presented in Table 10.4. For accessing resources, a pair-wise test following
the KruscalWallis test reveals that the only signicant difference (p = 0.02) lied in
between the Engineering course and the courses in Humanities and Arts where
much fewer learning resources were hosted in two of the courses. The Moodle of
the Engineering course had substantially more assignments and test activities than
others, and this could justify why the frequencies of using these activities reported
in this course were signicantly higher than those of all other courses (p < 0.01). In
addition, the quizzes in the Engineering course were designed in small sizes, with
35 multiple choices questions in each, and students reflected that they felt com-
fortable to access those quizzes via mobile phones since they only spent a little time
to complete and did not involve much typing on the keyboard. On the grounds that
students held positive attitudes towards accessing short quizzes via mobile access to
Moodle, a recommendation for promoting mobile access to Moodle is that
instructors could make adjustments to the course design by adding in-class online
short quizzes as an additional assessment task, so that it would be desirable for
students to access Moodle via mobile phones during class time or soon after classes.
For interaction and collaboration activities, even though the Engineering course
had fewer activities in these two categories compared to other courses, the reported
usage frequencies via mobile phones were still signicantly higher than those in
other courses (Table 10.3). This result suggests that creation of Moodle activities
that are designed for interaction and collaboration does not necessarily result in
more frequent access to those activities via mobile phones. Students from the
Engineering course reported that they felt there was a learning community built on
the course Moodle (Shea et al. 2006). There were a variety of learning activities that
involved interactions and collaborations, including a group project, a group pre-
sentation and peer assessments (inter- and intragroups) (Lei et al. 2013). In addition,
the instructor and teaching assistants responded to students posts in a timely
manner. These may all have contributed to the stronger motivations of the students
in accessing the course Moodle via mobile phones. Accordingly, it is recommended
that interactive and collaborative learning activities like peer assessments and group
projects should be implemented in the future course design, as students could opt
for contributing to these tasks using mobile access to Moodle at their convenience.
Besides, instructors and teaching assistants need to be more responsive and more
active in facilitating student interactive activities.
Interestingly, the results also revealed that students who have used Moodle for a
shorter period of time tended to use mobile access more often to take tests and
collaborate on Moodle than those who have used Moodle for 2 years and more
(Table 10.5). In addition, students with low self-perceived IT competency used
more mobile access to Moodle for interaction and collaboration activities
(Table 10.6). These seem to contradict with many studies where experience and IT
competency are positively associated with technology usage (Venkatesh and Bala
2008). Such ndings could potentially supplement previous research on the rela-
tionship between IT competency and technology usage patterns. We conjecture that
168 X. Hu et al.

the statistics might have been dominated by the students in the Engineering course
who rated higher usage frequencies and lower Moodle experience and IT compe-
tency than other students. However, this would need further analysis to be
conrmed.
The study also found male students used mobile access signicantly more often
than female students in all listed Moodle activity categories except for resource
access. During the interviews, some female students complained about the com-
plexity of some Moodle activities and expressed the need of instructional help on
using those activities. Such gender differences have also been found in other studies
on gender difference in educational technology (e.g., Heemskerk and Dam 2009), as
well as in studies on the signicance of gender differences in users perceived
usefulness of e-learning (e.g., Ong and Lai 2006). An implication is that providing
instructions on how to use Moodle activities, especially with mobile access, would
be helpful for users of both genders and would reduce the feeling of complexity to
female students. On another note, student gender distributions vary a lot across the
courses and the Engineering course was the only one with much more male than
female students (Table 10.2). Therefore, it is possible that the observed gender
difference may be partially affected by the higher ratings among students in the
Engineering course.

10.6 Conclusion and Future Work

This study compared the usage patterns of Moodle for different activities via mobile
phones among college students enrolled in courses across four disciplines, and
analysed the reasons behind these usage patterns.
In general, students in this study did not prefer using their mobile phones to
access Moodle, due to the limitations of mobile access on usability and reliability.
However, most of them indeed used mobile phones to access Moodle when it was
necessary. In terms of Moodle activities, it was found that students preferred car-
rying out easy and low-stake Moodle tasks on their mobile phones, such as
accessing learning materials. The students expressed the need for a more
user-friendly mobile access. In comparing survey responses from students across
the courses, it was found that good pedagogical design could at least partially
mitigate the limitations of mobile access and encourage students to use Moodle
more often for activities involving interaction and collaboration.
A possible limitation of this study is that the data collection was limited to a
single university (HKU) in Hong Kong. Since different universities might employ
their own LMSs in different ways, resulting in variant perceptions with and opin-
ions on the LMS, the conclusion made in this study might not be generalizable to all
universities. Follow-up studies can expand the sample by recruiting participants
from different universities and in different regions. Another limitation is that the
ndings of this study are solely based on self-reported data from participants, which
might be subject to the difference in students own perception. Future studies could
10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 169

rely on objective data sources such as the usage patterns as reflected in the LMS
system logs.
This study focused on examining the activity-specic usage patterns of Moodle
via mobile access, while paying relatively less attention to students opinions on
mobile access to LMS, such as perceived usefulness. Future work will include the
analysis of students perceptions on the usefulness of mobile access to Moodle and
the factors that might affect their perceptions. Also, in forthcoming studies, LMS
system logs will be collected for further analysis of students behaviour on Moodle.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank the students who participated in this study. This
study is partially supported by a Teaching Development Grant in the University of Hong Kong.

Appendix 1: Questionnaire

Part 1: Demographic information

What is your gender?
How old are you?
Where did you spend most of your life?
How long have you used Moodle?
Have you ever used any other learning management systems?
What is your IT (information technology) competency level?
Part 2: Frequency of using different Moodle functions
I used Moodle of this course via mobile phones to access learning materials (e.g.,
slides, notes, readings, assignments)
I used Moodle of this course via mobile phones for submitting assignments.
I used Moodle of this course via mobile phones for taking tests/quizzes/exams.
I used Moodle of this course via mobile phones for interacting with
instructors/classmates (e.g., replying to posts, sending messages, chatting, etc.).
I used Moodle of this course via mobile phones for collaborating with classmates
(e.g., editing wikis, contributing to glossary, discussing group projects, etc.).

References

Ang, S., Chia, YB., Chan, I., Leung, K., Li, K., & Ku, K.M. (2012). The survey on mobile library
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handle.net/10722/152520.
Carvalho, A., Areal, N., & Silva, J. (2011). Students perceptions of Blackboard and Moodle in a
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avus, N., Bicen, H., & Akil, U. (2008). The opinions of information technology students on
using mobile learning. In Proceedings of the 08 International Conferences on Educational
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Horvat, A., Dobrota, M., Krsmanovic, M., & Cudanov, M. (2013). Student perception of Moodle
learning management system: a satisfaction and signicance analysis. Interactive Learning
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Kennedy, D. M. (2004). Challenges in evaluating Hong Kong students perceptions of Moodle
Moodle: An open-source learning management system. In The potential of LMSs in teacher
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(pp. 327336).
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10 Access Moodle Using Mobile Phones: Student Usage and Perceptions 171

Author Biographies

Xiao Hu an Assistant Professor in the Division of Information and Technology Studies in the
Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include learning
analytics, applied data/text mining, and information retrieval. She is leading several projects on
using learning analytics to improve teaching and learning, and has co-organized Learning
Analytics Summer Institute, LASI-Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014. Dr. Hu holds a Ph.D. degree in
Library and Information Science and a Masters degree in Computer Science, both from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Leon Chi Un Lei received his B.Eng. (rst class honors) and Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2006 and 2011, respectively. He is now
an E-learning Technologist in the Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative, HKU. He is also an
Honorary Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, HKU.
His current research interests include learning analytics, MOOC and smart learning environment.
He was awarded with the Best Paper Award in IEEE TALE 2013 and IAENG IMECS 2012, Best
Student Paper Award in IAENG IMECS 2010 and IAENG IMECS 2007.

Jinbao Li an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Hong Kong.
He received his Ph.D. degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University in
2009. His research centers on long-term variations in El Nio, the most powerful inter-annual
climate force on Earth, and the Asian monsoon, the most crucial climate system to the Asian
community. He carries out diagnostic studies using both instrumental and proxy records to gain
insights into long-term climate dynamics and their impacts on society. He teaches courses related
to climate change, ecosystem and contemporary global environmental issues.

Nathalie Iseli-Chan has been teaching French as a foreign Language for over 10 years, 7 of which
with the support of web 2.0 technologies. Since 2007 she has been developing and devising
Moodle based activities, including self-directed, self-assessed and cross level activities, aiming at
bridging the gap between language learning and teaching, and building online learner
communities. She joined the School of Modern Languages and Cultures 5 years ago. Her
research interests include language learning and teaching strategies as well as the pedagogical
application of new technologies to learning and teaching French as a foreign language.

Felix L.C. Siu has a solid background in Computing and Science Education with many years
teaching experience in primary, secondary and tertiary education. He is senior lecturer in the
Division of Information and Technology Studies, Faculty of Education at The University of Hong
Kong. His research interests and experiences are diverse, covering areas such as multimedia in
education, information literacy, information management, information and communication
technology in education, and mobile & ubiquitous technology in Education. He has published,
as author or co-author, many academic papers on the use of ICT in education.

Samuel Kai Wah Chu the Head of Division of Information and Technology Studies and an
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. He is also the
Deputy Director of Centre for Information Technology in Education in the Faculty. His
publications include articles, books and key journals in the areas of IT in education, information
and library science, school librarianship, academic librarianship and knowledge management. He
has been involved in over 50 research/project grants and is also the recipient of his Facultys
Outstanding Researcher Award in 2013.
 Part III
Mobile Learning Analytics
Chapter 11
An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator
Facilitating Learning Analytics
on Mobile Devices

Vincent Tam, Alex Yi, Di Xu and Edmund Y. Lam

Abstract Learning analytics is targeted to better understand each learners interests

and unique characteristics in learning so as to build a personalized learning envi-
ronment. However, many learning analytics techniques may require relatively
intensive computation, thus inappropriate for any mobile application. In this paper,
we propose an interactive and personalized e-learning system named the COMPAD+
simulator facilitated by an intelligent learning analytics algorithm running on the
cloud server to quickly estimate the learners areas of interests on the simulation
results as based on his/her initial inputs and then flexibly generate the simulation
details as appropriate. To protect the data privacy of each individual learner, the
personal data is stored in the learner prole under each password-protected account
on the cloud server with all the intermediate simulation data to be erased after each
learning task. Up to our understanding, this work represents the rst attempt to
successfully develop a flexible, interest-based, and platform-independent simulator
directly run on any mobile device facilitated by an efcient learning analytics
algorithm working on the cloud server. To demonstrate its feasibility, a prototype of
our cloud-based COMPAD+ e-learning system is built and carefully evaluated on
various mobile devices. Clearly, there are many promising directions in terms of both
pedagogical and technological impacts to extend and enhance our interest-based
COMPAD+ simulation platform for future e-learning systems.

V. Tam (&)
A. Yi
D. Xu
E.Y. Lam

The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: vtam@eee.hku.hk
A. Yi
e-mail: alexyi1124@gmail.com
D. Xu
e-mail: h1395716@connect.hku.hk
E.Y. Lam
e-mail: elam@eee.hku.hk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 175

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_11
176 V. Tam et al.

11.1 Introduction

In recent years, cloud computing technologies have been frequently used to improve
the competitiveness, efciency, and reliability of daily operations or services in
many enterprises or government units through providing extra computational
resources and/or data storage available on the underlying public or private cloud
platforms. Nevertheless, there are relatively less work targeted to investigate on how
cloud computing (Velicanu et al. 2013) may enhance students understanding of a
specic subject in e-learning systems. Through careful observations on a rst year
course on Computer Systems in the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Hong
Kong over the past few years, we found that many Engineering students encountered
various difculties in understanding some essential concepts in computer systems,
especially the program execution and the underlying data transfer among the various
devices/registers in a specic computer system. Intrinsically, these concepts are
abstract and often involve a complex knowledge structure, and therefore are difcult
to understand. Furthermore, most existing simulators for computer systems are
text-based and mainly focused on showing the nal results after program execution
without clearly showing the intermediate steps and key operations, and particu-
larly the essential components/concepts involved in such operations. In many cases,
the ultimate results are simply presented to students without knowing how such
results are generated. Undoubtedly, several existing simulators can only provide a
limited set of debugging functions such as monitoring the values of selected registers
at a certain computation step during the program execution. Yet without knowing
which components, or specically which internal registers, are actually involved in
the process of computation, it is totally impossible and meaningless to use such
debugging functions for monitoring the changes of values on all the registers in order
to better understand the behavior of program execution in the specic computer
system. In a recent research project awarded by Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA),
we successfully built a very interactive and user-friendly simulator, namely the
COMPAD+ simulator as an extended version of the original learning PAD for
COMputer systems (COMPAD) on a cloud computing platform, which will
quickly enhance students learning of essential concepts related to computer systems
through the live animation of program execution on their areas/topics of interests for
a specic computer architecture. Through analyzing the students selected topics of
interests in computer systems recorded on the back-end cloud server, the course
instructor will have a better picture about which topics are possibly more attractive to
his/her own students. On top of it, the detailed information including the list of
instructions/operations issued, the simulation speed used, and the progress of sim-
ulation made by individual students can provide an excellent data repository for
thorough investigations of learning analytics that can be flexibly done by any course
instructor or programme director with the aid of some quickly developed cloud sever
programs or scripts.
The original COMPAD simulator (Fung et al. 2010) was developed as a stan-
dalone e-learning application to run on the Microsoft .NET platform on any desktop
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 177

or notebook computers. Yet, our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator is carefully

designed and recently built on the Windows Azure Cloud platform (Windows
Azure Development Team 2015) to provide anytime and anywhere simulation
services for our students revising important concepts on computer systems through
web browsers running on their own mobile devices such as smartphones or tablet
PCs. It is worth noting that the client application of our COMPAD+ simulator is
platform-independent to be run on any operating systems including the Android,
iOS, Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Unix and many others through the web
interface. In addition, the design of our COMPAD+ simulator is so generic that it
can be readily implemented on any cloud computing platform, and easily integrated
with other existing e-learning systems. Furthermore, the underlying cloud com-
puting platform may quickly provide additional computational resource to boost the
performance of our COMPAD+ simulator so as to tackle any complex simulation
task while the cloud storage will provide a large repository to carefully organize all
the simulation models in our designated e-learning system. More importantly,
through adopting the IEEE learning object metadata standard to represent each key
concept/component of various computer systems as reactive models of learning
objects, our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator may easily facilitate the sharing and
reuse of relevant concepts for future e-learning applications. To demonstrate the
feasibility of our proposal, we carefully consider the system design and build a
prototype implementation of our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator with a thor-
ough evaluation plan to investigate on how novice or experienced learners may
benet from our interactive simulator in various ways. Clearly, there are many
interesting directions including the plausible uses of the COMPAD+ simulator to
evaluate students performance for learning analytics (Hong et al. 2005) such as the
learning path optimization method (Tam et al. 2012) for our future investigation.
This chapter is organized as follows: Sect. 11.2 reviews the previous work on
applying cloud computing technologies to improve e-learning systems (Wong and
Looi 2009), particularly their overall system architectures. Section 11.3 details the
system design of our enhanced COMPAD+ simulator on any cloud computing
platform to enhance students understanding of a specic subject. Section 11.4
provides an empirical evaluation of our implemented prototype with a thorough
evaluation plan. Last but not least, some concluding remarks of this interesting
work are given in Sect. 11.5.

11.2 Previous Work

Most previous work (Fernndez et al. 2012; Masud and Huang 2012; Pocatilu
2010) solely focus on improving the efciency of existing e-learning systems
with cloud computing technologies through restructuring the overall infrastructures
or system architectures of the e-learning systems on cloud computing platforms.
Fernndez et al. (2012) give a clear overview on the current state of the structure of
cloud computing for e-learning applications, and also detail the most common
178 V. Tam et al.

infrastructures that have been developed for such e-learning systems. Masud and
Huang (2012) carefully consider an e-learning system architecture based on cloud
computing. Lastly, Pocatilu et al. (2010) try to measure the positive impact of using
cloud computing architectures upon the development of e-learning systems by
advancing a set of cloud computing efciency metrics for enhanced process control
of e-learning system implementation. The long-term overall efciency of the cloud
computing usage in e-learning systems is also evaluated in their studies.
Generally speaking, there is rarely any work that tries to investigate on how
cloud computing technologies can be used to enhance both efciency and ef-
fectiveness of e-learning systems to facilitate students learning in a specic
subject, and more importantly the potential of integrating some appropriate learning
analytics technique(s) to better understand students learning difculties and pro-
gress in relevant topics. Therefore, this motivates us to initiate a research project on
building cloud-based and interactive e-learning systems as supported by the
Microsoft Research Asia to carefully investigate on how cloud computing tech-
niques can enhance students understanding in various computer systems through
efcient and effective simulations displayed on their mobile devices while
facilitating the possible integration of learning analytics technique(s) to analyze the
unique learning characteristics of each individual learner through the detailed log
les collected at the back-end cloud server.
In addition, Tam et al. (2012) study the learning path optimization (LPO) method
for learning analytics on the next-generation e-learning systems and propose a
rule-based evolutionary algorithm (Mitchell 1998) to obtain the optimized learning
paths. The reference learning paths are essentially some specic sequences of
learning concepts/topics (Chen et al. 2008, Chuang and Shen 2008) as recommended
by experts in the underlying subject domains. After being extracted from the ref-
erence paths, a set of precedence rules (Tsang 1993) will be used as the evaluation
criteria during the process of LPO in the corresponding course. The quality of the
generated learning paths (Xu et al. 2012) are determined by what extent the gen-
erated learning path violates the precedence rules. Along this direction, with our
cloud-based and enhanced COMPAD+ simulator, users interests will become a new
factor to be considered in the LPO so as to generate learning paths of a better quality,
thus with fewer violations of precedence rules with respect to the experts reference
paths. An optimization scheme based on both reference paths and users interests
will be proposed and carefully considered in the subsequent sections.

11.3 System Design of Our Cloud-Based COMPAD+

Simulator

Figure 11.1 shows an overview of the system design of our enhanced COMPAD+
simulator on the Windows Azure Cloud platform. The system offers a series of
interactive and user-friendly simulation services through the web interface which
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 179

Retrieve Users
Learning Path User Profile
Optimization (Learning

E-learning System on Cloud

Store in Cloud

Feedback User Simulation

COMPAD+Simulator
On Web Browser

Fig. 11.1 The system design of our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator

shows the intermediate steps and also the ultimate simulation results to learners
while collecting the individual learners proles including their learning interests
and feedback back to the Windows Azure cloud databases for performing learning
analytics by the back-end cloud server program. With the learners learning inter-
ests, the COMPAD+ simulator is able to provide more adaptive and personalized
interfaces that can be dynamically changed for each individual learner as based on
his/her own learning interests. Besides, each individuals learning interests can be
considered as a new criterion during the process of learning path optimization
(LPO). In this way, the ultimate learning paths generated by the LPO method have
carefully considered the experts valuable inputs together with each individuals
learning interests. This will help to more precisely capture each learners unique
learning characteristics, thus providing more personalized learning path(s) to suit
the individual learners requirements.
Our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator will be consisted of two major parts,
namely the adaptive user interface as the front-end of the simulator and the
improved learning path optimization algorithm with the consideration of each
individuals learning interests as a new learning analytics technique computed by
the back-end cloud server. The details about these two major subsystems will be
explained in the following subsections.
180 V. Tam et al.

11.3.1 The Adaptive User Interface of the COMPAD+

Simulator

To facilitate the generation of adaptive user interface in order to suit the learners
interests/needs, after each learner successfully logs into our cloud-based COMPAD+
simulator, (s)he will need to have a ranking of his/her topics of interests in relevant
subject area to be stored in the individuals learner prole. For instance, when a
learner species in his/her prole that the topic of Binary Arithmetic as the most
interesting topic among all relevant topics in Computer Systems, the cloud-based
COMPAD+ simulator will tend to focus more on the detail of the binary arithmetic
operations such as binary additions or subtractions during program execution, and
therefore adapt the generated user interface according to suit this individuals
learning interest. On the other hand, when another learner expresses in his/her
learners prole that the topic of Memory is the most interesting, the simulation
details and generated user interface will be adapted to detail the memory map and
stored values inside each memory cell of the underlying computer system.
Table 11.1 shows a listing of 11 topics of interests in the subject area of
Computer Systems for ranking by each individual learner in our COMPAD+
simulator. For each topic, a user may give a ranking score from 1 to 10. When two
or more topics receive the same ranking score, they will be treated as equally
important, and therefore with the relevant simulation details to be displayed in all
subsequent simulations until the learner makes any change to the ranking of topics
in his/her learners prole. After the learner gives a ranking of all predened topics
in relevant subject, the ranking scores will be uploaded and stored in the Windows
Azure SQL databases as the learners proles for later retrieval and processing.
Other than being used for generating adaptive user interface to suit each individ-
uals needs, the stored ranking scores of the involved concepts can also be used for
learning analytics that will be explained in greater detail in Sect. 11.3.2.

Table 11.1 Topics in Topic number The involved concept

computer systems for ranking
in our COMPAD+ simulator 1 Assembler, linker and loader
2 Binary arithmetic
3 Computer organization
4 Digital circuits
5 Exceptions
6 Memory
7 Microcomputer structure and operation
8 Number systems
9 Physical input/output, interrupt and DMA
10 Programming techniques
11 The 68HC11 microprocessors
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 181

11.3.2 The Improved Learning Path Optimization

Algorithm for Learning Analytics

Based on the original learning path optimization (LPO) method described in (Tam
et al. 2012), we propose in this work a newly revised LPO method that carefully
considers both the experts opinions and the individual learners interests during the
process of nding the optimized learning paths for learning analytics to be per-
formed at the back-end cloud server. In particular, each individuals learning
interest will be considered as a new criterion during the optimization process of our
revised LPO method. Essentially, both the original and revised LPO methods make
use of an evolutionary algorithm to simulate the natural selection process of bio-
logical evolutions. Inside our LPO methods, the evolutionary algorithm will pro-
duce the rst generation of random learning sequence and then iteratively evolve
them into learning paths of better quality, that will t most of the precedence
constraints/rules as extracted from the experts reference paths, through the muta-
tion and crossover operators as occurring in the natural selection process until the
whole population is converged to a (sub)-optimal solution or the predened max-
imum number of iterations exceeded.
The initial learning paths will be put into a list called CurrentGeneration with
which the evolutionary algorithm (Affenzeller et al. 2009) will use its tness()
function to compute the tness value of each generated learning path so as to rene
its solution quality through the mutation and/or crossover operator. In the original
LPO method for learning analytics, the rst criterion used to compute the tness
value is mainly the difference between the generated path and the reference path(s).
For instance, in our previous prototype implementation of the original LPO method,
we considered two reference paths as extracted from two different sources of ref-
erences (Miller 2004; Tocci and Ambrosio 2003) The two reference paths are
shown as below.

Reference Path 1 : \ 8; 2; 4; 5; 6; 3; 1; 7; 11; 10; 9 [

Reference Path 2 : \ 8; 4; 5; 6; 3; 7; 11; 1; 10; 2; 9 [

where each number in the list denotes the topic number as dened in Table 11.1 in
the previous Sect. 11.3.1. For example, the number 8 represents the Topic 8 for
Number Systems in Table 11.1.
In order to compute the difference between the generated paths and the reference
paths as proposed in (Tam et al. 2012), precedence rules need to be extracted from
the relevant learning paths rst. Considering the above reference path
1 <8,2,4,5,6,3,1,7,11,10,9> as an example, the extracted precedence rules are: (8, 2),
(2, 4), (4, 5), (5, 6) and so on. The rst precedence rule (8, 2) means that Topic 2 for
Binary Arithmetic should be learned only after nishing the Topic 8 for Number
Systems. Suppose this specic precedence rule (8,2) is violated in the newly
generated learning path as <6,3,2,10,4,8,5,1,7,11,9> in which Topic 2 is placed in
front of Topic 8 instead of being placed after it as required by the precedence rule.
182 V. Tam et al.

Accordingly, the number of violated paths will be incremented by 1. Besides, to

measure the extent to which this rule is violated, the index offset is dened as the
absolute difference between the positional indices of the two involved topics, i.e.,
j5  2j 3 in this particular case with the positional index starting at 0. The tness
value of each generated learning path is then dened as the product of the number of
violated paths and the summation of all the involved index offsets, i.e.,

X
k
fitness value no of violated paths  index offset rulei
i0

where k is the total number of rules extracted from any particular reference path.
However, in our enhanced COMPAD+ simulator, each individuals learning
interests is also included as a new parameter for a more thorough consideration in
the new tness value to be dened as follows:

X
k
new fitness value w1  no of violated paths  index offset rulei
i0
X
n
w2  index offset conceptj
j0

where n is the total number of involved concepts for ranking by each individual
learner. And w1 and w2 are the two arbitrarily assigned weightage values to reflect
the relative importance of minimizing the violation of reference paths as compared
to that of minimizing the violation of the learners interests as specied in his/her
prole. For instance, in our subsequent test cases, we set both w1 and w2 as 0.5 and
0.5, respectively, thus implying that the relative importance of minimizing the
violation of reference paths is the same as that of minimizing the violation of the
learners interests in the overall optimization process of our enhanced COMPAD+
simulator.

11.4 Our Empirical Evaluation

To demonstrate the effectiveness of our cloud-based and enhanced COMPAD+

simulator (Tam et al. 2013) to facilitate students learning through interest-based
and interactive simulation together with learning path optimization as detailed in
Sect. 11.3, an empirical evaluation of our prototype of the cloud-based COMPAD+
simulator is conducted and clearly explained in the following subsections. The
interactive simulation services are implemented with the JavaScript, Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML), and Document Object Model (DOM) on the Microsoft
Windows Azure Cloud platform. With the HTML DOM, the JavaScript can access
and change all the elements of an HTML document dynamically generated by our
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 183

cloud-based simulation engine. On the other hand, the enhanced learning path
optimizer is implemented as a computing service routine in C#, which can be
flexibly and independently run on the cloud server to perform learning analytics for
any individual learner based on the collected log le(s).

11.4.1 The Adaptive User Interface of the COMPAD+

Simulator

When a learner tries to access our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator through any
HTML5-supported web browser, the learner needs to log into his/her registered user
account so as to retrieve the learners prole. After a successful login, the learner
will be prompted to rank all the relevant concepts/topics based on his/her own
interests in a subject area as shown in Fig. 11.2.
After completing the concept ranking, a personalized user interface will be
dynamically generated by our cloud-based COMPAD+ engine as based on the
learners interests expressed in his/her concept ranking. From this point onward, all

Fig. 11.2 The user interface of our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator for ranking concepts
184 V. Tam et al.

the simulation data, including the animation scripts and displayed values, as gen-
erated by the back-end simulation engine will be focused on the learners interests.
Then, the simulation engine will send those simulation data to the web browser with
which the preloaded JavaScript program will process the data to generate the nal
simulation results for display. Figure 11.3 shows the personalized user interface of
our COMPAD+ simulator focusing on the learners interest on the topic of Binary
Arithmetic in Computer Systems. Since the learner is interested in Binary
Arithmetic, the values on the Accumulator A (ACCA) and Data Register (DR) as
used for binary arithmetic operations in the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) are
clearly displayed in the concerned user interface to suit the learners interest.
To better evaluate the prototype implementation of our COMPAD+ simulator,
10 students were invited to use and compare the various learning features and
adaptive user interface of our simulator. After experimenting with our COMPAD+
simulator, the students were asked to answer three different questions so as to
collect their feedback. Below is a question for students to compare the organization
of the general user interface as compared to that of the adaptive user interface of the
COMPAD+ simulator to facilitate their learning.
Question 1: Do you think that the layout of adaptive user interface for Binary
Arithmetic is better organized than the general one to help you more focused on
the Binary Arithmetic?
After comparing the adaptive and general user interfaces, a total of 8 (out of 10)
students Agree or Strongly Agree the layout of the adaptive user interface for
Binary Arithmetic is better organized than that of the general user interface to
focus on the Binary Arithmetic. Only two students express Neutral to this
question, thus thinking that the two interfaces have no difference in helping them

Fig. 11.3 The adapted user interface of our COMPAD+ simulator for binary arithmetic
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 185

Fig. 11.4 The students

survey results of Question 1
about our COMPAD+
simulator

focused on the Binary Arithmetic of the concerned computer system. The dis-
tribution of the students survey results on Question 1 is shown as below
(Fig. 11.4).

11.4.2 The Improved Learning Path Optimization

Algorithm for Learning Analytics

To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed learning path optimization schemes, a

prototype implementation of the evolutionary algorithm is implemented in C#. In
all subsequent test cases, the following two reference paths are considered with the
topic number as dened in Sect. 11.3.1 in the subject of Computer Systems.

Reference Path 1 : \8; 2; 4; 5; 6; 3; 1; 7; 11; 10; 9 [

Reference Path 2 : \8; 4; 5; 6; 3; 7; 11; 1; 10; 2; 9 [

The Evaluation Scheme 1 for learning path optimization considers the above
reference paths only whereas the Evaluation Scheme 2 considers both the two
reference paths and a specic learners concept ranking as the topics of interest as
below.

Concept Ranking : \3; 2; 8; 5; 9; 4; 6; 11; 7; 10; 1 [

The population size of the evolutionary algorithm is set to 100 with the top 10 %
of the whole population selected as the optimized learning paths for further
improvements. The probabilities of crossover, mutation, and generating new ran-
dom paths are 0.75, 0.5, and 0.15, respectively. Table 11.2 shows the computed
results with the average and best tness values obtained from the whole population
over 10, 50, and 100 successive runs.
186 V. Tam et al.

Table 11.2 Results obtained by the two proposed evaluation schemes for learning path
optimization
Number of Evaluation scheme 1: considering Evaluation scheme 2: considering both
generation reference paths only reference paths and users interest
10 Average violated distance: 66.10 Average violated distance: 83.27
Average integrated score : 120.61 Average integrated score : 101.49
Best path: <8,2,4,5,6,7,3,11,1,9,10> Best path: <3,8,2,5,9,4,6,7,11,1,10>
Violated distance of best path: 12.8 Violated distance of best path: 57.6
Integrated score of best path: 57.9 Integrated score of best path: 36.8
50 Average violated distance: 47.43 Average violated distance: 57.26
Average integrated score: 100.17 Average integrated score: 70.27
Best path: <8,4,2,5,6,3,7,11,1,10,9> Best path: <3,8,2,4,5,9,6,1,7,11,10>
Violated distance of best path: 6.4 Violated distance of best path: 32.4
Integrated score of best path: 56.7 Integrated score of best path: 33.7
100 Average violated distance: 43.05 Average violated distance: 57.09
Average integrated score: 90.24 Average integrated score: 69.15
Best path: <8,2,4,5,6,3,7,11,1,10,9> Best path: <3,8,2,4,5,9,6,7,11,1,10>
Violated distance of best path: 4.4 Violated distance of best path: 34.6
Integrated score of best path: 50.7 Integrated score of best path: 32.8

The rst column of Table 11.2 gives the number of generations used in the
evolutionary algorithm; the second column shows the results obtained by
the Evaluation Scheme 1 which considers the two reference paths only whereas the
third column shows the results of the Evaluation Scheme 2 considering both ref-
erence paths and the specic learners interests. From the results obtained, it is
obvious that the average of violated distances of the Evaluation Scheme 1 and also
the corresponding average of integrated scores of the Evaluation Scheme 2 are
decreasing while increasing of the number of generations employed by the evo-
lutionary algorithm. This is due to the fact that both schemes optimize the learning
paths based on their predened criteria.
In addition, when comparing the obtained results across the two evaluation
schemes in Table 11.2, it can be found that the learning paths obtained in the
Evaluation Scheme 1 tend to have better quality than those returned by the
Evaluation Scheme 2 based on the criterion of the violated distances of the two
reference paths. This is because adding the specic learners interests into the
criteria of the Evaluation Scheme 2 will diverge the focus of the search, thus
degrading the learning paths quality based on the criterion of violated distances of
the two reference paths. However, with a fairer and more objective comparison on
the integrated scores, the learning paths obtained in the Evaluation Scheme 2
denitely return learning paths with better quality than those returned by the
Evaluation Scheme 1 since both criteria of violated distances to the reference paths
and the learners interests are more thoroughly considered in the Evaluation
Scheme 2 as compared to that of the Evaluation Scheme 1.
11 An Effective Cloud-Based Simulator Facilitating Learning 187

11.5 Concluding Remarks

In this chapter, we successfully integrated the cloud computing technologies, per-

sonalized learning through the learners proles to specify their topics of interests and
learning path optimization into our interactive COMPAD+ simulator for learners to
quickly focus on their interested topic(s) in the dynamic simulations of computer
systems on mobile devices. Our proposed framework of the enhanced COMPAD+
simulator is so generic that it can be readily applicable to other subject areas, and easily
integrated into other existing e-learning systems. To demonstrate the effectiveness of
our proposal, a prototype of our cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator was implemented
using the JavaScript and HTML DOM method on the Microsoft Windows Azure
Cloud platform for which some initial and positive students feedback was collected.
Furthermore, an enhanced optimization scheme considering both experts inputs and
the learners interests is devised to provide a more thorough learning analytics on the
back-end cloud server. All in all, this chapter reports our ongoing work that has
initiated many interesting directions for future investigation including the detailed
analysis on pedagogical impacts of using the cloud-based COMPAD+ simulator
to facilitate students understanding of computer systems, the possible integration
with other existing e-learning systems and the plausible uses of the cloud-based
COMPAD+ simulator together with adaptive and online quizzes to evaluate students
performance for more detailed learning analytics for future investigation.

Acknowledgments The authors are deeply grateful to Dr. Daniel Churchill, Dr. Kinshuk, and
Professor Yi Shang for their fruitful discussions and valuable inputs on learning analytics and
mobile learning.

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Authors Biography

Vincent Tam completed his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Melbourne,
Australia in 1998. Dr. Tam was the winner of Innovative Teaching Award (2000) in the School of
Computing, National University of Singapore, and also the Best Teacher Award (2011) in the
Faculty of Engineering, University of Hong Kong. He is a Principal Lecturer and Honorary
Associate Professor in the University of Hong Kong, the part-time deputy director of an
EMB-funded project on e-learning packages, and also the principal investigators of various
teaching development projects.

Alex Yi received the M. Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of
Hong Kong. He is now a Senior Research Assistant in the E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit
(EPSU) at the University of Hong Kong.

Di Xu obtained the M. Eng. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from the University of
Hong Kong in the summer of 2014. He is now working as an engineer in the mainland China.

Edmund Y. Lam received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Stanford University. He is now a Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the
University of Hong Kong, and the Director of its Computer Engineering program.
Chapter 12
A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile
Learning Analytics for Flipped Classroom

Gary K.W. Wong

Abstract Flipped classroom is designed to enrich students learning experience

through active learning activities in the classroom. To prepare the students for these
active learning activities, the teachers typically provide pre-recorded video lectures
and various computer-mediated learning activities for the students to go through
online before the lessons. When students meet with the teachers face-to-face, they
are engaged with interactive and collaborative learning tasks. This flipped learning
is further facilitated by mobile technology as the students can access these learning
materials anytime anywhere on their mobile devices within and outside the class-
room. This chapter describes a conceptual model and an initiative of using mobile
learning analytics to understand the learners behaviours inside and outside the
classroom under flipped learning approach. Empirical data on the students per-
ceptions of this initiative is presented as well to supplement the analysis. Issues and
implications for designing flipped learning with mobile technology and learning
analytics are discussed.

12.1 Introduction

Flipped learning approach is a new way of promoting and supporting active

learning (Jensen et al. 2015; Lage et al. 2000; Roach 2014), in which in-person
classroom lectures are flipped with other learning activities at home. This
approach offers one possible solution as a way to realize the student-centred ped-
agogy and the benets of active learning, which primarily focuses on bringing
activities, promoting student engagement in class, and encapsulating the idea of
learning-by-doing in the pedagogy (Wong and Cheung 2015). With the emerging
mobile technology, students are able to bring their mobile devices anywhere at any
time to access the learning materials including videos through the learning

G.K.W. Wong (&)

The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: wongkawai@ied.edu.hk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 189

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_12
190 G.K.W. Wong

management platform (e.g. Moodle, Schoology), which extends the flipped class-
room to mobile platform for more collaborative learning outside the school (Kiger
et al. 2012; Wong 2014).
The flipped learning model relies on students preparation outside the class and
in-class interaction (Herreid and Schiller 2013). Yet, this brings challenges for
teachers to assess and evaluate their students learning progress. One way to resolve
this issue is through learning analytics, which often refers to the collection, analysis,
and reporting of data about learners in their learning context using the techniques of
data mining (Ali et al. 2012; West 2012). Learning analytics provides a possible
new way of looking into these data and is an emerging research area in educational
technology to assist formative assessment (Kumar et al. 2015; Ma et al. 2015;
Tempelaar et al. 2014). Besides, the learning analytics has been suggested for an
extension to mobile platforms in order to analyse the learning process of students
when mobile devices are adopted (Shoukry et al. 2014). However, this area of study
is very limited and challenging, and how to take the advantage of the learning
analytics is also not well addressed in literature to cooperate with mobile learning
experience and even teaching pedagogy (Fulantelli et al. 2015; Persico and Pozzi
2015). In this chapter, it aims to investigate how mobile learning analytics is
perceived by the learners in their learning process, which can provide insights to
educators in order to understand further the learners behaviours outside the
classroom in flipped mobile learning when it is implemented. Our goal is to
understand the students perceptions on mobile learning analytics so that learning
design and formative assessment are more effective in higher education by gener-
ating timely and informative feedback for learners (Yorke 2003).
This chapter describes our conceptual framework and an initiative of using
learning analytics to predict the learners behaviours inside and outside the class-
room under flipped learning approach with the support of mobile technology in
their learning. Issues and implications for designing flipped learning with mobile
technology and learning analytics are discussed based on the responses of the
learners. More importantly, the implication of how teachers effectively use mobile
learning analytics to enhance the quality of formative assessment will be shared.

12.2 Conceptual Framework

In this section, our goal is to develop a unied conceptual framework based on the
four components, which support the flipped classroom for active learning, namely
mobile learning, formative assessment, instant feedback and learning analytics as
shown in Fig. 12.1. Indeed, flipped classroom for active learning can be done by
allocating more time in interactive classroom for providing learners with true
mobile learning experience, which supports learners in shifting between contexts
directly during the class meeting time (Pegrum 2014), where formative assessment
for instant feedback can be accomplished by the learning analytics technology
(Boud and Falchikov 2006). To facilitate our discussion in this chapter, the
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 191

Formative Assessment Instant Feedback

Flipped Classroom
for Active Learning

Mobile Learning Learning Analytics

Fig. 12.1 Four major components to formulate the flipped classroom for active learning: Mobile
learning, formative assessment, instant feedback and learning analytics

formative assessment and feedback, mobile learning analytics and flipped learning
approach will be discussed separately, and a unied conceptual model is presented
as the foundation of the learning design in higher education.

12.2.1 Formative Assessment and Feedback

Formative assessment becomes an important component in higher education (Nicol

and Macfarlane-Dick 2006; Yorke 2003). It offers both students and teachers a way
to improve the learning and pedagogical design, and it sets forth the direction where
learning can be present. Sandler (1998) denes this type of assessment as an
evaluation which it is specically intended by the assessors to offer their feedback
on students performance in order to improve and accelerate students learning.
Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) extend this notion to a more central argument by
which the formative assessment and feedback are provided to empower students in
higher education as self-regulated learners. Although the denition of formative
assessment is fuzzy and may be oversimplied, Yorke (2003) suggested that this
assessment could be done formally or informally as long as it can contribute to
student learning through the provision of information about performance as valu-
able feedback. The effectiveness of formative assessment relies on the quality of the
feedback obtained by learners (Yorke 2003). Researches have shown the value of
formative assessment and feedback to contribute to the important parts of the
meaningful and effective learning process (Boud and Falchikov 2006; Butler and
Winne 1995; Lehmann et al. 2014).
The relationship of formative assessment and feedback is inevitably close and
the feedback in return to inform the students concerning the performance
192 G.K.W. Wong

assessment should be generated quickly for better improvement of students

learning (Tempelaar et al. 2015). As what Eraut (1994) mentions, the rapidity with
which feedback has to be provided indicates the different ways the assessors work.
Yorke (2003) notes in respect of the speed of feedback that there could be in two
opposite extremes when the feedback is provided instantly or gradually, where in
between the assessors can make a fairly but not instantaneous decision about the
performance of students. Research shows that teachers can influence how students
feel about themselves either positively or negatively, and change the ways students
learn (Dweck 2000; Garcia 1995). In order to inform the students and teachers to
better shape learning and teaching prior to or during the learning process, the time
(i.e. speed and the frequency) of providing feedback is crucial so as to offer a timely
and even instantly response for learning and teaching improvement (Tempelaar
et al. 2015). In this regard, it is sensible to notice that formative assessment together
with the feedback depends on the appropriateness of time and appropriateness in
providing feedback.
By all means, it is crucial that the feedback is generated as the outcome of
formative assessment to regulate the performance of students and motivate their
learning in the progress so that students can become self-regulated learners (Dweck
2000; Irons 2007). Self-regulated learning is indeed the key element in active
learning and requires learners to engage recursively in a cycle of cognitive activities
when they attempt to complete a given task, where effective learners in this
approach rely on feedback (Butler 2002).

12.2.2 Mobile Learning Analytics

With the prevalence and capability of mobile devices (i.e. smartphone and tablet
devices) through wireless access to the Internet to obtain bundles of digital learning
resources, the educators have called for redesign of pedagogies and practices in
instruction and operations to realize the mobile learning opportunities (Brown and
Green 2010; Herro et al. 2013; Kiger et al. 2012). It has been observed that
educators are taking the advantage of this mobile technology to promote a new way
of learning with the objectives to, for instance, improve student engagement,
enhance peer interaction and collaboration, obtain feedback from both inside and
outside the classroom, support mobile communications and extend the place and
time of learning and exploring the world, even analytic tools to enhance learning
(Shuler 2009; Kiger et al. 2012). Thus, mobile technology opens many new doors
for further investigations in both learning design and pedagogies when devices,
learners and the learning experience are all mobile (Pegrum 2014).
In the meantime, with the help of computers and advanced data analysis in this
digital age, feedback from the assessment can be given instantly with prediction as
well (Tempelaar et al. 2015). Data mining techniques are designed commonly for
collecting large scale of data, extracting actionable patterns and obtaining insightful
knowledge (De Liddo et al. 2011; Gundecha and Liu 2012). Using these data
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 193

mining techniques to effectively analyse the interaction data, personal data, systems
information and academic information collected from the learning management
systems (LMSs), educators can better understand the deep thinking of students
during the learning process, as well as capture and visualize their behavioural
intention or motivation in learning (Mazza and Milani 2004; Romero et al. 2008).
This information will facilitate the assessment of students through a systematic and
real-time approach, to identify effective pedagogic changes for particular students
(West 2012) and to guide them through the learning process with the ultimate goal
of optimizing their learning outcome (Ferguson 2012).
Moreover, with the help of mobile technology, learning analytics can be
extended to cover the mobile data analysis for learning on mobile platforms known
as mobile learning analytics (Aljohani and Davis 2012; Fulantelli et al. 2013),
where the learning process of students outside the classroom can be analysed and
extended when mobile devices are adopted (Shoukry et al. 2014). The literature
discusses a few examples of how learning analytics can be used to assess or
evaluate the students participation in mobile learning:
A low access rate of online materials even mobile phones with wireless con-
nection may indicate dropout tendency, disengagement or the need for special
help by individual students (Deschacht and Goeman 2015).
Textual mining technique can analyse how much the online posts to discussion
forum with their mobile devices are correlated with other peers (Baker and
Inventado 2014).
The video watching behaviours using mobile phones may reveal information
about how students learn while watching the video, e.g. how often they rewind
or forwards a video lecture and the frequency of students pause at certain scenes
(Giannakos et al. 2015).
Learning analytics can capture how active students learn through mobile devices
and their mobile social behaviours with other classmates as a new trend for
mobile analytics apps (Chen et al. 2012).
Despite the benets with mobility extension, analysing mobile data is chal-
lenging because of the nature of mobility leading to complicated and
non-deterministic social behaviours and interactions, which will require a new way
to investigate and solve the issue (Ferguson 2012). At the present, this area of study
is very limited and challenging, and how to take the advantage of the learning
analytics to cooperate with mobile learning experience, formative assessment and
teaching pedagogy is also not well addressed in literature (Aljohani and Davis
2013; Fulantelli et al. 2015). In terms of technical feasibility, mobile mining has
been an active research area in data management (e.g. Lu et al. 2011; Musolesi
2014; Nagalakshmi and Sumathi 2014; Zheng et al. 2008). Yet, these techniques
are not directly designed for learning behavioural analysis; it is inevitable that
educators and computer scientists should work together to provide more peda-
gogical solutions to extend the existing mobile mining mechanisms to learning
management systems. The study of pedagogical and technological challenges in
mobile learning analytics is beyond our scope in this chapter.
194 G.K.W. Wong

12.2.3 Flipped Learning Approach

The major objective of the flipped learning is to introduce a new teaching

arrangement in which didactic lectures are moved outside of the face-to-face
teaching sessions to allow more time for active learning in the classroom
(Bergmann and Sams 2012; Bishop and Verleger 2013). Active learning involves
engaging students in an activity that forces them to reflect upon ideas and how
they are using those ideas (Collins and OBrien 2011, p. 5). This reflection,
according to Bonwell and Eison (1991), is associated with higher order thinking
tasks including analysis, synthesis and evaluation. There is empirical evidence
suggesting that the flipped learning model leads to better students engagement and
learning outcomes (Bishop and Verleger 2013). One recent study also suggests that
flipped learning model can help increase the learning motivation of students and
balance their cognitive load (Abeysekera and Dawson 2015).
In practice, swapping in-class learning with out-of-class learning as compared to
the traditional model operationalizes the notion of flipped learning (Jinlei et al.
2012). Before the teaching sessions, students usually participate in out-of-class
learning by watching video lectures and completing pre-lesson assignments at home
or even on mobile devices (Fulton 2012; McDonald and Smith 2013). This rear-
rangement frees up more time for in-class active learning activities in the
face-to-face sessions since contents have already been delivered in prior (Roehl
et al. 2013). This is in contrary to the traditional teaching model, in which the
in-class learning component is dominated by didactic lectures, whereas the students
have little chance to actively reflect on the contents until they do the homework or
revision at home (Wong and Cheung 2015).
There is plenty of empirical literature on how practitioners implement the flipped
learning model in their classroom (e.g. Davies et al. 2013; Herreid and Schiller
2013; Milman 2012). A similar approach can be found in several other cases with
different subjects and yet positive influences on students learning such as engi-
neering, business, teachers education, and medical education (Findlay-Thompson
and Mombourquette 2014; Mason et al. 2013; Sharma et al. 2015). With the
advanced mobile technology and wireless networking infrastructure, the active and
mobile learning experiencing both in-class and out-of-class can be extended any-
where at any time, such as using mobile devices to access the video lectures and
completing in-class learning activities using their devices (Kong 2014; Roehl et al.
2013; Smith and McDonald 2013). Therefore, flipped classroom can be integrated
with mobile and learning analytics to provide a complete learning experience to
support at different stages of learning. Yet, no signicant work has been conducted
on the impact of learning analytics in mobile-enabled flipped classroom.
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 195

12.2.4 Unied Conceptual Model for Active Learning

To formulate a unied conceptual model for active learning, it is attempted to

integrate the models on learning design and analytics with formative assessment
into our 4-step Flipped Learning Model (Wong and Cheung 2015). First of all,
learning design, dened by Lockyer et al. (2013) as the sequence of learning tasks,
resources, and supports that a teacher constructs for students over part of, or the
entire, academic semester (p. 1442), provides a complete picture with a series of
premeditated pedagogical actions for learning and teaching. Figure 12.2 shows the
basic model to conceptualize the relationship among the three common categories,
namely resources, tasks and support mechanisms (RTS). As suggested, the
resources can be les, diagrams, questions, web links, pre-readings, and videos
particularly in flipped learning approach. Students can access these materials in
order to complete the expected tasks at different times of learning stages. In the
meantime, the support mechanisms should be designed to assist the learners to
complete the assigned tasks, where peers and instructors can both serve as the
support. Learning analytics stipulates a passive approach of collecting and orga-
nizing information on how students interact with learning resources, each other and
their teachers (Lockyer et al. 2013), which can be aligned with the design of
learning.
Several generic models in learning analytics exist (Greller and Drachsler 2012;
Xing et al. 2015), and the classication from Lockyer, Heathcote and Dawson
framework (2013) has been adopted. Two broad categories of analytic applications
can be classied, which are checkpoint analytics and process analytics. According
to the denition, checkpoint analytics is considered as the snapshot data that
indicate a student has met the prerequisites for learning by accessing the relevant
resources of the learning design (p. 1448). One example would be the record
indicating the login time and frequency of students in learning management system;
process analytics, in the meanwhile, is dened as those data which can provide
direct insight into learner information processing and knowledge application within
the tasks that the students completes as part of a learning design (p. 1448). For
example, the textual analysis on the coherence of students comments collected
from a discussion forum as a part of the assigned tasks can bring insights about how
deep the students engage in the discussion and the association with the topic.
In terms of the formative assessment, based on Shum and Cricks learning
dispositions model (2012), meaningful data being collected and analysed by the

Fig. 12.2 A learning design with three common categories (resources, tasks and supports)
(Lockyer et al. 2013)
196 G.K.W. Wong

system should reflect the relatively enduring tendency of learners behaving in a

certain way, which can be linked up to motivation, affect and valuing. According to
the argument behind the analytics model, some cognitive behaviours typically
reveals higher order information about ones state or intentions for instance,
intentionally self-disclosing metadata about themselves, having the knowledge or
expectation that it may be sensed and possibly acted on by people or machines,
known to or hidden from them (Shum and Crick 2012). With the collection of this
type of data, feedback can be provided to students to better shape teaching and
enhance learning during the process when the intentions of students are captured
purposefully and knowingly.
Figure 12.3 shows the unied conceptual framework, which captures the flow of
flipped learning approach with the support of mobile learning analytics and the
types of data for formative assessment. In the 4-step flipped learning model (Wong
and Cheung 2015), the RTS ts into different stages where the analytics can
facilitate the formative assessment about the learning behaviours. Note that mobile
and non-mobile learning can be introduced seamlessly to enhance the experience
wherever appropriate. With this unication of the models, this conceptual frame-
work is the guiding model for the design of authentic flipped learning experience.

12.3 Research Design and Methodology

12.3.1 Research Objectives

While there is an increasing interest of research in flipped classroom to study the

learning motivation, learning design with interactive activities, and effectiveness of
teaching and learning with video lecturing (e.g. Bishop and Verleger 2013;
Chorianopoulos et al. 2014; Mirriahi and Dawson 2013; Wong and Chu 2014), no
initiative has been done to study the perception of learners and their change of
learning behaviours when mobile learning experience and analytics are imple-
mented. In this study, the main objective is to offer the empirical data and analysis
on the students perceptions to mobile learning analytics with the flipped learning
approach, where the perceptual constructs are aligned to the learning dispositions of
three different types in Shum and Cricks model suggested by Tempelaar et al.
(2015) learning motivation and engagement, learning styles and attitude.
To investigate the use of learning analytics in flipped classroom, the author
conducted a case study to analyse the learning analytics collected from two
undergraduate courses that used the flipped learning approach. This section docu-
ments the setting of the out-of-class learning components of the flipped classroom
and the methodology used to collect the data. This qualitative study can further
strengthen how teachers should put the student-centred approach with the help of
learning analytics as well as the design of the future analytics tools.
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 197

Fig. 12.3 Conceptual model of active learning in flipped classroom supported by mobile learning
analytics
198 G.K.W. Wong

12.3.2 Context of Study

Two undergraduate courses (mathematics education and general education) taught

in Hong Kong by the author were selected for the study. One of the courses was
taught in the summer semester and fall semester of the 2014/15 academic years,
while the other was taught in the spring semester of the same academic year. Both
courses adopted the flipped learning model consisting of out-of-class learning
followed by in-class learning activities. At the beginning of the course delivery,
these students were briefed about the role of learning analytics and its implemen-
tation as a reference to their mobile learning experience through their mobile
devices in this flipped learning and teaching approach.
The out-of-class learning components consisted of video lectures that were either
prepared by the teacher or adopted from existing resources on the web. The videos
prepared by the teachers were segmented into short clips (58 min) and each
focused on a particular sub-topic of the lesson. The students were asked to watch
the videos regularly before the lessons. In one of the courses, the videos taught the
concepts and procedures required to complete in-class lab exercise and
problem-solving activities. In the other course, the students watched the videos to
gain the foundational knowledge of the topics followed by online discussion and
peer reviews. Afterwards, they prepared individual presentations on the topics to be
delivered in the face-to-face teaching sessions.
To facilitate the students to access the videos, the links to the videos were posted
to Schoology, a cloud-based LMS service that was free of charge to use. Also,
available on Schoology were course notes and reference materials. In addition, the
teacher set up discussion threads in the built-in discussion forums and asked the
students to participate in online discussion with their peers or submit their
pre-lesson preparation works.

12.3.3 Learning Management System

Schoology is a mobile-friendly learning management system adopted in the

teaching and learning of the courses. Students can access the course materials and
take part in the learning activities via its mobile view or the Schoology app installed
in their mobile phone. Using mobile devices to engage the students in the flipped
classroom could extend their learning experience outside the classroom and afford
the reflective engagement (Kong and Song 2015; Smith et al. 2015). Schoology
offers various educational-based features such as document and multimedia sharing,
discussion forum, announcements and updates, assignment and assessment, polling,
mobile native apps version and most importantly the built-in analytic tools.
YouTube was chosen to host the videos because it offers more features targeting to
video sharing, such as high storage volume, various selections on video playback
quality, completely available on various mobile operating system platforms and
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 199

targeted video learning analytics. In the current study, YouTube videos were
embedded through adding their links to the Schoology. Students could then link to
these videos from Schoology and watch them anytime anywhere.

12.3.4 Participants

In the academic year 2014/15, a total of 114 students from the authors courses
were taught using flipped learning model; 53 students were from year 3 of the
mathematics education programme; 61 students were from general education
courses ranging from year 1 to year 4 in various majors. All of them experienced
the whole process of flipped learning where both in-class and out-of-class activities
were logged and analysed either by the Schoology, YouTube studio (lecture video
host) or by mobile instant feedback system (e.g. Socrative). Their biographic
backgrounds were not collected explicitly in this study. This study adopted con-
venient sampling (Creswell 2009) to select the students from the authors teaching
courses to participate in the study, and these students registered the sections of the
author on the self-decisional basis as there were other sections/courses available to
them in the semesters.

12.3.5 Instruments and Procedure

Learning analytics in Schoology and YouTube was used for data collection. In
Schoology, there are a few built-in analytics such as Course, User, Assignment,
Discussion and Links. For example, Schoology can show the total hits per day in
the course on Course Analytics. The User Analytics captures the Last logged in,
Last course access, Total time in course and Number posts. The Assignment
Analytics reports the total views on the assignment description. The Discussion
Analytics shows the number of posts in each discussion forum. The Links Analytics
provides the count of clicks to the URL provided by the instructors.
While Schoology provides useful access statistics to course materials in general,
it does not offer any analytics to monitor the video watching activity because the
latter were hosted in YouTube and added to Schoology as embedded hyperlinks. It
was therefore necessary to rely on the tools in YouTube to observe access rate of
video lectures. Particularly, the Analytics available in the Creator Studio of
YouTube offers some sophisticated features to capture the activities of users when
they watch these video lectures. For example, it tells the number views in overall,
estimated minutes watched, number of Likes/Dislikes, number of comments, and
even their demographics (e.g. playback location and gender). Statistics in each
individual video are available as well.
200 G.K.W. Wong

Table 12.1 Open-ended questionnaire about the students perceptions in learning analytics
Question # Questions
1 How does the learning analytics affect your learning motivation and learning
methods in this course? Why?
2 Do you think the use of learning analytics by the teacher will be helpful to your
learning? Why or why not?
3 What is your feeling about the teachers use of learning analytics to analyse the
process of your learning?
4 How will it change your learning if the learning analytics data is available to you
as students instead of only being available to teachers?
5 What other analytics data should be introduced to help understand better the
student learning?

The study was also supplemented by questionnaire data on the students per-
ceptions of the learning analytics. Only the students from one of the general edu-
cation courses were sampled to participate in this questionnaire since their dynamic
background can provide with various insights in respect to their different major
studies. The questionnaire consisted of the following open-ended questions dis-
tributed to the students in one of the courses in the study (see Table 12.1).
The questionnaire was made using online Google Form available through
embedding to the Schoology. The students were invited via the Schoology where
they could indicate their voluntariness in the questionnaire. These students were
from different major departments, and their biographic data were not collected, as
they are not of concern in this study. All student participants were assured of the
condentiality of their identity in data reporting based on the consent form they
submitted before the beginning of the questionnaire. Each participant was expected
to complete the questionnaire in approximately 10 min. The data collection took
2 weeks and their submission is anonymous.

12.3.6 Data Analysis

Since the learning analytics tools in the system provide the analysis with visual-
ization as the presentation, no further data analysis in their participation and
interactions was required in respect to students perceptions. Concerning the
questionnaire, the questions are all open-ended and therefore the answers are
qualitative and unstructured. The responses were mainly in Cantonese while some
were written in English. The author translated them into English veried by other
colleagues before analysing it qualitatively using the iterative coding process in
Creswell (2002) to identify the categories, themes and patterns that emerged from
the data. There were 36 students from the spring semester 2014/15 being invited to
participate in the questionnaire; 19 students responded completely to the
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 201

questionnaire (57.8 % response rate). These students were assigned sequence

numbers of 119. Selected excerpts are translated to English (wherever necessary)
and tabulated in Table 12.3. Each excerpt is marked with a [#n] in the end where n
is the sequence number of the student who submitted the questionnaire with
responses.

12.4 Results and Analysis

This section presents the selected learning analysis about the students participa-
tions and learning behaviours as the examples of how learning analytics was col-
lected and studied. The analysis and implication of students perception on these
learning analytics implemented in the course are also presented and discussed.

12.4.1 Access to Course Notes and Learning Activities

The following online viewable analytics data were collected from the course during
fall semester 2014/15. The visualization of the learning analytics concerning the
behaviour of students outside of the classroom was observed periodically on the
weekly basis. The different types of statistical analysis shown in the following
gures highlight the participation and learning process of the class and the indi-
vidual students. Figures 12.4 and 12.5 show the students frequency of access to the
materials in Schoology and their activeness in participating all the tasks assigned

Fig. 12.4 Course analytics with total hits per day and overall summary
202 G.K.W. Wong

Fig. 12.5 Discussion analytics and summary of post frequency

outside the classroom. Specically, Fig. 12.4 shows that students usually had a high
peak participation rate in Schoology around the time for face-to-face lessons.
A similar pattern is observed from other activities such as online discussion (see
Fig. 12.5).
Indeed, this learning analytics could provide instant insights to teachers about
how active students are participating in the learning process, and if they are making
progress on a daily basis (see Fig. 12.6). For example, emails were regularly sent
after analysing and visualizing the students activeness as a reminder by the teacher
to bring up on-going issues to students and encourage them to keep up the pace of
learning. In flipped learning, the analytics serve as the key-monitoring scheme with
visualization so that teachers can understand more about the learners in their
mobile-supported learning especially when the LMS can support native mobile
apps for accessing and participating in the learning (Dyckhoff et al. 2012).
Concerning the mobile access to the Schoology, one simple survey was con-
ducted with the group of students at the end of each semester to understand the
medium used in participating the flipped learning. A total of 70 out of the 114
participants responded to this particular survey (61.4 % response rate). 93 % of the
respondents indicated that they have used their mobile devices to access to
Schoology for at least once. Among them, 46 % of them used their iPhone/iPad and
45 % used Android mobile phones to access to Schoology. Table 12.2 shows the
results of the survey. This may indicate that mobile learning experience could be a
part of the flipped classroom approach learning and teaching.
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 203

Fig. 12.6 User analytics indicating the login information

Table 12.2 Mobile learning with access to Schoology (n = 70)

Main purpose of accessing to Schoology with mobile devices Counts Percentage %
Watching video lectures 26 16
Posting comments in discussion forums 38 23
Read updates and announcement 48 29
Access and read additional learning resources 17 10
Send and receive Schoology inbox messages with instructor 6 4
Download course materials (course outline, assignmentetc.) 30 18
Others 2 1

12.4.2 Access to Video Lectures

Figures 12.7, 12.8 and 12.9 show some examples of general statistic about viewing
frequency and estimated minute watched by the students available in YouTube. By
aligning the YouTube statistics with Schoology statistics by date, it shows that
students could be focusing on learning through watching video before attempting to
complete assignments or respond to comments in Schoology. This demonstrates
that students accessed to video lectures as a preparation for further learning
activities including face-to-face classroom participation, and the teacher could
conduct follow-up activities to evaluate their understanding of the video contents.
204 G.K.W. Wong

Fig. 12.7 Example of summary page of video watching analytics in YouTube

Fig. 12.8 Example of number of view versus date in YouTube

12.4.3 Access Through Mobile Platforms

In addition, Figs. 12.10 and 12.11 show the statistics related to mobile learning in
particular. From the analysis we can see that roles of mobile devices served as
complimentary extension to the stationary learning. The statistic shows that 83 % of
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 205

Fig. 12.9 Example of average view duration (minutes) versus date in YouTube

the views were through Windows/Macintosh, which is assumed to be relatively

stationary than iOS and Android. This may be due to the screen size and watching
experience outdoor (e.g. bus). Surprisingly, on the other hand, the average time
spent on watching video with mobile devices is 3:46 min, which is slightly more
compared with 3:39 min on Windows and 2:19 min on Macintosh. This means
students tend to spend a little longer on watching video through mobile devices, and
perhaps it is very likely that the students were on taking public transportation where
they had less choices to be distracted by walking away from the video compared to
home environment.

12.4.4 Students Perceptions on Mobile Learning Analytics

Table 12.3 shows the selected responses of students from the questionnaire, which
illustrate various perspectives concerning the influence of learning analytics. Based
on the coding analysis, the three major learning dispositions were reflected: learning
motivation and engagement, learning styles and attitude, which are aligned with the
Shum and Cricks model suggested by Tempelaar et al. (2015). Some general
perceptions of learning analytics impacted to their learning are exemplied from
responses (a) to (g), which include learning effectiveness, student activeness and
engagement, learning progress tracking, increase of competitiveness among stu-
dents, formative assessment for better improvement in classroom teaching, and
evidence of students performance. Yet, some students may not have seen the
possibilities with the learning analytics because they do not think it poses any
impact on their learning with merely the data itself. As being exemplied by the
206 G.K.W. Wong

Fig. 12.10 Mobile device types versus date in YouTube

Fig. 12.11 Mobile device operating systems versus date in YouTube

Table 12.3 Selected excerpts from the questionnaire of students perceptions
12

Theme Sub-theme Examples

General perceptions Positive (a) It can help identify the level of learning activeness among the students. [#08]
(b) The teacher can know our learning progress through reading these [analytics] data so as to adjust
the teaching strategies. [#12]
(c) It encourages us to place more time to complete the planned activities by the teachers and hope to
do a better job. [#17]
Negative (d) The teacher can track when I login, when I nish [the discussion post or assignment], it creates an
intangible pressure psychologically. [#7]
Neutral (e) [it] neither creates a negative influence nor a positive influence to my learning effectiveness.
Because I think learning effectiveness is really based on the teaching quality and the desire or learning
motivation of students. [#02]
Mixed (f) I think it will have positive influence, but it depends on whether the teacher will really analyze the
data after collecting them. [#01]
(g) Because the teacher can base on our usage of different learning resources [on Schoology] to
understand our needs, and then change the teaching plan and approach in order to improve our
learning effectiveness. But, in the perspective of students, these data may not clearly help us realize
our learning effectiveness. [#3]
Learning motivation Active learning (h) We will be more active and enthusiastic to use the resources and participate in discussion [forum]
and engagement on Schoology. [#03]
(i) It motivates me to complete some assignments like the video reviews far more days before the
deadlineI know the teacher can know the exact time of when I complete the task, which in term
A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics

provides me the incentive to complete the assignment as earlier as possible. [#14]

(j) I will spend more time to complete the [learning] activity, and constantly check if there is any
updated information, so from this I know I have more motivation to learn. [#17]
Passive learning (k) When I know the teacher can see the frequency of student login and time, it does increase my
frequency to login to Schoology, however, it is not because I want to learn, it is just because I am
afraid Schoology has no record of my login. [#01]
(continued)
207
Table 12.3 (continued)
208

Theme Sub-theme Examples

(l) Nobecause most of the time I will use only Schoology when I need to complete assignment or
classroom activity or feel interested in the lesson. So the collected data [currently available in
Schoology] does not impact my learning motivation. [#09]
Neutral (m) It may help make a small increase [of my learning motivation], but it is not obvious. [#02]
Learning styles Traditional learning (n) Learning methods depend on personal habit, and it is hard to be changed unless being trained
from the early beginning or by requirement. [#01]
(o) I think the collected data has nothing to do with my learning methods. [#06]
(p) I believe my learning methods is to follow the teachers particular instructions to complete the
assignments to learn different knowledge. [#07]
New learning (q) Yesit has positive effects on my way of study, mostly due to the increase in my learning
motivation. As I mentioned, it motivates me to nish the assignment many more days or even weeks
before the deadline. I have learned to organize my time better. [#14]
(r) [Learning analytics] can help me make better use of technology and multimedia to learn, and
[learning] is no longer bounded by paper and pencil. [#15]
(s) It will affect my learning methodswe are more motivated to browse the materials by the
teachers and use them to learn. [#17]
Attitude Feedback and (t) Knowing that collecting these data only because the teacher want to get to know us and
interactions compensate for our learning concern, so the feeling is quite good. [#01]
(u) I like to let the teacher knows my effort and have appreciation through this interaction. [#02]
(v) I think it is a way that the teacher shows his or her care for students[The teacher] can know how
the students are going, and for students who never go to Schoology, the teacher can provide some
reminder. [#14]
Monitoring/surveillance (w) At the beginning, I feel being monitored that I must use Schoology more. But later on I nd that I
should just use it when I need it. Because the current collected data does not reflect how serious we
learn, it is only used to reflect whether the learning resources are suitable for us. [#03]
Threat (x) Honestly, it is a pressure [to learn that the teacher uses learning analytics], but I am still welcome
for the teacher to collect [data for learning analytics]. [#07]
(y) A bit frightening at the beginning, it is getting better gradually. [#16]
G.K.W. Wong
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 209

responses (d), students can be annoyed by the surveillance using the learning
analytics tool.
Learning effectiveness is related to the teachers performance and quality
according to the students understanding as perceived through the selected response
in (e). It may not be solely the presence of learning analytics. As indicated in
response (f), teachers should recognize how to take the advantage of the learning
data and interpret them appropriately before it may create a wrong impression to
students similar to the response in (g). Nevertheless, students may not acknowledge
that teachers can improve their teaching with the extra information about the stu-
dents through the learning analytics. If teachers are willing to put extra time to
analyse these data, it may be able to provide further positive influence to students.
In terms of learning motivation and engagement, students nd that learning
analytics can serve as motivating factor exemplied in responses (h) to (j). Students
may see it as a tracking tool so that every task they perform on Schoology is
recorded. In this regard, students see themselves more active and motivated to
participate in learning with these tools. Although it seems to only develop their
extrinsic motivation with a fear not to participate to cause penalty (e.g. response
(k) and (l)), some students believe that teachers can learn more about the effort that
students have paid to complete each task through it (e.g. response (i)). Thus, stu-
dents can be motivated to do better performance in the online learning (either
through mobile access or not). Yet, some students exemplied in response
(m) demonstrate the neutral impact in motivation because they think the existing
collected data cannot reflect their actual performance (e.g. login frequency) nor
pose issues on their grade. In this sense, it does not matter if they should work hard
for the statistical numbers. In general, the extrinsic motivation is observed when
learning analytics is implemented in the teaching.
Meanwhile, students in responses (n) to (s) illustrate their styles of learning
through their developed habit in traditional learning without the cause from the
learning analytics, and some indicate their new ways of learning and perspective in
changing their learning methods because of the extra information collected and
analysed by the teachers, exemplied in responses (q) to (s). Particularly, the
response (r) shows that technology and multimedia are encouraged to use more
frequently in learning with analytics because the tracking record on using traditional
methods cannot be achieved. Thus, technology can be the complementary aspect
that students can appreciate more in their learning experience.
Generally, various feelings and attitudes towards the use of learning analytics
were identied in the theme. Some believe that it is a good companion tool to the
teachers because they can improve their teaching quality through a better under-
standing of their students indicated in the responses (t) to (v). The use of learning
analytics can also show the care about the students learning experience. However,
some see it as a monitoring purpose, which can generate extra pressure and threat to
the students showing in the responses (w) to (y). They may worry that the teacher
can use it wrongly to misinterpret their learning effort. In response (w), it is true that
some data like checkpoint analytics may not reflect the learning progress without
further analysis with process analytics. Nevertheless, some suggest that the teachers
210 G.K.W. Wong

should inform the students with more details earlier about the use of it so that they
will not feel surprised being monitored outside the classroom in online learning
environment.
On the other hand, some students suggest that a similar learning analytics should
be available to the individual level because of the usefulness although some stu-
dents do not see its usefulness to make it accessible to students. Some even oppose
it to be available publicly at the peer level because they may be afraid of the privacy
issues or being monitored by their peers in the online environment. Yet, some
students believe that sharing it to the peers can increase the learning motivation and
learning attitude due to the influence among the peers. Among other responses,
students seem to have a very limited idea of how to extend the existing features to
become more appropriate in assessing the performance of students formatively.
Several additional useful features in learning analytics were suggested (either for
teachers or students) which may be helpful to their learning effectiveness, including
Names of students in their browsing history record;
Personal browsing time in each learning page/material;
Records showing a list of activities each student performed after login;
Learning progress of each student in assigned tasks;
More descriptive/qualitative analytics information other than statistical infor-
mation; and
Highlight of questions/concerns/inquiry in each lesson based on students
responses.

12.4.5 Discussions and Implications

The above results indicate that the learning analytics can support mobile learning
experience inside and outside the classroom positively in general and can facilitate
the students learning under a flipped learning environment. The ndings exemplify
how the learning analytics can be used to reveal the students accessing patterns of
the learning materials as well as their mobile learning behaviours. The students
perceptions on the existence of mobile learning analytics in the flipped classroom
show a positive impact on the learning motivation, learning engagement, learning
style and attitude towards learning, which are considered as the key learning dis-
positional data in learning analytics (Tempelaar et al. 2015). The results imply that
learning analytic is a mandatory affordance to sustain flipped classroom teaching
and learning, and it is needed in order to capture the whole learning process of each
student for continual monitoring purposes both inside and outside the classroom
(Gilboy et al. 2015). It helps the teachers to determine the activeness of partici-
pation before each lesson, partly addressing the issue raised by Butt (2014) in which
the students tend not to prepare for the lessons. With the feedback from the analytic
tools, the teachers could gain insights and adjust the planned agenda in each
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 211

upcoming lesson to accommodate the needs of students, i.e. giving a mini lecture to
recap some of the important skills in the video.
From the ndings, the motivation and engagement in the absence of teachers can
be sustained with the mobile learning analytics. The importance of this is that
learners in flipped classroom are required to pay some attentions in self-learning
activities online and outside the class. The students, particularly in Hong Kong, are
highly mobile and it is imperative to design the learning activities with mobility
support at all time (Lam and Duan 2012). Without the learning analytics as a way to
track and monitor the learning progress or their participation, the in-class interaction
will become minimal. Based on the perceptions, learners seem to be willing to
spend more time on the learning activities and enjoy showing their participations
virtually to gain an appreciation from teachers. In viewing this perspective, teachers
in flipped classroom should ensure their facilitating roles with the help of learning
analytics by knowing that students are making progress in their learning and
showing their appreciation for the participation of students. In doing so, students
can be more motivated with good attitude to engage in learning activities both
individually and collaboratively.
However, the ndings from the participants are coherent with the arguments by
Campbell et al. (2007) and Dringus (2012) that learning analytics could be harmful
and threatening if not being implemented appropriately. For example, students
could feel being monitored and threaten when every movement and online learning
behaviours is tracked. Suggested by Dietz-Uhler and Hurn (2013), the pedagogy
should drive the development and implementation of learning analytics but not the
other way round. Meaningful data, having transparency, yielding good algorithms,
leading to effective use of the data, and informing process and practice, should be
the guiding minimal principles and requirements in order to gain a success in the
usage of learning analytics (Dringus 2012), which is also applicable and even more
crucial to flipped classroom. The quality of formative assessment depends on how
well the analytics is used to align with the learning design. As long as the usage and
analysis of the learning data are implemented based on appropriate pedagogy and
curriculum, learning analytics can bring positive impacts to learners (Snodgrass
Rangel et al. 2015).
Another concern of negative impact on learning analytics may be affected by the
scarcity of learning systems implemented with the features that demonstrate the
innovative possibilities for learning and teaching (Drachsler and Greller 2012). In
this manner, learners may not have a clear point of reference as, for example, in the
case for LMSs (e.g. Schoology, Moodle, Blackboardetc.) where an established
choice of competitive platforms exists, which is also reflected from the participants
responses. For example, there are limitations on the existing analytical tools in
Schoology for mobile learning (Aljohani and Davis 2012). Schoology could not
distinguish if students spent more time on mobile access or not; it could not help
students reflect upon their own learning behaviour with individual learning ana-
lytics; it did not provide its customized analytics to analyse the data about the video
watching. In terms of evaluating the writing of students on discussion forum,
Schoology could not help understand whether the words were correlated to other
212 G.K.W. Wong

peers comments, nor could it automatically send a reminder to students if they

were absent from the system for too long. These limitations exist in other LMSs as
well such as Moodle, which offers no deep insight unless more customized tools are
developed (Retalis et al. 2006; Petropoulou et al. 2014). In addition, YouTube does
not allow tracking of individual viewers. Nevertheless, further analysis could be
conducted through in-class interactive activities or online quiz to nd out if the
students were making any progress after watching the video. To further enhance
this idea, it may be appropriate to make use of the quiz to provide instant feedback
to students so that students are able to learn some of the information again and
review it, which might be neglected during the video watching. In addition, teachers
can try to bring up more critical discussions and stimulate their thoughts during the
face-to-face lesson. Students can also offer on-going suggestions to teachers
through weekly forum discussion on their challenges and new ndings through
their own inquiry learning. If students nd that their learning experience is
enhanced with the affordances, they will become more accepted to the new learning
approach.
To address these limitations technologically, learning analytics should be
redesigned for flipped classroom purpose so that deeper insights can be gained.
Some of the potential features are, for example, adding questions to videos (like
TED-Ed), logging the video watching behaviour such as fast forwards, pause,
rewind, text-mining functionality on the discussion posts and other textual sub-
mission. Some of these features already exist in standalone web applications. For
example, TED-Ed allows the teachers to insert questions and discussions into the
videos for students to actively reflect on what they learn during video watching.
Yet, these tools are not well integrated with the commercial or free LMSs (Friesen
2013). However, very limited research work seems to address the needs of learning
analytics in flipped classroom research (Giannakos and Chrisochoides 2014), and
more research works need to be done in this area (OFlaherty and Phillips 2015).
Thus, both pedagogical and technical challenges need to be addressed.

12.5 Conclusions and Limitations

In this chapter, it describes the conceptual framework for mobile learning analytics
in flipped classroom. An initiative of using learning analytics under flipped learning
approach with the support of mobile technology in their learning was reported.
Issues and implications for designing flipped learning with mobile technology and
learning analytics were discussed based on the responses of the learners, and the
ndings showed mixed perceptions concerning learning analytics mainly in the
learning motivation, learning engagement, learning style and attitude towards
learning. In this study, it offers an insight of how teachers effectively may use
mobile learning analytics to enhance the quality of formative assessment. In fact,
the model of flipped classroom can become an excellent approach when the
affordances are magnied through a careful learning activity design. But without
12 A New Wave of Innovation Using Mobile Learning Analytics 213

learning analytics, students learning cannot be monitored outside the classroom to

better engage them in face-to-face contact hours in class. Indeed, teachers and
students should have more interactions under this model to maximize the effec-
tiveness of this learning approach. It would not be suitable to assume students to
learn effectively with extra resources at home; rather teachers need to nd a new
way to obtain recursive feedbacks, e.g. learning analytics and formative assess-
ments, so that the learning process of each student is clearly captured. Especially in
this new mobile digital world, students should be encouraged to take the advantages
of ubiquitous learning to maximize their learning anywhere at any time. By this
way teacher can extend their teaching and reach out to students without the
boundary of the classroom walls.
However, the issues such as the alignment of learning design and learning
experience with the learning analytics will continue to exist, which sets forth the
future research direction to study to understand how each component in the
framework can complement for each other. Other limitations are the choice of LMS
tools in this study (Schoology), the differences of teaching contents in the two
participated courses for treatment and data collection, and the diversity of pedagogy
and learning design for the courses. Students may also not be able to adapt to the
new way of learning quickly when the same approach is not adopted in other
courses taken simultaneously. This case study emphasizes the needs of mobile
learning analytics and has identied the opportunities and challenges in flipped
classroom teaching. From the experience, both students and teachers need to
continue to interact and communicate with each other to rene the flipped learning
model. More importantly, learning activities including the video lectures/tutorials
need to be redesigned to help students nd a better connection among these
activities.

Acknowledgments Special thanks are given to the Research Assistant, Mr. Ho-yin Cheung, and
the student participants who provide their contribution and support to this project. This project is a
part of the initiative in flipped classroom research at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

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218 G.K.W. Wong

Author Biography

Gary K.W. Wong currently a Lecturer of the Department of Mathematics and Information
Technology in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research interests include
computer-aided education, mobile learning analytics, coding education, and flipped classroom.
He received a BS in Computer Science from Brigham Young UniversityHawaii and MPhil in
Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from City University of Hong Kong, and
Ed.M. in Learning Design and Leadership from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
 Part IV
Mobile Learning Across Curriculum
Chapter 13
Mobile Learning in K-12 Education:
Personal Meets Systemic

John Turner

Abstract This paper investigates one schools journey towards integrating mobile
learning within its institutional structures. This includes a comparison of the
schools objectives against mobile learning affordances. The approach takes into
account the cultural contexts, dynamic nature of digital change, and school struc-
tural challenges that impact on providing worthwhile education outcomes. Several
in-school case reviews on mobile learning use within the school look at mobile
learning integration. As well as providing insights for other schools to consider,
possible ways forward are presented for better understanding the dynamic rela-
tionship between mobile learning and school intentions, as well as challenges that
go with ever-evolving digital technologies.

13.1 Introduction

All K-12 schools contain common characteristics, consideration of which can assist
others to widen understanding. As well, there are particular aspects that are the
product of unique historical and cultural developments. Digital meanwhile con-
tinues to evolve in depth, breadth and preference. Research into mobile learning has
put forward contentions for new or enhanced learning. Bringing Digital and School
together means both opportunities and challenges, as personal learning interacts
with systemic education in new ways.
When considering the impact of mobile learning on any educational institution,
as for any technology, it is important to align with cultural understanding. Recent
history is littered with new technologies that have failed to meet advocate con-
tentions for schools. Cuban (1986, 2001, 2014) has summarised such shortfalls. Yet
within the wider community mobile technologies such as smartphones are in the

J. Turner (&)
Canadian International School of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: johnturner@cdnis.edu.hk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 221

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_13
222 J. Turner

ascendancy (Columbus 2014) and bring with them demands for educational con-
sideration as mobile learning platforms.
This paper details one schools approach towards considering and integrating
mobile learning into its teaching and learning structures. It includes insights into an
approach that has evolved with due consideration of mobile learning assertions,
while working within the practicalities of a contemporary school system. While not
a formal research study, it is provided as a starting point for more rigorous con-
sideration of how mobile learning might be approached to progress school-based
learning. At the heart remains a belief that digital can add value to learning through
personal interactions with digital technologies, as put forward by Laouris and
Eteokleous (2005) for mobile learning, and going as far back as Papert (1980).

13.2 Dening Mobile Learning

Differing interpretations of mobile learning, and what effect mobile devices will
have on teaching and learning, have been an ongoing discussion for over a decade
within the research community (Liu et al. 2014a, b; Laouris and Eteokleous 2005;
Craig and Van Lom 2009). Some see mobile devices as distinct from personal
computers because of their ubiquity and portability (Shuler et al. 2013), with
Laouris and Eteokleous (2005, p. 2) identifying use of the term mobile as syn-
onymous to a mobile phone. Sharples (2009) draws a clear distinction between
mobile learning and classroom use of desktops. He also provided a strong frame-
work for dening mobile learning:
May be mobile (but not necessarily if mobile devices are being used in desig-
nated spaces)
May involve learning in non-formal settings
May be extendable and interleaved across time and space
May involve use across a variety of personal and institutional technologies
Presents ethical challenges if shared access a requirement
Can be evaluated by addressing usability (will it work?), effectiveness (is it
enhancing learning?) and satisfaction (it is liked?) (Sharples 2009, p. 22).
Sharples (2013) also identied critical success factors as technology availability,
institutionalised support, connectivity, (curriculum) integration and (learning)
ownership. Laouris and Eteokleous (2005, p. 2) went on to differentiate between
e-learning as relating to multimedia, interactive, hyperlinked, media-rich envi-
ronments, with mobile learning referring to the spontaneous, intimate, connected,
informal, lightweight, private, personal. They conclude that mobile learning leads
to new relationships of time, space, learning environment, content, technologies,
user attributes, and process. Liu et al. (2014b) updated this to focus on affordances
available through mobile devices: flexibility, accessibility, interactivity, and moti-
vation and engagement. Similarly, Baran (2014) lists mobility, access, immediacy,
situativity, ubiquity, convenience and contextuality as overlapping characteristics of
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 223

mobile learning. Kearney et al. (2012) sought to formalise this by putting forward
mobile learning based on three primary affordances based on Time-Space consid-
erations: authenticity, collaboration and personalisation; each linked to
sub-considerations:
Authenticity: context, situation
Collaboration: conversation, data sharing
Personalisation: agency, customised.
Related to school education, Churchill and Churchill (2008) provide a good list of
mobile learning affordances: multimedia access tool, connectivity tool, capture tool,
representation tool and analytical tool. But, as McFarlane (2015) points out, tech-
nology cannot do this on its own, and as Baran (2014, p. 17) concedes, the
diversity of research on mobile learning has made it difcult to generate a single
denition or to determine generally added benets. Laouris and Eteokleous (2005,
p. 1) warn that the term can depend on who is asking, and what the context is.

13.2.1 Mobile Learning in Schools

From within the school education sector, there is strong support for the potential of
mobile learning in schools as reflected in recent New Media Consortium (2013,
2014) Horizon Reports. These identify mobile learning as within 12 months of
general adoption in 2013, going on to identify such learning as a key element of
BYO adoption, personalised learning, cloud computing, gamication and wearable
technologies in 2014. Here no distinction is made between the levels of device
mobility.
Clarke and Svanaes (2014) provided an updated review on research into the use
of tablets in K-12 education. They concluded that while there is need for more
research, some common themes are emerging. These include the portable nature,
access to information, interaction with personalised learning content, cost advan-
tages and ease of use. They drew on the UNESCO (2012) denition (Shuler et al.
2013) as learning arising from use of mobile technologies such as mobile phones,
smartphones, eReaders and tablets. However, Clarke and Svanaes (2014) also point
out that within K-12 schools context can vary depending on the student stage of
development.
Within schools McFarlane (2015, p. 25) identies personal mobile devices as
having the potential to help:
Facilitate individual, cooperative and interactive work in class
Enable sharing of ideas, knowledge, ideas and responses
Increase participation in whole-class settings
Enable learners to revisit prior learning
Provide opportunities for autonomy and independence
Permit storage of work and resources in one place at hand.
224 J. Turner

But, an accompanying lesson is that this can be at odds with traditional pre-digital
expectations, many of which schools continue to have to satisfy. Hand-written
exam essays are a good case in point. Common testing can also impact on personal
learning choices. The debate on the effect of digital devices on young brains
continues (Greeneld 2015, p. 14). Issues of potential distraction (Duncan et al.
2012; McCoy 2013; Bjerede and Bondi 2012) have been raised as of concern;
related to both pedagogical and personal identity development issues (particularly
with adolescents).
Research in school environments does not to date appear to have gained sig-
nicant traction. But as McFarlane (2015) notes, could it be that the nal step
change in personal access to online resources and communications by young people
using smartphones and tablets will be the factor that changes policy and therefore
school attitudes to computer use? (p. 141).
How mobile learning can best interact with school is at early stage, although
there is an increasing focus on certain mobile learning affordances. Within schools
this is likely to be affected by the schools approach to personal learning, choices
provided re time and place, and associated values. Mobile learning affordances of
choice, accessibility to content, learning interactions, and connections between
contexts appear to have potential value. K-12 schools, though, are institutions that
operate with a strong set of social obligations that impact on what is possible and
what is valued. They also deal with a wide range of maturation, from 5 year olds or
below, to 1718 year olds in their nal stages before high-stakes testing leading
hopefully to further study. This needs to be carefully considered, and the teacher as
a central authority has a critical part to play. This will be further examined in the
next section.
In addition the following school ecosystem factors can also impact on what can
be achieved through mobile learning:
Values encapsulated in organisational vision and priorities
Structures, including support
Infrastructure choices
How learning is evaluated
What change choices the school system allows, including
What affordances the school will commit to, and in what way(s).
As Watters (2014, p. 4) reminds, while building new technologies is easy (or
easy-ish), changing behaviors and culture is much, much harder.

13.2.2 The Role of the Teacher

Within K-12 schools a key determiner is the teacher. John Hattie, in the Forward to
Bain and Westons (2012) study of personal digital device use in schools, identied
teacher mind frames as the most important enhancer and barrier to student learning.
Bain and Weston agree with Hattie that within schools there exists a fundamental
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 225

issue of conservative standardised-based systems up against personal digital

learning devices geared to support connection, reflection and construction. Teachers
have the potential to risk and build value if they see positive possibilities, or negate
if they feel educational value is wanting. Teacher mindset can limit what might be
sought through use of educational technologies (Turner 1999, Blackley and Walker
2015). Socio-cultural understanding is therefore a key consideration, as recognised
by Siepold and Pachler (2011) in their examination of how such understanding can
impact on mobile learning.
McFarlane (2015 p. 27) also highlights the importance of teacher buy-in,
highlighting professional development of teachers in the effective use of connected
devices to support learning is fundamental to a successful implementation of 1:1
mobile computing, and that the frequency of use of digital technologies overall
was (still) dependent on school policy, access to technology and teacher practices.
(p. 34) Tablet use in education is strongly aligned to teacher perceptions of the
affordances of technology (Churchill et al. 2012). We need to constantly take note
of Fullans (2007, p. 21) observation on educational changes that all real change
involves loss, anxiety and struggle.
As mobile learning impacts on personal choice, systemic responses to the
diversity that ensues will place pressure on standardised systems. The role of the
teacher in integrating mobile learning, while critical, to date is short on practical
advice. To support integration of the affordances identied from mobile learning
research, an understanding of how best to bring together school, teacher and digital
technologies in ways that add value to the overall educational enterprise is needed.
With this in mind, an examination of one schools approach will seek to shed some
light on possibilities.

13.3 A Short History of Mobile Learning in a School

The school referred to in this paper is a K-12 co-educational international school

located in Hong Kong. Nearly all students progress to tertiary education, often to
universities spread across the world. It has high academic expectations. There are
also many students who move in and out of the school, although a strong core
percentage remains through most levels. It has a traditional timetable, teachers
allocations and hierarchical curriculum through the International Baccalaureate
(IB), Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and
Diploma Programme (DP).
For the school mobile learning has been dened as learning accruing through
access to digital devices at-hand within the school and beyond. Historically, this has
been based on the schools 1:1 laptop program. Increasingly this is being widened
to consider personal mobile devices such as phones and tablets.
A 2006 plan, Sustainable Human Networks led to the establishment of a group
of educators tasked to help drive and support digital change, the introduction of a
1:1 laptop program from Grade 5 onwards, and a series of recommendations
226 J. Turner

affecting curriculum, infrastructure and teacher training. The 1:1 laptop program
was progressively embedded for all Grade 5 through 12 students, who own and
manage their own laptop using a school provided image.
A 2011 review led to a Digital Learning Infusion (DLI) plan built around
infusion, as dened by the Florida Centre for Instructional Technology (2011)
Technology Integration Matrix (TIM). This sought to infuse beliefs and practices
that would improve student achievement, teacher practice, and support for the
schools curriculum objectives and mission. A vision that digital technologies
enable opportunities for greater active student learning that is valued, visible,
connected and progressive provided a focus.
The DLI led to the development of teacher digital learning certication and
professional learning networks, more active student involvement, digital portfolios
as more visible learning journeys, online learning environments, a digital literacy
curriculum, global and environmental objectives, and strengthening of in-school
research.
The 2011 plan has been updated to take on new or emerging technologies
deemed to have teaching and learning potential, such as those provided through
Google Educational Apps suite, eBook construction, social media developments
and iPads as mobile personal learning devices. Digital Literacy curriculum devel-
opment drew on Meyer and Lands (2003) threshold concepts approach to help
progress teacher and student digital learning capacity. A reafrmation of the 1:1
laptop program to support inquiry-led learning, digital portfolios, and the infused
approach to digital supported or enhanced learning constituted a continuing strong
commitment to the role of digital teaching and learning in the school.
The laptop remains the primary digital device for all students from Grade 5
onwards, although iPads are being increasingly integrated in earlier years, and
Grade 4 is moving to each student having their own personal laptop. This was to
enable younger students and their families to communicate and connect through
blogging, build up a media-based record of learning, and connect to wider audi-
ences. Research insights are being developed within the schools programs.
Construction of eBooks and apps within the school complements use of mobile
device. Chinese eBooks with their use of audio and interactive media are a good
example of this. An updated vision, constructing visible, connected and pro-
gressive learning journeys to support reflection, feedback, ownership and con-
ceptual depth (for teachers and students), was developed.
The schools vision reflects that learning can be enhanced by appropriately
focused use of mobile devices. This is important, because as Clarke and Svanaes
(2014, p. 15) identify, tablets specically must be supported by a pedagogical
vision in order to reach its potential impacts on learning. Ignoring the importance
of a pedagogical vision has impeded gaining academic worthwhile research on the
impact of tablets on education (Cochrane et al. 2013).
Allied to this, a comprehensive teacher learning program ensures all teachers are
supported. Part of this involves enhancing teacher and team adaptability, and
generating more flattened learning environments (and related pedagogical approa-
ches) so that student expertise can likewise be developed and supported. This is also
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 227

recognised by Clarke and Svanaes (2014) as crucial for effective integration. Depth
of change is supported through groups that connect bottom-up and top-down dri-
vers. School leadership by example also plays an important role.
The schools commitment to mobile learning is apparent in
The student relationship with their laptop as a personal mobile learning device
The use of digital devices to advance new and established learning
Support structures and leadership commitment for progressing such learning
An examination of the schools learning ecosystem demonstrates:
Vision and purposethe school has a school-wide Digital Learning Infusion
vision and plan which can be mapped against particular objectives: valued,
visible, connected, progressive
Supportive structuresdedicated support for curriculum and teacher personal
development is provided
Connected infrastructure choicessystemised while allowing some individual
choice
CurriculumIB Curriculum with strong inquiry emphasis, with academic focus
increasing into senior years
Learning evaluatedteacher-centered, but with efforts to make learning more
visible for student inclusion and wider considerations
Digital change managementthrough a school-wide Learning Technologies
Council, connecting support, curriculum and leadership.
The extent to which this has been successful against mobile learning contentions
will be evaluated later in this paper.

13.4 Evaluating Mobile Learning

How best to see if a schools use of mobile technologies is leading to worthwhile

educational value? The OECD (2013) case study methodology identies analysis of
primary documents, interviews of key stakeholders, discussion with focus groups of
stakeholders and a discourse analysis of relevant media as an appropriate inves-
tigative approach. Sharples (2009), in the Mobile Learning Organisers Project,
called on diary and interview methods. Traxler and Kukulska-Hulme (2005)
dened a good evaluation as enabling quality sharing, reporting and embedding
connections that are consistent, rigorous, scalable and ethical.
For any school, understanding the cultural context is a necessary prelude to
evaluating what is and can be. For mobile learning this requires clarication of
affordances that can be mapped against school objectives. In this paper, the fol-
lowing have been identied as of potential value and practical use within a school
(Table 13.1):
228 J. Turner

Table 13.1 Mobile learning affordances v school digital learning objectives

Mobile learning affordances School digital learning objectives
Increased access Valued
Building personal relationships with learning Visible
Personalization of choice and pathways Connected
Increased accessibility to content Progressive
Increased learning interactivity
Connecting across contexts

With this focus, the following reviews were undertaken to seek insights into
ways that might progress mobile device affordances, and the schools vision for use
of such devices.

13.5 School Case Reviews

Four projects within the school were analysed:

13.5.1 Study One: Grade 11 Parent Conferencing

Since 2013 all grade 11 students have developed and used a digital portfolio as part
of their conversations with their parents on the progress they had achieved within
the IB DP (Grades 1112). This conversation covers the Community and Service,
Theory of Knowledge (TOK) and Extended Essay aspects of the DP. This is bound
by the IBs focus on developing approaches to learning (ATLs). In addition to
sharing with parents evidence of achievement through personal construction, the
folios also link with other subject portfolios (such as in Digital Art work) and
support possible university interest in a students school performance. Students
choose their own digital publishing medium and put together their own selection of
materials.
The student use of a personal school digital portfolio to help support parent
conferencing supported the following mobile learning affordances:
Increased accessParents accessed and engaged in the conversation both
in-school and beyond, thus widening student learning interactions and parent
understanding of their childs progress. Students can also access each others
work
Building personal relationships with learningStudents developed their own
digital portfolio as a reflection of their learning journey
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 229

Personalization of choice and pathwaysStudents chose what to put in their

digital portfolio to best reflect their own learning achievements and the medium
for publishing
Increased accessibility to contentStudents linked to other learning and drew
on digital tools such as Google Educational Apps to provide examples
Increased learning interactivityStudent developed their own links and
obtained feedback from parents and teachers through the comments feature.
TOK is one area that draws heavily on student discourse with others
Connecting across contextsSubject connections were also included and wider
use, such as for university selection, is available
School objectives were supported by:
ValuedThe use continued through a change of DP Coordinator
VisibleThe digital portfolio provided a visible window into student learning
appreciated by parents, peers, and teachers as a means to celebrate progress and
identify areas for support
ConnectedStudents drew on digital folio work created in-school in previous
years as well as informal digital learning to enhance their digital portfolio
ProgressiveThe addition of parental understanding of the non-academic
subject aspects of the IB was progressed (Fig. 13.1).

Fig. 13.1 Grade 11 digital

portfolio example
230 J. Turner

13.5.2 Study Two: Grade 8 EBook and Process Journal

All Grade 8 students as part of their Science studies created an eBook on a des-
ignated authentic Science topic. This project had developed over the past 3 years,
with this years eBook on Diseases developed and evaluated with Grade 56 stu-
dents as the intended audience. Each Grade 8 students team of three to four students
completed a chapter, which was then joined into a grade-wide book. Google Docs
was used to connect student group discussions and unite knowledge on both per-
sonal and group levels.
The project supported the following mobile learning affordances:
Increased accessStudents worked on the joint aspects even when group
members are elsewhere (a critical part of group work in digital domains). Access
to their work was extended through the schools Management Learning System
Building personal relationships with learningStudents developed a valued
relationship with software and its capabilities. The student learning of new
software, iBook Author, was student led and supported by teacher under-
standing of student digital literacy development needs
Personalisation of choice and pathwaysBook design was personalised by
each group within stipulated book requirements. Student choice of widgets
(iBook Author internal apps) and supplementing sites such as Bookry.com were
personal choices in accordance with design processes and subject standards
Increased accessibility to contentStudents drew on Web 2 information
sources such as Bookry.com and infogr.am, as well as through their own
investigations
Increased learning interactivityStudents evaluated and created personalised
interactive widgets available in iBook Author or Bookry. This included quizzes,
galleries and interactive graphics
Connecting across contextsStudents appreciation of learning, as seen through
younger students, was a key part of the design process. The use of iBook Author
also has been extended to other Grade 8 subjects.
School objectives were supported by:
ValuedAssessed as a formal school subject project (in MYP Science and
Design subjects) with learning valued extended to other students (Grade 5 and 6
students)
VisiblePublished within the schools Virtual Learning Environment, and
available as pre-learning for future projects
ConnectedGroup learning and problem-solving approaches supported.
Collaborative publishing approaches progressed
ProgressiveFormed basis for learning to build deeper knowledge through
publishing formal science work to different audiences (Fig. 13.2).
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 231

Fig. 13.2 Grade 8 science diseases eBook example

13.5.3 Study Three: Grade 6 Digital Literacy

All Grade 5 and 6 students manage their own digital portfolio (iFolio) which reports
on their learning progress. In support of this a digital literacy evaluation approach
was developed, where teachers provided feedback through the iFolio to each stu-
dent on their digital literacy development. A digital literacy rubric applicable for
teacher feedback has been developed, with a student version to support personal
learning evaluation being customised by teachers.
Teacher feedback of student digital literacy through their iFolio supported the
following mobile learning affordances:
Increased accessTeachers, peers or parents could access student development
in their own time. Teachers and students identied areas for further work as well
as celebrate progress
Personal relationships with learningStudents personalised within educational
boundaries and developed for sharing focused areas of inquiry
Personalisation of choice and pathwaysEach iFolio provided avenues for
personal exploration and choice, as well as a basis for further development in
later years (which uses similar iFolio approaches)
Increased accessibility to contentLinks to new knowledge and personal
inquiries were shared
Increased learning interactivityWidgets such as Flags were used to share
levels of interaction Feedback provides strong learning support. Parent feedback
also accessible
232 J. Turner

Connecting across contextsProject work was documented to provide an

ongoing learning journey. This included personal media collections. Can also be
evaluated against Digital Literacy and IB PYP expectations.
School objectives were supported by:
ValuedAs one teacher recently commented, iFolios support digital literacy
through generating possibilities for curriculum planning, teaching and pro-
viding students feedback. This also supplies teachers with a framework of how
to move on students to the next level and provides a common language to
describe the differing areas we need to focus on.
VisibleiFolios available for teacher, parent and peer review.
ConnectedLiteracy journey available for subsequent years. Forms basis for
understanding of design project approaches further developed within IB MYP
Design.
ProgressiveCan evolve as students encounter iFolios and digital literacy
opportunities at earlier years (Fig. 13.3).

Fig. 13.3 Grade 6 iFolio example demonstrating digital literacy development

13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 233

13.5.4 Study Four: Grade 1 iPad as iFolio

The recent availability of larger screen tablets has opened up new possibilities for
younger students who cannot readily master keyboard technologies, enabling use of
touch-screen mobile devices to engage in wider learning. While cognisant of
appropriate time exposure and balance with non-digital environments critical to the
young persons social and emotional well being, teachers have increasingly found
that the tablet supports valued learning in new ways. While grades for younger
students work with a set of six or seven school provided iPads to support learning
stations, one class has been trialling the difference each student having their own
personal iPad at-hand might provide. This has formed the basis for an extension to
an iPad as a personal learning device for all Grade 1 students next year, building
into following years as student need supported by teacher and school preparedness
allows.
A core selection of apps was selected to support literacy, numeracy, commu-
nication, collaboration and media construction. For example, EasyBlog is a
WordPress based app that enables young students to photograph and record through
a simple click method. Other apps are selected by teachers according to student
needs and learning value.
As detailed in a draft letter from the school to parents in February 2015, by
personalising the iPad and building an iFolio the student can:
Develop condence and competence through structured play and inquiry
Build up a portfolio of learning through media (audio and visual) constructions
Better engage in personalised literacy development
Better communicate to teachers and parents
Obtain more timely and focused feedback from a wider range of people.
The following mobile learning affordances were supported:
Increased accessTeacher and parents can access student learning develop-
ment anytime from multiple devices.
Personal relationships with learningStudents can directly take up their iPad
whenever a worthwhile learning opportunity presents.
Personalised of choice and pathwaysTeacher app choice is available around
the core apps selected to support student creativity and personalize learning
pathways. Students can build their own learning pathways through personalised
use of apps.
Increased accessibility to contentStudents can generate and access media
information.
Increased learning interactivityStudents can report, reflect and communicate
in more accessible media. Feedback is likewise recorded and accessible.
Connecting across contextsiFolio tags create a documented journey of cur-
riculum value, extending classroom learning beyond the classroom.
234 J. Turner

Fig. 13.4 Grade 1 iFolio example used in Grade 1 teacher presentation

School objectives were supported by:

ValuedTeacher driven as worthwhile education and learning, supported by
school leadership
VisibleAccessible across the school community
ConnectedConnected to the schools iFolio approach that extends through to
the DP level
ProgressiveiFolio moves with the student to subsequent years. New digital
opportunities can be embraced and personalised learning integrated (Fig. 13.4).

13.6 Discussion

These studies support that appropriately targeted use of digital technologies can
satisfy both mobile learning affordances and school intentions within a whole
school framework. They provide evidence of a school coordinated approach to
technology integration in line with what mobile learning research has identied as
learning affordances. Teacher development and inclusion, school support and
leadership, and a culture of worthwhile, evaluable risk taking are all critical aspects.
It is important continually to look deeper into any school to understand its digital
ecosystems. There are many international schools spread across the world with
similar surface characteristics. And as stated previously there is much that can be
learned from other schools. But if one is to progress digital within a school an
understanding of where the school is at, where it wants to go, and what it is willing
to take on, is paramount. This includes taking into account the effect of legacy
13 Mobile Learning in K-12 Education: Personal Meets Systemic 235

decisions. As Watters (2014, p. 3) reminds us the future of ed-tech is shaped by the

history of ed-techwhether we realise it or not. So too the future of any schools
use of ed-tech.
The mobile learning approach taken on in the school recognises several delib-
erations as important to progress any schools productive commitment to mobile
learning. These include:
Understanding institutional cultural and contextual foundations
Clarifying institutional intentions
Clearly stating what is understood by emerging concepts such as mobile
learning, digital literacy and so on
Understanding the adaptability requirements of dynamic digital systems within
school structures
Developing support structures that help facilitate a united approach to advancing
personal, curriculum and school system objectives
Importance of leadership at multiple levels, including teacher inclusion
Looking for opportunities and challenges to be embraced and embedded as an
integral part of institutional decision making
Maintaining a willingness to integrate student personal learning facilitated by
their personal devices.
The investigation in the school has positively supported the question of whether
mobile learning affordances can be successfully integrated into the school learning
ecosystem to provide valued learning. However, this is only a rst step and
somewhat limited to in-school mobile devices in early years, and personal laptop
use in later years. In addition, to look deeper, more formal research is required to
ascertain:
Are there areas where more can be done, such as in level of personal choice,
levels of visibility and feedback, or evaluating learning value,
To what extent might limitations of school as a system be blocking intentions,
and
If so, what adjustments might assist and how likely to be taken up
More also needs to be done on the impact of personal smartphones and multiple
devices on school-based learning. These all will relate to Sharples (2009) identi-
cation of usability, effectiveness and satisfaction as important drivers for evalu-
ating mobile learning (as with any digital technology change).

13.7 Conclusion

Mobile learning within school systems is at a crucial point (McFarlane 2015).

Using digital to add value in education is an evolving phenomenon. How this will
unfold by its very nature is unclear. But what it does tell us is that in order to
progress we need to innovate and take calculated risks, particularly in
236 J. Turner

fast-changing, dynamic environments. To this end schools need to continue to seek

new opportunities that reflects a balanced, forward-looking focus. They also need to
continually question themselves, and by doing so educate by example. All schools
as Digital Age social institutions will need this trait.
This paper, by looking at one schools approach towards integrating mobile
learning up against affordances identied by mobile learning research, provides
pointers to consider for other schools, as well as highlights issues that all schools
need to consider.
Some may prefer to stay cocoon within closed systems built around closed
knowledge and minimal change controlled by individual hierarchical decision
making; what some might term industrial thinking. Others may be content to focus
solely on individual relationships with their personal technologies. If seeking to
unite the (school) system with personal mobile learning, it is as much about the
approach, the intent and the willingness to be open to the opportunities mobile
device might provide. There is a long way to go, although this study provides
grounds for positive expectation. It starts with a conversation; it includes risk,
evaluative processes, and a recognition of the challenge and power of difference a
meeting of the personal and the systemic.

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Author Biography

John Turner is Head of Learning and Teaching Technologies at Canadian International School of
Hong Kong, with nearly 30 years experience working with educational technologies across K-12.
As well as providing advice on how new technologies might add value to learning, he is also
actively involved in leading by example and working with teacher teams, united in support of the
schools vision of digital learning infusion. John has previously led similar approaches in Australia
and the Middle East. Experiences and research have been shared through local, national and
international conferences and journals.
Chapter 14
Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere
Are We in the Harnessing of Mobile
Technology in K-12 Classrooms
in Hong Kong?

Tianchong Wang

Abstract The emergence of Post-PC iPads and Galaxy tablets as global heavy-
weights of mobile technologies have prompted a wave of educational technology
advocates and policy makers to encourage teachers in the harnessing of mobile
technology into K-12 classrooms. The actual level of implementation, however, has
been reported as lagging far behind these research-led initiatives and slowed down
the momentum envisaged by these policies, especially in many classrooms in the
public sector. Teachers as individual innovation adopters are believed to play a
crucial role in this innovation change process for the adoption of mobile technolo-
gies. To better understand the reluctance of teachers to adopt these mobile
technologies into their classrooms, this study assessed teachers concerns over
harnessing mobile technology in Hong Kong public sector K-12 classrooms. A total
of 159 teachers participated in this study. Utilising the Stage of Concern framework,
a mixed-method approach was taken. Data collection compiled self-reported Stage
of Concern Questionnaires and Open-Ended Concerns Statement opinion polls.
Preliminary descriptive analysis showed that teachers experienced all ve categor-
ical concerns over harnessing mobile technology in teaching practices. The
Information construct underscored a more intense area of concern. From the nd-
ings, implications in terms of accessibility, time, support-related interventions,
leadership issues, and further suggested interventions are discussed.

14.1 Introduction

In recent years, the proliferation of mobile computing devices, especially Post-PC

smartphones and tablets such as Apple iPads, have had a tremendous impact on
different facets of Hong Kong society. A recent market research report (TNS 2011)

T. Wang (&)
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: shaohua3@gmail.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 239

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_14
240 T. Wang

established that a total of 17 percent, or one in six Hong Kong residents, owned an
iPad, which is nearly six times the global average. Following suit, in order to maintain
and advance the competitiveness of Hong Kong, the HKSAR government has
implemented initiatives on harnessing the mobile technology in K-12 education: the
government guideline (Education Bureau 2007) on the Third Strategy on Information
Technology in Education (ITE3), named Right Technology at the Right Time for the
Right Task, published by the Hong Kong Education Bureau, has recognised mobile
learning as a trend; The most recent consultation document (Education Bureau 2014)
of the forthcoming Fourth Strategy on Information Technology in Education (ITE4)
took one step further by positioning the use of mobile technology as one of the most
important strategies for students and teachers learning and teaching.
On the face of it, the Hong Kong public education system seems well-adapt at
embracing the Smart Age. However, some recent reports pointed out that this only
applies to a certain number of Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) Schools (Yau 2015).
Indeed, when it comes to those Aided Schools, the most common and grass-roots
pre-tertiary schools in the Hong Kong public sector, the actual implementation of the
mobile technology in classrooms has been relatively slow so far. Anecdotal reports
have revealed that many teachers are unmotivated to alter their current teaching
practices and to integrate mobile technology into the classroom. There appears to be
discrepancy between policy and reality of classroom implementation.
The introduction of mobile technologies into the classroom requires a process of
change in learning and teaching. Teachers, the front line change adopters and
gatekeepers (Fullan 2007), would inevitably have concerns over adopting change
(Hord et al. 2006). While some researchers have explored and underscored the
potential of introducing the mobile technology as an educational tool in situations
within and beyond the connes of the classroom (Wang et al. 2014), the potential
cannot be fully realised due to individual teachers concerns towards the mobile
technology, which can result in resistance. Therefore, it is important to identify and
understand individual concerns to reduce the possibility of resistance towards the
implementation of mobile technology in Hong Kong K-12 classrooms.

14.2 Stages of Concern (SoC)

Concerns have been dened as the composite representation of the feelings, pre-
occupations, thoughts and considerations given to a particular innovation-based
task or issue (Hall et al. 1977, p. 5). Stages of Concern (SoC) (Hall and Hord
1987) was a framework developed by Hall and his colleagues to describe how
people acclimate to change to pave the way for successful implementation of an
innovation. The original SoC was construed in seven stages, namely Awareness,
Informational, Personal, Management, Consequence, Collaboration, and
Refocusing. While Hall and Hords (1987) SoC theory has been widely adopted in
14 Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere Are We in the Harnessing 241

many elds, Cheung and Yip (2004) rened the SoC model to ve stages to better
cater for educational change. More specically, Informational stage was merged
with the Personal stage; the Consequence and Collaboration stages were com-
bined; the Awareness stage was deemed irrelevant; and an extra stage called
Evaluation was introduced. In sum, Cheung and Yips (2004) revised stages of
concern for educational change were Evaluation, Information, Management,
Consequence and Refocusing. At stage 1 (Evaluation), the teacher feels uncertain
about the worthiness and fairness of the innovation as well as the feasibility of
putting the innovation into school practice. At stage 2 (Information), the teacher is
concerned with some general aspects of the innovation, such as its rationale,
requirements for use and moderation mechanism. At stage 3 (Management), the
teacher raises a number of questions about the tasks and processes of implementing
innovation. At stage 4 (Consequence), the teacher is concerned with the impact of
the innovation on student learning and his/her professional development. At stage 5
(Refocusing), the teacher is concerned with further developments of the innovation.
Both Hord et al. (2006) and Cheung (2002) indicated that the dimensions of
concerns over innovations occur in a developmental direction: in general, early
concerns (12) are more self-oriented; when these concerns are resolved, what
emerged (3) are more task-oriented; nally, when self- and task concerns are largely
resolved, the participants in change can focus on impact (45). However, Hord et al.
(2006) also emphasised that individuals do not necessarily progress through the
stages step-by-step, and that they do not necessarily begin the stages at the same
time or move through the stages at the same pace. Rather, Cheung and Yip (2004)
pointed out that it is possible for individual teachers to experience several SoC over
the innovation concurrently, but perhaps with differential degrees of intensity.
To frame the adoption of innovation according to the concerns and doubts of
individual teachers requires taking an individualistic approach. Cheung and Yips
(2004) revised SoC model can provide important insight about individual teachers
to understand the stages individual teachers must go through before and when they
are convinced about the innovation, and therefore being adopted in this study. It is
believed that, after identifying, accessing and addressing the concerns of individual
teachers over an innovation, based on their intense stage(s), there would be a greater
likelihood that the innovation will be effectively implemented in a sustainable
manner.

14.3 Research Question

The purpose of this study was to assess teachers concerns about the introduction of
an innovation, mobile technology, into the classroom.
The study sought to answer the research question: What are teachers concerns
as they implement mobile technology into their teaching practices?
242 T. Wang

The results of this study will be used to assist educators and policy makers in
understanding concerns involved in the implementation and integration of the
mobile technology in their schools and in teaching practices for better adoption
through appropriate efforts and interventions.

14.4 Participants

This research study involved 159 teachers who attended our workshop on mobile
learning that was jointly organised with the Education Bureau in December 2013.
The teachers came from both public sector primary and secondary schools in Hong
Kong. Their subject areas varied, as did their exposure to Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Convenience sampling was used. Prior to the
study, all participants were given assurances on the condentiality and anonymity
of the data and its representations.

14.5 Research Design

A mixed-method approach (Creswell 2014) was adopted by assessing teachers

Stages of Concern for harnessing the mobile technology in their classrooms, from
different perspectives. The instruments used were self-reporting, including a
quantitative SoC Questionnaire and a qualitative Open-Ended Concerns Statement
opinion poll.
For quantitative purposes, a customised 25-item SoC Questionnaire written in
the Chinese language was devised, based on Cheung (2005)s version that had been
rigorously tested for validity and reliability, was used to measure teachers stages of
concern as they adopted the mobile technology into their teaching practice
Table 14.1. This SoC Questionnaire comprised ve sub-scales with ve items each
that corresponded to the ve categorical stages of concerns as rened by Cheung
and Yip (2004). All 25 items appeared in the instrument in a mixed order. Each
item was accompanied by a ve-point Likert-scale, ranging from 1 (not concerned)
to 5 (strongly concerned). The SoC Questionnaire was conducted before our
workshop and participants were asked to choose the appropriate level which best
expressed their concerns: high scores indicating high concern, and low scores
indicating low concern.
The results were further supported by the qualitative data collected from the
Open-Ended Concerns Statement opinion poll, in which the most salient issues
were asked in detail. Additional insight into teachers concerns formulated in their
own words were gathered.
The ndings of the questionnaire and the opinion poll would indicate what type
of interventions need to be implemented to enable teachers to move forward to the
next stage in the change process.
14 Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere Are We in the Harnessing 243

Table 14.1 The SoC questionnaire items (translated)

Stages Item no. Item
Evaluation 6 Whether it is worthwhile to promote mobile technology in my school
8 Whether it is feasible to apply mobile technology in my school
11 Whether I have the required knowledge and skills to use mobile
technology
16 Whether using mobile technology is better than other teaching tools
21 Whether the government supports the use of mobile technology in
school education
Information 2 How my role is supposed to change if I adopt mobile technology in
my teaching practice
7 How the use of mobile technology will affect my teaching workload
9 Opportunities to learn from other teachers experience of using
mobile technology in their teaching practice
17 Knowing more instances for applying mobile technology in teaching
22 Further provision of resource and support if I go on to apply mobile
technology in my teaching practice
Management 3 Insufciency of time to prepare and adjust my current pedagogy if
adopting mobile technology
12 How to assess my students learning with mobile technology
13 How to conduct teaching and learning activities with mobile
technology more efciently
18 Extra time on dealing with non-pedagogical issues after the use of
mobile technology in my teaching practice
23 Insufciency of time for students to reflect and summarise their
learning after using mobile technology
Consequence 1 Whether my student would like to use mobile technology to learn
4 My students attitude towards mobile technology
14 Collaboration with other teachers to facilitate teaching with mobile
technology
19 Impact on my students after applying mobile technology in my
teaching practice
24 Reinforcing my students understanding on their learning role in
learning with mobile technology
Refocusing 5 The best use of mobile technology in my own teaching
10 How to optimise teaching practice with mobile technology based on
my own experience
15 Revising mobile technology in education to improve its effectiveness
20 How to modify teaching practice with mobile technology based on
my students feedback
25 Exploring other teaching tools better than mobile technology
244 T. Wang

14.6 Results and Data Analysis

Although all of the 159 questionnaires were returned, 18 of those were partially
completed. The data analysis was therefore based on 141 completed questionnaires.
MATLAB, a statistics analysis computer programme, was used for quantitative data
analysis. A reliability analysis was performed in the beginning. The Cronbachs
alphas (Cronbach 1951) of the ve constructs were 0.665, 0.691, 0.701, 0.732 and
0.705, respectively. These results indicated an adequate level of reliability of the
collected data.
Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the questionnaires. The mean of each
SoC construct was computed, as Table 14.2 shows. The means ranged from 3.99 to
4.23, indicating that teachers experienced all ve categorical concerns over har-
nessing the mobile technology in their teaching practices.
A one-way within subjects ANOVA analysis was conducted. The result indi-
cated that differences among the ve constructs means were statistically signicant
[F (4, 3520) = 12.582, p < 0.001]. It can be seen that the mean of the Information
concern was the greatest (4.23). Paired-samples t-tests (Nikulin 2001) veried that
the mean of the Information concern was statistically different from the Evaluation
constructs (p-value = 1.2923e 007, <0.05), the Management constructs (p-
value = 1.3020e 009, <0.05), the Consequence constructs (p-value 0, <0.05)
and the Refocusing constructs (p-value = 1.6738e 011, <0.05).
In sum, the statistical analysis identied that teachers experienced all ve cat-
egorical concerns over harnessing the mobile technology in teaching practices, and
among those, Information was the peak category, which appeared to be a more
intense area of concern. It is worth noting that, considering the mean value of all
SoC constructs were high and the Informations distinctness from other constructs
was roughly 0.2, such a difference was not necessarily substantive (Carver 1978).
Qualitative data from the Open-Ended Concerns Statement opinion poll was
organised into table format within Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet software.
A thematic analysis framework was adopted. Among these statements, a number of
concerns were flagged by the teachers. The main themes that emerged mostly
mirrored those items described in the questionnaire.

Table 14.2 Univariate Construct Mean Standard Deviation

descriptive statistics of the
SoC constructs Evaluation 4.06 0.77
Information 4.23 0.67
Management 4.03 0.73
Consequence 3.99 0.68
Refocusing 4.02 0.65
14 Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere Are We in the Harnessing 245

14.7 Preliminary Discussions and Implications

for Practice

On the whole, the teachers concurrent experience of all ve categorical concerns

about harnessing the mobile technology in teaching practices reflected a willingness
to accept the mobile technology during the adoption and implementation process.
The relatively higher intensity of the Information stage implied that teachers were
still concerned with how mobile technology affected them individually and focused
on its rationale, requirements for use and moderation mechanism. Frequently
occurring concerns from the Concerns Statement opinion poll along with recom-
mendations are put forward.
Accessibility issues could hinder teachers decision to integrate mobile tech-
nology. Poor support networks can result in negative perceptions and ultimately
resistance to mobile technology use. Concerns about the instability of the Wi-Fi
network as a result of concurrent usage by students and teachers indicates to policy
makers and educational leaders the need for better Wi-Fi infrastructure in all
classrooms. In addition, in some schools, it was reported that the accessibility issue
was still at the hardware level. This indicates that digital divide across schools in
terms of accessibility still exists in Hong Kong. In these schools, despite advocacy
from motivated teachers for mobile hardware, the nancial cost for the school was
still the fundamental barrier. As mobile devices become more ubiquitous among
families with children, it is suggested that the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD)1
model (Johnson et al. 2013) is a plausible option to ensure maximum hardware
accessibility. Even so, considering that many children in public schools are from
low-income families that do not have the ability to shoulder the costs involved in
the change with innovations, it is recommended that the government should dip
deeper in order ensure that no student is left behind in the Smart Age just for
nancial reasons.
While addressing accessibility issues concerns, it is important not to use tech-
nology for technologys sake. Often in many classroom situations, mobile tech-
nology serves better as a supplement rather than replacement for traditional learning
and teaching tools. The affordances (Gibson 1977; Norman 1988) of the mobile
technology must be exploited in a more meaningful, contextually appropriate and
efcient approach. After all, it is the combination of transformed learning design
and sound pedagogical practices, rather than merely fancy technologies or tech-
nology know-how, that can effectively instigate a paradigm shift in the classroom.
Time constraint was another salient concern raised by teachers who are time
decient even without the use of technology in their existing teaching practice.
Although time constraints can become an excuse for a certain group of teachers
who are not technologically inclined, admittedly, with the use of technology, fur-
ther time-consuming factors such as technological problems could be added.

1
A model based on the idea that students should be encouraged to bring their personal devices,
especially smartphones and tablets, to class.
246 T. Wang

Just-in-time and on-going supports from the school ICT support team should be
readily available to free up teachers time so that the integration of mobile tech-
nology can become a meaningful venture.
Even with the help from ICT support teams or educational technologists, many
teachers admitted that they felt nervous incorporating the mobile technology into
their teaching practices. Thus, there is a pressing need for rigorous teacher training
in the mobile technology in educational practices, such as pre-service and in-service
professional development courses and even one-to-one consultations, while a
minority of enthusiastic teachers may develop such practices through their own
resources. This is a long-term process, which involves not only the development of
teachers digital literacy but also a paradigmatic shifting of how learning and
teaching with mobile technology (Churchill et al. 2012; Churchill and Wang 2014).
Alongside formal training, teachers should build up informal Communities of
Practice (CoPs) (Wenger 1998) where they can exchange new ideas and collect
feedback with local and remote partners. For example, social networking and
mobile Instant Messaging (like WhatsApp and WeChat) groups can be formed by
teachers and ICT professionals to identify and share educational Apps, and apply
generic Apps to creative usages. The information gained from the CoPs may serve
as a starting point for many. In conjunction with the community efforts, it is hoped
that individual teachers own mobile pedagogy can be developed to achieve their
own pedagogical purposes and student learning outcomes.
Putting technical challenges aside, some teachers maintained a critical attitude
toward the mobile technology integration because of classroom disciplinary con-
cerns. A few of them anticipated that students would be over-excited during mobile
technology-supported lessons, while the others questioned if the mobile technology
in classrooms would lead to off-task behaviours and distractions because of its
hyperconnectivity to social media. These concerns may sound legitimate. In order
to tackle them, additional provisions allowing for disciplinary measures should be
given extra attention. Teachers should offer guidance students to recognise that
mobile tools are more than entertainment consumption toys and further scaffold
students to apply the mobile technology to learning tasks. Nevertheless, from the
viewpoint of a teacher, we must ask whose responsibility it is when there are
distractions in the classroom, irrespective of whether technologies are incorporated
or not. The optimal solution to avoid off-task behaviours and distractions may be to
engage the learners with interesting learning activities to begin with.
Institutional leadership plays a crucial role as several teachers were concerned
about school support, where there are still bans on students use of mobile
devices in school. Exploration and action research on the educational use of mobile
technology can be hampered by restrictive institutional policies and school culture.
Therefore, there must be informed institutional leadership. Particularly, school
leaders must recognise that educational change associated with mobile technology
is not just for the hard outcomes (e.g. test result improvements) but more for the
soft outcomes such as students acquisition of twenty-rst century skills
(Bellanca and Brandt 2010). Best practices for teachers may only be achieved with
the openness of school leaders to change. Unfortunately, at its current stage, such an
14 Overcoming Teachers ConcernsWhere Are We in the Harnessing 247

informed institutional leadership, which is needed to promote innovation with

mobile technology, has not yet been widespread.
Current results are preliminary in nature. Contextual differences such as different
academic disciplines may have an impact on the intensity of user concerns over the
technology.

14.8 Conclusions

Change in K-12 education goes far beyond the introduction of innovations like the
mobile technology, and is likely not to be a one-time dog and pony show. Rather,
change with technology must begin with innovation practitioners - the teachers,
although they will raise concerns. In this study, by acknowledging and giving
serious attention to the intensive areas of concerns among teachers based on the
SoC framework, perhaps more meaningful interventions can be taken, as suggested
in the Preliminary Discussions and Implications for Practice section, to enable the
change process to be directly relevant to the teachers needs. Nevertheless, har-
nessing the potential of mobile technology in K-12 education will require a con-
certed effort on the part of all stakeholders to reduce the discomfort aspect of the
change process and eventually achieve the ideal state of the innovation imple-
mentation: as Marshall (1995) stated, adding wings to caterpillars does not create
butterfliesButterflies are created through transformation (p. 11).

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Author Biography

Tianchong Wang is currently a Senior Research Assistant at The Hong Kong Institute of
Education as well as a Doctoral Student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prior to this, he
received an MSc degree from the University of Hong Kong and a BA degree from Hong Kong
Baptist University, respectively. Tianchong has a background in ICT, receiving qualications such
as MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP, ACSP, ACTC, and THXCP. Tianchong is
also a passionate educator and researcher. He is a member of IEEE, HKERA, and HAAL. His
research interests include blended learning, mobile learning, and flipped classrooms.
Chapter 15
Exploring the Suitability of the Book
Creator for iPad App for Early Childhood
Education

Monika Tavernier

Abstract Handheld mobile devices are part of young childrens everyday life as
they observe others use and engage with such devices. Early childhood education
does not ignore the popularity of mobile touch devices and starts to investigate how
tablets, especially iPads, can improve learning and teaching. This study examines if
the Book Creator App for iPads is a suitable app to enhance 36 years old
childrens ability to express their ideas, creativity and illustrate their understanding
of the world around them. Over a period of 12 weeks, a group of 35 years old
children familiarized with the app, completed assignments and created sophisticated
digital artefacts that included drawings, photos, voice and video recordings. These
artefacts reflected their interests, cognitive abilities and level of ne motor skills.

15.1 Introduction

The implementation of computers in early childhood education (ECE) showed that

technology can enhance young childrens learning (Clements and Sarama 2002).
Mobile devices such as phones and tablets, especially iPads, are highly accepted and
popular among adults and children (Chiong and Shuler 2010; Yelland and Gilbert
2012). Hence, governments promote the use of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in ECE (Curriculum Development Council 2006) and a plethora
of research described how children as young as 4 years old use ICT independently,
purposefully and for learning purposes (Hertzog and Klein 2005; Zevenbergen
2007). But ECE educators have remained sceptical (Lindahl and Folkesson 2012a,
b). The implementation of ICT in ECE is therefore progressing slowly and related

M. Tavernier (&)
German Swiss International School, Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: monikamenzel@hotmail.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 249

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_15
250 M. Tavernier

activities remain basic (EdwardsGroves and Langley 2009). Prejudices and mis-
conceptions about the effects that ICT has on children and a lack of positive ICT
teaching experiences lead to the teachers opposed attitude (Ertmer 2005; Lindahl
and Folkesson 2011).
Recent tablet and iPad studies investigated the viability of such devices (Yelland
and Gilbert 2012; Michael Cohen Group Llc 2011), the childrens use behaviour
(Falloon 2013; Hutchison et al. 2012) and the impact that applications (apps) and
app interface have on learning (Falloon 2013). The ndings of these studies and the
wide acceptance and use of iPads, their intuitive operation, and the easy access to a
wide range of low cost apps may change the current ICT use in ECE (Chiong and
Shuler 2010). This study introduced 27 35 years old children to the Book Creator
for iPads app (hereafter: Book Creator) to examine the viability of the app for ECE.

15.2 Literature Review

Todays children and parents use mobile phones and tablets on a daily basis
(OMara and Laidlaw 2011). Chiong and Shuler (2010) found that young children
are given mobile phones to entertain them while the family is travelling. Older
children use handheld mobile devices to play, look at or take photos and videos, or
use so-called educational apps. Chiong and Shuler called this phenomenon
pass-back effect and Prenksy (2001) called this generation of children digital
natives. According to him, these children may think and learn differently, and new
ways of teaching may be required to accommodate their ICT skills (Zevenbergen
2007). Prenskys preposition to adjust the current educational approaches to
incorporate childrens ICT knowledge stands in great contrast to the views of many
early childhood teachers (Lindahl and Folkesson 2012a, b). Teachers unquestioned
assumption that ICT-related activities are naturally more interesting for young
children than traditional play or outdoor activities (Lindahl and Folkesson 2011,
2012a) suggests that ICT may threaten childrens healthy development if intro-
duced too young. As a result, many early childhood teachers try to protect their
young students and avoid using ICT (Lindahl and Folkesson 2012a, b).
Some teachers took on the challenge to implement ICT in their early childhood
classrooms, but the use of technology remained basic (EdwardsGroves and
Langley 2009). Hence, Yelland and Gilbert (2012) suggest that teachers should
rethink their current technology use. They envisage that teachers go beyond using
new tablet technologies as playthings like blocks, puzzles or construction toys
[and] be aware of the wider range of uses of tablets to enable learners to become
creators, innovators and to support them in their reflections about the things around
them (p. 1). The use of apps like the Book Creator within the context of ECE may
support the realization of this mission.
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 251

15.3 Creating to Learn

For many years, researchers and teachers have wondered how technology ts in an
ECE environment (Lindahl and Folkesson 2012b), because young children learn
through experiences (Andresen et al. 2000), and interactions with the environment
and the people around them (Vygotsky 1987). Today, we know that ICTs do not
hinder the childrens natural approaches to learning. ICTs are additional resources
for learning (Sarama and Clements 2004; Herztog and Klein 2005). They can help
children practice and reinforce specic content (e.g. Plowman and Stephen 2007;
Clements and Nastasi 1993), and enhance their ability to (1) create original content,
(2) express ideas and (3) present knowledge in sophisticated ways (Scardamalia and
Bereiter 2006; Couse and Chen 2010).
Paintings and drawings are traditional ways for children to express their
knowledge and thoughts (Lancaster 2012). Until recently, the interpretation of these
lay in the hands of the teachers. They may use the child-created artefacts and
teacher-created photos (Broadmann 2007), videos and written documentation to
assess the childrens development and learning (Couse and Chen 2010). But their
analysis of the childrens work may be incomplete or wrong, because the childrens
own explanation is missing (Einardottir 2005).
Einardottirs (2005) photo research is one among the few studies that attempted
to understand the motivation behind child-made photos. Pre-school children were
given cameras to take photos of things that are important to them in the school.
Einardottir found that the neutral viewer could not identify which element of the
photo was important to the young photographer without his or her explanation. So a
visual artefact does not provide enough information to understand what children try
to communicate. The Book Creator may improve this situation, because it allows
the user to draw, type, take photos, create videos, create voice recordings, or a
combination of all of these, and add these creations to their digital artefacts. So for
example, a child may enhance his drawing by adding a voice recording where he
explains he drew a train, and by adding a photo he took of his toy train. This would
clarify the real meaning of his drawing to the neutral viewer.
Given that tablets provide a unique opportunity for young children to be in
control of the device without lengthy pre-use training (Couse and Chen 2010), it is
interesting to investigate how children use open-ended and complex creating apps
that allow them to present and explain their ideas. This study consequently poses
one main research questions: To what extent is the Book Creator app a viable tool
for early childhood education?

15.4 Methods

This exploratory study used a qualitative methods. A qualitative approach was used
to understand the childrens use behaviour in depth. The data collection occurred
within a 12 weeks period. The research instruments included narrative observation
252 M. Tavernier

records, daily log book entries, weekly video recordings and the analysis of chil-
drens artefacts. The quantitative component used the video data of multiple
single-subject case studies (Creswell 2002) to examine how individual children
used the app. The video data from 27 children was analysed and critical incidents
were tagged and summarized into quantitative data. These 27 sets of data were
compared to determine if there are any differences in the ways the children used the
app. The analysis of gender specic differences and the impact of childrens
character are in process and not included in this paper.

15.4.1 Early Childhood Setting

Twenty-seven children of the German section of an international Kindergarten in

Hong Kong participated. The school values social play, outdoor activities, and art
and crafts. Teachers use computers and digital cameras on a daily basis to com-
municate with the parents and to document the childrens learning. The partici-
pating teachers were not familiar with the iPad and did not implement it as a part of
the childrens daily learning prior to the study. They designed their daily schedule
freely and were only restricted by activities that were conducted by special subject
teachers (e.g. music). Table 15.1 illustrates the distribution of age and gender across
the participants.
The school charges 130,100HKD per year (school year 2014/2015). Therefore, it
can be assumed that the social economic background of all children is high. The
school was selected, because it was assumed that these children are familiar with
the touch operated devices. This pre-condition allowed the researcher to spend less
time on explaining how to use the iPad. Instead, she could focus on the imple-
mentation of the Book Creator.

15.4.2 Ethical Considerations

Prior to the study, the school, teachers and parents were asked to complete a consent
form that conrmed their and their childrens participation in the study and their
understanding of (1) the studys purpose, aims and activities, (2) the basis of a
voluntary participation and (3) associated risks and their right to withdraw their
participation at any time. To avoid that some children feel excluded, all children could
engage in the iPad-related activities, but only children that had the parents consent

Table 15.1 Participating Age Boys Girls

children
34 year olds 8 6
45 year olds 7 6
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 253

could operate the iPad. The childrens participation was voluntary and no child was
forced to join. The researcher invited them and respected their choice to decline.

15.4.3 Selection and Evaluation of App

The app suitability was assessed using Diazs (2013) matrix for educational
eBooks. Since the Book Creator allowed the user to create eBooks, this tool was
deemed suitable. Diaz suggested evaluating the:
Richness: the information volume, access richness, diversity of presentation and
interaction styles, kinds of exercises and interactive activities, as well as the
scope of the activity.
Completeness: the number of content and interaction mechanisms to cope with
the goals of different kinds of users.
Motivation: how students are motivated to use the system and to learn more
about the subject being addressed.
Autonomy: the degree of navigation freedom offered to the user and the degree
of interaction freedom.
Competence: the ability to navigate through the system and to reach a particular
goal.
Flexibility: The ease with which the system can be used.
Aesthetic: How the inclusion of multimedia information is harmonized and used
to enhance the comprehension of concepts.
Consistency: the extent to which elements that are conceptually similar are
treated equally by the application, while those that are different are treated
differently.
Ease of Use: how easily users can guess the meaning and purpose of things with
which they are presented.

15.4.4 Procedure

The 12 week long study was conducted from mid-September to mid-December

2014. The researcher participated in all iPad-related activities. In an attempt to relate
the study activities to the curriculum and class topics, the researcher co-designed the
activities with the teachers and involved them in all planning and revision processes.
The data collection was separated into three phases: (1) Familiarization phase,
consisting of experimentation and explorative activities, (2) application phase
including imposed and structured activities and (3) creative phase that allowed the
children to use their new skills to create artefacts independently. Each phase con-
sisted of three independent small projects that aimed to provide the children with
opportunities to develop, reinforce and apply their Book Creator competencies (see
Table 15.2). The childrens participation was not regular since it was voluntary.
254 M. Tavernier

Table 15.2 Intervention overview

Phase and description Theme and main function Duration
Familiarization phase 1. iPad: App Introduction (Drawing) 2 weeks
> Researcher led 2. Weather and Weekdays (Photo Taking) 1 week
> Teacher-centred 3. Autumn Songs (Voice Recording) 1 week
Application Phase 1. Magazine (Multimedia) 1 week
> Researcher led 2. Daily News (Multimedia) 2 weeks
> Student-centred 3. Kids TalkSt. Martins Day (Video Recording) 1 week
Creating Phase 1. Kids Creations 1 weeks
> Researcher-assisted 2. Adventthe time to reflect 1 weeks
> Student-centred 3. Christmas 2 weeks

Consequently, their familiarity with the different functions varied and the researcher
decided on a day-to-day basis when a child was ready to learn about a new function.
All activities took place within the ecosystem of the class and during the free play
period. One iPad was shared throughout the study. Occasionally, the group used two
additional iPads. The emerging ndings indicated that it is more effective to use only
one to two iPads, rather than having one per child.
To ensure that all children had time to experiment and familiarize with the Book
Creator the researcher joined the childrens free play phase every day during the
familiarization and application phase. The activities during these two phases were a
combination of teacher- and student-centred activities that allowed the children to
explore the app freely. The researcher assisted their learning by guiding the children
through the different functions and demonstrating the effective application of each
one of them. This practice was inspired by Plowman and Stephens (2007) guided
interactions approach to learning the effective use of ICT in ECE. The children
could experience and practice newly acquired skills within a safe environment and
according to their individual pace.
During the creating stage, the researcher joined the children three times a week,
because the children needed less time to realize their ideas. Further, the children
needed time to plan their iPad-related activities in order to diversify their artefacts.
Each session lasted for 30 to 45 min.

15.4.5 Data Collection Procedure and Analysis

The data was collected during (video recording) and after each session. After each
session, the researcher summarized the activities and experiences (narrative
observation records and journal entries). The notes included her reflections and
remarks. Further, once to twice a week, the researcher video recorded the activities
and transcribed important periods of child behaviour and interactions. The videos
and written documentation were used to complete rating scales that monitored
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 255

(1) the childrens level of involvement, (2) their level of tablet use and (3) their
actions. This data helped to determine the viability of the Book Creator for ECE for
child-initiated use during free play. The changes of the childrens use behaviour
were assessed based on four elements of the unied theory of acceptance and use of
technology (UTAUT; Venkatesh et al. 2003): the social influence, hedonic moti-
vation, the childs attitude towards technology and self-efcacy.
Venkatesh et al. (2003) unied eight models that examine the acceptance of
technology, one of which is the widely accepted and used technology acceptance
model (TAM; Davis 1989). UTAUT was deemed more suitable for this study
because McCoy et al. (2007) found that the TAM assumptions do not hold in
cultures that have low uncertainty avoidance levels, a more collective cultural
orientation, high power distance scores, or high masculinity scores and according to
Hofstede (2014), Hong Kong has low uncertainty avoidance, has a more collective
cultural orientation, scores high in power distance and a high score at the mas-
culinity, so TAM may not be the right instrument to evaluate use behaviour in Hong
Kong.
This study evaluated three areas: childrens tablet use behaviour, level of
involvement and level of tablet use (see Table 15.3) to examine the suitability of the
Book Creator for ECE. The Leuven Involvement Scale (LIS; Laevers 1994) mea-
sures childrens involvement in a given activity on a scale ranging from 1 (ex-
tremely low involvement) to 5 (extremely high involvement) to assess whether a
child experienced deep learning (Laevers 1994). Marsh et al. (2005) used LIS to
good effect in an ECE study. The childrens level of tablet use was coded according
to Couse and Chens (2010) three stages of tablet useexploring/experimenting,
investigating and creating. On-looking (see Table 15.4) was added because
children who watch their peers have been observed to then apply their observational
knowledge (Tavernier 2013).
Clarke and Clarke (2009) suggested using Blooms Digital Taxonomy (BDT;
Churches 2008) for technology-related student assessment. In a recent study, BDT
was applied and found suitable for the context of assessing young childrens
learning with tablets (Tavernier 2013). Each level of tablet use could be associated

Table 15.3 Overview of the evaluation areas to be collected and research instruments (adapted
from Goodwin 2012)
Evaluation Area Time and Research instrument
frequency
Childrens use Three times a Rating scales, which are based on Venkatesh et al.s
behaviour week (2003) UTAUT and journal entries and video data were
used to assess the childrens use behaviour
Childrens level Three times a Laevers (1994) Leuven Involvement Scale, with
of involvement week involvement rated during a review of videos from
observations
Childrens level Once a week for Couse and Chens (2010) classication of observed
of tablet use every child actions and interactions (review of videos from
observations)
256 M. Tavernier

Table 15.4 Levels of tablet use (Adapted from Couse and Chen 2010, with on-looking and BDT
elements added)
Level of iPad use Descriptions
On-looking Signals: Child stands or sits close by another child using the
tablet and watches attentively.
BDT: Remembering Associated actions: recognizing, listening, describing,
identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, nding
Exploring/experimenting Signals: Child tries to gure out what the app can do, touching
and activating different options/functions to see what happens
BDT: Remembering and Associated actions: recognizing, listening, describing,
understanding identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, nding and explaining,
classifying, exemplifying
Investigating (intentional Signals: Child tries to gure out how to use the options/functions
use) to create a desired effect (e.g. How can I change the colour to
draw a yellow sun?)
BDT: Applying Associated actions: Implementing, carrying out, using, editing,
loading
Creating Signals: Child produces desired effects even if the artefact is not
a realistic representation of real-life objects described by the
child. The child is content with, and clear about, what is being
done.
BDT: Analysing, Associated actions: organizing, structuring, comparing,
evaluating, creating integrating and testing, critiquing and designing, constructing,
planning, producing, making, mixing, video casting, podcasting

with at least one BDT stage. Table 15.4 illustrates how some BDT-related verbs
link the students actions as described by Course and Chen (2010). So a combi-
nation of Couse and Chens work as well as BDT served as a means to determine
the individual childs daily level of use. Observed actions were classied accord-
ingly to the described signals and associated actions.
The qualitative data from the videos was analysed after tagging and coding
critical incidents (Goodwin 2012). The relevant video data was transcribed to reveal
reoccurring patterns of use behaviour (e.g. experienced challenges, peer collabo-
ration, ease of use and the provided type of support). This qualitative data was used
to dene and illustrate emerging phenomena (Yin 2009).

15.5 Findings and Discussion

The Book Creator is an interesting app for ECE, because it allows the user to
progress from consuming content to producing content. The app is complex, but
young children can learn to operate it with the assistance of more knowledgeable
others. The interface is kept simple and somewhat abstract, therefore young chil-
dren require help to familiarize with it. However, after some familiarization
activities young children can operate the app effectively and produce sophisticated
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 257

content. The combination of the app evaluation according to Diaz work and the
practical ndings from the case study led to the following conclusions.

15.5.1 Post-study Evaluation of the Book Creator for ECE

The evaluation of the Book Creator according to Diazs (2013) matrix for the eval-
uation of educational eBooks indicates that the Book Creator is educationally useful,
because it scores high on richness, completeness, motivation, autonomy and flexi-
bility. The interface usability is less strong, because the app uses text and misses a text
to speech function which reads text aloud, helping non-readers understand. Such
function would make it more suitable for young children. The ease of use is reasonably
high once the children learned the meaning of the text elements (see Table 15.5).

15.5.2 Suitability of the Book Creator for ECE

The app is complex and includes many functions and editing options that the
children learned to understand and use over time. The children were interested in all
functions, but experienced an overload of information at rst. The choice of
functions overwhelmed them, and hence each function was introduced separately
and in the context of an imposed task.
The app has two main interfaces: the main starting page which allows the user to
create a new book or open a previously created eBook. Within this interface,
previously created eBooks can be combined, duplicated, deleted, and shared. The
user can also add a title, an author and set display settings. Once a book is open, the
interface changes. The user has access to three main menu bars: 1. functions, 2.
editing options and 3. sharing and publication options. The children in this project
only made use of the menu bar of the second interface, the functions menu and part
of the editing options.
Using these two menu bars could be challenging, because it required the children
to memorize the location of a function within the two menus and possess the ne
motor skills to select the desired functions. For example, to create a voice recording,
the child selects the function menu icon, which is one out of three icons presented
closely together in the right corner of the screen. Children need to know that the
musical key is the icon for the voice recording. They touch it and a textbox opens,
featuring text and a red circle. Children are prone to touch the red circle immedi-
ately and start the recording before they are actually ready to speak. They need to
understand that they only touch the red circle once they are ready to talk and they
need to remember to stop the recording when they are done.
During the recording, the red circle changes into a black circle with a red square
inside. To stop the recording they touch the red square. Once the recording stopped,
a textbox opens and asks the user in text form if they would like to use the
Table 15.5 Evaluation of Book Creator app for iPad for the young childrens use (Adapted from Diaz 2003)
258

Criteria Parameters and descriptive evaluation

Educational Richness Information volume:
usefulness The information provided on each interface is limited to a bare minimum
The users design of each page has no limits. The user can express their ideas through photos, videos, voice recordings, or
drawings
Diversity of presentation and interaction style:
The range of functions allowed the user to express themselves. They could present their ideas through drawings, writing,
scribbling, photos, videos and voice recordings
Scope
The app provides a white platform that embeds various digital means to produce eBooks that suit the individuals
preferences. The combination of the different functions can cater for different readers and could accommodate readers and
non-readers and possibly hearing impaired
Completeness: the number of content Learning activities:
and interaction mechanisms to cope with The app is open ended and does not provide any learning activities. The teacher may design tasks
the goals of different kinds of users Authoring support:
All functions can be used according to ones preferences. Therefore, the user can personalize the design of the digital artefact.
Communication support:
The user can, at any time, share the artefact via email or cloud computing
Collaboration support:
Users can co-author books, share them and continue working on the artefacts from different devices with the same app and
then share the new version
Motivation: how students are motivated, Self-evaluation mechanism:
to use the system and to learn more The user can review and edit their work at any time. The content of videos, photos and drawings cannot be changed or edited
about the subject being addressed within the app, but they can be resized, relocated, and deleted and replaced any time
Adaptability:
The interface cannot be adjusted to the users abilities. Instead the teacher needs to monitor the use behaviour of the students
and gradually guide the child to master the different functions
Out-of-school activities:
The children can include their personal experiences and knowledge from out-of-school in their digital artefacts
The artefacts created in school can be shared as a video or PDF and reviewed in the home environment. If it is shared as a
working le, the user can continue editing the artefact out-of-school
(continued)
M. Tavernier
Table 15.5 (continued)
15

Criteria Parameters and descriptive evaluation

Autonomy: the degree of navigation Interaction freedom:
freedom offered to the user and the The user can decide when and how to make use of the different functions
degree of interaction freedom Autonomy degrees:
The user does not need to nish their work within one session. An eBook can be started, stopped, continued and edited at any
time
Drawing cannot be further edited once the user indicates that he is done with it. They can only be resized, relocated or deleted
afterwards
New layers of digital artefacts can be added any time.
Competence: the ability to navigate Use levels:
through the system and to reach a There are no use levels within the app. Instead the teacher needs to determine how many functions a child should learn at a
particular goal given time. A less experienced user will need more assistance and monitoring than an advanced user, because the app includes
different functions and editing options
Help mechanism:
There are no built-in help mechanism, instead the teachers or more experienced peers may provide help
Adaptability:
Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator...

The app interface cannot be adjusted. The user needs to learn, memorize and understand where to nd the functions and how
to use them (e.g. placing the video and voice recordings in the front
to keep them activated)
Flexibility: The ease with which the Accessibility:
system can be used The app is easy to use once the user is familiar with the icons and text
The text is kept to a minimum (e.g. cancel, done, and delete)
Users that cannot read need some guidance to memorize their look and meaning
Modularity and structure of the architecture:
The function menu is separated from the editing menu. This is difcult for young users to comprehend
Features e.g. adding a page and going from page to page are very intuitive
User interface Aesthetic: How the inclusion of Legibility:
usability multimedia information is harmonized The design of each page depends on the user and represents her or his capabilities
and used to enhance the comprehension Density:
of concepts Each page is white and the user creates designs and multimedia to ll it
There are no set limitations and the amount of information on each
page depends on the user
259

It is possible to embed too many individual designs on one page so that a cognitive overload occurs for the viewer
(continued)
Table 15.5 (continued)
260

Criteria Parameters and descriptive evaluation

Appropriateness:
The touch interface and the ability to use a special touch screen pen, replicates the feeling of using traditional utilities to draw
The option to create and embed multimedia transforms the look-and-feel of the book and may engage children that are less
interested in books, drawing and other ne motor skills, hand-eye coordination skill development activities
The app uses a different gesture than the iPad itself to resize digital objects, which confuses the user
The ability to use drawings, writings, verbal expressions as well as gestures (video recordings) makes the app very
appropriate for the diversied needs and abilities of young children
Consistency: the extent to which Interface areas:
elements that are conceptually similar The interface is the same for every page
are treated equally by the application, Labels and messages:
while those that are different are treated The labels are the same throughout the app and functions (e.g. pressing done when the children are done with drawing or
differently typing).
Buttons, icons and menu items:
The icons and words and sequence of use are the same throughout the app (e.g. starting and stopping voice and video
recording, selecting a new function through the same icon and related menu)
The icons may not all be clear to young children (e.g. the cross to indicate the function menu)
Interface clues:
Since this is an open-ended constructive app, the user designs each page. There are no xed interface cues
Ease of Use: how easily users can guess Self-contained pages:
the meaning and purpose of things with The pages have a clear design and the user can see if it is a single or double sided page. The function menu and all else
which they are presented remains the same throughout the app
Multimedia expressiveness:
The app uses several common icons to illustrate the functions (e.g. a microphone for the voice recording function)
Meaningful naming of functions:
The naming is kept to a bare minimum and often comprises of one word only. The words are clear and unambiguous
M. Tavernier
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 261

recording. The child needs to remember which of the selection options means yes
or no, to avoid an accidental deletion of their recording. Next, the icon of a
speaker appears on the current book page. The child can move it around or resize it.
If another recording is added, the new speaker icon will appear again in the middle
of the page. If the rst recording icon was not moved to a new location, it will now
be inactive, because the video and voice recordings can only be activated if they are
not covered by any other features. Considering all these steps, it is clear that 35
years old children require a substantial amount of help to familiarize, remember and
master this complex sequence of actions. Despite the high level of sophistication the
children were keen to learn using all functions.
The minimalistic layout provides minimal distraction and no inspiration. The
biggest issue remained the text elements within the app and the lack of verbal
support features (e.g. text to speech function). To make the app more suitable for
young children, it would be better to have some built-in verbal guidance that helps
them decode the icons and remember the sequence of actions. The following two
extracts show how children relied on the guidance of the researcher to learn and
remember the meaning of the text elements.
Extract 1: The researcher is guiding the Silas through the apps photo functions
Silas would like use a self-portrait for the book cover of his book. He has used the
built-in photo taking function before, but still requires some guidance to complete
the action. The researcher provides verbal guidance:
Researcher Press the cross (in the function menu bar)
Silas looks at the screen, says cross and touches it. The action menu opens.
Researcher continues her verbal guidance And now presses the camera (icon)
Silas follows the instructions. The camera function opens and the screen is black,
because the back camera is covered by the iPad cover. Silas lifts the iPad and
giggles. He looks at the screen and giggles, but seems puzzled, because the screen
remains black and he cannot see himself.
Researcher monitored his action and waited to see if he can solve this issue.
Silas turns the iPad to the researcher and shows her the screen and saying Look!
Researcher reacts and provides him verbal guidance to troubleshoot the issue:
Oops, we need to press on this symbol (pointing to the small switching cameras
icon). And then you press Hold on, we need to turn the iPad around (otherwise
Silas hand would have been in front of the camera lens and the photo would have
shown the hand that pressed the shutter release].
Silas looks at the iPad and presses the shutter release taking a photo of him
smiling. (The app shows the photo and on the lower edge of the screen the app is
asking the user to press take another photo (lower left corner of the screen) or
use photo (lower right corner of the screen). Silas cannot read these instructions
yet.)
Researcher points to the lower right corner of the screen and says use photo.
Silas presses it and the app inserts the photo on the current page of the book.
Notes: Video transcription from 3rd iPad session.
262 M. Tavernier

Silas, 4 years old, was familiar with individual letters, but he could not read and
decode the text within the app. ECE is special, because the children are often just
starting to develop a reading awareness and reading skills. Decoding icons requires
some degree of literacy awareness and experience. In this case, Silas used the photo
function for the second time and relied heavily on the researchers guidance. The
next time he used it, he did not need the verbal guidance, but used eye contact to
conrm that his actions are correct. Switching from the back to the front camera
was another area of difculty for all children.
Extract 2: The researcher guiding the children through the written words
Carl and Max work together to compile a journal entry about their days favourite
activity. Carl would like to do a voice recording. The researcher asks Max and Carl
how to start the voice recording. Both look at the screen.
Max says cross
Carl repeats cross
The researcher points to the cross and conrms the boys suggestions.
Carl touches the cross and opens the function menu. Then you click down there
(pointing to the musical key). Then we can do the voice recording.
Carl touches it and a white box with a big red circle in the middle opens. His nger
moves immediately towards the red circle.
The researcher notices this and says Before you touch it, you need to think about
what you want to say. What do we want to say? (The children and the researcher
discuss what to say)
As soon as Carl knew what he wanted to say he touched the red circle and started
the voice recording. The red circle changes to a black circle with a red square
inside.
Carl nishes his voice recording, moves his head away from the iPad and pauses.
The researcher points to the black circle and touches it to stop the recording. Then
she explains: You should stop the recording when you have said what you wanted
to say. Meanwhile, a text box appears in the middle of the screen, asking if we
want to use the recording yes or no.
Carls nger browses over the text box and he is ready to just touch any selection.
The researcher moves his hand away from the dialogue box and says this is no
(pointing to no), meaning that we do not want to use the recording and this is yes
(pointing to yes), meaning that we want to use the recording
Notes: Video transcript from the sixth iPad session
There is a high chance that 36 years old children just touch any of the of the
selection options and accidentally delete a photo, voice or video recording or clear a
drawing. If they encounter situations as the one described in extract 2, they may
experience frustration, because they cannot realize their idea. This may reduce the
joy they experience when they create and review their own creations. Children that
are less persistent and have short attention spans may quickly loose interest in the
app. So the guidance and assistance of more knowledgeable others is crucial during
the familiarization and application stage.
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 263

Table 15.6 Comparison of the number of activities during each stage

Phase Drawing Photo Voice recording Video recording Text
Familiarization 78 75 30 0 18
Application 30 20 22 14 24
Creating 48 12 22 7 37

The review of the journal entries, eld notes and video footage showed that the
childrens need for guidance remained high during the familiarization and appli-
cation stage, it decreased during the creation stage. During the familiarization stage
all children were introduced to the drawing and photo taking function, to ensure that
they can sign their works either with a self-portrait or with their written name. All
other functions were introduced to the individual child, when he or she requested to
use them or when the researcher felt that the child was ready to explore them.
Table 15.6 provides an overview of the total number of activities for the main
functions of the Book Creator app. At any time a child could engage in more than
one activity. It was not recorded how often a child used one function each day, just
which functions he or she used during one observation session. Therefore, the table
only indicates the most popular functions. When this data is triangulated with the
videos and analysed as a whole, from the beginning to the end of the study, it sheds
some light on the learning behaviour.
For instance, during the familiarization stage, the children used mainly the
drawing and photo taking function, and occasionally they explored the other
functions. During the application stage they had a vague idea of the different
functions and had experimented with most of the functions. These experiments
were often unplanned and the result of a spontaneous urge or inspiration. The
children felt comfortable with the drawing and photo taking function and were
ready to shift their experiments to the voice and video recording function. Once the
study entered the creating stage, the childrens actions were less experimental and
more focused. Instead of spontaneously using many functions, they now planned
the design of their artefacts and selected the functions purposefully.
The use of the Text function is interesting, because only nine children could
write their or spell their name, but nearly all children experimented with the text
function. During the familiarization stage their text elements often consisted of
chains of random letters. Only Mia, Sara, Sonja, Victoria, Silas and Carl typed their
names. During the creating stage all children tried to type their names or asked the
researcher to help them nd the letters to type their names. This explains the raise in
the use of the text function.
The children also enjoyed the text editing functions. Most experimented with the
font size and font style. Two children changed the font colour or the background of
the text box. This indicated that even though many of the children were not yet
familiar with letters or able to write, this function may have enhanced their interest
in writing and encouraged them to include text in their creative self-expression.
This function allowed these children to familiarize with letters and include them in
their activities in an age appropriate, playful and unambiguous manner.
264 M. Tavernier

15.5.3 Childrens Artefacts

The artefacts presented in table seven to nine were selected, because these three
students engaged in the iPad activities regularly, so there is more data available to
evaluate their use behaviour and assess the suitability of the app. This includes their
learning path, experienced difculties and their technics to overcome issues is well
documented.
Lilian, 3 years old, showed a high level of interest in the iPad from the very rst
session. She approached the researcher often, stood close to her or a peer that was
using the app and watched what they were doing. The researcher would ask her, if
she would like to have a turn and worked with her later. Lilian never explained any
of her works to the researcher. She spent the complete familiarization stage taking
self-portraits, scribbling over her photos, erasing her scribbles and scribbling again.
She also used the voice recording function, but never spoke. This may have been
due to the fact that the researcher was there to supervise the whole activity. She may
have felt too intimidated to speak and record herself. The researcher tried to involve
her in conversations about her work. Lilian ignored these attempts to have a con-
versation. She also ignored suggestions regarding the creative process and only
accepted support regarding the operation of the app.
During the application stage the researcher wanted to see what she could do with
her skills. She interrupted Lilians routine to introduce her to the individual func-
tions of the app and asked her to perform small tasks (see the image associated with
the application stage of Table 15.7). The researcher was by her side during all
activities and provided support when necessary. It appeared that Lilian knew how to
use all functions purposefully, but she required some very clear instructions that
provided her a goal towards which she could work. Without this goal she was lost
and could not decide what to create and used the app and its photo function as an
augmentation of traditional drawing. The screen shots of her work show how her
ability to use the app to express herself improved over time. She progressed from
(1) self-chosen activity (photo and scribbles), (2) realizing an imposed task, to (3)
being able to come up with her own meaningful designs (photo of herself and a
drawing of her friend Emily).

Table 15.7 Work samples of Lilian, 3 years old

Familiarization Stage Application Stage Creating Stage
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 265

Over the course of the study, Lilian observed her friends Sonja, Carl, Mia and
Emily several times, which increased her participation. Among the group of 3 years
old children, she joined the activity most often (17 times). She observed her peers
during eight sessions, spent six sessions to familiarize with the app, experimented
with the functions for three sessions and used three sessions to independently create
works that were meaningful (outcome oriented) and could be decoded by the
neutral viewer. Each of her last three works included a video sequence that
explained her work, a voice recording or a caption that she dictated the researcher.
Her condence towards in her app operation skills and her self-condence
increased, and she was more ready to record herself.
The analysis and comparison of journal records, videos, and artefacts of all 3
years old children indicate that they learn to use the basic functions of the app
within ve intensively supervised and guided sessions. They required many
opportunities to watch their peers, explore the functions and receive creative
stimulations. The most remarkable impression of this age group was the persistence
with which Lilian, Elena, Callestine and Sophie learned to use the app and how
much the quality of the artefacts improved.
Simon, 4 years old, participated in 12 sessions. He missed some of the famil-
iarization sessions and started to use the app during the application stage. Simon
spent six sessions watching his peers, at times unintendedly. All of his works were
very expressive. He spent only one session to familiarize with the app (see rst
photo in Table 15.8). In all other sessions, he applied his creativity and knowledge
to express his ideas. He used the video and drawing function purposefully from the
beginning. He completed the sentence I am happy, if.. with a video recording that
shows him say . if, I can play with my father. And his drawing represents his
answer. He combined two different functions to fully express his view.
The analysis of journal records, videos and artefacts (see Table 15.8) indicated
that 4 years old children tend to learn the operation of the Book Creator faster and
may focus on the accurate representation of their ideas sooner. Simon progressed
faster compared to other 4 years old children. On average, the 4 years old children
participated twelve times, observed three sessions, spent four sessions each to
familiarize with the app and created artefact purposefully. Their ability to link their

Table 15.8 Work samples of Simon, 4 years old

Familiarization Stage Application Stage Creating Stage
266 M. Tavernier

drawings to video and voice recordings became meaningful earlier than in the case
of three years old. This was to be expected, because 4 years old children are
cognitively more ready to perform such task. As a result, the app helped 4 years old
children to better express their understanding of the world around them and
empowered them to create more meaningful multimedia artefacts.
The participation of the three 5 years old children varied a lot. At the beginning
of the study, their interest in using the iPad was high, but they lost some of the
initial enthusiasm as they realized that they needed to wait for their turn and were
limited to the use of the Book Creator. It appears that many did not like to be
limited to the use of just one app. The general interest increased again as they saw
the works of their peers during group viewing sessions. These sessions were meant
to demonstrate and recapitalize what we had done with the app and had the side
effect to inspire the children to expand their personal repertoire, try something new,
return to the app-related activity and explore the app functions further and ask more
specic questions that led towards replicating what they had seen before.
Sonjas keen interest stands in contrast to that of Lilian and Simon. She par-
ticipated 21 times, and her activities ranged from on-looking, to helping her peers
and to creating her own artefacts (see Table 15.9). Sonja (5 years old) was not
familiar with the iPad, so she needed extra time to familiarize with both device and
app.
Sonja observed the iPad activities four times, her peers only twice. When she
watched her peers, she reinforced her knowledge of the Book Creator by reminding
her peers of the sequence of actions. She also used her peers creations as inspi-
rations and tried to imitate them when she had a turn. Sonja spent seven sessions
familiarizing with the app and applying and practicing her new skills. Two more
than her peers, before she went on to spent ten sessions creating meaningful works
(see Table 15.10).
The result of her persistence was a deep understanding of the Book Creator.
Compared to her peers, she took full advantage of the app. She understood that she
can combine the functions to convey meaning or use them independently from each
other. Her contribution to the I am sad, if book includes the above displayed
work of the application stage (see image 2 in Table 15.9) and a voice recording. In

Table 15.9 Work samples of Sonja, 5 years old

Familiarization Stage Application Stage Creating Stage
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 267

Table 15.10 Number of participations and activities of the 3 ve years old participants
Participation Observing Familiarizing and applying Creating
Maximus 8 2 3 3
Sonja 21 4 7 10
Viktoria 12 2 5 5

the recording she said that she is sad, if she loses something. When the researcher
asked her why her drawing does not relate to what she said, she replied that It does
not have to. The answer to what makes me sad is provided in the recording, so now
I can draw something that I like. She understood that the voice recording already
conveyed the message that she wanted to send and that more means to commu-
nicate this message were not necessary.
Sara and Viktoria progressed in another direction. They created different arte-
facts and combined them within one page (see Fig. 15.1). For example, Viktoria
rst drew a picture that covers the whole page and resized the nal version. Second,
she took a photo of herself, resized it and added a voice recording explaining who
she is and what her drawing represents. Third, she photographed the classs art-
works and voice recorded which of these works was important to her. At last, she
typed her name and formatted the size, font type and font colour. When she
designed this complex artefact, she planned the details, having in mind that a
person, who does not know her, may look at it and may need the additional
information. During the whole process, the researcher looked on and was not asked
to help. All of the above indicates that the Book Creator is very suitable for 5 years
old children and empowers them to convey complex ideas in a way that others can
understand and relate to.
The overall ndings suggest that the Book Creator App has the potential to
empower children to be creators of meaningful digital artefacts. The app is complex
and includes many functions, which can encourage the children to fully express

Fig. 15.1 Work sample of a

5 years old (Creation stage)
268 M. Tavernier

their thoughts and ideas by complementing their drawings or photos with audio or
video element. The range of available functions may also hinder some childrens
ability to express their ideas. These children may be overwhelmed by the choices
they need to make and the procedures they need to follow to realize an idea. To
unleash the full potential of the app and fully grasp all its functions, a substantial
amount of practice is necessary. Practice will improve the level of mastery and
understanding of the app over time.

15.6 Conclusion

The ndings indicate that once the children overcome the barrier of decoding the
text elements with the help of more knowledgeable others, they use the app more
effectively as they get a feeling for the functions and understand that they can
combine different function within one piece of work. Within a period of 12 weeks,
the childrens work became more meaningful and the use of the multimedia
functions increased. They progressed from relying on the researchers guidance
through the functions and text to using the app independently to create. The support
that the researcher provided changed from assisting the children with the operation
of the app, to conrming that they were following the right sequence to achieve a
certain outcome (e.g. editing their works), to providing resources that inspired them
or helped them realize their own ideas (e.g. providing a real apple or a verbal
description of how things look like). The childrens questions changed from How
can I erase this? (operational questions) to Can you show me how to draw a
mouse? (creation related questions).
Considering the intense time and attention that the researcher provided to pre-
pare, monitor and support all iPad activities, it is worth looking for a similar app
which is less complex and easier for the children to operate.
If ECE teachers decide to use the Book Creator App, they will need to plan
activities that help the children to learn to operate and understand the app thor-
oughly. Such a familiarization period may last from 1 to 7 sessions per child and
can be very time consuming. During this period, the teacher will need to monitor
and manage the activities, support the childrens app operation skills, decode text,
establish routines, understand technical rules (e.g. voice and video recordings only
work if they are located in the front layer) and realize the creative opportunities that
the app provides.
Considering the great interest shown by the children to design text and their
growing condence to create voice and video recordings, teachers may consider
including the app in their literacy learning repertoire. Listening to oneself may help
realize weaknesses in pronunciation and facilitate a greater awareness of speech.
The children loved watching and hearing their recorded selves. Additionally, the
artefacts are a great source to capture, document and evaluate the learning of
children. Teachers can create very closed or open-ended tasks and cater for the
individual preferences of their students.
15 Exploring the Suitability of the Book Creator... 269

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Chapter 16
Text Messaging for Out-of-Class
Communication: Impact on Immediacy
and Affective Learning

Paul Hayes and Stephan Weibelzahl

Abstract While out-of-class communication between instructors and students can

impact all types of student learning it has its greatest impact on student affective
learning, including motivation and engagement. One of the primary reasons for this
is that the out-of-class communication enhances student perception of instructor
immediacy. Immediacy is dened as behaviour which increases psychological
closeness between communicators. Research studies in instructional communica-
tion suggest that improved instructor immediacy is linked to enhance affective
learning. A research study was conducted into the use of text messaging for
out-of-class communication and the impact it had on student perception of
instructor immediacy and student affective learning. Both quantitative measures of
immediacy and qualitative feedback from students show that the instructor is per-
ceived as closer, more approachable and responsive when text messaging services
are offered. The student feedback also reveals that the use of text messaging has
other positive effects on affective learning.

16.1 Introduction

Effective communication between instructor and student is very important in the

quality of the learning experience of students in higher education. Hill et al. (2003)
used student focus groups to answer the question of what quality education means
to students. Four themes emerged from the study, the most important being the
quality of the instructor in terms of delivery, feedback to students and relationship
with students in the classroom. However, there are many factors that limit

P. Hayes (&)
National College of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
e-mail: Paul.Hayes@ncirl.ie
S. Weibelzahl
Private University of Applied Sciences, Gttingen, Germany
e-mail: weibelzahl@pfh.de

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 271

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_16
272 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

communication between instructors and students in higher education including

large class sizes, limited contact time and student reluctance to approach instructors.
While educational institutions generally place most emphasis on student cog-
nitive learning it has been shown that affective learning is also crucial especially to
the development of independent and lifelong learners. Learning in the affective
domain includes the manner by which people deal with things emotionally, such as
feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations and attitudes (Bloom
1956). While communication outside of normal class time (known as out-of-class
communication) between instructors and students can impact all types of student
learning it has its greatest impact on student affective learning (McCroskey 1994).
The importance of out-of-class communication to student affective learning should
not be underestimated. Research shows that out-of-class communication between
instructors and students can help build more positive instructor-student relation-
ships, and hence increase the quality of student learning (Noels et al. 1999; Vaughn
and Baker 2004). One of the primary reasons for this is that the out-of-class
communication enhances student perception of instructor immediacy (Jaasma and
Koper 1999). Immediacy is dened as behaviour which increases psychological
closeness between communicators (Mehrabian 1969, 1971). Research studies in
instructional communication suggest that enhanced instructor immediacy has a
positive effect on affective learning and is linked to more positive student-instructor
relationships engendering positive attitudes, increased interest and motivation by
students as well as improved attendance, retention, engagement and learning
(Christensen and Menzel 1998; Ellis 2004).
The research presented here investigates the effect of the use of text messaging
for out-of-class communication between instructor and student on student percep-
tion of the immediacy of their instructor and on student affective learning. An
extensive review of research literature from both the elds of instructional com-
munication and mobile learning was carried out prior to the commencement of a
year-long research study. Both quantitative measures of immediacy and qualitative
feedback from student participants in the study show that the instructor is perceived
as closer, more approachable and responsive when text messaging services are
offered. The student feedback also shows that the use of text messaging has other
positive effects on student learning experience, including enhanced motivation and
engagement. Some limitations of the research are also addressed as are some
concerns with the use of text messaging in education.

16.2 Instructor Immediacy

The eld of instructional communication is based on the assumption that verbal and
nonverbal messages conveyed by instructors have the potential to signicantly
affect student learning outcomes (Witt 2000). When it comes to instructor com-
munication behaviour one important construct is that of instructor immediacy.
Immediacy is dened as behaviours, both verbal and nonverbal, that reduce
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication 273

physical or psychological distance between individuals (Andersen 1979; Mehrabian

1969, 1971, 1981). The results of a signicant body of research conducted on
instructor immediacy behaviours indicate that it can have a positive influence on
student learning outcomes. For this reason instructor immediacy should be treated
with great importance by any person or institution concerned with improving the
quality of student learning (Witt 2000).
Research studies have shown a linear relationship between student reports of
teacher immediacy behaviours and perceptions of state motivation, and of cogni-
tive, affective and behavioural learning (Christensen and Menzel 1998; Pogue and
Ahyun 2006; Witt and Wheeless 2001). This relationship has been shown to hold
true for divergent classes (Kearney et al. 1985) and also in multi-cultural studies
(McCroskey et al. 1996).

16.3 Text Messaging in Education

Text messaging has been exploited for supporting learning in a variety of educa-
tional settings. Studies of third-level students have shown that text messaging is
used more regularly by students than email as it is perceived as being more personal
and informal and is often students preferred way for receiving information from
their institution (Harley et al. 2007). However, because a text message is limited to
only 160 characters it is more suitable for certain types of learning activities than
others. A review of the current research literature shows that the ways in which text
messaging has been employed in education fall generally into four categories. The
rst category is when text messaging is used to support and enhance classroom
interactivity and dialogue (Clarke and Doody 2008; Markett et al. 2006). The
second category is when text messaging is used for administrative purposes such as
notications of changes in the timetable and reminders of assessment submission
dates (Naismith 2007; So 2009; Stone 2004). The third category is when text
messaging is used as a means of supporting micro-teaching activities including the
sending of short summaries for revision, the sending of links to a relevant page on a
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and also the provision of quizzes and feed-
back to students (Stone 2004; Tretiakov and Kinshuk 2005). The nal category is
when text messaging is used not for learning purposes directly but rather to guide,
motivate and support students, encourage participation and engagement, and pro-
mote collaboration and co-operation. This fourth category includes many examples
where it is used to enhance student affective learning, develop a sense of com-
munity amongst students and positively affect student retention rates (Trifonova
2003; Harley et al. 2007). The fourth category may include messages from some of
the other categories but the key difference is that the primary goal of the text
messaging is to support students and enhance affective learning. As this research
paper is concerned with the effect of text messaging on student affective learning it
is this nal category that is of primary interest.
274 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

There are many examples in the research literature where text messaging is not
used specically for the purpose of directly improving academic learning or for
administrative purposes but is rather used to support and help students when they
are outside class. Such out-of-class (OOC) text messaging may have the aim of
enhancing affective learning and improving the learning environment, improving
communications, supporting students transition to third-level education, develop-
ing a sense of community among students or positively affecting student retention
rates. The potential of the mobile phone as a communications medium in education
prompted a research study by Brighton University to explore the use of mobile
communication as a way of encouraging a supportive dialogue between students
and relevant academic staff. The main motives behind the research were to support
students transition to third-level education and improve retention (Harley et al.
2007). Another very interesting and relevant research study by Grifth University in
Australia relates the experience of a female instructor using out-of-class text
messaging as a means of staying in touch with her students. The study demonstrates
how it can be used as a means of providing connection and a sense of community
for rst-year students and also how it encourages them to persist with their studies
(Horstmanshof 2004). Text messaging has also been used by the University of
Ulster in Northern Ireland for supporting rst-year chemistry students and for the
reduction of student drop-outs. The university sends out messages to students of the
type Sorry, we missed you today. The students do not nd the messages obtrusive
in any way, and actually welcomed them (Keegan 2006).

16.4 Methodology

An empirical study was designed to investigate the impact of out-of-class com-

munication between instructors and students using text messaging on student
learning experience. The study was based in a real educational setting. It was hoped
that analysis of the results of the study would provide evidence of an effect of the
text messaging on student affective learning. In total 44 participants from four
different classes took part in the study. The participants were all third-level
undergraduate computing students who were taking between ve and six modules
each semester. The research study itself took two academic semesters to complete.

16.4.1 Text Messaging Service

The 44 students who volunteered to participate in the study had the use of a text
messaging service for out-of-class communication with one of their instructors. The
instructor used a freeware application called MyPhoneExplorer that was installed
on the instructors laptop together with a mobile phone that was connected to a
USB port on the laptop. The software application on the laptop was very versatile
and easy to use. In terms of text messaging it operated much like an email program
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication 275

allowing the creation, viewing, editing and deletion of text messages as well as the
sending and received text messages via the connected mobile phone. The appli-
cation could be synchronised with the mobile phone allowing access from the
laptop to both the SIM and phone memory. During synchronisation contact details
of participants and text messages sent and received could be copied automatically
from the phone to the application and visa-versa. The application allowed the
sending of text messages to individuals or groups and it also supported the
archiving of text messages on the laptop.

16.4.2 Categories of Text Messages

While it was difcult to categorise some of the messages they generally fell into one
or more of three main categories. The rst category was for messages that were sent
for administrative purposes. The vast majority of these messages were sent as
broadcasts to all participants in a treatment group. Only very rarely was there a need
to send a message of this type to an individual participant or sub-group of partic-
ipants. Examples of the use of this type of message include class announcements
and cancellations, and reminders of class tests and assignment submission dates.
A few examples of text messages of this category that were sent to participants were
as follows:
Hi, I have put the nal marks for your continuous assessment up on Moodle. Paul
Dont forget you have a test on databases this Friday!
Just to remind you that John from BT Ireland is coming into give us a talk next Tuesday.
Paul
Hi, DCN class is postponed tomorrow, I have to attend an important meeting, will make it
up to you. Paul

The second category was for text messages that were specically related to the
topics covered in a module that were being delivered by the instructor and the
contents of these messages were supplementary to the course material. These
messages were sent as broadcasts to all participants and were used for the purpose
of micro-learning activities. The messages included short summaries for revision
purposes, short or multiple-choice questions and advice on how to prepare for
forthcoming classes. Each message was restricted to 160 characters so the messages
had to be short and precise. In the case of a text message containing a short question
or a multiple-choice question the correct answer was sent as a broadcast text
messages to all participants after a suitable period of time. A few examples of text
messages in this category that were sent to participants were as follows:
What is the name of each layer of the OSI network model?
What does the letter S stand for in the acronym ISDN? Answer (a) Signals (b) Services
(c) Switching or (d) Segment?
Do you have any questions on what we covered today in class?
The lecture next week is on the topic of DSL. Please look over the lecture notes on this
topic prior to coming to class. Thanks
276 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

The third category of message were those whose main purpose was to promote
affective learning and included messages that were designed to motivate students in
their studies, enhance interest in the subject and to encourage attendance,
engagement and participation in class. While messages from the other two cate-
gories could have an indirect effect on affective learning this type of message was
specically aimed at enhancing it and included messages expressing pleasure at the
effort students were putting into their studies and thanking students for their par-
ticipation in class. These messages were always sent as a broadcast to all partici-
pants and care was exercised to make sure they were always positive in tone and
never critical. A few examples of text messages in this category that were sent to
participants were as follows:
Thanks for all your work and study this week. Glad to hear the projects are getting off to a
good start. Have a good one & c u nxt week, Paul
You learn something every day if you pay attention ** Ray LeBlond
Very enjoyable class today. I will try to sort out the issue with the timetable tomorrow. Paul

16.5 Data Collection

For the purposes of this investigation students who used the out-of-class text
messaging service were asked to complete a questionnaire. The questions were
formulated based on a review of the research literature on the use of text messaging
to support students together with a review the ndings of the preliminary studies
and the use of the text messaging service to provide out-of-class support to students
during the main study. The rst section of the questionnaire consists of 30 specic
questions about student perception of the use and impact of the text messaging
service. Participants were asked to indicate their response to each question on a
7-point Likert scale. The second section of the questionnaire uses a series of open
questions to give participants the opportunity of anonymously expressing their
personal opinions in terms of communicating with their instructor using text
messaging and its impact, if any, on them or their class in terms of learning and
education and the relationship with their instructor. It was hoped that analysis of the
student responses to the questionnaire would provide data on the effect of the text
messaging on student affective learning.

16.6 Results and Discussion

Both quantitative and qualitative data is presented in this section from the responses
of participants to the questionnaire. The data is analysed to reveal any evidence of
the impact of the text messaging on affective learning. The responses by students to
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication 277

the open questions are especially revealing as they contain many references to the
effect of the text messaging on their affective learning.

16.6.1 Levels of Participation

Participation in the study was purely voluntary and overall the rate of participation
was 88 %. The total number of messages sent by the instructor during two 13-week
semesters of the study was 202. The number of broadcast messages sent to groups
of participants was 89 while 113 messages were sent to individual participants
usually in response to individual queries.
A total of 155 messages were received by the instructor from participants
indicating that participants not only received text messages but actively participated
in the communication. Between broadcast messages and individual messages the
total number of individual messages received by all participants during the study
was 1,005. This means that on average 23 messages were sent to each of the
participants and it equates to an average of less than two messages per participant
per week.

16.6.2 Quantitative Results

The rst section of the questionnaire consisted of 30 specic questions on the use
and impact of the text messaging service. Participants were asked to indicate their
response to each question on a 7-point Likert scale. In addition, for each question
the percentage of responses that were scored with 5 points or more is also shown.
As score of 5 points or more on any item by a respondent is taken to indicate
agreement.
Analysis of the results shows that participants generally felt very positive about
the introduction and use of the text messaging service with 91 % of participants
agreeing that they thought that being in touch by text messaging with your
instructor was a good idea and 86 % of participants agreed that they liked receiving
text messages from their instructor.
In terms of the effect of the text messaging on their relationship with their
instructor three-quarters of participants agreed that the text messaging service had
been benecial to their relationship with the instructor and over 80 % of participants
agreed that it had both improved their attitude to their instructor and made their
instructor more approachable. Just over half of participants agreed that the service
had improved their attitude to the college, had increased their liking for the subject
and had increased their motivation, engagement and participation.
When asked if they were concerned about the potential cost of replying to the
text messages 34 % agreed that they were. However only a small number of
messages sent had needed a reply and more and more students are now availing of
278 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

free text messaging. While 84 % of participants did not agree that receiving text
messages from your instructor was intrusive a small number of participants had
responded to question 30 with a score of 5 or more. This was taken seriously and
further emphasised the need for careful and judicious use of the service and the
need to speak to participants about any concerns they might have and also the need
to make sure they fully realised that they could withdraw from the service at any
time of their choosing. When asked what they thought about the use of text mes-
saging to support learning 86 % of participants agreed it was an effective approach.
In summary, the participants generally liked receiving the messages and they
perceived that it improved their relationship with their instructor and his attitude
towards them. It also made the instructor more approachable and made it more
likely for them to talk to the instructor informally. Many participants agreed that the
service had improved their attitude to the college, had increased their liking for the
subject and had increased their motivation, engagement and participation. This was
taken as evidence of an effect on student affective learning of the out-of-class text
messaging.

16.7 Qualitative Results

The second section of the questionnaire gathered qualitative data from participants
on their perceptions of communicating with their instructor using text messaging
and its impact, if any, on them or their class in terms of learning and also in terms of
the relationship with their instructor. A series of open questions were used to give
participants the opportunity of anonymously expressing their opinions. The
responses from the participants to the open question provided a great deal of
valuable and insightful feedback into their perceptions of the effect of the text
messaging service on their learning experience. Analysis of the responses provides
further evidence of the effect of the text messaging on student affective learning.
The overwhelming majority of the feedback was very positive. The participants
generally perceived that the text messaging had made them feel closer to the
instructor and they felt more comfortable asking questions in class, or outside of
class, about the course. One participant, who was a mature student, responded it
has motivated me more to come to class, has improved my attitude towards college
and subjects. When asked in what ways (if any) they thought the text messaging
service has been benecial or detrimental to your class in general they again mostly
responded very positively. They felt it improved communications and had
improved the class relationship with the instructor and as a result they felt they had
a more comfortable atmosphere in class and they perceived that their learning was
better. They also felt it had brought the instructor closer to the class, had become a
talking point among them, and had brought the class closer together as a result.
They also perceived that there were many benets from it and that the class had a
higher attendance as a result. When asked in what ways, if any, they thought the
text messaging service has helped or hindered them in their learning some of the
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication 279

participants responded that it reminded them to study before class and was better
than email for notifying them at short notice of any changes to the schedule.
The responses to the last question are particularly revealing in terms of the
overall assessment by participants of the use of text messaging for out-of-class
communication and their perceptions of the study. The participants generally
responded that it was a good service to students and improved communications.
They also felt that others should use text messaging as a means of communication
and that it was easier to communicate by text than by email. One participant felt that
it should be applied to all modules. They also felt the research study was innovative
and should be developed further as it was a different approach in dealing with
instructor-student communication.

16.8 Reflections and Conclusions

Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data provides evidence that the use of
text messaging for instructor-student out-of-class communication has a positive
effect on instructor immediacy and student affective learning. The participants
perceived that it made the instructor more approachable and made it more likely for
them to ask questions in class and engage in discussions with the instructor. In
addition, it made them feel more comfortable and at ease in the classroom and gave
them a feeling that the instructor cared for them.
Enhanced immediacy is very important in terms of the quality of student
learning experience and has many implications in terms of education, including
improved attendance, motivation and engagement by students. This research is
interdisciplinary in nature, intersecting the elds of both instructional communi-
cation and mobile learning. The ndings of this research are a contribution to both
elds as they demonstrate how the use of mobile technology in education can lead
to enhanced instructor immediacy and improved learning experience.

16.8.1 Concerns with Instructor-Student Text Messaging

Some of the participants in the study who used the text messaging service had some
concerns as was evidenced in their feedback. Their concerns were around the
potential cost of replying to the text messages, the timing of the messages and the
relevancy of the messages to their course. In terms of cost many of the participants
used the same mobile provider as the instructor and so had no cost associated with
sending messages to the instructor. However, the cost may have been a concern for
some of the other participants. In the interests of fairness it was decided to give this
concern serious consideration in terms of any future operation of the service. It was
felt that if it could be demonstrated that the text messaging was benecial to the
learning experience of students then perhaps a way could be found to persuade the
280 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

management of educational institutions to subsidise or make free text messaging

available to students to support their learning. It should be noted that the cost was
only a concern for those who wanted to send messages to their instructor. It must be
pointed out that there is no charge for receiving a text message in Europe. However,
this is not always the case in countries outside Europe.
A few participants also seemed to have concerns about the timing and relevancy
of the text messages. This highlights the importance of judicious use as well as the
need for guidelines on the sending and receiving of text messages. All those
involved with the text messaging need to be aware of the guidelines and it is
important that they be adhered to as much as possible. A few of the participants also
felt that some of the text messages were not relevant. This may be explained by the
fact that some of the messages were not directly course-related but were aimed at
enhancing affective learning among students and encouraging interest, attendance
and engagement.
Another potential concern may surround the often colloquial nature and ad hoc
use of text messaging that might potentially lead to misuse of the service, a phe-
nomenon that was observed in the early days of the introduction of email in
organisations. Students should be made aware that text messages in this context are
still part of the learning experience and that they need to bear in mind that it is their
instructor they are communicating with and not one of their friends. There is a ne
but signicant line between high levels of perceived instructor immediacy and close
personal friendship. Students might misinterpret the higher availability and closer
interaction with the instructor as a kind of peer relationship. This may lead them to
be surprised or disappointed when the instructor executes the necessary duties of
their role such as disciplining students or allocating marks. The experience of the
instructor is that the text messaging makes it more likely from students to com-
municate informally with them. While this is a positive effect it also highlights the
importance for the instructor of always bearing in mind their role as an educator and
not as a personal friend.
In their feedback participants indicated that they would like text messaging to be
used by more instructors and some felt it should be used with every module.
However, it stands to reason that the number of different modules taken by students
would need to be taken into consideration as to how many text messages they can
receive from each instructor and how often. While the experience of the instructor
who provided the text messaging service was very positive not all members of
academic staff might agree that it is worthwhile. The experience of the instructor
was similar to that of Horstmanshof (2004). Some older more traditional colleagues
had reservations to this approach. They argued that it would add to their work
burden and they also felt the approach was mothering the students and would lead
to dependency. However, the amount of extra work required was minimal. Text
messaging is asynchronous, and therefore, the instructor does not need to reply
immediately. In addition, text messages are usually short and to the point due to
their limited length. The use of a software application such as the one used for the
main study also makes the text messaging very easy. However, for very large
classes there could possibly be quite a bit of extra work involved. This could be
16 Text Messaging for Out-of-Class Communication 281

explored in future work. In terms of the criticism of the text messaging as

mothering the students it can be argued that if students feel an afnity with their
instructor and their course they are more likely to explore new areas of learning
independently, especially, if encouraged to do so by their instructor. There is also a
strong connection between enhanced affective learning and lifelong learning
(McCombs 1991).

16.8.2 Guidelines for Instructor-Student Text Messaging

The guidelines for instructor-student out-of-class text messaging that were devel-
oped as part of the study are a very important output of the research work. The
guidelines are necessary to avoid incorrect expectations of the text messaging
service by students. They inform the student of the level of service they can expect
and this may help to avoid misunderstandings. The student is required to read and
familiarise themselves with the guidelines prior to consenting to participate in the
service. The guidelines were drawn up on consideration of the feedback from the
student focus groups and on reflection by the instructor as to the appropriateness
and effectiveness of text messaging for communicating with students. These
guidelines were used throughout the study and they worked very well in so far as
there were no complaints from participants and no participant withdrew from the
service.
The guidelines cover the need for informed consent for participants as well as
the right of participants to withdraw from the service at any stage. They also specify
the quality of service that participants can expect, including maximum limits on the
number of messages as well as maximum response times and hours of operation. In
addition the guidelines also include some stipulations about when text messages
should not be sent to students, for example the day before an examination. This is
intended so as to avoid what might be perceived as unfair advantage by some of
their peers.
While this research concludes that guidelines are very important for the use of
text messaging for instructor-student communication there is little doubt that the
guidelines could vary somewhat from one institution to another. It is hoped that the
guidelines developed as part of this research work may be of interest not only to
researchers but also to practitioners who may be interested using text messaging for
instructor-student out-of-class communication.

16.8.3 Conclusion

The main conclusion of this research is that the judicious use of text messaging for
out-of-class communication can signicantly enhance student perception of
instructor immediacy and has many other benets in terms of student learning
282 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

experience. This nding is very important for all those involved in teaching
students. While it is recommended that more instructors adopt the use of text
messaging for out-of-class communication with students there are some barriers to
mainstreaming this approach in higher education that need to be considered. As
with any new development many instructors and educational institutions may be
slow to adopt this form of communication. Their concerns may be well founded and
this paper has attempted to show how these may be addressed. It is felt that if proper
precautions are exercised, the benets of using text messaging for instructor-student
out-of-class communication far outweigh any potential risks.

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Authors Biography

Paul Hayes is a lecturer in the school of computing with the National College of Ireland. His
research interests include mobile learning, data communications and Internet of Things. In 2010 he
received a Ph.D. from the University of Limerick for his work on exploiting mobile
communication in supporting education. Paul graduated in 1990 with an honours degree in
Electronic Engineering from the University of Limerick. He subsequently completed a Masters
degree by full-time research in the area of wireless networks. He was then employed by Queens
University Belfast as a Research Associate to work on a collaborative research project between the
University and Nortel before joining the National College of Ireland.

Stephan Weibelzahl is Professor of Business Psychology at PFH Private University of Applied

Sciences Gttingen, Germany. Prior to that, Stephan served as Lecturer and programme director in
the School of Computing at National College of Ireland in Dublin and headed a research group in
learning technologies at Fraunhofer Institute Experimental Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern,
Germany. He holds a Diplom (Masters) in Psychology and received a Ph.D. from the University of
284 P. Hayes and S. Weibelzahl

Trier, Germany. Stephans main areas of expertise are personalisation in e-Learning and the
evaluation of learning technologies. Exploiting articial intelligence techniques, Stephan and his
team designed, developed and evaluated a number of e-Learning systems that monitor and adapt to
the user in order to improve the learning process.
Chapter 17
Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal
Learning Environment for Workplace
Learners

Nicole Gu

Abstract With the purpose of developing a strategy for supporting informal

learning in the workplace, this study investigates the possibilities of launching an
educational mobile application adopting various Web 2.0 tools as a personal
learning environment. Functionalities including RSS (Really Simple Syndication),
podcasting, Web searching, and microblogging were integrated into the app which
is named MobLearn@Work to support workplace learners individual learning
activities which are task-oriented. The article reports on the details of designing
and developing the app, from both technical and theoretical perspectives.
Optimistic results from the study informed possible ways of implementing edu-
cational apps to enhance workplace-learning performance from theory to practice.
Recommendations for further research are presented by end of the study.

17.1 Introduction

Information technologies, as well as mobile technologies have been continuously

playing an important role in educational area since the last decade (Boulos et al.
2006; Cabada et al. 2009; Cochrane and Bateman 2008; Sharples et al. 2010). In the
research area of adult learning, the use of information technologies deserves more
attention. Driscoll (1998) has summarized the characteristics of adult learners that
they have real-life experience, they prefer problem-centered learning, they are
continuous learners, they have varied learning styles, they have responsibilities
beyond the training situation, they expect learning to be meaningful, and they prefer
to manage their own learning. The rapid change in nowadays workplace has led to a
continuous learning situation among employees all over the world. The majority of
what people learn at work belongs to flexible and self-regulated informal learning
activities, which involves a combination of learning from others and personal

N. Gu (&)
The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: nicole_gj@outlook.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 285

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_17
286 N. Gu

experience (Cross 2003; Eraut 2004). This happens in the context of employees
attempt to deal with problems emerging in the workplace. In order to cope with the
growing competition, employees in cooperate environments continuously engage in
informal learning activities.
Literature informs that employees in cooperate environment continuously
engage in informal learning, which describes learning without formally organized
content and learning that happens outside of formally organized settings
(Sefton-Green 2004). Technology has created a spectrum of possibilities for
informal learning. Web 2.0 tools, such as RSS, blogging, Wiki, and social networks
have provided quick access to information for employees to engage in informal
learning. Currently, the commonly adopted Web 2.0 services in the adult educa-
tional eld include but are not limited to RSS, podcasting, and microblogging
(Garrison 1997; Holotescu and Grosseck 2010; Lee et al. 2008; Williamson 1998).
RSS provides an effective approach to searching and managing the vast volume of
information on the Internet. Podcasting refers to online audio content that is
delivered via an RSS feed. Microblogging is a combination of blogging and instant
messaging that allows users to create a short message and post it on their prole.
Emerging mobile technologies add a new dimension and considerably increase the
possibilities for Web 2.0 technology usage in informal learning; however, the use of
mobile technologies in the context of the workplace has not been researched
widely, and relevant understanding is lacking.
This article introduces the process of design and development of a mobile App
named MobLearn@Work, with the purpose of exploring how mobile Web 2.0
technologies assist individual employees in their work-related informal learning. An
integration of several Web 2.0 tools including RSS, podcasting, Web searching, and
microblogging was applied to serve as a personal learning environment. The study
has also proposed a unique data collecting method via the log system in order to
measure learners actual time spent on the App. Limitations and recommendations
for the future design of educational Apps in the context of workplace were both
discussed at the end of the study.

17.2 Theoretical Framework

Along with the fast development of ICT technologies and mobile technologies,
Apps have become prevalent nowadays. So far, there has been a number of Apps
which are designed for educational uses, however, only a few have been developed
for adult learning in the workplace to date. These include Apps mainly targeting
areas, such as health and safety, operational efciency, and soft skills, such as
leadership or communication, and management skills (e.g., Workplace Safety, Lean
Manufacturing, and How2Lead). Most of the learning Apps are standalone, which
means that their contents are predened by the developers. This feature greatly
limits the life cycle of an Apps. In contrast, net-based Apps that provide dynamic
updates using feed technology (such as RSS) guarantee the continuous use by
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 287

delivering automatic updates to users devices. Especially for workplace learners,

receiving the most up-to-date information is essential when the workers need to
accumulate knowledge rapidly. In this manner, an App that allows users to manage
their own learning materials is required. The following of this section introduces a
framework for designing an App targeting workplace informal learning, based on
the theoretical backgrounds of personal learning environments personal learning
environments (PLE), as well as informal learning.

17.2.1 Personal Learning Environments (PLE)

The concept of PLE was rst introduced by van Harmelen (2006), who describes
PLEs as systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning.
A PLE is an individual e-learning system that provides learners access to a variety
of learning resources. According to Chatti and his colleagues (2010), the concept of
PLE supports self-organized, informal, lifelong learning and network learning and
translates the principles of constructivism and connectivism into actual practice
(p. 79). In PLE settings, the learner is expected to set their own learning goals,
manage their learning contents, implementing learning strategies, and in the same
time communicating with others with the purpose of achieving learning goals (Van
Harmelen 2006). PLE is not simply an application, but rather a new approach of
learning that emphasizes the importance of learners self-direction in the process of
learning via the use of technologies. Researchers have explored different means to
bring the concept of PLE into practice, with an agreed standpoint that the use of a
set of different tools may be feasible in the PLE pattern (Attwell 2007; Sclater 2008;
Wilson et al. 2007). Chatti and his colleagues (2010) mentioned the RSS feeds
(such as iGoogle) that allowed the integration of different services into a single
personal platform, which to some extend matched the characteristics of PLE.

17.2.2 A Personal Informal Learning Framework

in the Context of Mobile Web 2.0

Informal learning, a relatively underresearched term, is used to describe learning

without formally organized contents and learning happens outside formally orga-
nized settings (Sefton-Green 2004). Schugurensky (2000) has generated three forms
of informal learning, which are self-directed, incidental, and socialization.
Intentionality and awareness have been used as the criteria to distinguish among the
three forms. As one major form that is both intentional and self-aware, self-directed
learning refers to learning activities undertaken by individuals or group of learners
without the assistance of an instructor. Interpreted by Knowles (1975), the process
of self-directed learning includes diagnosing and formulating goals, identifying
288 N. Gu

Fig. 17.1 Workplace informal learning framework in the context of mobile Web 2.0

resources, selecting and implementing suitable strategies, and evaluating outcomes.

Incidental learning is not intentionally initiated by the learner, but afterwards the
learner become aware that learning has occurred during the previous experience.
Socialization is also known as tacit learning, which means neither does the learner
intend to learn anything, nor the learner is aware of having learned anything. Based
on the works of Knowles and Schugurensky, there has been summarized a design
framework guiding the development of the App as shown in Fig. 17.1.
The top-dotted rectangle represents the circle of self-directed learning process,
consisting of four steps:
Setting goals and making plans. Learners decide what knowledge and skills they
want to gain, when to learn, how to learn, and estimate the expected learning
outcomes.
Identifying resources. Learners make decisions about where and how to nd a
variety of learning resources.
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 289

Implementing strategies. Learners nd and choose the appropriate methods of

learning and formulate personal learning programs according to their own
situations.
Sharing. Learners show what they have learned by sharing to other platforms.
Through everyday social networking activities, new learning needs, and moti-
vations may be triggered and a new cycle is thus formed. They may even
become a subscribing source for other learners within the same circle.
Depending on the data sources from the mobile Internet, Step 2 is further divided
into two categories: searching and subscribing. The action of searching is inten-
tionally taken by the learners. Learners initiate a new search action whenever there
is any learning requirement. Information is provided through rich multimedia tools
(e.g., text, image, video) from various sources (e.g., Web, news, blogs, Wikis)
based on the latest Web 2.0 technologies. Learners are able to select the most
appropriate source according to their different search requirements. Subscribing
refers to the obtaining of learning materials provided by Web feeds (e.g., RSS,
podcasting), which push updated contents to the learners periodically. It is a more
complicated process. Although the action of subscription itself is intentional, the
synchronizing and the learners reading activities could be passive and incidental
since the contents are not known before they have been downloaded for learning.
Therefore, this can be considered as a semi-intentional learning activity. In the
context of this study, socialization mainly refers to online interactions based on
social networking services. Social networking services with mobile technology
nowadays allow sharing of learning achievements more easily than before. From
another perspective, learners can also benet from social networking since it could
be regarded as one of their subscribing sources for receiving new learning contents.

17.3 Design and Development of MobLearn@Work

Open platform technologies, such as IOS, Android, and Windows Phone have
brought great opportunities to develop application software for mobile terminals;
however, it currently remains difcult to satisfy the specic demands of end users
and overcome the technical constraints of mobile devices. To address the constantly
changing software requirements, Extreme Programming (XP) (Silva 2007) has the
advantages of on-time delivery, reliance on team members knowledge rather than
documentation, short release cycles, tight customer integration, incremental design,
constant communication, and coordination. Based on the XP, Abrahamsson and his
colleagues (1990) developed an agile approach called Mobile-D for the mobile
application (Symbian platforms), which mainly emphasizes the early identication
and solving of technique issues, rather than considering usability during the
development process. Usability measures the quality of a users experience when
interacting with a product of system. Due to the limitations of mobile devices, user
experience is of great importance during the development. In todays IOS and
290 N. Gu

Android platforms, user-centered design (UCD) is an approach for employing

usability. It helps to provide the users with the real usage context, which means that
users are able to touch the buttons and see how the software actually works (Rogers
1997). Hussain and his colleagues (1992) integrated the agile process and usability
into his project life cycle of a mobile multimedia streaming App. The above
methodologies have been successfully applied to each individual App context.
However, a complex mobile application development process is required in
educational scenarios, where there usually exist three roles: the designer/tutor who
may be unfamiliar with the technical implementations; the developer, who is
unfamiliar with the fundamentals of education; and the end user, who has rapidly
changing requirements. It is essential to separate the interactions among them
during development in order to enhance efciency regarding technical issues and
usability.

17.3.1 An Agile Design Approach

As mentioned above, the modied agile development process of an educational

App must consider interactions between different parties. In the context of educa-
tional Apps, a bi-loop-based software development process is proposed in order to
improve the software quality and meet learners changing requirements, which is
illustrated in Fig. 17.2. Three roles in the development life cycle have been iden-
tied: the participant is the customer of the App; the designer turns the theory into
practice; and the developer takes charge of the implementation. The designer and
developer, however, may actually be the same person. The development process
consists of two loops. The one on the left represents interaction between the par-
ticipant and the designer, while the one on the right shows the relationship between
the designer and the developer. The designer acts as a bridge connecting the other

Fig. 17.2 App development process

17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 291

two. The designer periodically publishes the latest version of the App for partici-
pants to use. The designer also collects feedback on users experience through
random discussions with participants. Based on this feedback, improvements, and
new features are generated and transferred to the developer for an improved new
version. The two loops run in a continuous manner until a satisfactory balance
between the participant and designer is achieved.
The cycle on the right, referring mainly to technical development, is a traditional
agile development process. The left circle is novel. Such a circle, associated with
the end user and the designer, mainly focus on the improvement of usability. Unlike
the traditional desktop software, the concept of UCD is crucial because the usability
determines whether or not the user continuously uses the App. Therefore, the UCD
design process is a separate loop at the same level as the technical development.
The periodicity of the two cycles differs. The upgrading of new versions from the
designer to the participant is biweekly or more frequent, while the small releases
from the developer to the designer occur on a daily basis.
Regarding the emerging educational applications, the bi-loop development
process for the mobile App combines usability and the agile process together, while
considering different roles in the design process with the purpose of putting edu-
cational theory more effectively into practice. It has been proven to be efcient in
response to the participants learning requirements.

17.3.2 Functions of MobLearn@Work

In this section, we describe in detail how MobLearn@Work works by the use-case

analysis with examples of some major activities involved in the App. Figure 17.3
describes four major functionsmicroblogging, RSS, podcasting, and mobile Web
searchingincluded on the start page. With a click of the feedback button, an
automatically generated email attaching the user log report is sent to the designer.
The microblogging site was set-up via an open-source software tool called
Sharetronix (Kreber 1998).
RSS and podcasting service work similarly through Web syndication. The App
features a preinstalled list of feeds, according to participants preferences as iden-
tied during the initial interviews. Basically, when participants click the
RSS/Podcasting button, they see a list of feeds. Once, they choose to read a specic
item, they will nd several option buttons at the bottom of the page: previous item,
next item, original link, Web searching, return to homepage, share internally (to the
MobLearn@Work microblog), and share externally (any external services installed
on the mobile phone). Users are able to add or delete any feed items as needed. The
App provides two ways of adding RSS feeds: adding by search and adding man-
ually. Details of RSS/Podcasting can be found in Fig. 17.4 (left).
Unlike traditional mobile searching on a mobile browser, this App provides a
parallel Web searching function which returns Web, image, video, news, blog, and
Wiki simultaneously for a single query, thus strongly improving the searching
292 N. Gu

Fig. 17.3 Use case and screenshot of MobLearn@Work

Fig. 17.4 Use case (left RSS/Podcasting; right mobile Web searching)

experience. This means that when the user searches for something, he/she may get
results on all of these six aspects at the same time. Details of the searching activities
can also be found in Fig. 17.4 (right). There are basically two kinds of searching
activities in the study. One is initiated by clicking a keyword from the search list,
and the other by adding a new search item. MobLearn@Work provides a series of
online open courses for users. For example, a list of the nancial open courses from
MIT and Yale were provided as recommendations to help users to get started with
the App.
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 293

17.3.3 UI Improvements of MobLearn@Work

With the purpose of enhancing the users experience, we have emphasized more on
the improvement of the usability rather than functionality of the App. The affor-
dance of the App determines the activities of daily use. As a private product, the
smart phone is usually installed by its user the applications that are most frequently
used. Therefore, the usability of mobile Apps must be continuously improved in
order to extend an Apps life cycle.
Being different from desktop applications, the design of a mobile App should
take into account the benets and limitations of a mobile device. On the one hand,
mobile devices obviously have some operational superiority to the PC. Recent
mobile devices attract users through their excellent touch experience. The opera-
tions are usually simple and can be accomplished just with the ngers. Desktop
applications often contain a complicated operational procedure, and must be
manipulated by the mouse and keyboard. On the other hand, the user interfaces of
mobile Apps must be well designed. Input by nger is less accurate than that by
mouse and keyboard. This causes the designers of the user interface to consider the
most amenable style. Therefore, the UCD is of great importance in App design.
During the development iteration, several important changes regarding the
affordance of the App were made, as shown in Fig. 17.5.
As proposed by the latest Android reference design, the action bar and swipe UI
were used. Common operations are integrated into the action bar. Operations
regarding switching pages were replaced by introducing a gesture (Fig. 17.5-1).
Most content carriers were modied to be Web-based. This creates consistency
in the content arrangement. Pinch open and close gestures allow users to zoom
in and out the target contents, overcoming limitations of the small screen on
mobile phones (Fig. 17.5-2).
A global navigation was added to the action bar. Users can go to any of the four
functions freely at any time. This saves a lot of time and makes it much easier
for the users to switch between Apps (Fig. 17.5-3).
A global search function was added to the action bar. This enables users to
conduct a new Web searching activity anywhere in the App, instead of
switching to the Web searching page (Fig. 17.5-4).

Fig. 17.5 UI Improvements of MobLear@Work

294 N. Gu

A search widget was developed to meet users emergent searching requirements.

It also allows users to subscribe to recommendations from outside sources that
are daily updated (Fig. 17.5-5).

There was a noticeable increase in the ve participants total time spent on the App
after the UI improvements, especially on the Web searching function. Such a trend
is clearly demonstrated by the dashed orange lines in Fig. 17.6.
According to Fig. 17.6 (top), the time of each participant spent on
MobLearn@Work was around 2038 min at the beginning of the study, which had
increased to around 40-82 min by the end of the second month. The rst inflection
point occurred at the end of the third week when the widget of the search bar was
introduced to the participants. According to Fig. 17.6 (bottom), after the search
widget was published, the search count signicantly increased. Participants reported

Fig. 17.6 Statistics by 9 weeks, coordinates of total are to the right axis (top each participants
time spent on the App; bottom counts of participants mobile search activities)
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 295

that they were quite satised with searching for something by simply clicking the
search bar widget instead of opening the App. The second inflection point occurred
at the end of the fth week when the swipe UI was published. Swipe is initiated by
gestures rather than by clicks. Participants reported that the page swiping reduced
the intervals of traditional page transitions that they disliked, while
substantially increasing ease of use.
Another interesting phenomenon was that both curves of Fig. 17.6 fluctuate,
which is especially apparent in Fig. 17.6 (top). The utility times usually rose when
new updates were released and then fell after approximately 1-2 weeks. This
implies that the continuous improvement of the App is a good way to increase user
stickiness. Such a phenomenon is likely to occur when an App is rst introduced to
users. Based on Fig. 17.6 (top), the biweekly periodicity of the updates is con-
sidered to be appropriate. After several weeks, the utility time is likely to become
steady, as seen in the tail of Fig. 17.6.

17.4 A Novel Method for Quantifying the Data

17.4.1 The Log System

After installing MobLearn@Work and receiving the basic training on how to use it,
participants were required to start exploring the app as they want. The researcher
has talked with each participant occasionally to get their feedback and suggestions
with the purpose of further improving the functions and usability. Besides, a log
system has been installed within the App to quantify the data by recording each
learners time spent on each function and certain activities. This complements the
ndings to a great extent by providing strong evidence, which leads to the
improvement of the app.
The built-in logging system plays an important role in providing rich informa-
tion on how each participant uses the app. Unlike the traditional bug reporting
system, the logging system is used to collect the user activities towards the mobile
app. Figure 17.7 is a part of a sample log report generated by learners mobile
device.

Fig. 17.7 Screenshot of a sample log report

296 N. Gu

The life cycle of a mobile App in Android OS has been looked into in order to
develop the log system. Android names every visible App window as the activity,
and every invisible part of the app which provides functions at backend as the
service. If the invisibility of windows is regarded as the moment when user
releases their focuses on the app, the total time of the app use is equal to the live
period of the activity. Therefore, the statistics of foreground lifetime reflects the
tendency and favor of each user. Based on it, several indicators, such as the total
foreground lifetime by function, the total foreground lifetime by week, and the total
foreground lifetime by day, are easy to derive. Besides, users activities in using the
app are of great interests, such as adding a new RSS item, adding a new search, etc.
The tendency of social sharing is also easy to obtain by counting the times and
recording the sharing targets. Beneting from Android OS, users can share their
learning achievements to whatever targets that have been installed on their phones.
In this study, the sharing destinies are classied into two categories, the internal
microblog site built for the study, and the external platforms, e.g., Sina microblog,
Facebook, Twitter, etc. The internal microblog represents for a closed community
of participants while the external denotes the social networks of each individual
learner.
Due to privacy issues, the detailed contents of what learners read, listen, and
search are not recorded. Data collected from the log system, combined with data
from interviews and other means, shall be analyzed to get a comprehensive
understanding of each participants way of using the app based on his or her own
situations under certain specic contexts.
Figure shows the results from the participants weekly log reports during the rst
1 month of testing to examine the App. RSS was the mostly adopted function for
gathering information by the participants, allowing participants to get what they
want to learn semi-intentionally. According to conversations with all the partici-
pants during the second interview by end of the study, they all admitted that RSS
had been the mostly common used application in MobLearn@Work. It thus could
be concluded that reading subscribed contents anytime and anywhere contributes
most to participants learning requirements in the workplace (Fig. 17.8).
However, the usage of the other three applications are relatively lacking com-
pared with RSS. Searching function was used to some extent but not satisfying.
Microblogging was seldom used which was mainly due to the limited number of
users, according to participants reflections thereafter. Based on discussions with
participants during the testing period, there existed certain difculties while they
were interacting with the app. For example, data informed that the majority of them
felt not comfortable adding a new RSS feed. Aiming at this issue, a number of UI
improvements had been adopted to solve the raising problems, which was discussed
in the earlier part of this article.
During the testing period, it has also been found that sharing was one of the
participants major activities in the study. This informs the importance of social-
ization in the process of workplace informal learning. However, there has been
noticed a huge difference between internal share and external share. Participants
tended to repost more on their own social networks instead of sharing internally to
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 297

Fig. 17.8 Participants time spent on each function separately (rst month)

the MobLearn@Works microblog. In the researchers opinion, a newly set-up

internal social networking platform with only ve users is without doubt less
appealing than a mature one. This situation could be improved by increasing the
number of participants or establishing connection between each learner in the
future. For corporations and classroom settings, such problem may be solved easily.

17.4.2 Measure of Actual Learning Time

via MobLearn@Work

In fact, the logged time does not equal the actual time spent on informal learning. It
is difcult to measure the accurate time of informal learning. Therefore, this study
assumes a ratio g between the logged time t and the estimated time et for each
participant, denoted by

et g  t 1

The ratio was obtained by a questionnaire. The contents were classied into
different categories, such as professional knowledge, communication skills, nance,
business, politics, technology, entertainment, etc. Participants were required to
mark the relevance of the use frequency of each category. Final result of the
questionnaire was quantized into a number between 0 * 1. The average learning
time lt gathered from the log system and the estimated average learning time l ~t
obtained from the questionnaire are summarized in Table 17.1. The estimated
average learning time per week approximately equals the time of a traditional
training session in most workplace environments.
298 N. Gu

Table 17.1 Weekly Use Participants lt (min) g ~t (min)

l
Times of MobLearn@Work
(min/week) Aaron 49.19 0.89 43.78
Claire 43.87 0.85 37.29
Jensen 52.95 0.87 46.06
Sandro 61.49 0.90 55.34
Yan 42.33 0.89 37.67

17.5 Recommendations for Future Study

MobLearn@Work has been generously adopted by participants during the period of

the study in their own ways to cope with work-related learning demands. RSS was
the major function used by all the participants to acquire information. Podcasting
was the main source of language learning for participants with such learning
requirements. The Web searching function provided participants a unique searching
experience. However, the built-in microblogging site was seldom used. The reason
for this situation was simply due to a poor sense of connectedness between par-
ticipants. The ve participants were chosen from different industries and different
companies, with the purpose of providing rich and varied data in the study. The
biggest problem was that they did not know each other. Although some of them
shared similar learning demands, e.g., Aaron and Yan both had language learning
requirements, and Sandro and Jensen was in need for massive industry news, it was
still difcult to get them interact with each other via microblog. They had their own
circle of friends in external platforms, such as Sina weibo by time of the study.
Contrary to the situation with internal microblogging site, participants were
recorded of being active in their own microblogs. However, data was mainly
obtained through participants recall of their past experience during the second
interviews. It is therefore suggested that further studies be carried out within a same
organization with participants who know each other, and who have already inter-
acted or willing to interact with each other. It is in this way that more intensive and
in-depth results will be achieved to explore possibilities of informal learning and
team learning in online community.
Furthermore, it would be helpful to replicate the study with more experimental
subjects to explore individual informal learning in the workplace. People from
different industries and professional backgrounds have their own learning styles.
Other factors may also affect the outcomes, e.g., gender issues, personality, and
character issues, the level of self-discipline, company cultures, etc. The more we
know about how different forms of informal learning can be enhanced by mobile
and Web 2.0 technologies, the more we are able to broaden the opportunities of
personal growth within organizations.
17 Implementing a Mobile App as a Personal Learning Environment 299

17.6 Conclusion

This article reports on the development of a mobile App, which is considered as a

personal informal learning tool that integrates several Web 2.0 services into a single
platform. A novel method for evaluating the effectiveness of the informal learning
tool by analyzing learners use time on the App has been proposed in this study.
Since the logged time spent on MobLearn@Work did not equal the actual time
spent on informal learning, data on the quantitative relationship between the two
were collected using a simple questionnaire. Although the data collected in this way
were deemed to be rough, they still provided a feasible means of measuring the time
spent on informal learning. Further study needs to be conducted in this respect.

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Author Biography

Nicole Gu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. Her
major research interests cover the areas including but not limited to mobile learning, Web 2.0
technologies and adult learning. Her current research topic is to evaluate workplace informal
learning activities in the context of mobile Web 2.0 via the use of a customized App.
 Part V
Mobile Learning in Subject Domains
Chapter 18
The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous
Learning and the Affordances of This
Approach for Geometry Learners

Helen Crompton

Abstract The use of mobile learning has provided new pedagogical approaches to
teaching geometry as a result of the technological affordances provided. One of the
key affordances of mobile learning is the portability of the devices. This has
untethered the learner from a particular environment to learn wherever and
whenever the learner chooses. This chapter describes a subcategory of mobile
learning called context-aware ubiquitous learning (context-aware ulearning) where
learning happens in a real-world environment while using mobile devices to interact
with that setting. This chapter delineates this subcategory and how this type of
learning can be dichotomized into sensory and ambient context-aware ulearning.
An argument is made that context-aware ulearning is a useful pedagogical approach
for learning geometry.

18.1 Introduction

The use of mobile learning has provided new pedagogical approaches as a result of
the new technological affordances (Crompton 2013). Crompton posited that one of
the key affordances of mobile learning is the portability of the devices. This has
untethered the learner from a particular environment to learn wherever and
whenever the learner chooses. As educators and scholars have considered how
these mobile affordances can be exploited, a new category of mobile learning has
formed called context-aware ubiquitous learning (context-aware ulearning;
Lonsdale et al. 2004). This term is broadly described as the use of mobile devices
for learning while interacting with a real-world setting. In this chapter,
context-aware ulearning is delineated and an argument is made to how a further

H. Crompton (&)
Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
e-mail: Crompton@odu.edu

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 303

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_18
304 H. Crompton

dichotomy forms sensory and ambient context-aware ulearning. This chapter also
describes how context-aware ulearning is a useful pedagogical approach for
extending and enhancing students understanding of geometry.

18.2 Mobile Learning

To unpack the meaning of a particular term, the denition is typically presented.

However, mobile learning is a relatively new eld of study and various different
denitions have been published. Soloway et al. (2001) provided one of the early
denitions of mobile learning as the use of a Palm as a learning device. Following
Soloway et al.s approach, many have based the denition on a particular mobile
device. These ephemeral denitions exist only until new mobile technologies
appear on the market.
Scholars (viz., Laouris and Eteokleous 2005; Sharples et al. 2005; Traxler
2009a) have entered into deep debates about how the denition should be based on
particular attributes of mobile devices and what attributes should be included.
Crompton (2013) conducted a review of the attributes described by the scholars to
consolidate them into four central constructs of mobile learning: pedagogy, tech-
nological devices, context, and social interactions. This led to the construction of a
recent denition of mobile learning as learning across multiple contexts, through
social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices (Crompton 2013,
p. 4). This denition does not mean that learning must be across multiple contexts
and that both social and content interactions have to be included in the same
learning activity, instead it provides the reader an understanding of what can be
included in an mobile learning activity.
Another topic of great debate has been centered on which technological devices
t under the umbrella term of mobile devices (Caudill 2007; Traxler 2009b). In
Cromptons (2013) denition, the term personal electronic device was used. This
means that it is a device that is typically bought to serve the use of one person, such
as a mobile phone or a tablet. However, the main consideration is if that device is
able to turn on at a moments notice to be used anywhere and at any time.
Considering this, some portable technologies such as laptops would not t under
the term mobile technologies as the user typically has to wait while it turns on,
which can take a few minutes. In addition, a laptop may be portable, nonetheless, it
would be difcult to use a laptop while standing on a bus and with mobile phones
and tablets this is much easier.
The portability of the mobile devices is the key attribute to the technologies that
has led to the term mobile learning. Nonetheless, people conducting activities with
mobile devices do not always make use of this feature. In some cases, mobile
devices are used with the intention of avoiding students mobility. For example, in
schools, students can often be provided with mobile devices to enable the learner to
use the device when they need it and avoid students moving around the classroom
to use computers. Mobile devices are used in some locations for testing; in these
18 The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning 305

cases, mobile devices can be seen as an alternative to large desktop computers that
are cheaper, portable, and compact for storage. The argument could be made that
this type of testing in not mobile as the students have to typically stay in one
location to complete the test. However, the rebuttal could be that the testing can
happen in rooms and other locations that testing would not be possible without a
mobile device. This could be valuable in supporting students with special needs.
Learning with mobile devices in schools is a relatively new experience for
mathematics teachers. In the majority of schools with mobile learning implemen-
tations, there is a lack of teacher training on how to use the technological devices to
teach (viz., Cheon et al. 2012; Crow et al. 2010). Teachers often resort to traditional
teaching approaches when using the devices (Hughes 2013). Drill programs can be
used as teachers task the students with completing one of many mathematical
games available via the Internet or application on the iPads. Students typically
remain seated at their desks in the classroom as they complete these games. There
are also games that encourage collaboration as two to four players can work
towards a common goal on applications such as Operation Math Code Squad
(2014).
Companies (e.g., Ventura Educational Systems) have developed applications to
mimic traditional virtual manipulatives. For example, the Hands-On Math
Geoboard (2015) application that allows the user to put virtual elastic bands on a
geoboard and add color to the shape. Figure 18.1 provides a visual example of three
virtual elastic bands that have been placed on the virtual board with the bottom
shape lled with color. Manipulatives are particularly useful in geometry with
shape and measurement as they can provide a visual representation of the concept.
Zbiek et al. (2007) postulate that when selecting manipulatives that three main
points need to be considered, which are:
Mathematical Fidelity: how the mathematical object honors the underlying
mathematical properties of that object in the virtual environment.

Fig. 18.1 A visual

representation of the geoboard
with virtual elastic bands
(Hands-On Math Geoboard
2015)
306 H. Crompton

Fig. 18.2 Technology adoption framework

Cognitive delity: how the virtual manipulative reflects the users cognitive
actions and choices.
Pedagogical delity: how teachers and students believe that the virtual manip-
ulative allows students to act in mathematical ways to correspond to the nature
of mathematics and underlies a teachers pedagogy.
Some mathematics applications have students use the mobility of the mobile
devices to play educational games. For example, Motion Math (nd) incorporate
motion sensed game applications (Motion Math nd). For these games, the student is
required to make their answer choices by moving the devices from side-to-side
rather than touch selecting a choice. These are different examples of mobile
learning, activities that can support geometry learners.
Games and virtual manipulatives are especially helpful for mathematics teachers
who are new to using mobile technologies as they can connect to traditional
teaching approaches of playing board games and using concrete manipulatives.
This adoption of familiar methods can initially be useful, but with practice and
further condence mobile learning needs to extended to adapt the way that tech-
nology is used and how it meets the needs of the particular learners. In this chapter,
teachers are encouraged to go one step further and to innovate and take learning
beyond what has been done in the past and fully use the affordances to push the
boundaries of traditional pedagogies (Fig. 18.2).
Mobile learnings obvious innovation to teaching is that the mobile devices can
also be used both inside and outside the classroom. Students can connect with the
real-world environment while using the technological support of the mobile devi-
ces. This type of learning will be described in the following section on
context-aware ulearning, then connections are made to how this type of learning is
useful in extending and enhancing students understanding of geometry.

18.3 Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning

Academics and educators have advocated for centuries for students to learn edu-
cational concepts while connecting to real-world concepts (Clairaut 1741/2006;
Bartolini-Bussi et al. 2010). Context-aware ulearning can be used to have students
18 The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning 307

Fig. 18.3 The dichotomy of

context-aware ubiquitous
learning

making those connections as the students learn while interacting with the real
world. Hwang et al. rst dened context-aware ulearning in 2008. In this section, an
argument is made for a dichotomy in context-aware ulearning to two distinct areas:
ambient and sensory. See Fig. 18.3.
Hwang et al. (2008) described context-aware ulearning as:
The learners situation or the situation of the real-world environment in which the learner in
location can be sensed, implying that the system is able to conduct the learning activities in
the real world context-aware ulearning can actively provide supports and hints to the
learners in the right way, in the right place, and at the right time, based on the environ-
mental contexts in the real world. (p. 84)

Hwang et al. went further to provide a list of examples of what could be included.
Table 18.1 provides a few of those models and examples.
Many of these activities use cutting edge technologies beyond what is typically
available on mobile devices. For example, in the chart above, to Collect data in the
real world via sensors the application needed to sense water contaminants would
probably require an additional peripheral technology, such as a probe, and an
application designed to present that information. In the table above there are four
other similar examples that require the device to sense information. This is one
group of context-aware ulearning activities, called sensory. It is important to
mention here that the mobile device has a full range of sensors, but again these are
not accessible to all. They have to be unlocked for general use via an application. At
the end of 2014, the Sense-it (2014) application was developed by the Open
University boasts being the rst open application to unlock the full range of sensors
on mobile devices. The Sense-it application is only available for Android devices.
This could be the start of easier access for educators to enable them to use the
senses on mobile devices. However, this program has yet to reach general main-
stream knowledge and use and the sensory descriptions of Hwang et al. (2008)
require additional peripheral technologies.
308 H. Crompton

Table 18.1 Models and examples of context-aware ulearning activities (The full table can be
accessed at Hwang et al. 2008, p. 86.)
Model Context- aware ubiquitous learning examples
Learning in the real world with The students learning in the real world and are guided by the
online guidance system, based on the real-world data collected by the sensors
For example, for the students who takes a chemistry course, hints
are provided automatically based on his or her real-world actions
during the chemistry procedures
Learning in the real world with The students learn in the real world, and support is automatically
online support provided by the system based on the real-world data collected by
the sensors
For example, for the student who is learning to identify the types of
plants on campus, relevant information concerning the features of
each type of plant is provided automatically based on his or her
location and the plants around him or her
Collect data in the real world The students are asked to collect data by observing objects in the
via observations real world and to transfer the data to the server via wireless
communications
For example, observe the plants in this area and transfer the data
(including the photos you take and your own descriptions of the
features of each plant) to the server
Collect data in the real world The students are asked to collect data by sensing objects in the real
via sensors world, and report what they found. For example, the students nd
three different samples of water and report a contaminant found by
using the sensors
Identication of a real-world Students are asked to answer the questions concerning the
object identication of the real-world objects
For example, what is the name of the insects shown by the teacher?
Observations of the learning Students are asked to answer the questions concerning the
environment observation of the learning environment around them
For example, observe the school garden, and upload the names of
all the insects you nd
Cooperative data collecting A group of students are asked to cooperatively collect data in the
real world and discuss their ndings with others via mobile devices
For example, Cooperatively draw a map of the school by measuring
each area and integrate the collected data
Cooperative problem solving The students are asked to cooperatively solve problems in the real
world by discussing through mobile devices
For example, search each corner of the school and nd the evidence
that can be used to determine the degree of air pollution

The other group of context-aware ulearning activities refers to activities that do

not need specialist additions to the mobile devices. For example, the activity from
the table above titled Collect data in the real world via observations could involve
the students taking pictures of angles in the real world and uploading them to an
online database (such as a Google Form to a Google spreadsheet). Activities like
this are focused on the real world but do not require specialist tools and these types
of activities are split into a group called ambient context-aware ulearning activ-
ities. Both the sensory and ambient categories of context-aware ulearning are
elucidated below.
18 The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning 309

18.3.1 Sensory

Since 2007 (see Hwang et al. 2007), Hwang and colleagues have published on the
topic of context-aware ulearning. Some of those studies, such as those in
Table 18.1, connect with sensory and ambient activities, but the primary focus of
their work on context-aware ulearning connects with sensory activities. Hwang
et al. describe the context-aware ulearning environment as a pedagogy where
individual students are guided to learn in a real-world situation with supports or
instructions from a computer system or using a mobile device to access the digital
content via wireless communications, where the learning system is able to detect
and record the learning behaviors of the students in both the real world and the
virtual world with the help of the sensor technology (Hwang et al. 2008). The
following year, Liu and Hwang (2009) used this description:
Since the early 2000s, new forms of mobile technology containing additional sensor
devices have been providing new directions for technology assisted learning, and this has
led to context-aware ulearning, which enables users to interact and learn with sensors and
radio frequency identication (RFID) embedded objects in their surroundings. (p. 1)

These provide a clear connection to sensory technologies.

Examples of studies often involve creating systems. For example, Wu et al.
(2013) developed an expert system-based context-aware ulearning approach for
conducting science learning activities. This system guided students in developing
and organizing knowledge for differentiating rocks in the real world. To develop
this system the authors used:
an inference engine, a knowledge base and a web-based interface. The inference engine
and web interface were implemented using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Windows
Mobile 6 Professional SDK. The knowledge base was developed with Microsoft SQL
Server 2005. Moreover, a C# program was developed to access the RFID tag information
from the reader on the Personal Digital Assistant that served as the mobile learning devices
in this study (Wu et al. 2013).

This system let the students know if they were correctly identifying target rocks.
In another study using context-aware ulearning, Chen and Huang (2012)
developed a context-aware ulearning environment in a museum. In this museum,
the aboriginal artifacts were each labeled with an RFID tag and students were
provided with mobile devices with RFID reader. As the students walked around the
museum the RFID technology assisted in navigating the artifacts. The RFID tags
were set up so as the student came within close proximity to the tag relevant details
about the artifact were displayed on the mobile device.
The two studies are good examples of how systems were developed that enabled
students to interact with the real world while being provided with additional
information to support in their learning. The quote from the rst study was chosen
in particular to emphasis the technological competency required to develop such a
310 H. Crompton

system. It is essential that there are experts developing systems like these to provide
unique context-aware environments that focus on sensory and RFID technologies.

18.3.2 Ambient

It is unlikely that mainstream class teachers will be able to provide these types of
activities for their students. The majority will not have the technology skills,
knowledge, or the time to create these types of activities for their students.
However, there are other types of activities that teachers can use with their students
that t into the category of context-aware ulearning activities and these have been
named ambient learning activities. For an activity to t with this category it has to
be deemed a viable option for educators to be able to use without the need for
special technological skills or knowledge above the average K-12 (education for
children aged *418 years old) teacher.
One good example of a context-aware ulearning ambient activity is by using
quick response (QR) codes. These codes are two-dimensional bar codes that can
hold up to 7,089 characters of information. As these square pixelated black and
white codes are scanned with a mobile device, they will take the students to
website, coordinates on a map, reveal text messages, read an audio message, etc.
QR codes are versatile in their use so they can t with many different strands in
mathematics. QR codes are a simple technology to use with only the basic tech-
nology skills required for teachers to scan and to make their own codes (See
Crompton et al. (2012). Law and So (2010) used QR codes in a math trail activity.
As the students walked along the trail, the students stopped at various locations to
scan the QR codes and answer the mathematical questions. There are many different
augmented reality applications available for teachers that also allow the creation of
customized augmented reality activities. Augmented reality activities allow the
student to view the world in real time while it is supplemented by the inclusion of a
virtual addition (e.g., a video or animated cartoon character).
Crompton (2015) used another type of application to have students learn about
angle and angle measurement. In this study, students aged nine to 10 years of age
were introduced to angle concepts by exploring angles in the playground. In pairs,
students used iPads, Sketchpad Explorer app, and an add-on program called
Measure a Picture (Steketee and Crompton 2012). Within the app, the students took
photographs of angles they found in the playground and were able to use the
dynamic protractor to measure the angles. Elisson and Ramberg (2012) had the
students involved in two context-aware ulearning activities. The rst activity had
students learn about the concept of volume as they played the role of architects in
planning for new buildings. In the second activity, students had to relocate imag-
inary species of animals from a local zoo as they learned about area. Students used a
measurement application for both these activities.
18 The Theory of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning 311

18.4 Geometry: Measure of the Earth

The study of geometry requires the complex understanding of properties, rela-

tionships, and transformations. Furthermore, students have to navigate geometrys
interconnected network of concepts and representational systems. Mathematics is
typically characterized by didactic instruction that requires rote memorization
(Williams-Carlin 2009; Stigler and Hiebert 1997). This calls into question the
epistemological nature of geometry as empirical ndings (e.g., Prescott et al. 2002;
Ubuz and stn 2004) indicate that this is not an effective way to learn geometry.
The Greek etymology of geometry is the measure of earth or land. Centuries ago,
early scholars, (viz., Comenius 1657/1986) advocated for students to learn math-
ematics by connecting to real-world artifacts (environments and objects). Many
since (viz., Bartolini-Bussi et al. 2010; Gainsburg 2008; Hiebert and Carpenter
1992; NCTM 2000; National Research Council 1990) have echoed that necessity to
connect to the real world. Context-aware ulearning is a methodology to connect
students with portable technological supports while connecting mathematical
concepts to physical manifestations of those concepts in the real world.
To make a concrete connection between the study of geometry and
context-aware ulearning, a set of ve recommendations are presented.
Focus on the geometry standard rst and the technological tools second to that.
Connect geometry to real-world occurrences or real-world authentic applications
(e.g., architect).
Work in local environments that students recognize.
Connect the contextualized concepts with decontextualized versions in the
classroom.
Avoid cognitive overload by introducing new mathematical concepts and
technologies at the same time.

18.5 The Future

The future of context-aware ulearning could involve wearable technologies. This

type of technology would t under the category of mobile learning as it is highly
portable. Wearable technologies are on the rise, with technologies, such as the
Jawbone or Fitbit, that monitor our activities, sleep, and heart rate by simply
wearing a band around the wrist. While these provide numerical values that can be
used to explore mathematical topics, e.g., data and algebra, the affordance of these
are less obvious for geometry. Google Glass (version 1) would have been a better t
as this could provide a way for students to collect real-world data. Perhaps future
versions may allow other functionalities that could use a form of augmented reality
to measure angles, distance, and volume.
312 H. Crompton

18.6 Conclusion

The majority of mathematics teachers have probably heard a student say Why do I
need to know this, when will I ever need it? For centuries, scholars have advocated
for the study of mathematics to connect with the real world. This will provide
meaning for students as they learn to understand that mathematics is not just
something that happens in the classroom, but it is all around us. The use of
context-aware ulearning will connect students to that real world while providing
technological supports to enhance that learning. There are many context-aware
ulearning sensory activities that may require computer science experts and appli-
cation developers, and there are also context-aware ulearning ambient activities that
can be used by classroom teachers to extend and enhance students understanding in
geometry.

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Author Biography

Helen Crompton (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology at Old Dominion

University, Virginia. Professor Crompton is a keen researcher and educator in the eld of
instructional technology. She gained her Ph.D. in educational technology and mathematics
education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research is focused on mobile
learning and the effective integration of technology into K-12 education. Dr. Crompton works as a
consultant for two United Nations Agencies (United Nations, Educational, Scientic, and Cultural
Organization: UNESCO and International Telecommunication Union: ITU) to research, author and
edit publications summarizing research on mobile learning. Dr. Crompton is also a faculty member
for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), teaching the ISTE Standards
academy, consulting, and recently designing ISTEs self paced Mobile Learning Academy and
Verizons Mobile Learning Academy.
Chapter 19
Three Phases of Mobile Learning State
of the Art and Case of Mobile Help
Seeking Tool for the Health Care Sector

John Cook and Patricia Santos

Abstract The Internet mobile device enabled social networks of today stand
accused of being so-called weapons of mass distraction or worse. However, we
point out that modern fears about the dangers of social networking are overdone.
The paper goes on to present three phases of mobile learning state of the art that
articulate what is possible now and in the near future for mobile learning. The
Learning Layers project is used to provide a case of barriers and possibilities for
mobile learning; we report on extensive initial co-design work and signicant
barriers with respect to the design of a mobile Help Seeking tool for the Healthcare
sector (UK). We then provide an account of how the Help Seeking tool is being
linked to a Social Semantic Server and report on a follow-up empirical co-design
study.

19.1 Introduction

The current context is that rarely does a day go by without dire warnings and overt
action to either ban mobile devices and access to social networks from the work-
place or school, or for monitoring of some description to be put in place to police
behaviour. Put simply, social networks and mobile devices stand accused of being
so-called weapons of mass distraction or worse. For example, we have the fol-
lowing suspect claim (Infographic 2012): Social Media Distractions Cost U.S.
Economy $650 Billion. Indeed, in schools we have this recent example of
policing (CBSlocal 2013): Glendale Unied School District in California is
paying $40,500 to Geo Listening to collect and analyze all social media public posts
of 13,000 students even if it was done off campus. However, a McKinsey

J. Cook (&)
P. Santos

University of the West England, Bristol, UK
e-mail: John2.Cook@uwe.ac.uk
P. Santos
e-mail: Patricia.Santosrodriguez@uwe.ac.uk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 315

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_19
316 J. Cook and P. Santos

Global Institute report (Chui et al. 2012) claims that social networking within
companies could increase the productivity of knowledge workers by 2025 %.
Modern fears about the dangers of social networking and the use of mobile devices
for learning are overdone.
The rst part of this chapter provides a three-phase overview of mobile learning
state of the art, which incorporates a view of the emerging technologies and their
pedagogical affordances, attendant barriers and how to overcome them, and which
highlights emerging trends in mobile learning. The Learning Layers project is then
described using the frame of design research to illustrate what is possible in social
networks and mobile device-mediated learning. We report extensive initial
co-design work and signicant barriers with respect to a mobile Help Seeking tool
for the Healthcare sector. The chapter then provides an account of how the Help
Seeking tool is being linked to a Social Semantic Server and we briefly report on a
follow-up empirical co-design study. We conclude by highlighting associated
challenges.

19.2 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art

In this section we examine state-of-the-art mobile technologies and their peda-

gogical affordances, including barriers, how to overcome them, and emerging
trends in mobile learning (m-learning). In order to achieve this we propose the
following new three phases, which are discussed individually below but which
never-the-less overlap:
Focus on new patterns of connected social learning and work-based practices.
Focus on designing for m-learning at scale.
Focus on the boundaries of learning that the m in m-learning forces us to
explore.
Each phase or focus has a key argument associated with it, which are as follows:
A key-evolving pedagogical affordance of mobile devices is the ability to use
social media and apps to enable new patterns of connected social, learning and
work-based practices.
Design research allows us to engage in inquiry surrounding the transformative
possibilities for m-learning. Particularly, designing for m-learning at scale is a
big challenge.
Participants in new mass communications are now actively engaged in gener-
ating their own content and contexts for learning. User/Learner-generated
context for us (Cook et al. 2012) is conceived in such a way that users of mobile
digital devices are being afforded synergies of knowledge distributed across
people, communities, locations, time (life course), social contexts, sites of
practice (such as sociocultural milieus) and structures. Of particular signicance
for us is the way in which mobile digital devices are mediating access to
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 317

external representations of knowledge in a manner that provides (equity of)

access to cultural resources.
With respect to the rst state of the art (focus on new patterns of connected social
learning and work-based practices), we argue that a key evolving pedagogical
affordance of mobile devices is the ability to use social media and apps to enable
new patterns of connected social learning and work-based practices. A review by
Cochrane (2013) notes the dearth of research into social m-learning. Indeed, there is
still a focus on content whereas a key theme for the future of m-learning may be
augmentation. For example, FitzGerald et al. (2013) have suggested a useful tax-
onomy of Augmented Reality used in m-learning projects; this taxonomy has six
dimensions: (i) device or technology used, (ii) mode of interaction, (iii) method of
sensory feedback to the user, (iv) personal or shared experience, (v) xed/static or
portable experience, and (vi) learning activities or outcomes. Augmented Context
for Development work by Cook (2010) was found to be useful both to Cochrane
and FitzGerald et al. because it provides an example of a m-learning project that
focussed upon augmenting the learners experience in the eld by the provision of a
Vygotskian environment for personal and collaborative meaning-making (we return
to this below). Indeed, this and other projects point the way for Augmented Reality
to be used for situated and constructivist learning, particular where collaboration
and student inquiry form key aspects. However, as we point out in the introduction,
social networks like Facebook and Twitter stand accused of being so-called
weapons of mass distraction, diverting workers and students away from their
real work. Schools are cautiousanxious, maybe about new digital technologies
and media. In Introduction, we provided key examples to counter these fears and
concerns. Furthermore, recent work has examined how social media and personally
owned mobile devices could be used as a means of providing a bridge from media
use in everyday life to the expectations of school and higher education potentially
has enormous attraction. Some research (see Cook et al. 2012 for a review) suggests
that in Higher Education Facebook, for example, provides affordances that can help
reduce barriers that students with lower self-esteem might experience in forming the
kinds of large, heterogeneous networks that are sources of social capital. Trust is a
key issue in this respect. Thus, there appears to be considerable potential for mobile
devices and social networks in terms of sustainability in the integration of informal
and formal institutional dimensions of learning. However, although a new educa-
tional paradigm is emerging, there exists a need for more debate and further
research, particularly around notions of sustainability, scalability and equity of
access to opportunities to build social capital. We also need to examine how mobile
devices are reconguring the relationships between spaces, between public spaces
and private ones, and the ways in which these are penetrated by mobile virtual
spaces. For example, we need to examine further the importance of the human body
as the key interface in the interpenetration of physical and virtual spaces.
With respect to the second state of the art (focus on designing for m-learning at
scale), we argue that design research (we dene this below) allows us to engage in
inquiry surrounding the transformative possibilities for m-learning; and particularly,
318 J. Cook and P. Santos

this is a big challenge. Carmean et al. (2013) point out that features-oriented
affordances of mobile devices are not enough as a way of characterising m-learning.
They propose that we need to examine the deeper affordance of mobile devices,
particularly the immediacy and the connection natively built into such devices.
Indeed, they propose that if we are to understand the potential for new learning
experiences and support that new mobile devices afford, then we need to examine
mobility + design. We fully agree with Carmean et al.s well-argued assertion that
design research allows us to bring out never-seen before possibilities. However, in
terms of scaling up m-learning, a key research theme, Cochrane (2013) points out
that several larger m-learning projects have tended to focus on specic groups of
learners, rather than developing pedagogical strategies for the integration of
m-learning within tertiary education in general. It appears that the situation in
m-learning research can be typied as being typically content centric, a focus on the
device. We agree with Carmean et al.s assertion that designing for m-learning can
help unlock the web of individualised choices that are available by encouraging us
to design for access to small chunks, and to make these customizable to individuals
needs, experience and agency. Specically, design research allows us to engage in
inquiry surrounding the transformative possibilities for m-learning. Designing for
m-learning at scale, beyond pilots and content-centric approach, is a big chal-
lenge. To help elucidate the issues, below we describe in some detail work by the
authors on an investigation of a design research approach (The Help Seeking tool).
With near global ownership of mobile devices imminent, the more technical con-
cerns surrounding cross-platform mobile development becomes crucial. To
summarise, the current state of cross-platform development techniques falls into
two broad approaches: cross-compilation (native apps) and mobile web appli-
cations (web apps) also referred to as the responsive web. A trend which could
signicantly help scale learning is Learning Analytics (LA), this is one of the
promising techniques that has been developed in recent times to effectively utilise
the astonishing volume of student data available in formal education. Finally, we
note that while some describe MOOCs (massively open online courses) as a fad
possessing poor quality, lack of student engagement, lack of business model, and
high dropout rates, others think that the MOOCs will soon become the de facto way
to remediate and educate a broad swath of students in a wide variety of content
areas, i.e. to assist in scaling. De Waards (2013) work on MobiMOOC provides an
example of how a mobileMOOC or mMOOCs would work. What is encouraging
about de Waards exposition of the affordances of the mMOOC is that she is clear
on the reasons for the mobile additions from a reflexive pedagogical perspective.
With respect to the third state of the art (focus on the boundaries of learning that
the m in m-learning forces us to explore), we argue that participants in new mass
communications are now actively engaged in generating their own content and
contexts for learning. Indeed, for us mass media are witnessing a paradigm shift in
which the user can generate their own content with a mobile phone or another
digital device. Thus these activities at the boundaries of learning are made up by a
lot of individuals publishing user-generated content (in the form of videos that users
have produced themselves or digital media that have been copied from some other
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 319

source, the latter may be subject to copyright restrictions). Consequently, we

suggest that what we are seeing is the emergence of user-generated contexts. Not
only do the twenty-rst-century structures of mass communication provide a wide
range of augmentations to communication but in addition, through the agency of
users, the context within which communication takes place is augmented by users
to suit the needs of the individual and/or the conversational community; above, we
explored in detail to themes that expand on these trends:
Bring your own device (BYOD)
Mobile games
Learner/User-Generated Contexts.
Examples of one-to-one programmes in US (post-compulsory) and UK (school)
illustrate that there is a rising opportunity for the use of personal technologies for
formal learning as well as learning in informal situations, e.g. work-related activ-
ities. Clark and Luckin (2013) conclude that the research on iPad use in the schools
context report increased motivation, enthusiasm, interest, engagement, indepen-
dence and self-regulation, creativity and improved productivity. BYOD refers to
the policy of permitting learners or employees to bring personally owned mobile
devices (laptops, tablets, and smart phones) to their educational establishment or
workplace. Although BYOD has many potential advantages, before adopting
BYOD in a formal learning context there are many things to consider as these
challenges or requirements will need to be met in order for you to reap the benets,
as work reported by JISC above illustrates. A case study by LaMaster and
Ferries-Rowe (2013) describes the implementation of mobile technology at Brebeuf
Jesuit Preparatory School using a BYOD approach; they describe a strategic plan
that resulted from student, faculty and user consultation, which can be used as a
template for other institutions. Also, work by Deloitte (2013) illustrates that as the
buzz around BYOD dies down to some extent, Bring Your Own Application
(BYOA) is likely to step to the forefront of debate. The proliferation of cloud-based
applications means that BYOA does not even require installation, and so could be
near-impossible to restrict.
We can expect to see widespread adoptions of games in education; this is
another area that a growing number of researchers are investigating in terms of the
boundaries of learning. For example, Benford et al. (2004) have evaluated systems
for location-based multi-player games, seeking to understand how in situ users
share location information at a distance through comparing self-reporting and GPS
readings. However, very often games require that the learner maintains the high
level of engagement and arousal within the game scenario. Given this, a question
that arises is: can a game approach be applied to all scenarios of learning?
Finally, we draw on the phenomena (at the boundaries of learning) whereby that
society is currently witnessing a signicant shift away from traditional forms of
mass communication and an editorial push towards user-generated content and
augmented communication contexts to explore different expositions of
learner-generated contexts. Of particular signicance for us is the way in which
320 J. Cook and P. Santos

mobile digital devices are mediating access to external representations of knowl-

edge in a manner that provides access to cultural resources.
In the next section, we elaborate on design research and the application of
Vygotskian theories,, in order to set up a design case study to support informal
learning practices, in particular help seeking actions, in a Healthcare workplace
environment. The case study is framed into a European research project called
Learning Layers.

19.3 Design Research in the Learning Layers Project

19.3.1 Design Research

Design research allows us to engage in inquiry surrounding the transformative

possibilities for learning technologies. In the Learning Layers Project (described
below), we develop technologies that support informal learning in the workplace
(Healthcare professionals in NE England and the Construction sector in North
Germany). Co-design is being used with all user groups to help shape our designs
and tools and to understand the context. Design research aims to have impact on
real-world problems whilst providing a frame for inquiry that is rigorous and yet
experimental; it has recently been characterised as follows:
a genre of research in which the iterative development of solutions to practical and
complex educational problems also provides the context for empirical investigation, which
yields theoretical understanding that can inform the work of others [although potentially
powerful] the simultaneous pursuit of theory building and practical innovation is extremely
ambitious (McKenney and Reeves 2012).

19.3.2 Vygotsky

Society experienced technologically and socially driven transformations during the

industrialisation of the rst third of the twentieth century; it was against this
background that Lev Vygotsky dened the characteristics of human development as
a development which is based on the instrumental conditioning of reflexes or as the
extension of the body by tools for mastering nature (Vygotsky 1930/1978, p. 19).
The higher psychological processes, as Vygotsky termed them, result from a
relation between human beings and their environment, both physical and social
(p. 19). Vygotsky considered social interactions to be those like to speak as the
transformation of practical activities such as to use a tool. The leading processes
are that of internalisation and that of the instrumental use of a tool; this happens
where An operation that initially represents an external activity is reconstructed
and begins to occur internally (Vygotsky 1930/1978, pp. 5657). Vygotsky then
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 321

went on to propose the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This was a sig-
nicant paradigm shift, because up until that point a childs mental development
had been assumed to be indicated only by those things that children could achieve
on their own, whereas Vygotsky took the view that what children can do with the
assistance of others [the more capable peers] might be in some sense even more
indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone (Vygotsky
1930/1978, p. 85). Furthermore, development in a ZPD has a forward looking,
temporal and prospective dimension. Indeed, in addition to reorganising the
visual-spatial eld (a centre of gravity of current attention) Vygotsky proposed
that the child, with the help of speech, creates a time eld he can act in the
present from the viewpoint of the future (Vygotsky 1930/1978, pp. 3536).
Recently, Cook (2010) has extended some of Vygotskys concepts to adult
learners (MA Landscape Studies, University of Shefeld, UK) to explain the way
they collaborate using mediating tools (mobile phones, Augmented Reality, lan-
guage). This work provides a description of the components of a context that
emerges at run-time (i.e. when learners engage with a task/activity using tools like
mobile devices and language), whereby context is conceived as a core construct
that enables collaborative, location-based, mobile device mediated problem solving
where learners generate their own temporal context for development within the
wider frame of Augmented Contexts for Development (ACD) (Cook 2010). We
rmly believe that tracing the links between multiple temporal context for
development is a key to understanding cross-contextual learning and
meaning-making (this is a core notion in our proposal for the design of innovative
recommendation services, more details described below).
The ACD appears to act as part of the substitute for what Vygotsky calls the
more capable peer. As Cook (2010) states, mobile devices can be used as medi-
ators in an ACD using them as the more capable peer that is able to guide and
scaffold the learners to nd the solutions. The main elements to develop the ACD
are: (a) the physical environment, (b) a pedagogical plan, (c) tools/devices for an
augmented oriented approach, (d) learner co-constructed temporal context for
development, and (e) collaborative learners interpersonal interactions using tools
(which overlaps with (d)).

19.3.3 Learning Layers

The context for our recent work is Learning Layers (http://learning-layers.eu/), a

large European Commission co-funded project (FP7 IP) which investigates scaling
the use of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in workplace informal learning
where users have previously been reluctant to use TEL for learning (Healthcare is
the focus of this study). The consortium consists of 17 institutions from seven
different countries.
322 J. Cook and P. Santos

19.4 Help Seeking Tool

The focus of the remainder of this chapter is from the perspective of Learning
Layers work package 2 (WP2), one of six R&D work packages in the project.
Figure 19.1 shows how we organise the project. All three interaction layers (i.e.
WP2-4) draw on a common Social Semantic Layer (WP5) that aims to ensure that
informal learning is embedded in a meaningful context.
WP2 is concerned with the Networked ScaffoldingInteracting with People,
developing technology support for current working practices of an individual so
that it is persistent over multiple work/organisational contexts and so that it extends
into larger networks of people. We adopt as a basis for our work the term scaf-
folding, which draws on Vygotskys ZPD but which can be attributed to Wood
et al. (1976) who described it as a process that enables a child or a novice to solve
a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted
efforts (p. 90). Our Networked Scaffolding idea proposes on the one hand a
low-barrier approach that collects and semantically analyse Q/A typically asked in
practice, we create a scaffolding resource of solved questions and similar and
more capable peers that workers have asked about a concept or problem in a
particular learning context. On the other hand, from the analysis of this actions we
identify learning patterns to provide support to novel informal learning challenges
associated to the practice of exchanging Q/A.
This work contributes to the building of recommendations services/algorithms
that are being realised with Social Semantic Server (SSS) technology from other
WP5 (described below).

19.4.1 Overview of WP2 Networked

ScaffoldingInteracting with People

In Learning Layers WP2, we have focused our design research over the last 2 years
(2013 and 2014) on the study and understanding of Help Seeking in the Healthcare

Fig. 19.1 Organisation of

Learning Layers
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 323

sector (NE, England). The Help Seeking design and development team emerged
from the Layers Open Design conference in February 2013 and has subsequently
engaged in extensive and iterative design renement of ideas. The co-design
approach has been selected as the most suitable, because it is necessary to identify
the user needs and problems, particularly because our context is one where staffs in
the Healthcare sector are not condent about the use of technologies in their work
practice (we elaborate on this point below).
Results derived from the analysis of the initial co-design activities in the
Healthcare sector have conrmed that putting guidelines and pathways into
practice, in particular national health guidelines, can be a problem (it represents a
systemic pain point) and that as such it important to support conversations and
discussions about the implementation of guidelines locally. In this context, we
claim that there will be conversations over time in which these additions to the local
implantation of guidelines will evolve. Our hypothesis is that these conversations
will take place within Personal Learning Networks or PLN (Cook and Pachler
2012; this chapter includes a literature review of work-based practice, tagging and
trust) and in a more organisational level through Shared Learning Networks
(SLN). APLN is a group of people organised by an individual and formed by her
trusted colleagues. On the other hand, a SLN is a network which contains every-
body registered on the learning system.
These networks play a key role, and therefore we take the view that the
development of those networks, as well as the associated help seeking of opinions
in such networks, requires scaffolding. The outcomes of these conversations will
feed into the local implementation of national guidelines. Therefore, the Help
Seeking prototype provides peer support for workplace decision-making and
problem-solving (i.e. informal learning) by scaffolding: (1) the building, main-
taining and activating of a trusted Personal Learning Network, and (2) the
movement from using a trusted PLN to SLN. Our aim with the Help Seeking
prototype is twofold: supply computer support for a range of workers in the UKs
Healthcare sector to assist them in identifying (i) relevant more and trusted capable
peer(s) from and with whom to learn (informal learning) and, (ii) trusted resources
from their PLN. These aims are partially realised by the use of trusted recommender
systems to support informal learning at work; they are typically used to build
trusted networks and resolve the information overload problem, people are over-
whelmed with information and have difculties in nding the right piece of
information or right person in such a space.
The Help Seeking prototype envisaged usage (i.e. a use case, see Santos et al.
2014a, for details) is as follows: a nurse uses the app to seek support in the course
of her/his activities: (1) asks a question by typing a question; (2) annotates the type
of problem by creating tags or selecting existing tags (from a data base of suggested
problem types); (3) selects from her group of trusted colleagues (from data in her
PLN) to whom the question should be circulated to. Automatically related national
guidelines, peers, meeting notes and questions are recommended for her, this
information is suggested by the sematic analysis of the question and corresponding
tags using the Social Semantic Server or SSS (Kowald et al. 2013; Seitinger et al.
324 J. Cook and P. Santos

2013). The nurse checks the information and authorship of the resources and may
choose to add a new person to her PLN as appropriate, adding tags to relate specic
knowledge to this person. After some minutes, some colleagues provide short
answer to her question.

19.4.2 Early Co-design of the Help Seeking Tool

In order to redene our initial user stories, wireframes and various interactive
prototypes, we have engaged in discuss with users in initial co-design sessions over
a period of about 13 months (November 2012December 2013).
The user stories on which our design ideas were initially based were based on
empirical work done by WP1 and rened during Application Partner Days in
February 2013. A specic user story was combined with ndings from the
Application Partner days in February 2013, to present an initial use case of a GP
(General Practitioner) looking for some help with cascading national guidelines.
This original user story was used to develop the rst storyboards, and also fed into
the designs made for the (internal) Design Conference in Helsinki in March 2013.
Following the Design Conference, the iterative process of showing the designs,
working through them with users, rening and reworking, then re-representing to
users took place over a series of months between April and September 2013. In
April 2013, having been shown the rst iteration of the design idea for the Help
Seeking tool, in which the example of sharing national guidelines was used,
valuable feedback was noted from Healthcare staff at a specic practice. This
meeting in the co-design process highlighted uneasiness with technology, issues
with trust and a reluctance to use anything like social networks. However, it also
showed that internal technology solutions, such as the intranet were being used, and
although there was a reluctance to use smartphones, the issues around sharing and
nding information and time constraints were clearly identied. In order to give
users a clearer idea of how the technology might work in practice, a clickable,
in-device wireframe was developed using Balsamiq (a rapid prototyping tool). This
was tested in two selected Practices. In brief, the search for a scenario which would
be useful to all the individuals across Practice A and Practice B, with its range of
personnel and its different contexts, proved challenging. The nal solution at the
end of year 1 concentrated on a use case (given above) which describes assisting a
user to develop a network of contacts which would be useful in a range of work and
learning scenarios (i.e. the PLN).
As the above represents a rst cut design decision, we proposed that we should
use mobile devices to support the collaborative Help Seeking; this support is needed
due to the lack of time and mobility issues of staff (e.g. nurses can sometimes work
in different locations during the same day). A Proof of Concept (Fig. 19.2, a
simulation of an Android app which is interactive and simulates certain function-
alities) was constructed and demonstrated/trailed with Practices A and B.
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 325

Fig. 19.2 Android proof of concept

The app allowed users to enter a question, add an attachment (image, video) and
choose from a list (pre-populated for this Proof of Concept) which contacts they
would send the question to. The reaction to Help Seeking using a mobile tool was
mixed: some users are currently only comfortable with using desktop applications,
some avoid technology, and others are very condent users. As mentioned above,
since the project will evolve over a number of years, it seems essential to design not
only for the current moment but also for a future in which those users who are not
familiar become more condent with technology. After further co-design sessions,
the design idea of the Help Seeking tool was rened. The addition of tagging of
people, questions and documents in order to build a trusted network (PLN) also
accords with the advances made by other technical partners on the Social Semantic
Server, so that it is envisaged that the SSS will be able to analyse and recommend
tags, useful contacts (similar and more capable peers), answers to questions and
documents which relate to problem. Contacts will be sourced from a wider SLN or
beyond via questions or key words and added to the PLN as appropriate. Tags allow
the recording of other important details (e.g. specialisms, place of work). Ideally,
the tool will clip data from received sources (e.g. email) and store in relation to
contacts (but this is currently out of scope for technical and security reasons).

19.4.3 Help Seeking: Follow-up Empirical Co-design Study

Our initial co-design work, described above, highlights that a big problem is reti-
cence in the Healthcare sector to use social and mobile media in workplace practice.
However, as we also explained above, we believe that modern fears about the
dangers of social networking are overdone. Consequently, we predicted that when
we introduce a cut-down version of the Help Seeking tool to users, in a series of
empirical co-design sessions, they would realise there is nothing to fear and will
326 J. Cook and P. Santos

themselves ask for the full functionality of the Help Seeking tool to be re-added
(this has been our experience on other projects). Recently in year 2014, we have
conducted a cross-case analysis (Holley et al. 2014) based on interviews done to
real HC staff. GP Practice Managers have access to an online network of their own
peers, and Sonia (a Practice Manager) often turns to her online peers for support: I
use it in the rst line. Indeed, unless there is a practice specic issue, the Practice
Managers Network is consulted; thus this is an online group that share knowledge
and practice at a cross-organisational level, and can be described as having
self-selected areas of expertise (they create their own prole). This is an interesting
concept, in that there seems to be the need for mutuality or reciprocity to the trade
of help. Furthermore, Sonia acknowledges that the healthcare assistants and practice
nurses in the Practices lack their own peer mentoring groups of this type; and she
goes on to suggest that this is in fact a barrier to learning (this points to need for
Help Seeking tool) in that she has to act as a lter point for practice nurse updating.
She is uneasy in this role as she is pressurised. Sonia then goes on to relay the sets
of educational events, national and local guidelines that she has to deal with on a
regular basis.
Two in-depth co-design workshops were conducted over the period October
2013 to October 2014, for details see Santos et al. (2014b). The research involved
tool use, pre-post workshop questionnaires and workshop observations. By October
2013, we had identied three already existing healthcare networks in the north of
England that were regarded as worthy of deeper inquiry. These are a
well-established Practice Managers Network, a new network of Nurses and a
group of Data Quality Leads members who want to form a network. In the rst
workshop, an existing Professional Networking tool (LinkedIn) was used to discuss
with Healthcare staff the benets and limitations of social tools. Concurrently,
results from the initial co-design sessions (described above) were used to develop
the rst prototype version of the Help Seeking tool (a WordPress based following
a responsive design so it can be run on mobile devices like phone and tablets and on
desktops). This version beta 1 was evaluated during the second workshop. Results
from the rst and second workshops were used to identify a design criterion rel-
evant for our Help Seeking tool.
There was strong support for using tags to nd relevant discussions. Our future
plans include to support and facilitate the use of tags providing scaffolding
mechanisms when (1) composing questions and as an alert to similar problems; and
(2) when searching, nding existing groups and ltering information. For example,
in order to facilitate the searching and ltering of information the use of tags seems
to be generally accepted as a good solution, particularly with positive nding with
respect to using tags to nd a relevant discussion or groups (see above). Indeed,
workshop 2 found that the Help Seeking tool should provide support to make links
with similar groups: Would also like the facility to create and link to other relevant
groups (e.g. PMs) in order to open up communication channels for particular
purposes. This is in line of our idea of providing Socio-Historical tools and ser-
vices where humans and the system (i.e. the Help Seeking tool and recommender
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 327

system) work together connecting people with people, people with data, and data
with data.
Furthermore, trust seems to be closely linked to contacts with same professional
prole. An issue was raised towards the end of workshop 1 about ignoring sug-
gestions from LinkedIn that do not relate to a persons professional identity. One of
the Practice Managers commented that during the workshop they had sent an invite
to connect to every Practice Manager that LinkedIn was recommending, even if
they did not already know them. They commented that it couldnt hurt to do this.
However, the same person was making some choices and ignoring some recom-
mendationsthey said they were not interested in connecting to the BMA (British
Medical Association) or to Practice Nurses even though LinkedIn was making these
suggestions as well. Information from the users (not only the personal details
provided by the individuals manually, but also the semantic analysis of their
actions) will be saved as Key prole factors. This information will be used by the
Help seeking tool to recommend similar and more capable peers, in order to
scaffold the process of building, maintaining and activating their PLN.
Overall we found, as predicted, that by workshop 2 participants were begin-
ning to exhibit changes in their perception towards using social networking tools
and seemed to have a clear interest in developing the Help Seeking tool to improve
their current networking limitations: This is the way forward. This is how we are
going to communicate more than the once a month [that is currently achieved
face-to-face] at the group Practice Manager meeting, without wading through a load
of emails; and a comment by a senior Nurse I didnt see the benet of
LinkedIn but I do for this [i.e. the Help Seeking tool].
Many of the ndings provided in this follow-up empirical co-design study
support the direction that the Help Seeking tool is taking but also provided new
requirements to be built into the next version.

19.5 Innovation in Context: Help Seeking Using the Social

Semantic Server

We are currently leading on innovative work to bring the semantic approaches of

WP5 (see Fig. 19.1) into the design of the Help seeking tool (Kowald et al. 2013).
The SSS collective knowledge services are able to provide useful information based
on human contributions and that these will get better as more people participate.
Because the SSS may be unfamiliar to many readers, below we unpack some of the
main ideas. This is followed by a new conceptualisation of how the Help Seeking
tool and the SSS might t together from a Vygotskian perspective; we conrm that
the design research goal of the simultaneous pursuit of theory building and
practical innovation is extremely ambitious but attainable.
328 J. Cook and P. Santos

19.5.1 Social Semantic Server

The Social Semantic Information Spaces (Fig. 19.4), is claimed to be a space where
information is socially created and maintained as well as being interlinked and
machine-understandable, leading to new ways to discover information on the Web
(SIOC 2009, please refer to this web page for explanation of acronyms in
Fig. 19.3).
The relation between actors, activities and objects of actionactivity has been a
core challenge in Vygotsky-informed research and cultural-historical activity theory.
Consequently, the next section presents an innovative conceptualisation of how the
Vygotsky-informed research described in this chapter can be used to inform a
rethink of the SSS and hence move us beyond the state of the art.

19.5.2 Layers Social Semantic Server and Help Seeking

Tool in Healthcare Sector

The SSS can generate metadata to relate people and data, people and people, data
and data. The goal of the following conceptualisation is to explore the integration of
our Help Seeking tools cultural-historical approach (Vygotsky) with the SSS.
In Fig. 19.4 we have three people: Patricia, Mark and Natasha. They all search
for and read an article called Registration guidelines on diabetes which is
downloaded from the Intranet onto their respective PLNs (the solid lines in
Fig. 19.4). From this the SSS will begin a service known as user event service (or
looking at what people are doing and nding patterns); in this instance, the pattern
is three people have all downloaded the same document meaning they have shown
an interest. From the SSSs perspective we draw a (dotted lines in Fig. 19.5)

Fig. 19.3 Social semantic information spaces (with Layers tool and service included)
19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 329

Fig. 19.4 Triggering event service

connection between the 3 people, since they all downloaded and (we assume) have
read the same article.
Patricia asks Mark (who she has previously tagged in her PLN, as a more
capable peer) a question about booking interpreters for a patient via her contacts
facility in the app (the arrow in Fig. 19.5 to Patricias PLN). For the SSS this is part
of the meaning-making system, since they both have looked at the Registration
guidelines on diabetes document; the SSS user event service draws in a rela-
tionship between those two sets of data (dot dash lines on the right in Fig. 19.5).
Note that at the moment this relationship is detected because it is tagged by Mark
and Patricia.
Now the SSS pushes a service called recommendation service (making links to
pertinent information, Q&A or people, which is part of the guidance service group),
because it has seen that Patricia and Mark both are in this discussion (bottom right
PLN screen in Fig. 19.6). The SSS assumes that Natasha probably would like to be
in the discussion too (because of the similar interests of the three persons).
Consequently, the SSS suggests to Natasha that she joins the discussion (arced line
across the top in Fig. 19.6); the SSS is therefore scaffolding a collaborative tem-
poral context for development or put simply creating common ground for a
conversation.
In summary, Natasha discovers a discussion that she also nds useful thanks to
the SSSs high-level service recommendation. The services and connections
provided/made by SSS in this example are: (1) user event service (nding a
330 J. Cook and P. Santos

Fig. 19.5 Connection between the three people and relationship between two sets of data

Fig. 19.6 Recommendation Service

19 Three Phases of Mobile Learning State of the Art and Case of Mobile 331

pattern), (2) connection between the 3 people (dotted lines), (3) relationship
between two sets of data (dot dash lines) and (4) recommendation service, i.e.
suggesting that a person consider joining a discussion (arced line). Furthermore, in
Vygotskian terms, we have in play two key concepts: More Capable Peer and
Temporal Context for Development. From a conceptual point of view, we note that
future work needs to hook these insights into our Vygotskyian concepts (and related
notions of reciprocal collaboration) in order to rene the design of the Help Seeking
tool. Key questions that arise are as follows. Can we speculate that the centre of
gravity and time eld allows collaborators in the Practice Network to focus
attention on future oriented and shared temporal context for development? Is some
form of collaborative ltering a function that enables this context complexity to be
dealt with?

19.6 Conclusions

We conclude that from a research perspective all three of our phase

argument-driven inquiries have proved a powerful lens through which to drill down
into the state of the art of m-learning and also as vehicle to make connections. For
example, take the second phase argument exploration (focus on designing for
mobile learning at scale); we are fully convinced that design research allows us to
bring out never-seen before possibilities of mobile learning. Designing for mobile
learning at scale, beyond pilots and content-centric approach, is a big challenge
that is worthy of our attention. If we link across to our rst phase argument (focus
on new patterns of connected social learning and work-based practices) we see that
designing for augmented social learning has the real potential to take us beyond
content-centric views of learning, and that this has the potential to revolutionise
equity of access to learning. However, although a new educational paradigm is
emerging, there exists a need for more debate and further research, particularly
around notions of sustainability, scalability and equity of access to opportunities to
build social capital. Finally, with respect to our third phase argument exploration
(focus on the boundaries of learning that the m in m-learning forces us to explore)
our strong belief is that not only do the twenty-rst-century structures of mass
communication provide a wide range of augmentations to communication but in
addition, through the agency of users, the context within which communication
takes place is being augmented by users to suit the needs of the individual and the
conversational community and we predict that augmented social learning will give
rise to a stream of innovations that will shape the modern society and culture.

Acknowledgments Acknowledgment of work used in this chapter: Tribal (designs), Owen Gray
(who wrote SSS for dummies), Tamsin Treasure-Jones, Micky Kerr, & various Learning Layers
colleagues and Healthcare participants. Learning Layers is a 7th Framework Large-scale inte-
grating project co-funded by the European Commission; Grant Agreement Number 318209; http://
learning-layers.eu/.
332 J. Cook and P. Santos

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Seeking support in workplace learning contexts. In Networked Learning Conference,
Edinburgh, UK.
Santos, P., Cook, J., Holley, D., Treasure-Jones, T., & Kerr, M. (2014b). Going beyond your
personal learning network, using recommendations and trust. D4DL/Learning Layers
Research Report No. 4, October 2014, UWE Bristol, UK. Email author for a copy.
SIOC. (2009). Content exchange and semantic interoperability between social networks. Retrieved
from http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/papers/sioc.html.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1930/1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Edited by Michael Cole, Vera John-Steiner, Sylvia Scribner and Ellen Souberman. Harvard
University Press. Originally published 1930.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of
Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89100.

Author Biographies

John Cook is Professor of Learning Innovation at UWE, Bristol. Previous to this he was Professor
of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and Director at Learning Technology Research Institute,
London Metropolitan University. John was part of the successful Education Research Assessment
Exercise (RAE) submission; London Metropolitan University appeared in the upper quintile of the
2008 RAE Education Unit of Assessment. John has over 14 years previous experience as a
full-time lecturer at various Higher Education Institutions. He has over 10 years project
management experience and has been part of research and development grant proposals that have
attracted over 5 million in competitive external funding. FP7 examples include MATURE IP and
Learning Layers IP. In addition, he has published/presented around 280 refereed articles and
invited talks in the area of TEL, having a specic interest in several related areas: hybridity in
learning, informal learning, mobile learning in all sectors, augmented reality, 3D web and
visualisations, social web, and work-based learning. John is a founding member of The London
Mobile Learning Group. He was Chair/President of the Association for Learning Technology
(200406) and Chair of ALTs Research Committee (20082012). John sits on various journal
editorial boards and conducts Assessor and review work for the EU and UK Research Councils.

Patricia Santos has got a Computer Engineering degree and a PhD in Information, Communication
and Media Technologies, focused on the research areas of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and
Human Computer Interaction (HCI). In 2011 Patricia presented her PhD thesis (focused on new
representation of test and assessment using interaction contexts such as: geo-located routes of
questions answered with mobile phones, use of maps for representing questions and 3D virtual worlds
for assessment environments) obtaining the qualication of Summa cum Laude. Since 2007, she has
been collaborating with the GTI research group (Interactive Technologies Group, UPF). Patricia has
been involved in several European and national R&D projects in the eld of TEL. Her role has been
especially focused in the design of mobile and ubiquitous learning applications to support indoor and
outdoor activities, pilots and experiments done in real educational contexts, in the evaluation of
research results, in organizing R&D meetings and workshops, developing reports and deliverables,
and participating in project meetings and reviews. In addition, Patricia has ve years of teaching
experience in different subjects (TEL, HCI, Programming) in different Catalan universities (UPF,
UAB and UOC). Since 2013 (March) Patricia is researcher in Technology enhanced Learning in
UWE working in the European research project Learning Layers: http://learning-layers.eu/
Chapter 20
Mobile-Assisted Language Learning
in Chinas College English Education:
The Reality and Research

Zhuo Wang and Yang Cui

Abstract Due to the increased college enrollments in China in recent years,

todays college English teachers are facing more challenges than ever. Influenced
by the traditional Chinese culture, mainly Confucian, current college English
classes in China are often critiqued for their teacher-centered approach, the lack of
student autonomy, as well as detachment from realistic social purposes. The use of
mobile technologies in language acquisition has been explored by many researchers
around the world, and has the potential to spark positive changes in Chinas college
English education, including enhanced teacher competencies, increased learner
autonomy, and improved teacherstudent interaction. This paper provides an
overview of existing research and practices about mobile-assisted language learning
in Chinas college English education, and proposes that certain elements should be
in place to ensure its successful integration.

20.1 Introduction

With the globalization of China in recent decades, there is a growing demand for
college graduates that are procient in the use of English (Ruan and Jacob 2009),
which has become the lingua franca of the world due to its widespread use in
academia, business, commerce, and technology (Spolsky and Shohamy 1999, as
cited in Lan et al. 2007, p. 130). To meet this demand, English has been made a
mandatory subject for all freshmen and sophomores across the country (Xie 2013).

Z. Wang (&)
Towson University, Baltimore, MD, USA
e-mail: jwang687@gmail.com
Y. Cui
University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, USA
e-mail: yang.cui@ubalt.edu

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 335

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_20
336 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

Moreover, with the purpose of producing employable college graduates that are
competent in various facets of English, including reading, writing, listening and
speaking, college English test (CET) 4 has been integrated as an undisputable
prerequisite for college graduation (Xie 2013).
Numerous research studies have revealed, however, that current college English
education is far from satisfactory in producing such ideal graduates (Li 2014). On
the one hand, both teachers and students are deeply influenced by the Confucius
culture (Biggis and Watkins 2001), making English classes teacher-centerd and
lecture-based. The passive role of students in class has led them to have little
autonomy over their English learning. On the other hand, the college expansion
policy has increased college enrollments dramatically and resulted in a severe
shortage of competent English teachers in higher education in China (Cai 2006).
Many in-service college English teachers, therefore, are often found to be lacking
adequate knowledge about how English should be taught and how students learn
second/foreign languages best (Chen and Goh 2011). Consequently, Chinese col-
lege English learners not only perceive Chinas college English education nega-
tively (Cai 2012), but also fail to support and sustain their own learning when
teachers are not present (Hurd and Xiao 2006).
With increased accessibility and awareness of using information and commu-
nications technology (ICT), Chinese policymakers have recognized the important
role ICT plays in supplementing college English education. In 2002, the Chinese
Ministry of Education proposed an ICT-incorporated teaching approach that aimed
to not only promote students learning autonomy but also improve teachers ef-
ciency and productivity (Hu and Mcgrath 2011). This proposal, despite its theo-
retical validity, was not implemented well in Chinas higher education institutions.
One of the major reasons was that integrating ICT into English education required
not only teachers prociency of utilizing technologies but also some fundamental
changes regarding the roles they and their students should play, both of which can
only happen with the provision of effective and continual support from their
organizations (Hu and Mcgrath 2011).
Mobile technologies, while originally derived from information and communi-
cation technologies, have taken on unique characteristics with its recent develop-
ments. Aside from the benets it brings in as a regular computing technology, it
also possesses distinctive advantages, such as mobility, portability, connectivity,
and ubiquity to its users (Kukulska-Hulme and Shield 2008). Simply put, mobile
technologies allow its users to access resources and connect with the rest of the
world from anywhere at any time with access to the Internet. The effectiveness of
using mobile technologies to support language acquisition has been spotted in
numerous research studies across different subjects around the world. For instance,
Motallebzadeh and Ganjali (2011) investigated the effectiveness of using SMS to
deliver English words to 40 Iranian university students, and it was found that
those that learned with this service outperformed signicantly than those who
received traditional board and paper instruction, because learning content received
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 337

via SMS was more convenient and accessible. In Wong and colleagues (2010)
study, 40 primary students were asked to use a camera on given smart phones to
take photos of objects and/or scenes that would demonstrate their understanding of
assigned English idioms. They found that mobile technology not only allowed
students to create artifacts easily, but also promoted in situ learning that connected
learning with their real-life context.
Mobile technologies in China, while widely accessible, have not been investi-
gated much as a language learning tool through an academic lens. Relevant studies
are not only scarce, but also problematic in certain domains, such as a lack of
originality, inadequate research methodologies as well as inconsistent control of
quality. This paper pinpoints current research and practices of mobile-assisted
language learning (MALL) in Chinas college English education, with the purpose
of identifying trends, gaps, and issues that may inspire future researchers and other
interested parties to improve the status of MALL-related research and practical uses
in related contexts. Specically, we argue that in order to promote and integrate
mobile technology as an appropriate and effective way to support college students
English learning, the capacity and culture of using mobile technology as a learning
tool must be built rst among all stakeholders, including college teachers, students,
administrators, and policymakers through recommended ways.

20.2 Denitions of Key Terms

In order to maintain consistency throughout this paper, relevant terms are dened as
below:
MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning): Language learning enabled by
the mobility of the learner and portability of handheld devices (Hoven and
Palalas 2011, pp. 7677)
Mobile Technology: Communication technologies that utilize cellular data, such
as mobile phones, GPS, 4G data, etc.
Mobile Learning or m-learning: learning mediated via handheld devices and
potentially available anytime, anywhere (Kukulska-Hulme and Shield 2008,
p. 273).
SLA (Second Language Acquisition): SLA theories address cognitive issues
(how the brain processes information in general and language in particular),
affective issues (how emotions factor into second language processing and
learning), and linguistic issues (how learners interact with and internalize new
language systems) (Florez and Burt 2001, p. 1).
338 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

20.3 College English Education in China

20.3.1 Historical Context

College English language education in Mainland China has always been inter-
weaved with Chinas political situations and decisions (Lam 2002; Hu 2007). For
example, in 1991, after detaching from the former Soviet Union, China was facing a
political situation in which a more international stance was possible (Lam 2002).
This pursuit of a more international role since then has been furthered by Chinas
constant engagement in the international arena, such as its entry into the World
Trade Organization and the hosting of 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Such global-
ization of China demands versatile professionals that are not only experts in their
elds of study, but also procient in the use of English (Li 2014). As a result,
college English curriculum in Mainland China has been reformed several times to
meet this demand, namely 1980, 1986, 1999, and 2007 college English curricula
(Table 20.1). From 1980 to 2007, there have been some transformative changes
pertaining to teaching aims and approaches, such as a qualitative shift from

Table 20.1 College english curricula from 1980 to 2007 (from Li 2014, p. 294)
1980 Curriculum 1986 Curriculum 1999 Curriculum 2007 Curriculum
Aim To provide To provide students For students to be For students
students with with capability to capable of comprehensive
capability to gain gain some exchanging ability to use
some information information through information in the English to
through English English for their target language communicate
professional needs effectively and to
study
independently, and
to improve their
cultural awareness
in international
exchanges
Objective No specic Prociency reading Strong reading Competent in
description ability, certain ability and fairly using English in a
listening ability and good ability for well-rounded way,
elementary listening, especially in
speaking and speaking, writing listening and
writing ability and translating speaking
Methodology Teacher-centered, Learner centered Learner centered Learner centered in
grammar (grammar (grammar combination with
translation translation and translation and modern technology
audiovisual audiovisual (grammar
approach in approach in translation and
practice) practice) audiovisual
approach in
practice)
Vocabulary From 1,500 to From 1,600 to 4,000 From 4,200 to From 4,500 to
L800 6,500 6,500
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 339

emphasis on linguistic competence to communicative competence, and from

teacher-centered to learned-centered approach (Li 2014).

20.3.2 Problems

While signicant development has been achieved in college English curricula

reform, present college English language education in Mainland China is con-
tinuously criticized for failing to meet the publics demand for good English pro-
ciency (Li 2014, p. 292). One of the main problems is that, regardless of their
theoretical soundness, the college English curriculum requirements were never
executed well in practice (Li 2014). As a result, college English education in China
has been rather perceived as time-consuming and ineffective (Cai 2010) by different
entities.
The ineffectiveness of Chinas college English education can be rst observed in
some national studies that investigated the perceived effectiveness of current college
English education. For instance, Yu and Zhong (2008) surveyed 1,615 students
through random sampling in 12 universities and found out that, among all the
courses they are studying, students were most unsatised with their improvement in
English. Specically, 11.3 % of the surveyed students considered themselves
having made considerable progress, while 23.6 % reported to have made no pro-
gress and 24.6 % believed that they even digressed compared with their English
prociency in high school. Cai (2010) surveyed a total of 1,246 students from eight
provinces in 16 universities about their English learning experience and the results
showed that only 3.9 % of the students believed that college education improved
their English capability to a great extent; 35.2 % believed that some progress was
made; 25.4 % stated that not much was learned while as high as 35.1 % of the
students felt that their English prociency deteriorated from high school to college.
The reasons that have led to student dissatisfaction with college English edu-
cation are multitude. To begin with, the current in-service college English teachers
do not meet students need adequately. Starting 1999, the Chinese government has
implemented the expansion policy of higher education to increase the number of
college graduates (Bai et al. 2012). During the 19962000 period, there was a total
enrollment of over 11 million, while from 2001 to 2005 the number of university
students was expected be up to 16 million (Meng and Tajaroensuk 2013). However,
this policy has caused a severe shortage of qualied college English teachers (Cai
2006). According to a national study conducted by Dai and Zhang (2004), 32.4 %
of the surveyed college English teachers had no more than ve years of teaching
experience. Also, Wang and Wang (2011) investigated 457 colleges in China and
found out that among the surveyed 21, 065 English teachers, only 1.5 % held a
doctors degree and 60.1 % held a masters, which is below average when com-
pared with other majors and programs.
The increased college enrollments have also resulted in heavier workloads for
in-service teachers. According to Zhang (2006), the college English teacher to
340 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

student ratio is nearly 1:200. Limited time and the overwhelming workload are
critical factors that hinder these teachers from participating in continuous profes-
sional development (Carney 2003; Quaglia et al. 1991; Day and Gu 2010).
In terms of pedagogy, most college English teachers enter the profession without
a solid understanding of SLA theories, psychology, and pedagogy (Chen and Goh
2011). The absence of such knowledge may exert an adverse influence on students
language learning experiences. For example, without being exposed to contempo-
rary learning theories, such as Constructivism, most English instructors are still
employing a teacher-centered, textbook-reliant, grammar-translation teaching
method (Li 2014, p. 296). This traditional approach prevents students from
engaging in active English learning and having ownership of their learning process.
Culture, on the other hand, also has a profound influence on Chinese classroom
dynamics. Chinese education is infused with Confucius beliefs and principles
(Biggs and Watkins 2001; Li 2003), which hold that students should highly respect
their teachers as authority gures and do as the teachers dictate (Ho 2001).
When students learn passively, however, they are less likely to be motivated to
learn (Cai 2010) and may thus produce unfavorable results that harm their
self-efcacy and increase their reluctance of using English in or outside of class-
rooms. Research indicates that many employers have complained about how col-
lege graduates often perform poorly when it comes to communication in English
(Ruan and Jacob 2009), regardless of their performance in the written form of
College English Tests (CET).
In order to tackle some of the above challenges, the Chinese Ministry of
Education initiated a reform of college English that proposed for a more eco-
nomical and effective methodology in language teaching based on the use of
information and communications technology (ICT) was recommended in the
reform (Hu and Mcgrath 2011, p. 42). The incorporation of ICT was believed to not
only support and enhance language teaching and learning, but also provides stu-
dents more access to resources that they can learn independently. Ideally, it would
lessen teachers workload and alleviate the tension caused by the shortage of col-
lege English teachers (Hu and Mcgrath 2011). However, the proposal was not
implemented well and created even more challenges for these teachers. Hu and
Mcgrath (2011) stated that
The reasons are manifold: inefcient CPD (college professional development), insuf-
cient access to ICT facilities, unfavorable ICT policies, lack of technical support, improper
appraisal systems related to ICT use, difculty in changing deep-rooted roles of teachers as
well as roles of schools and students, inappropriate beliefs and attitudes toward ICT use,
and as noted above, lack of ICT knowledge and skills among teachers and students, and
poor ICT pedagogy (OMahony 2003). All these issues hinder the use of ICT in schools.
(p. 43)

In short, college English education in China is now facing multifaceted challenges.

On a social level, deeply rooted Chinese culture (e.g., Confucian) is still influencing
the roles that teachers and students, respectively, play (Tang 2009). On the insti-
tutional level, national policies and propaganda that aim to improve CE education
fail to be implemented wholeheartedly due to the complexity of incorporating ICT,
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 341

the lack of effective training and just-in-time support from school administrations.
On an individual level, college teachers and students are both confronted with
issues that prevent them from achieving desirable goals. Notably, college English
teachers are expected to obtain more advanced qualications in their profession,
and enhance pertinent knowledge and skills on not only subject matters but also
popular instructional technologies, while striving to maintain a balance between
such expectations and their overwhelming workload. Students, on the other hand,
need to transform their existing beliefs about how they are expected to learn, take a
more active role in learning English, and learn to locate and utilize available
resources on their own. Having a clear and comprehensive understanding of these
challenges and relevant policies can help us demarcate what needs there are to be
met, and if they can be met appropriately and efciently by developing potential
solutions or strategies.
Mobile technologies, which are introduced in the following section, are believed
to have a tremendous potential to alleviate, if not entirely resolve, the problems and
needs identied above.

20.4 Mobile Technologies

In recent years, mobile visitors have become the fastest growing web community
that access web pages or locate web information (Chen 2008). Cell phones, most of
which are well equipped with functionalities including Internet access, media
player, digital camera and video recorder, have become the most widely used and
accessible devices for almost every university student (Chirimbu and Tafazoli
2013). In China, so far 85 % of the younger urban residents (age from 18 to 30)
own smartphones (NetEase News 2013). With regard to college students, around
80.8 % has at least one smartphone with Internet-connected service, which means
virtually all higher education students carry some form of mobile devices (Peoples
Daily Online 2013). The widespread ownership of mobile devices among Chinese
college is an active index of its accessibility and makes its integration as a learning
tool possible.
Mobile devices, such as smart phones, PDAs and tablets, provide its users with
many advantages that surpass the affordances of other ICT tools. According to
Klopfer and Squire (2008), such advantages include but do not limit to (1) porta-
bilitythey are lightweight handheld devices that can be easily carried everywhere;
(2) mobilitywhich indicates the accessibility of resources even while both the
users and the devices are on the move; (3) connectivitythe availability of cellular
data on those devices empowers its users to connect with the rest of the world from
almost anywhere at any time; (4) individualitynot only can users customize the
device in a way that best suits their preferences, but also seek information that is
tailored to their particular needs or requests.
These characteristics of mobile technologies have an enormous potential in
improving college students language learning experience and solving many of the
342 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

aforementioned problems. For instance, one of the major problems recognized

above is Chinese students low level of learner autonomythey learn about what is
being told to learn. In contrast, with Internet-connected mobile devices, students
may search for and actively learn about English topics that they are sincerely
interested in, rather than required by the curriculum. Driven by their innate passion,
students are more likely to learn deeply and take responsibility for their own
learning, and thus increase learners autonomy (Benson 2007). At the same time,
the abundance and diversity of English learning resources on the Internet allow
students to acquire knowledge that may not be taught well, or at all, by their less
qualied English instructors. In that sense, not only can they learn more, but also
rely less on their instructors as a major learning source. Mutual benets can also be
achieved when mobile devices are used as an assessment tool. English instructors
can easily create quizzes or polls on a mobile device to collect data about student
learning quality, while every student can participate in a quiz or poll on their own
mobile device to make their opinions count. Frequent assessment allows instructor
to be accurately aware of where students are, so that corresponding adjustments in
teaching methods or progress are made.
While positive ndings of using MALL have been reported in numerous studies
in countries like US and Japan (e.g., Hegelheimer and OBryan 2009; Miyakoda
et al. 2011), China is a developing country that possesses its unique characteristics,
including historical context, economic status, political structure, and education
system. It is thus paramount to examine MALL studies that resonate with the local
culture and situation of CE education in China, which may shed the most light on
its future development. While China consists of provinces and districts that often
vary dramatically in economic and political status, it is the authors intention to
review only Mainland China where both statuses are more consistent and
analogous.

20.5 MALL Research in Chinas Higher Education

In Chinas college English education, mobile-assisted language learning, while

being used consciously or unconsciously, is still a new concept. For instance, the
search for MALL studies in the target context yielded very few results compared
with the high volume of MALL studies conducted in countries like the United
States or Japan. In addition to the lack of research, the awareness of this concept
among public is low as well: Most of the participants in related studies admitted to
have heard of mobile learning for the rst time at the time of study (e.g., Wang et al.
2009), regardless of their ownership of, and experience with, mobile devices. As a
technology, which is dened by Rogers (2003) as a design for instrumental action
that reduces the uncertainty in the causeeffect relationships involved in achieving a
desired outcome (pp. 139140), MALL in Chinas higher education obviously still
resides in the initial stage of technology transferresearch and development
(Rogers 2003). During this stage, scientic and applied researches are conducted
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 343

about a problem and initial prototyping solutions are proposed by lead users
(Rogers 2003). Specically in China, problems related to current college English
education have been recognized in numerous studies (e.g., Cai 2012; Wang and
Wang 2011), and MALL has been advocated as a potentially viable solution to
address many of the identied problems.
Current research, in terms of the purpose of studies, has primarily focused on
three broad categories: theoretical rationality, user perceptions, and empirical
effectiveness. Studies related to theoretical rationality are concerned with where
MALL derived from and what theoretical frameworks it is built upon. Such studies
provide Chinese readers with the research foundations of MALL, helping them to
understand the rationale behind MALL design and a promising integration with
pedagogical practices. For example, Liu and colleagues (2013) provided an over-
view of three relevant theories, including situated cognition theory and Construction
of Cognitive Learning Theory and collaborative learning. However, their report was
merely a reinstatement of important concepts often found on relevant international
journals, and thus lack originality and connection with Chinas context.
Most of the reviewed studies have focused on the affective domain of learning,
namely how students perceive MALL with regard to its usefulness and viability, and
whether there is need or market for MALL. For example, Li (2014) conducted a survey
on 89 undergraduates at Guangxi University, aiming to investigate their current
perceptions and uses of mobile devices to support language learning. Zou (2014) used
a mixed method approach to research Chinese undergraduates perceptions of MALL,
and found that 78 % of the examined students hold a positive attitude of trying MALL,
but many are not aware of how to use mobile technologies to learn.
The third type of studies was the least researched among all. One of the possible
causes could be that awareness of MALL is not yet high among college teachers or
students, let alone using it intentionally. The search only yielded three empirical
studies, which interestingly focused on different aspects of MALL. Xue (2014)
explored how effective mobile technology (including MMS, mobile apps) could
help increase students test scores; Ruan and Ma (2014) reported the use of an
intentionally designed mobile app to improve students grammar learning; Yin
(2013) investigated the effectiveness of using a social media toolWeChatto
push learning information (vocabulary, grammar, etc.) as a way to prepare students
for CET 4 test.
While the three categories of studies collectively provide a preliminary frame-
work for MALL research in Chinas CE education, there yet has much to be done if
MALL is to be integrated as a legitimate component of Chinas higher education
system. In this section, problems associated with, or derived from, these studies are
identied and some preliminary considerations are given to potential strategies for
future directions.
Overall, studies about MALL in Chinas higher education are increasing in
recent years, but are still in their infancy. First of all, the quality of reviewed studies
is concerning. Most of the current studies were published in local Chinese journals
that were not internationally peer-reviewed and often had a low threshold for
publication. These same studies are also questionable regarding their validity and
344 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

reliability, because they often do not adhere to consistent academic writing stan-
dards. For instance, it is common among these studies to cite less than ten refer-
ences, or be composed to writings of less than three pages, or fail to articulate
certain critical research writing components, such as limitations, instrument
description, or theoretical frameworks. Also, the abstracts of those studies are
unsatisfactory. According to Pyrczak (2003), an abstract should be a summary of a
research that consists of a purpose of study, methodology, results and implications,
or future directions. The reviewed abstracts, however, fail to include those essential
components that synthesize the gist of the study; rather, they often come from the
rst few sentences of a studys introductory paragraphs that provide little for
readers to understand the research at hand. Moreover, relevant appendices are
usually missing in the reviewed studies, especially survey instruments. What
questions are asked in a survey and how valid those questions prelude to a certain
degree if a survey is reliable, and thus should be described and explained.
Research studies in journal articles are perceived as authoritative and reliable
sources of knowledge for Chinese educators, researchers, and even the entire
public. The quality of these studies, such as accuracy and validity, has an unde-
niable influence on readers understanding of MALL, such as its legitimacy,
prevalence, usability, etc. Therefore, editors of relevant journals should establish
consistent criteria for acceptance and publication, especially about data collection,
analysis, and content originality, since these are often most convincing information
among all. Incentives can also be considered as a strategy to encourage related
research, such as allocating grants for innovative use of MALL in higher education.
Second, some studies are found to be mere reiterations of MALL ndings or
trends reported in foreign language journals, with little or no originality or appli-
cability in Chinas context. Such knowledge, while providing readers with an
overview of what is happening worldwide, does not contribute much to the growth
of MALL in China, which has its unique set of characteristics. For instance, the
educational hierarchy is much different in China from that of the U.S. due to their
difference in political structure. It is thus recommended that researchers synthesize
research from countries that share as many similarities with China as possible, so
that Chinese reformers can draw upon successful experiences from those areas
when planning or initiating changes for MALL.
Third, current research studies are often limited in their scope of study. While
mobile technology has the potential to benet both students and teachers (Aubusson
et al. 2009), most published studies pertaining to mobile learning have focused
almost exclusively on students as the learners or consumers of mobile technology.
However, for any educational change to happen, it is indispensable to involve the
collective effort among all stakeholders (Fullan 2007), which in this case include not
only students, but also teachers, administrators, and policymakers. For instance, to
incorporate and promote MALL in regular instruction, teachers must be equipped
with knowledge of MALL themselves, while administrators will have to design
corresponding training and provide continual professional development for such
knowledge, and policymakers have to at least not prohibit, if not promoting of-
cially, the use of MALL in higher education. At the same time, incorporating any
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 345

new educational technology may unavoidably demand additional effort and time
from teachers, who already have a heavy workload to maintain. To get teachers
buy-in, the right conditions for change must be present, including clear and practice
guidance for the change, support from administrative leaders, and readily accessible
resources (Fullan 2007). Research on solely any of the stakeholders without making
connections with others would result in a partial and even inaccurate understanding
of the big picture that hinders a successful integration of MALL. Future research
may turn to stakeholders other than students to collect data about their perceptions
of, attitudes toward, and current uses (if any) of MALL in the context of higher
education, so as to build organizational capacity, which is dened as policy,
strategy and actions taken that increases the collective efcacy of a group to improve
student learning through new knowledge, enhanced resources, and greater motiva-
tion on the part of people working individually and together (Fullan 2007, p. 58).
Methodology wise, in addition to quantitative approaches, such as survey or
questionnaire, researchers are suggested to also utilize qualitative methods more, so
that they can gain more in-depth and rich understanding of target research topics or
populations.
Last but not least, pedagogical knowledge, which is the foundation of most
educational innovations, is often missing in the reviewed MALL studies.
A pedagogically competent English instructor should demonstrate mastery of diverse
learning theories, sensitivity to student needs and prociency in student assessment.
However, due to the severe lack of empirical research in current MALL studies, it
cannot be concluded if pedagogical components were present in MALL integration.

20.6 Recommendation

Although mobile devices have enormous potential to improve college students

English learning in numerous ways, it should be cautioned that the provision of
access to technology does not ineluctably promise its successful integration into
teaching and learning, especially when the learners are not motivated to use the
technology (Selwyn 2007). Language instructors must carefully examine and
evaluate any MALL tools they plan to integrate, and ensure that all conditions
conducive to successful MALL integration are present before adopting one of-
cially. Two key principles are recommended below:
Identify pedagogical theories that scaffold the design of learning activities. Good
learning design should characterize sound theoretical support, such as
Behaviorism, Cognitive Information Processing, and Constructivism. For
instance, Behaviorism is widely used to guide the design of assessments;
Cognitive Information Processing dictates how learners process incoming
information, and helps instructors choose mobile technologies that provide
information in a manageable size, facilitate long-term memory, and increase
autonomy; Constructivism denotes a series of principles that epitomize
346 Z. Wang and Y. Cui

individual meaning-making, collaborative learning as well as social meaning

construction. Each of these theories has a branch of summarized practical
principles that can be easily applied by instructors (e.g., Driscoll 2005).
Seek mobile technologies that afford features that are most relevant with and
conducive to student learning. In their case study about PDAs educational
affordances, Churchill and Churchill (2007) inductively summarized ve roles of
PDAs for learning: Multimedia access tool (tool for multimedia delivery and
access); connectivity tool (tool for interpersonal connection and interaction);
capture tool (tool for information capturing); representational tool (tool for mind
mapping or knowledge conceptualization); analytical tool (tool for calculation).
This categorization is also applicable to MALL with some minor changes. For
instance, students with mobile devices can access videos, audios, or images that
help them improve English listening, speaking, or vocabulary in a more engaging
way; some mobile apps, such as WeChat and Edmodo, characterize group chat or
information sharing, allow students to discuss interesting topics in English or
share useful resources with just a click. As a capture tool, mobile devices can be
used to take photos and record videos of human activities, objects, or scenes to
help students learn about vocabularies more deeply and meaningfully. Compared
with PDAs, mobile phones are more prevalent, and often have smaller screens,
which makes mind mapping on them less convenient. The analytical function
makes more sense to language learners when it provides information about
learning progress and outcome instead of ordinary calculation for math-related
subjects. For example, certain language learning apps provide statistics on how
much scores a learner gains by narrating English conversations or what his or her
rank is compared with other app users (e.g., Liulishuo).
Aside from teachers, school administrators are also recommended to take corre-
sponding actions. For instance, they may consider providing free Wi-Fi access to
students and teachers on campus, so that they can browse relevant knowledge on the
Internet without worrying about their data plans or extra charges resulted from
English learning. Incentives can also be used to encourage MALL initiatives. For
example, school administrators may establish innovative teaching awards to promote
MALL awareness as well as related activities. It is equally important to form ofces
that are specically designated for MALL training and professional learning, so that
instructors feel supported and know where to seek assistance at times of need.

20.7 Conclusion

The current college English education in China is far from satisfactory. The various
affordances of mobile technologies and their wide accessibility among Chinese
college students have made MALL a favorable and potential solution for some of
the prominent issues identied in our earlier review. However, whether mobile
technologies can become an integrated component of, or a positive catalyst for
20 Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Chinas College 347

improving, Chinas college English education needs further and more compre-
hensive exploration and investigation. Current related research is not only insuf-
cient, but also decient in terms of quality of writing, design of methodologies, as
well as scope of study. Future researchers may strive to improve upon these
problematic areas, so that interested users or adopters of MALL can gain a more
thorough and clear understanding of its viability in their specic contexts and
compatibility with their existing practices. Instructors that are interested in adopting
MALL tools should also be aware of the various affordances those tools provide
and use pedagogical knowledge to make informed decisions regarding what
activities can be best conducted on mobile devices and how to achieve desirable
learning outcomes. Finally, university or college administrators should strive to
create a positive environment for MALL integration, so as to gain sustainable
development in college English education in the long run.

Acknowledgments Thanks to Dr. Liyan Song and Ms. La Tonya Dyer from Towson University,
both of whom provided invaluable support during our research writing.

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Author Biographies

Zhuo Wang is a student researcher pursuing her Doctorate degree in Instructional Technology at
Towson University, United States. She is mostly keen on teaching English to speakers of other
languages with an integrated use of mobile technology. Her most recent project involves designing
a creative vocabulary learning mobile application for language learners and instructors.

Yang Cui holds a Masters degree in Applied Information Technology, and is now an app
developer that specializes in programming hands-on and interactive mobile apps for diverse
purposes. He is also an MBA student enrolled at University of Baltimore, aiming to enhance his
app development and promotion with professional business skills.
Chapter 21
Enacting App-Based Learning Activities
with Viewing and Representing Skills
in Preschool Mathematics Lessons

Kay Yong Khoo

Abstract This chapter comprises discussion on research ndings of this study on

how apps can be used in the classroom to promote childrens construction of
mathematical knowledge by setting up specic learning contexts in ways that
fundamentally transform the instructional environment. The study results identify
how children enact viewing and representing skills through digital texts to acquire
new strategies in their addition and subtraction learning. These skills enable chil-
dren to externalise their understanding and internalise new meaning-making when
interacting with peers. However, these dual reciprocal learning approaches require
due consideration of the elements of the learners learning styles, the standard of the
game designs and the community settings of the classroom, all of which are crucial
in determining the learners engagement in a learning activity and active involve-
ment in associated learning processes. With the appropriate level of autonomy and
opportunity for choice, learner engagement will contribute to subsequent learning,
with behavioural intensity and emotional quality at optimal levels. A detailed
examination of the meaning-making processes through which viewing and repre-
senting skills mediate childrens knowledge acquisition while seamlessly switching
between individual and social interactions has led to the development of the
framework in the preschool classrooms learner-centred mathematics learning
model presented here.

21.1 Introduction

Mathematics competencies are cumulative over time (Jordan et al. 2009; National
Mathematics Advisory Panel 2008). If not properly addressed and overcome, dif-
culties encountered at any stage of learning will lead to poor achievement in
subsequent mathematics learning. For example, competencies in whole numbers are

K.Y. Khoo (&)

E-Learn Dot Com Limited, Hong Kong SAR, Peoples Republic of China
e-mail: kykhoo@yahoo.com

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 351

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_21
352 K.Y. Khoo

essential to arithmetic. Therefore, the effectiveness of the classroom teaching

pedagogy during early education in developing fundamental numeric skills is
crucial (Egan and Hengst 2012). Problem solving skills in addition and subtraction
are dominant aspects of the fundamental competency domains in mathematics.
When children practise solving problems, their underlying conceptual and proce-
dural knowledge in addition and subtraction determines their competency (Canobi
et al. 1998; Reeve et al. 2003). The causal relations between these two areas of
knowledge have been found to be bidirectional; increases in conceptual knowledge
will help to increase procedural knowledge and vice versa. The iterative relation-
ship influences the development of conceptualprocedural knowledge, particularly
in the competency domain of addition and subtraction (Bethany and Schneider
2015; Canobi 2009; Rittle-Johnson et al. 2001). Therefore, to develop an effective
classroom teaching pedagogy, the integration of content knowledge (i.e. conceptual
and procedural) into learning approaches is important (Chiu and Churchill 2015a,
b). These approaches must engage children in the learning activities while leading
to the process of meaning-making utilising the content knowledge (Hiebert and
Wearne 1996; Star et al. 2011).
The conceptual and procedural knowledge of learners are observed explicitly via
strategies applied during their routes to problem solutions. Some of the strategies
applied in addition problem solving are direct modelling (represented by objects,
which are all counted), counting on from rst, counting on from larger and recalled
with no apparent counting; those applied in subtraction problem solving are direct
modelling (counting objects by separating from the total and counting those
remaining), counting down from (a backward counting sequence from bigger
numbers) and counting up from (a forward counting sequence from smaller num-
bers) (Carpenter and Moser 1984).
Problem solving is central to mathematics. One of the challenges in mathematics
education is to help children to become skilled problem solvers rather than rote
learners. Even after 30 years of reform, rote thinking is still common in classroom
mathematics problem solving practices (Lithner 2008). Students often complete
exercises in their textbook in which similar tasks are provided as exemplied in the
book (Granberg and Olsson 2015). Rote learners are imitative; learners imitate a
solution procedure memorised from the textbook. Conversely, creative reasoning
engages students by allowing them to develop well-founded mathematically
anchored arguments for their choice of methods in non-routine problem solving
processes. Studies have shown that in most problem solving attempts students who
engaged with creative reasoning performed signicantly better than students who
used imitative reasoning (Boaler 1998; Jonsson et al. 2014; Kapur 2011). In con-
junction with challenging non-routine problems, collaboration is often suggested,
since it can improve students conceptual understanding (Boaler and GReeno 2000;
Stahl et al. 2011). However, to accomplish collaborative creative reasoning, a
suitable learning environment needs to be established. In this learning environment,
students need to apply new strategies repeatedly with the objective being the
advancement of their competency in addition and subtraction problem solving.
Collaboration on a challenging problem cannot be automatically initiated within
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 353

groups. The process of negotiation to seek the new knowledge (i.e. the correct
strategies) must be made visible to the learners during their collaborative efforts.
Therefore, mathematics learning that is solely print based and structured by content
printed in a book is therefore inadequate (Clausen-May 2013).
Research evidence over the last 40 years regarding the impact of digital tech-
nology on learning consistently identies positive benets. In terms of teaching and
learning technology resources, there are a number of free online mathematical
problem solving digital artefacts. These tools mainly afford opportunities to learn
interactively with ideas, content and modalities that were not previously possible
(Yelland 2015). Research results also have indicated that the integration of digital
devices in a classroom learning context facilitates cooperative participation of
young learners with other classmates and teachers (Lindahl and Folkesson 2012;
Wakeeld and Smith 2012). That said, teaching could create and facilitate learning
contexts, but not the actual learning. Learning mathematics and acquiring the
competency to solve problems have been largely understood as a rational cognitive
process (Chiu and Churchill 2015b; Zan et al. 2006). The actual learning takes
place when learners make sense of mathematics through a meaning-making
process.
The process of meaning-making is implicit and indirect (Seeger 2011). This
interaction with digital text incorporates the four macro-skills of listening, speaking,
reading and writing, but requires additional skills including frequent use of visuals,
dynamic information and interaction (i.e. viewing and representing) (Khoo and
Churchill 2013; Kress 2010; MOE Singapore 2010). Therefore, the focus of this
study is not students learning, but rather how, during the childrens collaboration,
the technology facilitates instant immersion in mathematical problem solving
practices.
It is increasingly commonplace today for preschoolers to make use of computers
in their out-of-school activities (MDG Advertising 2012). Although most children
aged 25 years are more competent in interacting with a tablet computer than tying
their shoe laces (Lunn 2012), the place of ICT in formal education in kindergarten
has been contentious (Zaranis et al. 2013).
There is an emerging gap between the capabilities of digital learning in
meaning-making and how preschoolers appropriate computers in their mathematics
learning. Based on this concise review, we may conclude that the skills applied
when preschoolers interact with digital texts are important in revealing the
meaning-making processes. These interactions may facilitate the users externalising
their understanding and internalising new knowledge. In order to develop a sus-
tainable pedagogy utilising digital technology, it is imperative to investigate how
these skills combine with collaborative interactions and result in the gaining of new
knowledge. Moreover, we need a more explicit framework to integrate elements in
the digital-based learning context of these sustainable practices in institutionalised
education.
354 K.Y. Khoo

21.2 Literature Review

21.2.1 Designing a Creative Reasoning and Collaborative

Learning Environment

Creative reasoning promotes the development of conceptual understanding in

mathematical knowledge (Lithner 2008). In the creative reasoning learning envi-
ronment, children construct their solving strategies and in this aspect, they are
required to struggle with mathematics problems that are somewhat new to them. As
they encounter challenging and non-routine problems, they undergo the process of
testing and developing their solving strategies, visualising and verifying their
arguments as to why their idea does or does not work. Brousseau suggested a
didactic design that allows students to be responsible for arriving at solutions. In
this design, teachers should not interfere or guide children (Brousseau 1997).
Childrens autonomous engagement in a teaching and learning activity is particu-
larly important because it functions as a behavioural pathway through which their
motivational processes contribute to their subsequent learning and development
(Connell and Wellborn 1991; Hyungshim et al. 2010). However, in this learning
design, if the students do not receive proper supportive activities, stagnation will
likely result, hindering them from moving forward in their problem solving process
(Ploetzner et al. 2009).
Therefore, an appropriate level of feedback in response to the students actions
should be introduced: collaborative engagements such as discussions, mutual
explanations and elaborations are often suggested as means to assist children to
improve their understanding (Hoffkamp 2011). However, having students work in
groups do not automatically initiate collaboration. To design a creative reasoning
and collaborative learning environment, the problem solving activity must be able
to facilitate sharing. That is, students must be able to visualise the meaning-making
processes and their representations (Rakes et al. 2010). Moreover, the activity must
also allow them to effectively distribute their collaborative efforts through verbal-
ization of mathematical concepts, referencing, testing, visualising, etc. One of the
suggested methods is the use of dynamic software (Granberg and Olsson 2015).
The proposition that digital texts may support problem solving activities brings us
to the question as to how these texts facilitate creative reasoning and a collaborative
learning environment.

21.2.2 Viewing and Representing Skills with Digital Texts

The notion of literacy in the twenty-rst century has changed with the emergence of
digital texts. The advancement of technology has led to some fundamental changes
in the ways we receive and produce texts on screens. Digital interfaces can support
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 355

user input and system output, with multi-mode capabilities including touch, eye
gaze, speech, movement and hand gesture as a means of input or synthetic speech,
graphical displays, and gesture as output. Thus, these texts are multimodal in
nature; the users are required to design their path of engagement actively and
continuously on screens both spatially and temporally to make sense of texts and
interact when called for. However, the process of meaning-making is always about
the interactions between ones perception and the mediums of communicative
exchange. Perception is dened as a process of collecting information from the
environment based on vision, touch, hearing and muscle to construct an internal
representation (Gibson 1979). Therefore, the fundamental skills of the users are
crucial in this aspect.
To make meaning with digital texts, one needs to understand various digital
functionalities. For example, to search, translate, utilise the affordances of different
modes in effective meaning-making, navigate digitally in different ways, and make
meaning by placing elements of information with different modes in appropriate
spatial/temporal positions. These profound changes brought about by digital texts
have led to the development of emerging skills used to interact with digital texts
i.e. viewing and representing.
First, the viewers interests draw attention to an element that is then selected; via
the same process, another element is then selected and so on. In between the
selections, an attempt is made by the viewer to integrate the selected elements to
form meaning (Kress 2010). In the process of selections and integrations, the
meaning will be translated from one mode into another (Mills 2011). In so doing,
the viewer alters the meaning of the elements along the lines of their interest
(Khoo 2012).
To represent messages with digital text, the producer must have an objective
regarding what to show, what message to convey and what he wants to achieve
socially, culturally or for other purposes (Kress 2010). The process of composing
digital texts incorporates the competence of making meaning with multimodal
elements, utilising the affordances of mode, creating meaning by contextually
linking elements of different modes and utilising digital functions in
meaning-making and navigation. Further, the composers designs are derived from
physical structures in real world settings. The skill of composing with an objective
in mind is termed representing (Khoo 2012). Table 21.1 summary of viewing and
representing skills includes two levels of engagement with at least ve aspects of
competencies (Khoo and Churchill 2013). When the children interacted with digital
texts in the mathematical problem solving apps, they applied different strategies to
arrive at the answers. Viewing and representing skills are necessary when inter-
acting with digital texts on screens to externalise what appears in the users mind or
to internalise the information.
356 K.Y. Khoo

Table 21.1 Viewing and representing skills framework (from Khoo and Churchill 2013)
Macro Element selection Element integration
process
Skills Multi-mode Contextual link
The skill to interpret or create elements The skill to interpret and create
of different modes to form information contextual links (in spatial/temporal
layouts) with different elements to form
information
Affordances of mode Navigation
The skill to apply and engage with the The skill to move around a screen to
affordances of different modes in integrate different elements to form
elements to form information information
Digital functionality
The skill to assimilate digital The skill to assimilate digital
functionalities in elements to form functionalities to integrate elements to
information form information

21.3 Research Design

The current study applies the Activity Theory (Engestrom 1987, 1999) as the
theoretical framework in the current mobile technology-related contexts of learning.
A close examination was made of the relations between the students (subjects),
objectives and tools used in the learning activities (see Fig. 21.1). The study
included observations, video recording and interviews, and employed an inductive
research strategy that intuitively developed abstractions from the research (Merriam
1988).
The research design is qualitative (Merriam 1988; Yin 1994). Two research
questions emerging from the literature reviews guided the data collection and
analysis of the current study:

Fig. 21.1 The research framework of the study

21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 357

Fig. 21.2 Screen captures of the apps understudied a: Addition & Subtraction for kids, b Juicy
Math, c Worm Jump, d Math Adventure (Penguin Craze), e Math Adventure (Catch A Star),
f Math Adventure (Winter Match)

How do digital texts facilitate collaboration in mathematics problem solving

activities?
What elements of digital-based problem solving activities might contribute to or
obstruct students collaborative creative reasoning practices?
Data were collected over a period of 8 months. During the two-level study (see
Table 21.2), the study was explorative and a constant comparative method of data
analysis was employed.
The study commenced by selecting suitable participants (the sampling units). The
selection was terminated when no new information was forthcoming from new
sampled units during the research period. Four participants were identied according
to their learning styles and their community settings in the classrooms: their proles
are presented in Table 21.3. Pseudonyms are used to preserve their anonymity.
During the 4 months study at the kindergarten, the teacher used different
mathematics apps in childrens practices in the classroom. The apps were intro-
duced after the formal mathematics lessons. Each of the apps was used repeatedly
two to four times per week. All the children were given the opportunity to use the
358 K.Y. Khoo

Table 21.2 Research methodology procedure and aims

Level 1 Level 2
Observation Classroom Interviews with the Interviews with the
observations teachers children (before and
after the lessons)
To nd out whether: To observe how the Unstructured Structured interviews
The kindergartens participants learn in interviews To determine how
were teaching the classroom with To determine the well the participants
mathematics with mobile devices objectives of using understood the
mobile devices To study how the the mobile devices questions in the apps
The children used the participants in the classroom To study how the
devices individually, interacted with the To identify the participants
and received artefacts, their peers, addition and interacted with their
appropriate feedback the community and subtraction peers in lessons and
in the process of the rules in the strategies taught understood the rules,
learning, resulting in lessons by the teacher to and the maths
acquiring new To video record the the participants concepts in the
knowledge lessons artefacts
Kindergarten(s) that To determine how To verify the To investigate how
applied mobile the students used researchers the emerging skills
learning in viewing and observations on mediate digital text
mathematics representing skills how the teachers in learning
resulting in authentic To ascertain the mediated mobile addition/subtraction.
learning being social learning skills technology in To conrm the
observed were emerging from use learning observational data
shortlisted of mobile devices during the lessons
1st4th month 5th8th month

Table 21.3 Details derived from the selection criteria for the four cases
Participants The lessons Age Gender
Addition Adventure Juicy math Worm jump
and math (session (Session 3) (Session 4)
subtraction 2)
for kids
(Session 1)
Peter Team A Each Each Each participant 5 Male
Mary Team A participant participant performed in 5 Female
was provided was provided front of the
Ben Team B 5 Male
with one with one group until they
Nicole Team B device. They device. They had completed 5 Female
practised practised their practice
individually individually

apps during practices. Four apps were selected for the current study: Addition &
Subtraction for Kids, Math Adventure, Juicy Math and Worm Jump. These
apps were selected based on the unique characteristics of the instructions they
applied in learning mathematics (see Table 21.4).
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 359

Table 21.4 The learning apps

Apps The Nature of the apps
Addition and subtraction for The app started with one question at a time. There are 10
kids (The rst app) questions in a set. The numbers featuring in the questions
were from 1 to 20 and were randomly set. Each question was
either addition or subtraction. Each provided three possible
multi-choice answers. There was no time limit set for the
questions. The accumulated scores (10 points for each
correct answer) and the number of wrong attempts appeared
on the top of the screen (See Fig. 21.2a)
Math adventure (The second There were ve different themes (Penguin Craze, Winter
app) Match, Catch a Star, Snowman Hunter & Math Bingo).
Different themes provide different instructions in problem
solving. For each of the themes selected, the player must
further select the type of questions (addition or subtraction)
and the number range (110 or 120). In all themes, the
questions had to be completed within a time limit.
Penguin Craze addition allows the participants two lives
(two chances to make mistakes before the game is
terminated) and lasts for a maximum of three minutes. The
question is an equation (i.e. 3 + 2 = ?) with four choices of
answer. For every ten questions attempted, one free life is
awarded (see Fig. 21.2e).
Catch A Star subtraction has two lives and also lasts for a
maximum of three minutes. The questions are in equation
form and require the nding of an unknown in equations (i.e.
? 4 = 2 or 8 ? = 2), with four choices of answer. For
every ten questions attempted, one free life is awarded (see
Fig. 21.2d).
Winter Match addition has 20 boxes, 10 containing numbers
and another 10 an incomplete addition equation (e.g.
3 + 2=). The player clicks a box and subsequently selects an
answer by clicking another box. Once a question has been
correctly solved, both boxes are closed. The score reduces as
time advances, reaching a zero score in 110 s. The numbers
of incorrect answers are displayed (see Fig. 21.2f)
Juicy math (The third app) The game provides three choices: addition only, subtraction
only or both. There is no set time limit for completion of the
questions. The screen displays three questions at any one
time. Each of the questions shows different objects in two
boxes. The objects can be clicked. For addition, for each of
the objects that the player clicks, the number counter
increases by one. Once all the objects are clicked the total
will appear in each box. The player will drag the answer to
the answer box. It will bounce if the answer is wrong. Only
when an answer is correct, will it be accepted and the two
boxes on the left of the answer box change from objects to
numbers. For subtraction, once an object in the second box is
clicked, the object in the rst box will disappear. The object
remaining in the rst box is the answer (see Fig. 21.2b)
(continued)
360 K.Y. Khoo

Table 21.4 (continued)

Apps The Nature of the apps
Worm jump (The fourth app) The bird in the game moves forward a step at a time. The
worm is ahead of the bird and once a question is answered
correctly, the worm will move forward a step. If the answer
is answered wrongly, the worm will stay put. Once the bird
reaches the worm, it will be eaten. To keep the game going,
the player must answer promptly to stay ahead of the bird.
Addition and subtraction questions are displayed and there
are three choices per question. Some obstacles appear after
the 40th45th steps to slow down the players moves (see
Fig. 21.2c), thereby increasing tension and elevating the
degree of difculty in completing the game successfully

21.4 Observation of Participants Enacting the App

with Viewing and Representing Skills

21.4.1 Participant One: Peter

Peter was an outgoing child, asking questions spontaneously of his classmates in the
classroom whenever doubts arose in his mind. His recent maths assessment result
was about average. This study provides evidence of Peters competency in enacting
the viewing and representing skills (see Table 21.1). In Fig. 21.3, he enacted the
viewing skills by interpreting meaning made by elements of different modes and
integrating them to form contextual information. He read the question in numeric
symbols 6 1= (see Element 1, 3.1 in Fig. 21.3), counted the sh in the picture
(see Element 2, 3.1 in Fig. 21.3) below the question and selected the numeric answer
at the bottom of the screen (see Elements 3, 3.1 in Fig. 21.3). In Fig. 21.3, Peter
selected and integrated the information contextuallyi.e. in both spatial and tem-
poral layouts. He chose 5 + 5 on one button and subsequently chose 10 on

Fig. 21.3 Peter enacted the viewing and representing skills

21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 361

another (see Element 1, 3.2 in Fig. 21.3) to complete the question, while simulta-
neously observing the countdown score (as in Element 2 & 3, 3.2 of Fig. 21.3). In
the fourth app, he read the questions and chose the answer while simultaneously
striving to solve the question fast to maintain distance from the bird (see Elements 1,
2 & 3 in Fig. 21.3). He was highly aware of the movement of the bird seeking to eat
the worm as it came closer. The game used the movement of the bird as a metaphor
for the time limit. In the three apps, Peters abilities in enacting the viewing and
representing skills with digital texts were observed (Khoo and Churchill 2013).
In Peters engagement with the rst app (see Table 21.3), two students were
assigned one mobile device and took turns to answer the questions. The teacher
briefed all the children in the class before they started with the strategies of
counting on from rst and counting down from for solving both addition and
subtraction questions. Peter started the game before Mary, with the task being to
complete ten consecutive questions. He counted all the objects and chose the
answer for two of the ten questions. The addition strategy of modelling (Goldin
1998) was observed. Peters teammate, Mary, explained the strategies as briefed by
the teacher. Subsequently, he answered the remaining questions with the new
strategies. He turned to Mary to conrm his answers each time he had made a
tentative choice of answers. Mary nodded to conrm her agreement with his
choices. The situation demonstrated the process of peer learning (Hwang and Hu
2013; Liu and Carless 2006) where it was mediated in the context of using a mobile
device as a learning tool.
For the second app, Peter was assigned a personalised device. He selected the
Winter Match in his attempt to solve the set problems. There were two criteria for
monitoring the participants learning outcomes: the speed of solving the questions
and the maximum number of wrongs allowed. A countdown timer limited to 110 s
the time Peter was given to nish the questions. After the 110 s had elapsed, the
game could still be continued but the score was always zero (see Table 21.4). The
teacher set a rule that each of the children had to score 200 to nish the activity.
Engaging learners in thinking about achieving outcomes to certain agreed criteria
is a learning process (Liu and Carless 2006, p. 280). Peter started to count using
the strategy of modelling. Slowly, he switched to counting on from the rst. He
sought feedback from the teacher each time he was in doubt. The teacher guided
Peter from time to time. Peter demonstrated his artfulness in engaging with the
learning context, while his imprompt interactions with the teacher and the teachers
feedback regulated his learning. His ability to seek feedback was observed.
In the third app, Peter was also given a personalised mobile device, and the
instructions of the app provided neither scores nor time limit. Peter attempted the
questions using the strategy of counting all on the objects in the two boxes. He
applied the same strategy to the rest of the questions. It was also observed that Peter
could not obtain the answers for some of the questions in his initial attempts.
In the fourth app, Peter played the game in front of the teacher and the group of
classmates. It was a 40-min lesson and the lesson was repeated on 3 consecutive
days. The teacher set the condition that each child should answer at least ten
questions before the termination of the game. Otherwise, he/she had to repeat. Peter
362 K.Y. Khoo

started his rst attempt with the counting on from strategy: e.g. he would count,
4 [pause], 5, 6, 7, 8, then clicked 8. The game was terminated after two questions.
Peter observed how other children completed their attempts. The group was noisy.
Some would speak out the numbers and answers without any apparent attempt at
counting, e.g. 3, 5 [pause] 8. Peter succeeded on his third attempt with a score of
120 (twelve correct answers). He acquired the number fact strategy by retrieving the
recalled number fact from his memory (Carpenter and Moser 1984). His abilities to
learn a new strategy along a learning hierarchy from acquisition to fluency were
observed. His observational skill in learning was evidenced (Browder et al. 1986).
The interviews were conducted with Peter immediately before and after his
lessons. The purpose of the interviews was to conrm his understanding of the
strategies observed in the research. The researcher found that he applied the strategy
of modelling before the lesson with the rst app; he could correctly answer
addition/subtraction questions involving small numbers (i.e. 2 + 3 = , 4 3 = etc.).
After the lessons, the results of the interview indicated that he could answer
addition questions involving regrouping two one-digit addends (i.e. 5 + 8 = 13); he
could also answer one and two-digit subtraction questions (i.e. 18 4 =). The
interview revealed that he applied new counting strategies of counting on from
(for addition) and counting down from given (for subtraction). In the second app,
his ability to adopt the new strategy from counting all to counting on from the
rst was also observed.
The third app did not evidence his ability to gain any new strategies, but in the
interview his ability to learn a new strategy from the counting on from to the
number fact was evidenced in the fourth app.

21.4.2 Participant Two: Mary

Mary had an easy-going manner, and demonstrated good social assertive skills in
the class. She scored good results in her schoolwork in mathematics and was very
helpful to her classmates when asked for assistance. As with Peter, Mary demon-
strated competencies in engaging with digital texts on screens in meaning-making
by applying appropriate viewing and representing skills.
In her engagement with the rst app, she had a vicarious experience from
teaming with Peter and guiding him to complete the questions. Thus, when it was
her turn, she completed the same app exercise quickly and with a full score. In her
second app attempt, she was provided with an individualised mobile device to
operate on her own. She clicked two consecutive buttons with the same values to
close the two buttons (i.e. she clicked 4 & 4; 5 & 5, etc., instead of 1 + 3 then 4;
2 + 2 then 4; 1 + 4 then 5; 2 + 3 then 5). The remaining buttons panicked her
because the problem solving questions were unfamiliar to her (i.e. 4 + 2, 1 + 5,
2 + 2, 1 + 3 etc.). She paused and pondered, then sought assistance from her
teacher, who popped in and clued her up. The teacher introduced a new strategy, the
recall number fact with no apparent counting (Carpenter and Moser 1984), and
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 363

repeated the same strategy in the two subsequent questions. Thus, she coached
Mary to the point where she was able to handle the problem solving on her own.
Mary then independently solved the rest of the questions. The scaffolding process
was evidenced (Beishuizen et al. 2010), which Mary embraced, learning the new
strategy. In the fourth app, with the assistance of answer hints from the teacher and
her peers, she demonstrated her ability to answer the two-digit and one-digit
questions.
The interviews with Mary before and after the lesson with the rst app activity
revealed that she had learnt the new strategy from counting all to counting on
from the rst. Observational learning was evidenced (Orelove 1982). The pre- and
post-lesson interviews revealed that in the fourth app activity she applied the recall
number fact strategy to addition and subtraction questions with no apparent
counting for numbers in the equations less than 10. However, she applied the
counting-on from larger strategy (Carpenter and Moser 1984) for additions
involving two digits with one digit (e.g. 11 + 4). After the lessons, she managed
to acquire a new strategy, the decomposition strategy (e.g. 13 + 5 = 10 + 3 + 5 = 18)
(Canobi et al. 1998), learning through reflection from the teacher and peer hints.

21.4.3 Participant Three: Ben

Ben was a brilliant child. He had achieved full scores in most of his schoolwork. He
was observant, quiet and able to learn quickly with less practice and repetition than
typical of his peers. When dealing with the apps on the screens, he demonstrated
competency in engaging with digital texts for meaning-making using viewing and
representing skills.
In the second app, Ben chose Catch a Star with subtraction 1 10. The
questions were in the form of x 5 = 2 and 5 x = 2, the task being to determine
the value of x. Ben was not able to tackle the form of x 5 = 2, and after two wrong
attempts sought help from his teacher. The teacher showed him a trick to sum the
numbers of 5 and 2. He managed to acquire knowledge of the new strategy and
practised for the next few similar questions. When the question 5 x = 2
appeared, the teacher showed him the strategy of subtracting 2 from 5.
The studies of Bens classroom activities with the rst, third and fourth apps
were also examined, and the researcher found that observational learning and peer
feedback had occurred.
The pre- and post-lesson interviews on the use of the second app disclosed that
Ben had learnt the strategy of addition to solve subtraction problems (Peters et al.
2013). When he encountered uncertainty, he inquired in an attempt to nd a
solution. He also applied his prior knowledge in addition and subtraction to gen-
erate new understandings. His ability to learn reflectively was observed (Boud et al.
1985; Koong et al. 2014).
364 K.Y. Khoo

21.4.4 Participant Four: Nicole

Nicole was a shy but obedient student. Although her self-expression was awkward,
she was able to learn mathematics, although her mastery of skills was relatively
slow. Utilising the data collection methods as per Table 21.1, the researcher
observed that Nicole had acquired viewing and representing skills in engaging with
information on the screens. In her rst app practice, she teamed up with Ben,
observing how he completed his ten questions (i.e. counting the items and saying
the numbers softly as he was solving the questions: e.g. for 9-1 = ? he would say
nine minus one, and would then count the objects aloud, 1, 2, 3, ; for the
additional question, he pointed at the rst number 9 and spoke it aloud, then
counted the second pictorial quantity aloud, 10,11,12, 15). Nicole observed
and imitated what Ben had done. The imitation led to Nicoles learning to apply the
new strategy of the counting on from. She imitated the steps to start from the rst
number. She then counted the objects on the right and since each time the questions
gave a different set of numbers, she practiced and learnt the new strategy. The
imitation skill emerged from the current research with Nicole.
The interviews with Nicole were conducted before and after her lessons on the
use of the rst app. Before the lesson, she applied the strategy of modelling. She
demonstrated that she had learnt the new strategy of counting on from after using
the app in the lesson.

21.5 Discussions

In investigating the rst research question, the current study has identied six
collaborative skills. Five of these skills were identied in the literature before the
data collection (Beishuizen et al. 2010; Goldin 1998; Hwang and Hu 2013; Liu and
Carless 2006; Mezirow 1990; Orelove 1982; Pardo 2004): observational learning,
embracing the process of scaffolding, reflection, peer learning and seeking feed-
back. The collaborative skill of imitation emerged in the current study. These
collaborative skills take place at the social level and were enacted through inter-
action with digital texts. They are shown in Table 21.5 below.
In the study, activity theory was applied in categorising into four dimensions
how the participants came to know new addition and subtraction learning strategies.
The rst such dimension is subjecttoolobject. During Peters practice with the
rst app, he enacted the app with the viewing and representing skills and his
mathematical knowledge in addition, i.e. the strategy of modelling. Mary perceived
the strategy used by Peter (the externalisation of Peters understanding was
observed) and she applied verbal and non-verbal responses with the alternative
approach of pointing at the rst number then continuing with the objects on the
right (the strategy of counting on from), subsequently obtaining the answer. Her
action led to Peters new meaning-making and he used the new strategy and
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 365

Table 21.5 The collaborative skills enacted through interaction with digital texts
Collaborative skills
Skills Peer learning Reflection
Verbal and non-verbal responses of Intellectual activities in which ones own
peers to a persons actions or behaviour experiences are explored in order to
that lead to new meaning-making for generate new meaning-making
that person
Embracing scaffolding Observational learning
The ability to elicit information and The learning skill that one develops
reactions during the scaffolding along a learning hierarchy from
processes that leads to new acquisition and fluency to generalisation
meaning-making of initiative behaviour
Seeking solutions Emulating
The ability to seek information from The act of imitating someone elses
various sources or channels through successful steps in completing a task,
social interaction in a learning context while also applying ones own prior
knowledge

Table 21.6 The new strategies acquired by participants compared with their social level
Community Articulated The new learning skills adapted
interplay level Peter Mary Ben Nicole
Team of two (1st app) Medium 0 0
Individual (2nd app) Low
Individual (3rd app) Low 0 0 0 0
Performed one by one in the High
group (4th app)
Note : the frequency of a new strategy learnt

produced the correct answers for the next questions. Peters internalisation of the
new strategy was observed. Mary had also nodded in agreement with Peters
attempts in using the new strategy. The same dual conscious mental processesi.e.
cognitive processeswere also observed in the second and fourth apps for Peter,
Mary and Ben and also rst, second and fourth for Nicole (Table 21.6 refers).
The participants designed their path of engagement actively and continuously on
screens, both spatially and temporally, to make sense of texts. In Peters case, with
the rst app as an example, he read the question 6-1, counted the sh in the
picture below the question and selected the answer at the bottom of the screen. First,
Peters interests drew attention to an element that was then selected; via the same
process, another element was then selected and so on. In between the selections, an
attempt was made by Peter to interact with the selected elements to form meaning
(see Table 21.1). The processes were visualised by peers as shared context for their
joint problem space. In Peters case, Mary noted the process (numbers, images,
spatial and temporal information) by which he answered his questions. They
constructed a shared conception of the given problem by applying different
366 K.Y. Khoo

Fig. 21.4 The viewing skills facilitate collaboration amongst peers

collaborative skills as Mary explained the strategies as briefed by the teacher,

emphasising parts that Peter might have missed (see Table 21.5). The crossed case
study has revealed how digital texts, through viewing and representing skills,
merged with the collaboration of the participants iteratively to enable the
meaning-making process. These interactions facilitated the participants externalis-
ing their understanding and internalising new knowledge. The idea is demonstrated
in Fig. 21.4. Research question one is answered. However, as we have observed in
Table 21.6, some of the interactions might not result in the gaining of new
knowledge. Results from the current research indicate that others elements must be
further investigate.
In the second dimension, subjectcommunityobject, the community setting
provides the context in which the individuals learning interaction (articulated
interplay) takes place through the activity (see Table 21.6). Although the ndings of
previous studies are that childrens feelings of isolation and a sense of presence
were positively correlated with the effectiveness of their learning (Cereijo et al.
2001; Rovai and Wighting 2005), the current research results show that the com-
munity setting does not have an absolute effect in new meaning-making. In the
second app, all the participants gained new knowledge, but in the third app, none of
the four participants gained any new knowledge.
In the third dimension, subjectdivision of labourobject, the individuals roles
within the community differ in terms of the degree of engagement in the activities.
The participants exhibited different learning styles: Peter and Mary preferred to deal
with people, although Mary was smarter than Peter. Ben was excellent in inductive
reasoning and Nicole was likely to solve problems in an intuitive trial-and-error
manner (Carpenter et al. 1978; Kolb 1981). However, both Ben and Nicole were
shy and neither was assertive when they encountered problems in answering their
questions (see Table 21.7). Nevertheless, there were no signicant results indicating
that the different learning styles prevented them from acquiring new knowledge (see
Table 21.7).
In the fourth dimension, subjectruleobject, three participants were observed
acquiring new strategies in the course of attempting to adhere to the instructional
requirement of the scores and speed limit when completing tasks (i.e. Peter and
Mary with the second app, and Ben with the fourth). Intellectual engagement with
outcomes and standards are focuses of participant involvement in solving the
questions and led to clear standards in achieving high quality learning outcomes.
The rules were different in different apps (see Table 21.8). The results demonstrated
that the rules of the games were important in helping the participants to learn the
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 367

Table 21.7 The combination of different styles versus the new knowledge learnt
Learning style/Performance Result is above average Result is average
Assertive Mary Peter

Shy and not outspoken Ben Nicole

Note : the frequency of a new strategy learnt

Table 21.8 The standard of different apps

The apps The standard The new strategy adopted
by the four participants
Addition and subtraction for kids Result score
Math adventure Time limit and result score
Juicy math
Worm jump Time limit
Note : the frequency of a new strategy learnt

new strategies. The third app was not designed with any rules that might help the
participants to learn, although the app might have the potential to guide participants
to new knowledge.
The analysis of the four dimensions also resulted in the following summaries.
The externalisation and internalisation of the understandings might not result in
new meaning-making, as observed in the rst app with Mary and Ben
(Table 21.6 refers).
The differences in learning style of the participants did not signicantly hinder
them from learning new strategies (Table 21.7 refers).
Community settings have no absolute effect on the meaning-making, whereas
the type of rules embedded in the game designs might play important roles in
this regard (see Tables 21.6 and 21.8).
The current study shows that digital technology enables students to enact cre-
ative reasoning with digital texts. They receive positive and negative feedback
relative to their actions, which allows them to modify their subsequent actions,
mostly without guidance from the teachers. They collaboratively constructed and
shared conceptions through visualisation of their created and enacted solving
strategies with digital texts. However, as discovered in I & III, in addition to the
previous studies (Granberg and Olsson 2015; Lithner 2008), the application of
dynamic software to engage students in a collaborative and creative reasoning
learning environment might need to consider the interplay among elements that
took place at the social level of the participantsi.e. the personal learning style, the
community setting and the standard of the software design. The standard of the
software design has an absolute effect in determining the new meaning-making that
resulted in gaining new knowledge (see Tables 21.6 and 21.8). Learning style plays
a signicant role in determining the intensity of gaining new knowledge. However,
368 K.Y. Khoo

the community setting does not appear to play a signicant role in this aspect. The
ndings of research question 2 were, indeed, analogous to a jigsaw puzzle. Through
the activity theory, the four dimensions of analysis served as fundamental pieces of
the puzzle. Once these pieces are tted together, the answer to research question 2
was answered in totality.
The summarised framework is presented in Fig. 21.5. The interactions between
the participants and the digital artefacts transcend their knowledge levels through a
positive meaning-making path that might not have been possible if the contextual
setting was not aligned along the path (see Fig. 21.5). This conceptual and peda-
gogical framework serves as a reference to classroom instructors seeking to
incorporate digital apps into classroom mathematical lessons.
A pedagogical implication arises from the current research. Over the past
50 years, research ndings on addition and subtraction problem solving strategies
have been very well dened and consistent (Carpenter and Moser 1984). Movements
are currently are underway to reform the practices of mathematics problem solving
by focusing on the flexible use of appropriate strategies, rather than standard
school-taught approaches (De Corte et al. 2007; Peters et al. 2013). The nding
implies that the conventional theories regarding young childrens learning of addi-
tion and subtraction need to be reconceptualised, and flexible use of strategies in
classroom activities with digital technology promoted and adopted to facilitate
collaborative creative reasoning within the proposed framework (see Fig. 21.5).
The current research has several limitations. Although the study focuses on the
implementation of classroom mathematics learning through activities, the investi-
gation was conned to the topics of addition and subtraction. Thus, ndings may

Fig. 21.5 The framework for enacting viewing/representing skills to acquire new knowledge
21 Enacting App-Based Learning Activities 369

not be generalizable to all mathematics learning in the classroom. Future research

could focus on more topics with a view to developing the current framework.
Further, the kindergarten encountered difculties in selecting suitable apps for
learning purposes. The apps used in the classroom were limited by the participants
age-related cognitive abilities (e.g. the level of written texts used and the aspects of
virtual reality of the app content). Doubt must be acknowledged as to the validity
and availability of apps suitable for childrens classroom learning.

21.6 Conclusions

This paper synthesises relevant literature on collaborative learning and draws on

viewing and representing skills to make a case for integrating digital devices in
classroom mathematics learning. The study illuminates existing practices of
learning mathematics from a new perspective of learning. A central concern of this
new perspective is the ways in which children artfully engage with their peers and
surroundings to create impromptu sites of learning. The results showed in this study
demonstrated that learning apps were useful to facilitate childrens classroom
learning. The activities under study are learner, new knowledge, assessment and
community-centred. Through digital technologies, these activities allow participants
to enact autonomous tasks to construct their own meanings. The need for learners to
externalise understanding is central to the activities. All parties focus on a common
external representation of a subject that allows them to identify and discuss the
topics (Laurillard 2002; Pask 1976).
Learning takes place effectively when learners are in control of the learning
activity, able to assess and experiment with his/her ideas in the course of pursuing
results, and to enquire by working with people in seeking new knowledge, then
plan for new actions (Ravenscroft 2000). The current multiple case studies provide
a framework for the integration of digital texts into activity-based classroom
mathematics learning, along with specic recommendations that emerged from the
research ndings and implications.

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Author Biography

Kay Yong Khoo received his Ed.D from the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. He
has been the founding director of child education product development company E-Learn Dot
Com Limited, Hong Kong since 2001. He has co-authored and edited 10 uniquely designed book
series for kindergartens featuring toys and apps that enhance multimode classroom learning, and
has had a leading role in developing classroom-learning apps (teaching and assessment) to
promote interactive smart teaching in kindergartens. He has also been active in publishing in his
academic eld, authoring journal papers, book chapters and conference papers.
Chapter 22
Effects of Prior Knowledge
on Mathematics Different Order Thinking
Skills in Mobile Multimedia Environments

Thomas K.F. Chiu

Abstract This chapter presents a study that examined the effects of prior knowl-
edge and multimedia design on developing mathematical conceptual understanding
in a mobile learning environment. Two different approachesinstructional and
noninstructionalwere used in the design of the multimedia representation to
facilitate students learning for a more complete understanding. Seventy students
with different levels of prior knowledge in a secondary school participated in the
experiment. Participants were assigned to the 2 (high vs. low prior knowledge
group) 2 (instructional vs. noninstructional) factorial groups to receive the
100-min treatment. The results revealed that the low prior knowledge group out-
performed the high prior knowledge group in conceptual knowledge of low order
thinking; the instructional group outperformed than the noninstructional group in
conceptual knowledge of high order thinking and procedural knowledge; and there
was no interaction of prior knowledge and design approach. These ndings suggest
that mobile multimedia environment enhancing viewing is sufcient for the low
order thinking skill development, but not for the high order in mathematics concept
learning and procedural skill. Finally, recommendations for future research were
suggested.

22.1 Introduction

Mobile technologies are the most widely used information and communication
technologies; 90 % of the world population has available access to mobile networks
(International Telecommunication Union 2012). Using the mobile devices in
classrooms can offer diverse opportunities for teachers and students (Boticki et al.
2015; Gedik et al. 2012). Many schools have been introducing mobile devices in
learning and teaching. Most of the devices are small screens. Therefore, one of the

T.K.F. Chiu (&)

Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
e-mail: tchiu@hku.hk

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 373

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_22
374 T.K.F. Chiu

main challenges in mobile learning is how to design multimedia representations of

digital materials for the small screens (Chen et al. 2008; Churchill 2011; Gay et al.
2001); design of multimedia representation should be studied more in mobile
environments (Churchill 2011).
Literature addresses that there are limitations on designing effective multimedia
presentation of educational materials in mobile environments (see Albers and Kim
2001; Churchill 2011; Churchill and Hedberg 2008; Lee and Bahn 2005). Due to
the limited display space, reading multimedia messages on mobile devices is more
difcult than that on paper (Albers and Kim 2001). Besides, interactive feature
should be the main focus in mobile learning design (Churchill 2011). Churchill
(2011) gives some recommendations for designing mobile devices based on the
results of his study with Churchill and Hedberg (2008) regarding investigating
different design of learning objects via handheld devices. For example, landscape
presentation of learning material should be provided to increase the learning space
that improved learner experience; no scrolling is recommended; the learning con-
tent should be task-oriented; the interaction should be single (one-step), which
allows learners to notice immediately responses after manipulation; and zooming
function should be provided, which allows learners to be able to enlarge learning
content for better reading. Their studies indicated that the suggestions for mobile
environments can enhance viewing that lead to better learning. Although these
suggestions sound promising, the effects of prior knowledge on design of the
multimedia presentation on learning in mobile environments are unclear. This
present study aims to investigate the effects of prior knowledge and multimedia
design on mathematics concept learning in mobile environments.

22.2 Literature Review

22.2.1 Multimedia Learning and Prior Knowledge

How to design multimedia representation influences the processes and outcomes of

learning (Ainsworth 1999; Chiu and Churchill 2015a, b; Mayer 2009). Multimedia
learning as learning with both visual and audio representation: visual representation
is dened as pictures, graphs or video, audio representation as written or spoken
words (Mayer 2009). Multimedia learning is designed to foster meaningful learning
that helps learners to construct their knowledge organized in an integrated repre-
sentation. The goals of multimedia learning are to develop learners abilities to
reproduce and apply the learning content presented in the materialsi.e., facili-
tating remembering and better understanding. Learning with images and words are
more effective than learning with words alonelearners remember more (Chiu and
Churchill 2015a, b; Doolittle 2002; Levin et al. 1987; Sankey et al. 2012). Images
and words can complement each other, resulting in a better representation than
either images or words used in isolation (Bodemer et al. 2004; Clark 1994; Lusk
et al. 2009; Fletcher and Tobias 2005; Low and Sweller 2005). Moreover, while
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order 375

words are the basic form of representation in learning environments, Stokes (2002)
notes that many studies claim that teaching with visuals leads to a greater degree of
learning. Memories of learners are improved when information is supplemented by
the use of images (Lusk et al. 2009), which suggests that most people might be
expected to retain more information using learning materials including appropriate
visual content.
Learner prior knowledge has effects on multimedia learning (Lust et al. 2009;
Mayer 2009) in mobile environments (Liu et al. 2013). Students with different
levels of prior knowledge responded differently to a multimedia design. Schnotz
and Bannert (2003) suggest that images facilitate learning of learners with low prior
knowledge; interfere learning of learners with high prior knowledge when the
subject matter is visualized. Mayer (1997) suggest that learners with low prior
knowledge benet more from images and words than those with high prior
knowledge since learners with higher prior knowledge can construct their mental
understanding by reading text only. However, Schnotz and Lowe (2003) suggest
that well-designed images and text are important for both low and high prior
knowledge learners. Low prior knowledge learners need the images support in
developing their mental understanding; and high prior knowledge learners simplify
processing for developing mental understanding. Therefore, prior knowledge and
multimedia representation have interaction effects on learning.
Many experimental studies have further demonstrated that prior knowledge and
multimedia representation have close relationships on two different order thinking
skillsremembering and understanding (Kalyuga 2014; Kalyuga et al. 2000; Leslie
et al. 2012; Potelle and Rouet 2003; Rey and Fischer 2013; Spanjers et al. 2011), in
mathematics learning (Guo et al. 2013; Lee and Chen 2009; Rittle-Johnson and Star
2007, 2009). For example, the design that presented steps to learn with images
presented on screen worked best for weak students, but not for strong students
(Kalyuga et al. 2000); images helped younger (less prior knowledge) students learn
science better (Leslie et al. 2012); and continuous animations were more effective
than segmented animations for experienced students (Spanjers et al. 2011). These
studies measured remembering and understanding skills in their experiments (Leslie
et al. 2012; Rey and Fischer 2013; Spanjers et al. 2011). The results indicated that
the multimedia designs are benecial to both weak and strong students on
remembering, but the designs were only benecial for weak students on under-
standing. In conclusion, there are causal relationships between prior knowledge and
order thinking skill in multimedia learning. It also seems that low prior knowledge
students performed better when developing higher order thinking skills.

22.2.2 Instructional Design in Mathematics

Learning outcomes can be improved signicantly when applying instructional

strategies in design (Clark 1994; Riffell and Sibley 2005; Wiredu 2005). Learning
mathematics concepts, unlike learning language, involved massive amount of
376 T.K.F. Chiu

learning information and thinking. Specic-discipline instructional strategies should

be considered in designing content representation for mathematics concept learning.
In algebra teaching, many researches on presenting various forms of learning
information for students learning have been conducted. Rittle-johnson and Star
(2007, 2009) suggest that comparing and contrasting solution methodstudent
learning better by comparing an equation and its different solution methods or
comparing different forms of an equation and their solution method. Moreover,
Mok (2009) conducted a study on teaching techniques evolved from variation
theory. By applying variation to algebra teaching, students have better under-
standing of concepts by experiencing different solving methods and algebraic forms
at the same time on the same screen. In order to facilitate concept learning,
teaching, and learning activities should be intended to help students build rela-
tionships among different forms of the same problem (Gu et al. 2004; Mok and
Lopez-Real 2006). Mok and Lopez-Real (2006) suggest that variation in equation
or solving method should be adopted by teachers for teaching algebra. However, in
their studies, either different equations or solving method was varied for students
learning, but not equation and solving method together. Moreover, Rittle-Johnson
and his colleagues (2009) found that prior knowledge had impact on the effec-
tiveness of the variation in content representation. Their results showed that lower
prior knowledge students beneted more when learned by comparing various
problems, and high prior knowledge students beneted more when learned by
comparing solution methods. Apart from teaching strategies evolved from the
variation, algebraic, numerical, graphical, and descriptive should be shown
simultaneously when mathematics concepts was taught (NCTM 2000) to ensure
effective algebra learning and teaching. The representation intends to help students
in perceiving the relationships and associations between conceptual and procedural
knowledge. Therefore, the teaching strategiesvariation method and four-section
representationshould be taken account into designing content representation for
algebra learning.

22.2.3 The Present Study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of prior knowledge (low
vs. high) and multimedia representation incorporating instructional strategies
(noninstructional vs. instructional design approach) in a mobile environment on
development of conceptual understanding emerging conceptual knowledge that
includes low order thinking skillgraphical property and concept association and
high order thinking skillevaluation of solutions and written explanation (CDC
and HKEAA 2007; Kastberg 2003; Schneider and Stern 2005; Thompson 2008;
Usiskin 1999), and procedural knowledge of low order thinking skillgraphical
representation skills. We focused on developing student conceptual understanding
through manipulating learning objects (Chiu and Churchill 2015a; Wagner 2002).
More specically, a conceptual model, a type of learning object, was used in the
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order 377

experiment (Chiu and Churchill 2015a, b; Churchill 2007, 2011, 2013). The rep-
resentations of the conceptual model are interactive and visual mediated experiment
(Chiu and Churchill 2015a, b; Churchill 2007, 2011, 2013). The model that pre-
sented property, parameters and relationships of discipline-specic concepts in an
interactive and audio and visual way intends to improve conceptual understanding
experiment (Churchill 2007, 2011). The learning activity in the experiment was
self-learning.
The study examined the following questions. In a mobile environment using
multimedia representation, (1) Do students with low prior knowledge outperform
those with high prior knowledge on their conceptual understanding? (2) Does the
instructional design approach have more positive effect than noninstructional design
approach on students conceptual understanding? (3) Does the combination of
design approach and prior knowledge have an effect on students conceptual
understanding?. Hence, we explored three hypotheses: In a mobile multimedia
environment, (1) low prior knowledge students will achieve better performance on
conceptual knowledge that requires low order thinking skill, (2) Students who learn
with instructional design approach will achieve better performance on conceptual
knowledge that requires high order thinking skill than those who would learn with
noninstructional design approach. (3) Students who would learn with instructional
design approach will achieve better performance on procedural knowledge than
those who would learn with noninstructional design approach.

22.3 Method

22.3.1 Participants

Seventy students of a secondary school in Hong Kong participated and completed

in this study. All the students had been taught the essential concepts about quadratic
equationsolving and forming equation skillsby the same teacher approximately
2 weeks before the start of the experiment. The students were divided into two
groups (high prior knowledge and low prior knowledge) according to their scores of
a recent mathematics quiz on the essential concept taught. The students scored less
than 2/3 of full mark in the quiz were assigned to the low prior knowledge group;
and those scored more than or equal to 2/3 of full mark in the quiz were assigned to
the high prior knowledge group.

22.3.2 Design

A 2 (different design approach: instructional vs. noninstructional) 2 (prior knowl-

edge: low vs. high) between-subjects design was used to address the hypotheses in this
study. The low and high prior knowledge students were assigned to the two situations
378 T.K.F. Chiu

with different design approaches of a conceptual model. This resulted in the four
experimental conditions18 students with low prior knowledge learning with mul-
timedia representation using instructional design approach, 18 students with high
prior knowledge learning with multimedia representation using instructional design
approach, 17 students with low prior knowledge learning with multimedia repre-
sentation using non-instructional design approach, 17 students with lower prior
knowledge learning with multimedia representation using non-instructional design
approach. Moreover, this study used pre- and post- conceptual and procedural
knowledge performance tests to measure the improvement of conceptual under-
standing in the experiment (Schneider and Stern 2005).

22.3.3 Materials

Materials in the experiment included learning materials, pre and posttests. Learning
materials used in the experiment was conceptual models. The conceptual model was
adopted from the studies of Chiu and Churchill (2015a, b). Two different designs
were non-instructional and instructional approaches. The instructional approach
adopted the four-form representation suggested by NCTM and variations of
equations and solving method together; and the noninstructional approach showed
an equation and its graphical representation. Since well-designed images and text
are important for both high and low prior knowledge learners, ve multimedia
learning design principlescoherence, signaling, spatial contiguity, temporal
contiguity, and segmentingwere applied to the two approaches to reducing
cognitive load of students. These can make the image and text presented better. The
topic was secondary school-level quadratic equations. The design of the conceptual
model in the experiment followed the recommendations of the Churchill mobile
multimedia environment design. For example, presentation of the learning content
was full-screen and landscape; and information of the conceptual model was
tasked-centered; and control slides offered students to control for instant responses
(one-step).
In the prior knowledge test, ten questions of multiple choices were given to
students before the experiment and each of the questions was scored 1. In the
conceptual knowledge performance tests, the four different thinking order skills
were measured. They were graphical property, concept association, evaluation of
solutions, and written explanations. Total score of each measure was 12.

22.3.4 Procedure

We conducted the experiment in the students school. The students nished pretests
in 40 and 20 min, respectively before the experiment in their classroom. In the
experiment, the students conducted self-learning with the conceptual models in two
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order 379

lessons. The students followed a worksheet to learn in the rst lesson and conducted
their own self-learning by manipulating the models without having the worksheets in
the second lesson. After the experiment, the students nished posttests in their lesson.

22.4 Result

The data of gain score in the pre- and post- conceptual knowledge performance tests
were analyzed using multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) with graphical
property and concept association as dependent variables and evaluation of solution
and written explanation as dependent variables. Moreover, the data of gain score in
the pre- and post- procedural knowledge performance tests were analyzed using
univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) with the dependent variablessolving
equation skill, forming equation skill, and graphical representation skill. The data of
the conceptual and procedural knowledge performance tests are presented in
Table 22.1.

22.4.1 Graphical Property and Concept Association

For the dependent variables graphical property and concept association, the
MANOVA revealed a signicant main effect of prior knowledge, Wilks = 0.81, F
(2,65) = 7.65, p < 0.001, partial 2 = 0.19, with low prior knowledge students
performing better than the high low prior knowledge students. No signicant main
effect of design approach was found, Wilks = 0.94, F(2,65) = 1.97, p > 0.05, partial
2 = 0.06. No signicant interaction effect between prior knowledge and design
approach was found, Wilks = 0.98, F(2,65) = 0.61, p > 0.005, partial 2 = 0.018.

Table 22.1 Means and SDs of the dependent variable

Measures Instructional design approach Noninstructional design approach
High prior Low prior High prior Low prior
knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge
M SD M SD M SD M SD
Conceptual knowledge performance test
GP 3.72 3.74 5.83 3.73 1.47 2.12 5.35 3.50
CA 1.67 1.91 2.56 2.53 0.76 1.99 2.00 2.32
ES 3.28 240 1.56 2.43 0.59 3.20 0.59 1.50
WE 3.39 3.24 2.00 3.41 0.53 1.59 0.82 1.67
Procedural knowledge performance test
GR 2.33 4.06 4.89 5.40 1.29 4.22 1.53 4.49
Note GP Graphical property; CA Concept association; ES Evaluation of solution; WE Written
explanation; GR Graphical representation
380 T.K.F. Chiu

The follow-up ANOVAs results showed the main effect of prior knowledge
yielded an F ratio of F(1, 66) = 13.96, p < 0.001, partial 2 = 0.18, indicating that
the mean gain score was signicantly greater for low prior knowledge (M = 5.6,
SD = 3.57) than for high prior knowledge (M = 2.63, SD = 3.23).The main effect of
design approach yielded an F ratio of F(1, 66) = 2.90, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.042,
indicating that the mean change score was not signicant. The interaction effect was
not signicant, F(1, 66) = 1.22, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.018.
With regard to concept association, a signicant main effect of prior knowledge
was found, F(1, 66) = 4.08, p < 0.05, partial 2 = 0.058. The mean gain score was
signicantly greater for low prior knowledge (M = 2.29, SD = 2.41) than for high
prior knowledge (M = 1.23, SD = 1.97). No signicant main effect of design
approach was found, F(1, 66) = 1.92, p > 0.5, partial 2 = 0.28. The interaction
effect was not signicant, F(1, 66) = 0.11, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.002.
For the dependent variables graphical property and concept association, the
signicant main effect was found for the independent factor prior knowledge but
not the design approach. This result revealed that low prior knowledge students
achieved higher conceptual knowledge performance that requires low order
thinking skill when they learned with interactive multimedia representation.

22.4.2 Evaluation of Solution and Written Explanation

For the dependent variables evaluation of solution and written explanation, the
MANOVAs results showed a signicant main effect of design approach was
found, Wilks = 0.81, F(2,65) = 7.51, p < 0.001, partial 2 = 0.19, with the
instructional design approach group performed better than the noninstructional
design group. No signicant main effect of prior knowledge was found, Wilks
= 0.97, F(2,65) = 1.15, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.03. No signicant interaction effect
between prior knowledge and design approach was found, Wilks = 0.96, F
(2,65) = 1.48, p > 0.005, partial 2 = 0.04.
The follow-up univariate ANOVAs with dependent variable evaluation of
solutions yielded a main effect for the design approach, F(1, 66) = 9.69, p < 0.01,
partial 2 = 0.13, such that the mean gain score was signicantly greater for
instructional design approach (M = 2.42, SD = 2.53) than for noninstructional
design approach (M = 0.59, SD = 2.46). The main effect of prior knowledge was
nonsignicant, F(1, 66) = 2.15, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.032. The interaction effect
was nonsignicant, F(1, 66) = 2.15, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.03.
With regard to the dependent variable written explanation, univariate ANOVAs
yielded a main effect for the design approach, F(1, 66) = 10.20, p < 0.01, partial
2 = 0.13, such that the mean gain score was signicantly greater for experimental
design (M = 2.69, SD = 3.35) than for control design (M = 0.68, SD = 1.61). The
main effect of prior knowledge was nonsignicant, F(1, 66) = 0.75, p > 0.05, partial
2 = 0.01. The interaction effect was not signicant, F(1, 66) = 1.77, p > 0.05,
partial 2 = 0.03.
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order 381

For the dependent variables evaluation of solution and written explanation, the
signicant main effect was found for the independent factor design approach but not
the prior knowledge. This result revealed that students learned with the instructional
design approach achieved higher conceptual knowledge performance that requires
high order thinking skill than those learned with the noninstructional design approach.

22.4.3 Procedural Knowledge

For the dependent variable graphical representation, an univariate ANOVA yielded

a main effect for the design approach, F(1, 66) = 4.04, p < 0.05, partial 2 = 0.06,
such that the mean gain score was signicantly greater for instructional design
approach (M = 3.61, SD = 4.88) than for noninstructional design approach
(M = 1.41, SD = 4.29). The main effect of prior knowledge was nonsignicant, F(1,
66) = 1.62, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.02. The interaction effect was not signicant, F
(1, 66) = 1.12, p > 0.05, partial 2 = 0.02.
The signicant main effect was found in the dependent variable graphical rep-
resentation, for the independent factor design approach but not the prior knowledge.
This result revealed that students learned with the instructional design approach
achieved higher performance on the question of graphical representation than those
learned with the noninstructional design approach.

22.5 Discussions

As predicted, students prior knowledge had impact on the effectiveness of design

approach in the mobile multimedia environment. The results of this experiment
indicated that there were no interactions between design approach of multimedia
representation and level of prior knowledge on concept learning. That is, only one
factoreither design approach or prior knowledgeaffected the effectiveness of
development of conceptual understanding. These results were in line with the
results of Guo et al. (2013) study.

22.5.1 Prior Knowledge and Low Order Thinking Skill

in Conceptual Knowledge

The results of the present study indicated that the effectiveness of design approach
was absent for students on improving conceptual understanding that was easily
transferred to conceptual knowledge that requires low order thinking skill
graphical property and concept association. Those students did not show any
382 T.K.F. Chiu

preferences for either design approach of multimedia representation. However,

students prior knowledge effect was signicant. Low prior knowledge students
beneted more from the multimedia representation than high prior knowledge
students, which is in line with the research of Mampadi et al. (2009). That is, prior
knowledge of students are the main effect of the improvement of their conceptual
understanding that were easily transferred to the conceptual knowledge of graphical
property and concept association when a well-designed mobile learning environ-
ment were provided.

22.5.2 Design Approach and High Order Thinking Skill

in Conceptual Knowledge

The ndings showed that design approach of multimedia representation was the
main effect on improving students conceptual understanding that was transferred to
conceptual knowledge that requires higher order thinking skillevaluation of
solutions and written explanation. These ndings support the teaching techniques
evolved from variation theory (Gu et al. 2004; Mok and Lopez-Real 2006) and the
four-form representation (NCTM 2000). The effect of prior knowledge was not
signicant. The improvement of conceptual understanding depended on the design
approach rather than prior knowledge. This suggests effective multimedia repre-
sentation was the signicant predictors on predicting improvement of conceptual
understanding developed through manipulation. Students learned better in a specic
design using teaching strategies rather than a general design. That is, how to design
multimedia representation in a mobile learning environment affects the effective-
ness of high order thinking skill in algebra.

22.5.3 Design Approach and Procedural Skill

The ndings suggested that design approach of multimedia representation was the
main effect on developing students conceptual understanding for answering the
questions regarding to procedural knowledge. The specic multimedia represen-
tationusing instructional approachhad a more promising effect in the experi-
ment, suggesting the instructional approach is likely to help students to develop a
more complete conceptual understanding that was translated to graphical repre-
sentation skill than the noninstructional approach. This also suggests that the
interactive multimedia representation was not sufcient in designing mobile
learning environment even though the graphical representation skill only requires
conceptual understanding regarding to the relationships between equations and their
graphs.
22 Effects of Prior Knowledge on Mathematics Different Order 383

22.6 Conclusions

This study addresses the issue of multimedia representation in designing mobile

learning environment and how different level of prior knowledge responses the
environment. To measure the improvement of conceptual understanding, concep-
tual and procedural knowledge performances were measured. Several pedagogical
implications for mobile design can be drawn from this study. First, mobile multi-
media environment designed using recommendations enhance viewing can provide
different level of prior knowledge students with learning opportunities that improve
on conceptual knowledge requires low order thinking skill; and low prior knowl-
edge students can benet more. This also implicates that learning opportunities for
mathematics low order thinking skill offered by mobile environment is as effective
as other environment as long as it is designed for enhancing effective viewing.
Second, the results suggest instructional design approach was more benecial to
students than that noninstructional approach in improving conceptual knowledge
that requires high order thinking skill. This indicates that although enhancing
viewing in mobile design recommendations is important, it can be insufcient for
higher order thinking skill development. It can be better when instructional design
approach was applied to provide more pedagogical aspectrepresentations of
relationships among, equations, graphs, solving methods and descriptions.
Therefore, multimedia representation design is very important in mobile environ-
ment when it comes to improving high order thinking skills. Students likely
required a more structured and pedagogical multimedia representation to develop a
more complete understanding. Finally, the combination of prior knowledge and
multimedia representation could not signicantly predict student conceptual and
procedural knowledge performances. Therefore, in mobile multimedia learning
environment, ways to incorporate students prior knowledge was the key to pro-
moting their conceptual understanding that leads to low order thinking skills; and
focusing on the multimedia representation design was important to development of
conceptual understanding that easily transferred to conceptual knowledge of high
order thinking skill and procedural knowledge.
The present study shows good results, but there are some limitations. First, only
one procedural skill was measured in the knowledge performance test. More
research efforts are necessary to consider other types of procedural skills. Finally,
future research could explore other factors that may have effects on the mobile
multimedia learning environment design.

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Chapter 23
An Investigation of the Effects
of Individual Differences on Mobile-Based
Augmented Reality English Vocabulary
Learning

Tong-Ann Sytwu and Chien-Hwa Wang

Abstract Mobile devices are now widely owned and available to the majority of
people. While the affordances of mobile learning include supporting a more per-
sonalized, authentic, situated learning based on the ndings of many studies, it is
crucial and urgent to start rethink pedagogy and learning using mobile devices.
Additionally, as the concept of augmented reality (AR) enables learners to receive
additional, valuable information in a real setting, this study, thus, aims to investi-
gate the effects of a mobile-based augmented reality simulation learning system for
English vocabulary acquisition on learners of different learning styles (eld
independence/dependence, FI/FD) and English prociency (high/low) in terms of
learning outcome and motivation. An experimental research design was used in this
study to identify any differences between FI, FD students and high/low English
prociency learners. The results showed that FD learners benetted signicantly
from the mobile AR instruction on learning outcome; there was a borderline sig-
nicant difference between high and low English prociency learners on learning
outcome; and neither learning styles nor English prociency affected learning
motivation after the mobile AR instruction was applied. From the ndings of the
present study, individual differences should be considered when a new instructional
approach is applied in order to make learning more effective and motivating.

T.-A. Sytwu (&)
C.-H. Wang

National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
e-mail: sytwu510@gmail.com
C.-H. Wang
e-mail: wangc@ntnu.edu.tw

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 387

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_23
388 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

23.1 Introduction

English is signicant when it comes to cross-cultural, international exchanges,

ranging from political, business, scientic, communications, and academic issues
(Chang 2011). Accordingly, learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has
become a critical matter for both educators and learners. Vocabulary learning, in
particular, has always played an important role in laying a solid foundation for the
acquisition of a foreign language (Beck et al. 2002; Bormuth 1966; Davis 1944,
1968). As the basic building blocks of English sentences, vocabulary acquisition is
necessary for second language (L2) learners to make correct inferences or to
understand the content, or even to avoid being diagnosed as learning disabled (Gu
2003; Huang 2007; Nation 2001; August et al. 2005). Furthermore, as Wilkins
(1972) noted, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed (p. 111). Thus,
constant, numerous researches into vocabulary learning for English as a foreign
language have been conducted, showing a keen, urgent interest in nding out how
words can best be learned.
Vocabulary learning is crucial for EFL learners to master English; however, both
instructors and L2 learners are now encountering difculties among English
vocabulary learning. Aside from the problems of formal English education in
Taiwan, such as lack of teaching hours, teacher shortage, and different required
vocabulary size resulting in a huge gap between learners English prociency
(Chang 2011), Barab (2002) stated the main problems in traditional schooling
practices are that information becomes decontextualized, knowledge appears to be
more indirect, abstract, and experiences are second-handed conned in classroom
context. That is, instructions tend to be more fragmented, teacher-centered and
irrelevant to students needs and interests (Cullen 1994). To be more specic,
acquiring vocabulary from abstract, textual denitions from a dictionary results in
problems when using language in real situations (Brown et al. 1989).
Learners individual differences also play an essential role in the effectiveness of
learning. For example, Oxford and Anderson (1995) suggests that there is a need
for language instructors to understand students learning style to achieve optimal
language progress. Furthermore, in the eld of learning styles, eld
independence/dependence (FI/D), in particular, has been considered potentially
important in second language acquisition (Chapelle and Green 1992). In addition to
learning styles, learners initial English prociency may also make a difference in
terms of learning outcome. However, previous studies that treated learners English
prociency as an independent variable were mostly about their usage of learning
strategies rather than the effect of a particular instructional method (Su 2005; Lai
2009).
The effects of individual differences, such as learning style, prior knowledge,
and competencies, are also widely investigated in technology-supported learning, as
the aid of technology in educational settings enables learning to be personalized and
creates learning environments that support learners diversity and individual needs
(Chen and Tsai 2012; Wade and Ashman 2007; Kraus et al. 2001); however, the
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 389

results whether individual differences affect learning outcome with an

technology-enhanced instruction are unclear.
It is also noticeable that there has been a gradual shift of learning approach from
behaviorist to contextualized, situated approaches (Chuo 2004). Situated learning
theory, proposed by Lave and Wenger in the 1990s, posits that knowledge should
be constructed in an authentic context and that learning requires social interaction
and collaboration (1990). As technology advances, augmented reality
(AR) incorporating with the use of mobile devices then provides a solution to
support situated learning theory, since AR has the affordances of the real world
setting by offering additional and contextual information to support learning,
blending learners learning environment into their real-life contexts (Squire and
Klopfer 2007). That is, with mobile devices, wireless connection and location-based
technology, a mobile AR learning system then enables and enhances learning by
making it ubiquitous, collaborative, personalized, and situated while at the same
time bridging formal and informal learning (Wu et al. 2013).

23.2 Literature Review

23.2.1 English Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary learning is a primary, endless, and indispensable task for English

learners (Schmitt 2008). When it comes to the acquisition of L2 vocabulary, Nation
(2001) categorized the methods of learning and teaching high frequency words as
four main approaches, direct teaching, direct learning, incidental learning,
and planned encounters. To be more specic, high frequency words with a
commonly agreed coverage of 2,000 English words, refer to vocabulary other than
that of academic, technical, and low-frequency words (Nation 2001). As for the
learning strategies which learners use to acquire vocabulary, Gu and Johnson
(1996) listed six major strategies commonly employed by EFL learnersguessing,
dictionary, note-taking, rehearsal, encoding, and activation strategies.
Among the abovementioned four ways of learning/teaching high-frequency
words and six vocabulary learning strategies, incidental learning, or the guessing
strategies, which means to guess word meanings from context, has been
acknowledged to result in vocabulary growth (Krashen 1989). However, drawbacks
of incidental vocabulary learning are also addressed. According to Hunt and Beglar
(2002), guessing strategies may only be more benecial to learners of higher
prociency and it may also be time-consuming. Furthermore, there are risks that
learner take wrong guesses or make incorrect inference resulted from the
ambiguous information presented in contexts (Shahrokni 2009; Yoshii and Flaitz
2002).
Aside from the drawbacks such as wrong guessing and incorrect inferences,
there is a certain degree of difculty to practice incidental vocabulary learning,
390 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

since many learners do not have the environment that are needed for this kind of
learning to happen (Nation 2001). And while incidental vocabulary learning is often
regarded as opposed to the direct intentional learning and teaching, Nation (2001)
proposed that the two should be complementary activities, enhancing each other
simultaneously, and that a well-designed language learning program should have a
proper balance between meaning-focused activities (e.g., incidental learning
through reading and speaking activities) and language-focused activities (e.g., the
direct study of language items).
As for dictionary strategies, Brown et al. (1989) pointed out that
dictionary-based learning might result in problems when learners try to use the
language in real situations. Barab (2002) also argued that the main problems while
practicing traditional teaching methods are that information becomes decontextu-
alized, knowledge becomes more indirect, abstract, and experience are
second-handed conned in classroom context. Thus, the present study proposed a
learning system that aimed to realize the idea of recognizing a word automatically
in natural contexts (Gu and Johnson 1996, p. 660) by enabling learners to learn in
a physical context, which is the actual environment, while at the same time, also
providing learners with glosses (i.e., the direct study of language items) through the
aid of augmented reality technology.
When it comes to learning styles, there is no one universally acknowledged
denition. Keefe (1979, p. 4) described learning styles as cognitive, affective, and
physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how learners perceive,
interact with, and respond to the learning environment (as cited in Park et al.
2006). It is necessary for language instructors to understand how students perceive
and approach learning tasks, that is, students distinct learning styles, in order to
achieve optimal language learning progress (Oxford and Anderson 1995). Among
different classications of learning styles, eld independence/dependence (FI/D) in
particular, has been extensively investigated and acknowledged to be potentially
important in second language acquisition (Alptekin and Atakan 1990; Chapelle and
Green 1992; Wyss 2002; Drnyei and Skehan 2003). Nonetheless, the results of the
empirical studies motivated by the FI/D conducted in the eld of second language
acquisition showed that the correlation between FI/D and language learning
achievement is usually low, and that the FI/D interpretation is simply a measure of
intelligence in disguise, which in turn means FI stylists are often the ones showing
signicant positive correlations (Drnyei and Skehan 2003).
Regardless of the criticisms, Chapelle and Green (1992) provided a powerful
defense that knowing learners FI/D is still signicant to offer a better L2 learning
experience, since the measure of FI/D of previous studies only tackles one of the
three major constructs, the cognitive restructuring skills, and ignoring the two
other components, interpersonal competencies and reliance on internal versus
external referents (Witkin and Goodenough 1981, p. 54).
The success of second language acquisition is associated with both ends of the
FI/D continuum. For instance, FI learners are claimed to be more intense in
focusing on the language stimuli relevant to the language learning task at hand
(Naiman et al. 1978, p. 30) and thus excel in classroom learning which involves
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 391

analysis, attention to details and mastering in exercises such as being better at

tracking grammatical correctness, acquiring linguistic rules, and scoring better on
classroom-oriented language tests like cloze test (Chapelle and Green 1992; Wyss
2002). In terms of the personality dimension, Seliger (1977) and Day (1984)
denoted that FI learners tend to be the more condent language learners as they
depend more on internal reference, and thus may speak out actively and take risks
in class. As for FD learners, Chapelle and Roberts (1986) and Brown (1987)
suggested that the preference for social interaction of eld dependents assists them
to acquire language through contextualized practice with native speakers. That is,
according to Wyss (2002), FD learners tend to achieve a higher degree of success in
everyday language situations beyond the constraints of the classroom, and tackle
problems by utilizing interpersonal communication skills. The theory of FI/D, as
described by Witkin, is an ever-changing framework, continuously incorporating
new discoveries and new insights about the nature of the dimension (Goodenough
1986, p. 6).
There are several differences between learners of different English prociency
levels when it comes to English learning. For example, students with higher English
prociency are generally more condent, and hold relatively positive language
learning beliefs in language acquisition, while learners of lower English prociency
show passive attitudes, shyness and fear due to students smaller vocabulary size
(Hong-Nam and Leavell 2006; Huang and Tsai 2003). Studies have found that
explicitly teaching English vocabulary, in other words, direct teaching benetted
both high and low English prociency learners (Huang and Tsai 2003; Carlo et al.
2004). Furthermore, to reach a prevalent success in both high and low English
prociency learners, August et al. (2005) suggested that vocabulary denitions and
contextual information should be provided and actively involving students through
student-directed activity would help reach the goal. Moreover, learners of higher
English prociency tend to use a greater amount of vocabulary learning strategies
and they prefer to learn vocabulary in its natural contexts (OMalley et al. 1985; Gu
and Johnson 1996; Lai 2009; Su 2005). Accordingly, the present study, based on
situated learning theory, aims at investigating how FI/FD learners differ in learning
performance and motivation when vocabulary is acquired in a real setting.

23.2.2 Situated Learning

Situated learning theory, or situated cognition, which has a signicant impact on

educational thinking, was rst proposed by Brown et al. in 1989, asserting that
knowledge is constructed in an authentic context requiring social interaction and
collaboration and that learning is the outcome of interactions among the people,
places, objects, processes, and culture within the given context (Brown et al. 1989;
Lave and Wenger 1990). Implementing these ideas in instructional design can cause
difculties as the model of situated learning continue to evolve and develop with
new research and technology. In order to incorporate new technology into situated
392 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

instructional design, it is necessary to pay careful attention to some of the critical

characteristics, such as providing authentic context that reflects the way knowledge
would be used in reality, providing authentic activities, access to expert perfor-
mances, multiple roles, perspectives, supporting collaborative construction of
knowledge, and so on (Herrington and Oliver 1995).
Augmented reality, AR, refers to the concept to augment virtual information to
the reality. Azuma (1997) dened AR to be able to reveal the three following
features: a combination of real and virtual world, real-time interaction, and accurate
3D registration of virtual and real objects. As for the implementation of AR, varied
technologies can be used, such as PC, handheld devices, head-mounted computers,
and so on. According to Squire and Klopfer (2007), AR has the affordances of the
real-world setting by offering additional and contextual information to support
situated learning.
A number of empirical studies have implemented AR in educational settings and
have been proved to enable situated learning. However, most of the proposed
AR-facilitated learning systems to date are developed for science and mathematics
education, because learning such subjects require visualization of abstract concepts
(Wu et al. 2013). Still, there are a few learning systems that incorporated AR or
other contextual technology (e.g., mobile technology, RFID, GPS) to support sit-
uated learning for other disciplines like language education. The following are three
empirical studies of context-aware learning applied specically in vocabulary
acquisition (Wong and Looi 2010; Chen and Li 2010; Ogata and Yano 2004).
Wong and Looi (2010) conducted a learner-created, design-oriented,
mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) study that required primary students to
take photos outside the classroom using mobile devices to demonstrate their
knowledge of English prepositions (in, on, over, under, in front, and behind), and
were subsequently asked to share, describe their photos in the classroom to illustrate
the spatial relationship of the prepositions by making sentences. The researchers
discovered that students were excited, engaged, and became active knowledge
builders rather than passively receiving knowledge in a formal learning setting
during the activities (Wong and Looi 2010). According to the teachers, the
photo-taking and sentence-making activity helped students to internalize and
enhance the ability to apply the prepositions with the aid of mobile technology that
made learning seamless and thus bridging the gap between formal and informal
learning (Wong and Looi 2010). Chen and Li (2010) proposed the idea that
context is an essential factor in vocabulary learning which also enhances learners
learning interest and efciency, and thus came up with an English vocabulary
learning system called PCULS (personalized context-aware ubiquitous learning
system) that personalizes learning by sending learners location-based English
vocabulary through positioning techniques. The results indicated that incorporating
context-awareness into the learning system increases learning performance. One of
the studies conducted by Ogata and Yano (2004) used a system called TANGO
(Tag Added learNinG Objects) that enables learners to acquire vocabulary through
authentic objects in the environment with their mobile devices and with the aid of
RFID (radio frequency identication) technology. Learners were asked to complete
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 393

tasks assigned by the system through scanning the RFID tag attached to a specic
object, and they reported that relating vocabulary to authentic objects helps them
understand the words with greater ease, interest, and engagement. The signicance
of Ogata and Yanos study lies in its corporation of context-awareness and
self-pacedness into vocabulary learning.

23.2.3 The Present Study

Based on the theoretical foundation of situated learning, the present study proposes a
learning system that incorporates the technology of augmented reality into English
vocabulary learning with the use of mobile devices, enabling learners to acquire
vocabulary in an authentic context by actually seeing and interacting with the
environment. Learning motivation and learning outcome will then be measured and
analyzed to nd out whether there is a difference between FI and FD learners. This
study aims to describe early research into augmented reality-based mobile learning
that attempts to assess its effect on students of different learning styles learning
outcome and perceived motivation in English vocabulary learning of elementary
students, by enabling students to actually see, touch and interact with the vocab-
ulary in a real setting. The research objective of this study is to investigate whether
there is a difference among learning motivation and learning outcome of students of
different learning styles exposed to a mobile-based AR simulations learning system
proposed in this study. Accordingly, the three primary research questions are:
RQ1 Is there a signicant difference between FD and FI learners in the mobile
augmented reality-supported English vocabulary instruction?
RQ2 Is there a signicant difference between FD and FI learners in learning
motivation while the mobile augmented reality instruction was applied?
RQ3 Is there a signicant difference between learners of high and low English
prociency levels in the mobile augmented reality-supported English
vocabulary instruction?
RQ4 Is there a signicant difference between learners of high and low English
prociency levels in learning motivation while the mobile augmented reality
instruction was applied?

23.3 Methods

This study employed a quasi-experimental design, a pretestposttest design, to

examine the difference in learning motivation and outcome of participants of two
different learning styles (eld independence/dependence) and two English pro-
ciency levels (high/low). Before the experiment, a pilot test was conducted to dis-
cover problems before the main experiment and thus to ensure the validity of the
experimental design. Then, all the participants would take the Group Embedded
394 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

Figures Test to distinguish eld independent and eld dependent learners, followed
by a pretest on English vocabulary. After the pretest, participants would then use
mobile devices to learn vocabulary in a real setting, which would be their classroom.
Finally, they were then given questionnaires and vocabulary tests to measure their
learning motivation and learning outcome, respectively. A semi-structured student
interviews were also conducted at the end of the experiment in order to provide an
in-depth understanding of the lived experience of the third graders regarding their
opinions and learning attitude toward the usage of the proposed learning system.

23.3.1 Participants

In order to align the learning system with the existing curriculum guidelines, the
participants in this study were 52 third-grade students, from two different classes,
class 303 and class 308, at an elementary school in XiZhi District, New Taipei City.
Students from both classes used the mobile-based AR simulations learning system
in a real setting. As for the participants in the pilot test, a total of 26 third-grade
students from the same elementary school were assigned using a convenience
sampling method. These students, aged between 9 and 10 year-old have at least
received 2 years of formal English education at school for 80120 min a week. As
for the usage of mobile devices, 84 % of the students have the experience of using
mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones or iPods; while 44 % possess their
own mobile devices; and 44 % of the participants indicate that they have used
mobile devices as learning tools. In brief, from the survey, it can be concluded that
participants are fairly familiar with mobile devices to a certain degree, and would
not have encountered major problems in terms of operation.

23.3.2 Mobile-Based AR Simulations Learning System

Overview

The mobile-based AR simulations learning system requires learners to collaborate

with teammates to complete the assigned task using an augmented reality platform
called Aurasma, a free mobile application enabling users to generate their own
augmented reality content and is available for both iPhones and Android phones.
With wireless Internet connection and the built-in video camera on, additional
information in the form of images, videos, animations, and audio can be shown on
users screen when recognizing the objects one wishes to augment more information
to, see Fig. 23.1 for a demonstration of this concept. When participants turn on the
Aurasma application with their tablets, SAMSUNG Note 2, and found the assigned
items in the classroom, relevant digital content would appear on their screen, showing
the English word, Chinese equivalent, and English pronunciation, which was pre-
viously recorded by a native English speaker who is also a professional EFL teacher.
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 395

Fig. 23.1 User screen

23.3.3 Procedure

Before the activity using the proposed mobile AR English vocabulary learning
system, students were given pretests on their prior knowledge, namely, their
English vocabulary knowledge, see Fig. 23.2. Group Embedded Figures Test
(GEFT) was also administrated to all 52 participants to research into their learning
styles, eld dependence or eld independence. An instruction on how the test works
was given before participants took it, as shown in Fig. 23.3, depicting one of the
participants demonstrating how to locate a simple geometric shape embedded in a
more complex one. The activity began with the anticipatory set, where students
were asked if they had hands-on experience of using a particular item in a class-
room, and to contribute to a discussion about their personal experiences and
knowledge of a classroom vocabulary, which they had showed great interest in
sharing their own thoughts (as depicted in Fig. 23.3), since the topic was closely
related to every students daily life.
After a pre-information and instruction of the activity explaining what they need
to do in the classroom, students were randomly divided into nine sub groups with
three members in one group, given a mobile device, and began with the activity. In
the classroom, they were assigned to a task: First, they were given a clue for the rst
item. Second, when they successfully found out the rst item, additional
396 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

Fig. 23.2 Participants taking pretests on English vocabulary (on the left) and a participant
demonstrating how GEFT works (on the right)

Fig. 23.3 Students actively participating

information of the item, the English vocabulary, Chinese equivalent, and audio
pronunciation would appear on their screen when scanning the right item. Then,
they had to return to the control center to show the screenshot proving they had
successfully discovered the assigned item and utter the Chinese and English pro-
nunciation of the vocabulary to get the next clue. In order to accomplish the task,
participants need to collect every required item. After all groups had nished the
task, the group who spent the least time possible would be awarded.
To ensure grouping (i.e., the composition of group members) would not have an
effect on students learning outcome, learners were asked to take turns using the
tablets to eliminate possible confounding factors caused by grouping. Finally, after
the activity, they were asked to answer questions on the motivation questionnaire
and English vocabulary posttest to gauge their learning outcome
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 397

23.3.4 Variables and Instruments

Two independent and two dependent variables were examined in this study, which
are learning styles (FI/FD), English prociency level, learning outcome, and
learning motivation, respectively. As for the two independent variables, learning
styles and English prociency levels, students previous English (midterm and nal)
exam scores were used to indicate their prociency in English, dividing them into
two groups: high English prociency (top 27 % among 52 students) and low English
prociency (lowest 27 %); while the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was
used to measure their learning style, eld dependence/independence. As for the two
dependent variables, learning outcome and learning motivation, to investigate par-
ticipants learning outcome, an English vocabulary pre and posttests were used;
while a motivation survey was conducted to measure the learning motivation.
The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), developed by Witkin and his
associates in 1971, is one of the most widely used measures of eld
independence/dependence (FI/D), especially in second language acquisition
research (Khatib and Hosseinpur 2011). The test requires subjects to locate and trace
simple geometric gures embedded in a more complex gure. For example, the
participants are asked to identify the simple gure labeled x, see Fig. 23.4 (Witkin
et al. 1971), from a more complex one below, and outline the shape out of it.
The Group Embedded Figures Test used in this study, based on Witkin et al.
(1971), was a modied, Chinese version with Mandarin phonetic symbols, zhuyin,
to ensure the third-grade participants could fully comprehend the instructions on the
test paper. Several geometric gures were also re-illustrated due to some of its
undistinguishable features. The test consists of three sections/pages: the rst page
comprising seven simpler geometric questions serves as a warm-up exercise for
students to get familiarize with the test; while the second and third part containing
nine questions each with more complex gures are the part where students are given
a limited time and get scored to determined whether they are FI or FD stylist.
In general, FI/D is determined by the numbers of the correct answers given by
the test takers. That is, those who scored higher are labeled as FI, while those who
score lower are branded as FD learning stylists. There are two common ways of

Fig. 23.4 An example of the

inquiries in the GEFT
(Adapted from A Manual of
Embedded Figures Tests, by
Witkin et al. 1971)
398 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

determining FD and FI learners. The rst method assumes learners who score above
the median of the overall scores as FI learners, while those below as FD learners.
The second method labels the upper 25 % of the subject as FI learners, while the
lower 25 % as FD learners.
Taking the present studys relatively smaller sample size into account, the rst
method was adopted to determine FI and FD learners. In the present study, a total
number of 52 students were examined. The median score was four, and those who
scored four and below were categorized as FD learners, consisted of 30 persons;
while students who scored above four were deemed to be FI learners, consisted of
22 persons.
The questionnaire (see Appendix A) used in the present study to measure
learning motivation was adapted from Liu and Chu (2010), which the two
researchers aimed to investigate if their proposed ubiquitous English instructional
approach would affect learning outcome and motivation, a research topic similar to
the present study. That is, both studies probed into the impact of a more innovative,
mobile, context-aware instructional approach on learning outcome and motivation,
and particularly in the eld of English as foreign language learning. Thus, this
motivation scale is best suited for this study since the two studies shared similar
learning method, learning topic and variables.
The motivation questionnaire developed by Liu and Chu (2010) applied Kellers
attention, relevance, condence and satisfaction (ARCS) motivation model, which
is a model well used in student-centric instructional tasks (Keller 1987; Keller and
Suzuki 2004). The core values of this motivation model were also practiced in the
design of the proposed mobile AR instruction. That is, with an eye to building an
effective learning environment with interesting activities, the present study aimed at
stimulating students visual and auditory senses to draw their attention, providing
opportunities for self-learning, and cooperation with teammates at the same time.
As the proposed mobile AR instruction was designed to be closely related to
students daily life, such as items one encounters in a classroom, students could
also be able to nd relevance when they were involved in this learning activity.
What is more, the activity offered students opportunities to accomplish challenging
tasks, and thus providing the possibility of building self-condence and gaining a
sense of satisfaction afterwards.
The motivation questionnaire used in the present study was composed of 16
questions in total, 4 questions for each dimension, attention, relevance, condence,
and satisfaction. The level of motivation will be indicated on a ve-point Likert
scale from (1) strongly disagree, to (5) strongly agree. English vocabulary tests for
the pre and posttests used to examine students after the experiment were designed
with a focus on word recognition. In the rst section, students were asked to match
the English vocabulary and the pictures of that item. For the second section, stu-
dents had to match the English vocabulary with its Chinese equivalents. The target
words of this learning activity were selected from the basic 2000 English word list
at elementary school level, issued by Taiwans Ministry of Education. The English
vocabulary pre and posttests were also validated in advance by three experts in
related eld, mobile-assisted learning and EFL education.
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 399

At the end of the experiment, semi-structured interviews with the students were
conducted in order to gain in-depth understanding of the participants live expe-
rience in using the proposed mobile AR vocabulary learning system. The interviews
contained a predetermined set of questions as follows:
Do you think the method of English learning employed in this course is inter-
esting? Why or Why not?
Do you think the method of English learning employed in this course is
attractive? Why or Why not?
Do you think the method of English learning employed in this course is useful?
Why or Why not?
Do you think this course improved your condence in learning English? Why or
Why not?
Are you satised with your English learning achievement? Why or Why not?

23.3.5 Data Analysis

The overall performance, students English vocabulary test scores, and scores of the
questionnaire used to measure learning motivation were collected and analyzed
using ANCOVA and independent t-test to identify any signicant differences
between learners of the two different learning styles, FI/FD, and those of high/low
English prociency levels. Pre and posttest designs are widely adopted and con-
sidered well suited to investigate the effects of educational innovations. ANCOVA
on posttest and pretest as a covariance is a more appropriate and informative
analysis (Dugard and Todman 1995).
As for the qualitative data, all interviews were audio-taped and transcribed by
the researcher and analyzed with the procedure by rst organize the data, generate
categories, themes, and patterns; search for alternative explanation for the data, and
write the report, as proposed by Marshall and Rossman (1989). Five interviewees
from three different classes were chosen and coded according to the class they
belong; capital letters, A, B, C for the class code, and the numeric numbers, 15
representing their identity.

23.4 Results

23.4.1 Research Question 1

To investigate whether there is a signicant difference in the improvement of scores

between students of Field Dependence and Field Independence on learning out-
come while the proposed mobile AR instruction was applied, analysis of covariance
400 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

(ANCOVA) was conducted to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics of FI and
FD learners performance are showed in Table 23.1.
Before ANCOVA, the rst step is to analyze the homogeneity of regression
coefcients. The result, F = 0.464, p = 0.499 > 0.05, does not reach the signicant
level, thus meaning the regression slope of FI and FD groups is equivalent. This
result conrms the assumption of homogeneity of regression coefcients;
ANCOVA could then be further executed. The ANCOVA evaluation results of FI
and FD learners learning outcome are presented in Table 23.2. The results,
F = 10.010, p = 0.003 < 0.005, indicate that learning styles, FI and FD, do make a
difference when students received the proposed mobile AR instruction.
Table 23.3 displayed the estimated posttest score after removing the effect of
covariance, showing FD learners posttest scores (9.602) higher than that of FI
learners (8.543). Thus, it can be concluded that FD learners benetted more than FI
learners while a mobile augmented reality English vocabulary learning approach
was applied.

23.4.2 Research Question 2

To examine whether there is a statistical difference in learning motivation between

FI and FD learners, independent samples t-test was conducted. The mean and SD of
FI were 70.68 and 13.40, respectively; the mean and SD of FD were 68.80 and
6.91, respectively. The t-test results further showed that there is no statistical dif-
ference, p = 0.51, in motivation between learners of two different learning styles.

Table 23.1 Descriptive statistics of FI and FDs learning outcome

Learning styles Mean Std. deviation N
Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest
FI 7.68 8.86 3.153 1.457 22
FD 5.41 9.50 3.232 1.102 30

Table 23.2 ANCOVA evaluation results

Source SS df MS F p
Styles (FI/FD) 12.732 1 12.732 10.010 0.003
Error 62.322 49 1.272
Total 4456.000 52

Table 23.3 The estimated score of FI and FD learners after adjusting the dependent effect with
respect to the covariance
Mean SD Lower bound Upper bound
FI group (N = 22) 8.543 0.248 8.044 9.042
FD group (N = 30) 9.602 0.211 9.178 10.062
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 401

That is, learning motivation of both FI and FD learners is more or less similar after
they received the proposed mobile AR English vocabulary instruction.

23.4.3 Research Question 3

To investigate whether there is a difference between students of different English

prociency levels after receiving the mobile AR English vocabulary instruction,
students were rst classied as two groups, higher English prociency level and
lower English prociency level. Students whose average exam scores among the top
27 % (N = 14) were categorized as high English prociency group; while the lowest
27 % (N = 14) were deemed as low English prociency group. The descriptive
statistics of the two groups learning performance are showed in Table 23.4.
Before the ANCOVA test to explore whether English prociency level has an
impact on learners learning outcome, the rst step is to analyze the homogeneity of
regression coefcients. The result, F = 0.789, p = 0.383 > 0.05, does not reach the
signicant level, thus meaning the regression slope of high English prociency and low
English prociency groups is equivalent. In other words, this result conrms the
assumption of homogeneity of coefcients; ANCOVA could then be further executed.
The ANCOVA evaluation results of high and low English prociency learners
learning outcome are presented in Table 23.5. The results, F = 4.179, p = 0.052 > 0.005,
indicate there is no statistical difference in English prociency in terms of learning
outcome. However, the p value = 0.052 has reached the brink of signicance. In other
words, learners prior English ability still made a difference in the effectiveness of
learning when students received the proposed mobile AR instruction.

23.4.4 Research Question 4

To examine whether there is a statistical difference in learning motivation between

high and low English prociency learners, independent samples t-test was

Table 23.4 Descriptive English prociency Mean Std. deviation N

statistics of high and low Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest
English prociency learners
High Eng. prociency 9.36 9.93 1.393 0.267 14
learning outcome
Low Eng. prociency 4.36 7.86 3.249 1.657 14

Table 23.5 ANCOVA test Source SS df MS F p

on high and low English
prociency learners learning Eng. Prociency 5.425 1 5.425 4.179 0.052
outcome Error 32.458 25 1.298
Total 2281.000 28
402 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

conducted. The mean and SD of High prociency were 72.07 and 8.18, respectively;
the mean and SD of low prociency were 71.21 and 4.93, respectively. The results of
the t-test further inferred that there is no statistical difference, p = 0.74, in motivation
between learners of two different English prociency levels. That is, learning
motivation of both high and low English prociency learners is more or less similar
after they received the proposed mobile AR English vocabulary instruction.

23.4.5 Findings from the Interviews

The main focus of the qualitative part of the study centered on students
self-perceptions upon their experience in the mobile AR learning activity. The
ndings are presented in clusters that described the ve third-grade students
self-reported perceptions of using mobile technologies in learning English vocab-
ulary. Specically, four categories emerged according to the elements the inter-
viewees brought out, which are, fun, effectiveness, condence, and satisfaction.

23.4.5.1 Fun

One of the main ndings from the interviews was that all ve interviewees found
the learning method fun, interesting, special, and different from the way they used
to acquire English vocabulary.
I never knew English vocabulary could be learned this way, with tablets and with team-
work. Its so different from how our teacher teaches us in the classroom. This activity
impressed me a lot. (A1)
Learning with tablets made everything so fun and exciting! (C4)

The idea of learning with tablets excites most of the third graders, giving them an
impression of fun, untraditional, novel learning experience that they are willing to
actively take part in.

23.4.5.2 Effectiveness

Effectiveness was what all ve interviewees found in the instructional approach.

According to the students, the learning activity enabled them to better memorize
those vocabulary by actually seeing the object.
Clearly seeing, touching, and feeling the actual objects enables me to memorize the words.
Although there are pictures for the vocabulary in the textbook, you cant see the side or
back of that object from a flat image. (C5)
Seeing the real objects helps memorizing it. Helping teammates to pronounce the word
when we check with the instructor to get the next clue also helps with my own learning.
(B3)
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 403

I can better memorize these words because they are important, needed, and widely seen
in my daily life. (A2)
Hearing the pronunciation of that word from the tablet helps me pronounce and
memorize the word. (C4)

From interviewees viewpoint, it can be concluded that seeing the authentic object
in front of them, nding relevance in the vocabulary, helping teamwork by teaching
them, and hearing the pronunciation enabled them to fully understand and retain the
word.

23.4.5.3 Satisfaction

Interviews expressed the fun and effectiveness of such learning method satised
them, because they nd it interesting and useful. However, there were some
technical problems that unsatised one of the interviewees:
I encountered problem like failing to detect the object, problems with saving the screenshot
and having the camera to focus. These made me upset because I really wanted to nd all of
the assigned items. (C5)

The technical problems need to be solved in order to provide learners with a more
pleasant, effective learning experience.

23.4.5.4 Condence

Interviewees gained condence from knowing they could fully memorize the
words:
I felt condent when I knew I would not forget these words for a while. (A2)

Condence may be derived from the abovementioned effectiveness and satisfaction

of the learning activity. In other words, all four factors, fun, effectiveness, satis-
faction, and condence are all correlated. For example, fun of the activity motivated
learners to give it a try; while trying, they found it to be an effective way of
acquiring vocabulary. Satisfaction and condence were then subsequently
enhanced.

23.5 Conclusion

23.5.1 Summary and Discussion of Major Findings

The researcher rst investigates the rst independent variable, learning styles,
examining whether there is a signicant difference between FI and FD learners in
learning outcome and learning motivation while the proposed mobile AR English
404 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

vocabulary instruction was applied. The second part of the results probes into the
other independent variable, English prociency, divided into two groups, high/low
English prociency levels, and examines whether learners initial English pro-
ciency has an impact on their learning outcome and learning motivation while the
proposed mobile AR English vocabulary instruction was applied.
There was a signicant difference in FI and FDs learning outcome. Both FI and
FD learners improved greatly after the instruction. However, FD learners appear to
benet a lot more than FI learners when this mobile AR instruction was applied.
The result showing FD learners benetting more from the mobile AR instruction
which allowed learners to learn in an authentic context is consistent with what
Chapelle and Roberts (1986), Brown (1987) and Wyss (2002) suggested that FD
learners tend to learn language through contextualized practice and achieve greater
success beyond the constraints of traditional teaching method in the classroom. The
results also debunked the claims that the signicant positive correlations are always
in favor of FI learners (Drnyei and Skehan 2003). Instead, FD learners can be the
signicant positive correlations given an instructional approach that relates to their
learning style.
The results showed that there was no signicant difference between FI and FD
learners in learning motivation after the learning activity. That is, it can be con-
cluded that both FI and FD learners found this mobile AR learning activity to be
motivating at a similar level, which proves the ndings of Ogata and Yano (2004)
that when vocabulary learning is associated with authentic objects and context,
learning interest, and engagement are then increased.
There was a borderline signicant difference in high and low English prociency
learners learning outcome, showing high English prociency benets slightly more
than low English prociency learners while the mobile AR instruction was applied.
In other words, students of high English prociency did statistically outperform
those who have lower initial English prociency after removing the effect of
covariance. However, low English prociency learners showed signicant
improvement in scores after the proposed mobile AR instruction. It can be inferred
that a learning method that incorporates context-awareness into daily life with the
help of augmented reality and mobile devices may be an effective way for lower
English prociency learners to acquire L2 vocabulary, as it is more related to the
learner, enabling learners to nd relevance in learning and at the same time pro-
viding them with hands-on understanding of the vocabulary by actually seeing and
feeling it. Aside from the possibility of high relevance and hands-on learning
experience offered by the proposed learning method, learning motivation may be
another critical key that leads to ideal learning performance, especially for those
lower English prociency learners, who have more difculties nding motivation in
a subject which they are already poor at. As one interviewee who has lower English
prociency learner suggested, being able to use tablets in learning enhanced his
motivation in English learning, which he used to have no interest and condence in,
and in turn showing an improved learning result.
The results further showed that there was no signicant difference between high
and low English prociency learners in learning motivation after the learning
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 405

activity. In other words, both high and low English prociency learners share more
or less the same perception concerning learning motivation, which echoes with the
ndings of August et al. (2005) that the use of technology in vocabulary learning
can generally provide learners with incentives, and thus be motivated regardless of
learners individual differences.

23.5.2 Pedagogical Implications

This study aims to investigate whether individual differences, learning styles, and
English prociency make a difference when receiving the proposed
mobile-facilitated augmented reality instruction for English vocabulary learning.
The present study would like to shed light on the relations between individual
difference and the mobile AR instruction. So the two main pedagogical implications
of this study are as follow.
To begin with, teacher should fully recognize students individual differences,
such as their learning styles and prior knowledge. Learning styles can be easily
revealed, in the present study, by taking a Group Embedded Figures Test that takes
no longer than 20 minutes. After getting the information of students learning
styles, it is important to learn the difference of each learning style and come up with
appropriate instructional methods. Students prior knowledge should also be paid
careful attention to, since students at different level may benet from different
instruction. From the results of the present study, students of lower achievement are
more likely to benet from an instructional approach that learners nd related to
and one that enhances motivation and condence in learning; while FD learners on
the other hand, may also perform outstandingly in a contextualized learning envi-
ronment like this, rather than in the traditional classroom learning which involved
more analysis, attention to details and mastering in exercises such as tracking
grammatical correctness, acquiring linguistic rules, and taking classroom-oriented
language tests like cloze tests.
Second, the idea of using mobile devices as a learning tool is fully appreciated
by elementary school students, where they nd enormous learning interest and
motivation. As mobile devices usage and ownership have reached a new peak
among students, there is great potential in mobile learning. With the help of
technology such as augmented reality, learning can then take place everywhere, at
any time, beyond the constraints of traditional classrooms. If mobile devices are
well used in educational context, students common belief that mobile devices are
only for recreational purposes can be reversed. Instructors should also ponder how
mobile learning can be taken advantages of inside the classroom and outside of the
classroom, balancing formal and informal learning to the upmost.
In general, instructors should be aware of individual difference, come up with
appropriate instruction that benets students of different characters, and always
welcome the idea of incorporating new concepts and technology into instruction.
406 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

23.5.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions

for Future Research

Several limitations have been found in the process of the research, including small
sample size, time constraint, limited teaching material, and constrained learning
environment. Some suggestions for future studies are also brought out within the
limitations.
First, limitations from this study mainly stem from its scope, which is the size
and composition of the sample population, and lack of a control group, in particular.
The present study involved only 52 third-grade students in elementary school. It
would be inappropriate to generalize the results of the study and jump to a con-
clusion that the effectiveness of a mobile AR instruction applies to every student
and that it successfully leads to students improvement. There is a need for future
empirical studies with a larger and more varied sample to clarify the present
ndings and investigate the relationship between individual differences and such
learning approach. What is more, as this study applied random grouping arrange-
ments, it is recommended that future studies look into the effects of different
grouping methods, for example, heterogeneous or homogeneous, on the effective-
ness of learning among different students.
Second, the time which the mobile AR instruction was carried out was not
enough to ensure there is a steady improvement in English vocabulary acquisition.
And when any technology is introduced in an educational context, there is always a
problem with a novelty effect; implying students tend to get more motivated in the
beginning as it is something new to them. However, as students get used to such
innovative instruction, the novelty might wear off. Thus, it is recommended that
future studies on education incorporated with new technology should include more
longitudinal research to examine the effectiveness of learning and its relationship
with individual differences.
Third, the target words in the present study consist of only ten vocabularies,
which is about the amount students learn from one unit in their formal English
classes. It would be more desirable if the number of target words increase. If so, the
time for test and burden of the students should also be considered.
Fourth, learning was still constrained in a classroom setting due to practical
matters and safety issues. Although the classroom setting counts as an authentic
context, the effectiveness of learning English vocabulary outside of the classroom
setting should also be investigated in future studies. As there is great potential in the
present instructional approach to be utilized in self and informal learning, which
learning mostly occurs outside of the classroom setting.

Acknowledgments This paper is dedicated to Dr. Chien-Hwa Wang, Dr. Huey-Kang Sytwu, Dr.
Shuh-Jen Sheu, the Sytwu brothers, and Hegel Tsai, who helped and guided me all the way.
23 An Investigation of the Effects of Individual Differences 407

Appendix A: Motivation Questionnaire

408 T.-A. Sytwu and C.-H. Wang

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Author Biographies

Tong-Ann Sytwu Recently received her masters degree from the Department of Graphic Arts and
Communications, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. She majored in English as an
undergraduate, during which she developed great interest in communication technology and
benetted greatly herself from technology-supported self learning. Subsequently, Sytwu combined
her training and personal interest, and strived to construct an effective formula for English
language learning through the benet of technology. Currently ghting nasty autoimmune
diseases, and shes going to win the battle.

Chien-Hwa Wang Professor at the department of Graphic Arts and Communications, National
Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan. Wang researches into the application of communication
technology in educational settings, currently probing into the effects of mobile-based augmented
reality on learning of different disciplines.
 Part VI
Future Developments
Chapter 24
Future Directions in Mobile Learning

Mark Pegrum

Abstract The shape of mobile learning (m-learning) depends very much on the
complex cultural, social, political, economic and, above all, educational ecologies
in which mobile technologies are embedded. Focusing primarily on the developed
world, this chapter begins by surveying our contemporary technological context,
highlighting new forms of hardware and emerging patterns of usage. It then turns to
our contemporary educational context, outlining seven major trendstowards
contextualisation, personalisation and diversication of learning; towards student
support, engagement and creativity; and towards wider collaborationwhich
reflect aspects of the broader cultural, social, political and economic landscape. It is
suggested that the future of digital learning generally, and m-learning in particular,
will take shape at the point where ongoing technological developments intersect
with ongoing educational trends.

24.1 Introduction

In any discussion of the future of m-learning, we must take into consideration the
larger cultural, social, political, economic and educational ecologies in which
mobile technologies, like all technologies, are embedded (Selwyn 2014;
Warschauer 2011). In particular, we must consider dominant educational trends,
since these will play a major role in determining which current and future tech-
nologies will nd their way into education, and how they will or will not be
deployed. In exploring this territory in this chapter, we will focus primarily on the
developed world: while m-learning has extensive applications in the developing
world, where it serves to increase educational access in line with a social justice
agenda (GSMA 2010; UNESCO 2013), cutting-edge technologies and new edu-
cational strategies typically emerge from the developed world.

M. Pegrum (&)
The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia
e-mail: mark.pegrum@uwa.edu.au

Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 413

D. Churchill et al. (eds.), Mobile Learning Design, Lecture Notes
in Educational Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0027-0_24
414 M. Pegrum

After sketching out a denition of m-learning, we will survey todays techno-

logical context, with its growing mobile ecosystem nestled within a larger digital
ecosystem, and consider innovations in the form of new hardware and emerging
patterns of technology usage. We will then turn to the educational context, pin-
pointing seven contemporary educational trends, and considering how each inter-
sects with new technological developments. Specically, we will focus on
educational shifts towards: contextualisation of learning (enabled, notably, through
augmented reality), personalisation of learning (through big data and learning
analytics), diversication of learning (through Massive Open Online Courses, or
MOOCs), student support (through virtual assistants), student engagement (through
gaming and gamication), student creativity (through makerspaces), and wider
collaboration (through digital networking).
Ultimately, it is in the space where ongoing technological developments inter-
sect with ongoing educational trends that the future of m-learning will take shape.
Yet because unexpected technological developments may arise, and because the
educational landscape, like the wider social, cultural, political and economic
landscape, is a partially contested, evolving terrain, it is impossible to chart the
future with certainty. With this caveat, this chapter extrapolates from current
developments and trends to offer glimpses of a possible future.

24.2 Present and Future Mobile Learning

Mobile learning is of course governed by the principle of mobility, which can apply
variously to the devices, the learners, and the learning experiences. The most
fundamental of these categories is that of the devices since, unless we make mobile
digital devices central to our denition of m-learning, we are obliged to widen it to
include other kinds of learning-on-the-move, such as learning supported by toys or
books (Pegrum 2014, in press b). It has been suggested that the category of mobile
digital devices comprises those which can be used at Point A and Point B, as well as
everywhere in between, without stopping (Puentedura 2012). This conception
makes room for yesterdays personal digital assistants (PDAs) and digital music
players like Apples discontinued iPod, as well as still widely used feature phones;
it makes room for todays multifunctional smart devices, notably smartphones and
tablets, as well as increasingly niche products like digital cameras; and, perhaps
most importantly, it makes room for emerging devices carried on or in the body,
such as wearables and embeddables/implantables, as well as independently or
semi-independently mobile technologies like drones or robots. In light of these
newer developments, we might slightly modify Puenteduras denition to say that
mobile devices are digital devices which can operate (rather than be used) at
Point A, Point B, and continuously everywhere in between.
M-learning, then, would be any learning involving mobile digital devices, as
dened above. Yet if the category of devices is the most important when it comes to
the mobile part of mobile learning, it is not necessarily the most important when it
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 415

comes to the learning part. It is only when the devices and the learners and ideally
the learning experience are all mobile that the full educational potential of mobile
devices can be realised, that is, where their potential to support collaborative,
constructivist learning meets their potential to support situated, embodied learning
in real-world contexts (Pegrum 2014, in press b). It is important to bear in mind this
complex character of m-learning as we consider how it is likely to develop at the
intersection of present and future technological and educational trends.

24.3 The Technological Context

The signs of our shift into a mobile, wireless era are clear. As of late 2014, some
60 % of all internet-connected devices were estimated to be smartphones or tablets,
with some 70 % of all new computing devices running the Android mobile oper-
ating system (Blodget et al. 2014). Over time, internet connectivity and accessibility
will gradually become a reality for the more than 50 % of the worlds population
who currently remain offline; this is thanks to a range of projects like Facebook
Zero, Google Free Zone and Wikipedia Zero; cooperative alliances like the
Facebook-led Internet.org; and experiments in beaming internet access from drones,
as in Facebooks Aquila project, or balloons, as in Googles Project Loon. Yet for
the foreseeable future the developed world will remain far ahead in terms of speed
and bandwidth, and is thus likely to originate most new technological and related
educational developments.
As the educational potential of smart devices is becoming more widely recog-
nised in the developed world, we are seeing a shift towards Bring Your Own
Device (BYOD) approaches and, particularly in Western institutions which pro-
mote student autonomy, technology-supported flipped classroom approaches
(Johnson et al. 2015). Teachers and students have been working with educational
apps (Oakley et al. 2012)despite some concerns over their pedagogical limita-
tions (Gardner and Davies 2013; Pegrum 2014)as well as exploring the value of
social media for facilitating multimodal communication and constructivist net-
working, of MOOCs for opening up access to diverse educational content and
learning communities, of gaming platforms for engaging attention and reinforcing
learning, and of new learning spaces for supporting blended educational
interactions.
But m-learning is not all about phones and tablets: the mobile ecosystem is
rapidly becoming larger and more diverse, as older devices mix with emerging
devices that heighten the power of mobility. Leading the new category of wear-
ables, most of which do not currently function as standalone tools but rather sync
by Bluetooth to accompanying smart devices, are two device types: increasingly
popular tness trackers, often in the form of digital wristbands, which encourage
users to make interventions in their lifestyles on the basis of tracked patterns of
activity and sleep, visualised through mobile apps; and multipurpose smartwatches,
which display notications, messages and information, control other digital devices,
416 M. Pegrum

and double as tness trackers. Smart clothing, such as sensor-imbued shirts, socks
or shoes, has to date been used largely to improve sporting performance, though
wider applications may be in the pipeline, such as clothing that detects and responds
to a users mood (Bryner 2010).
Additionally in this category we nd smart glasses. As distinct from virtual
reality (VR) headsets, which provide an immersive experience of a fully simulated
environment, smart glasses are augmented reality (AR) tools that superimpose
digital information and communication channels on our existing view of the real
world. The rst publicly available product, Google Glass, carries a small screen
mounted above the users right eye which serves as an information display and a
recording and communication interface synced to a smart device. Although, in the
wake of limited commercial success, Google has halted sales to individuals and
begun redevelopment work (Barr 2015), the device has already started to nd a role
in medical and other educational programmes (Johnson et al. 2015; Open Colleges,
n.d. b). Microsofts new HoloLens goggles, while bulkier, contain a small Windows
10 computer and appear to offer a more integrated AR approach where digital
information will be literally overlaid on our view of our surroundings (Lee 2015). It
is likely, however, that AR glasses and headsets are only the rst stage on the road
to smart contact lenses (Carmigniani and Furht 2011; Scoble and Israel 2014).
It is conceivable that multiple wearable devices could be connected into a body
area network or BAN, perhaps co-ordinated through a smartphone (Woodill
2015). A set of wearables that enable on-time, in-place access to digital informa-
tion, communication channels and recording options, most likely controlled through
an AR interface, has the potential to support many kinds of situated, embedded,
embodied learning (Delgado 2014; Johnson et al. 2015), including just-in-time
workplace learning (Baty 2014), and moreover to support those with special needs
(ELI 2013c).
It has been suggested that the long-term survival for the keyboard, mouse and
monitor suddenly seems precarious (Lee 2015), due largely to the rise of natural
user interfaces, which have proven to be intuitive for young children and accessible
for many users with disabilities (Johnson et al. 2012; Kukulska-Hulme 2010).
These may involve touch recognition, like the ubiquitous swiping and pinching
motions used on todays touchscreens. They may involve gesture recognition, as
seen in Microsofts Kinect or the Leap Motion controller, enabling 3D input that
involves users in the computing activity (ELI 2014b), with likely implications for
situated learning, notably in combination with AR (ibid.). Or they may involve
voice recognition, as seen in virtual assistants like Apples Siri, Google Now, or the
open source Sirius (Hauswald et al. 2015), which represent early examples of a
conversational user interface (Kaplan 2013) that facilitates our interaction with
digital data.
Much like AR glasses, such input mechanisms may be temporary stopping
points on a longer journey towards more intimate humanmachine interaction.
Biometrics like ngerprint or iris scanning can already be used to unlock digital
devices. Research is underway on braincomputer interfaces (Pegrum 2014; Scoble
and Israel 2014), with applications ranging from neurogaming to supporting those
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 417

with special needs, for instance through devices like the Indian brainphone which
allows users to navigate the web via brainwaves (Trivedi 2013). At the same time as
input mechanisms are becoming more natural, so too are output mechanisms, as
seen in the automated translations enabled by Google Translate or Microsofts
Skype (Orsini 2015), or indeed a recent Microsoft technology which can synthesise
a speakers voice translated into a foreign language he or she has never learned
(Microsoft Research, n.d.). Work is also proceeding on new devices which will
simulate smell and taste (Woodill and Udell 2015).
It is likely that the human body will be the next computer interface (Goodman
and Righetto 2013), a trend whose beginnings we can observe in todays
gesture-based computing and in emerging hardware like smart contact lenses. Yet we
can, and will, go much further in the embodiment of mobile devices (Woodill 2015,
Kindle location 2255). In time, what we might call embeddables or implantables will
nd their way both onto and under the skin, leading us into the territory of human
machine cyborgs. Early experiments include Motorolas passcode tattoo and an
indigestible pill which, activated by stomach acids, effectively turns the body into a
passcode transmitter (Gannes 2013), thus taking the idea of a BAN to a whole new
level. Going beyond todays retinal and cochlear implantsarguably early cyborg
technologieshumans could conceivably one day hear ultrasonic sounds or see
ultraviolet light (Kaku 2014). There is speculation, too, about where brain implants
might lead (Open Colleges, n.d., a); Googles Sergey Brin has suggested: Perhaps in
the future, we can attach a little version of Google that you just plug into your brain
(cited in Carr 2008, p. 213). Meanwhile, research in nanotechnology is opening up
the possibility of nanobots swimming through the bloodstream; futurists imagine
that these tiny robots might eventually move beyond their envisaged medical and
health applications and interact with neurons to extend human intelligence (Kurzweil
2013). Whatever the exact development trajectory of this technology as it extends
into the far future, it seems that its immediate effect will be to further expand and
blend the concepts of mobility and ubiquity of computing, thereby boosting the
potential for situated, digitally enhanced learning already seen in todays wearables.
While the mobility of all the above devices depends on human wearers or
carriers, we are also beginning to see the appearance of independently or semi-
independently mobile technologies. These include connected cars with dashboards
of apps projected from a synced smartphone using software like Apples CarPlay or
Googles Android Auto; but, like wearables, more and more cars will be manu-
factured with embedded connections which link them directly to the internet.
Connected cars will in time give way to the fully autonomous self-driving cars
being developed by technology companies like Google and Uber as well as car
manufacturers like Ford. Here, the initial self-study possibilities inherent in an
in-car app dashboard will explode into a plethora of informational and communi-
cational resources available to drivers who no longer have to focus on the road.
More direct educational applications are evident with camera- and
sensor-carrying drones, which may be controlled by humans via mobile devices or
may be programmed to fly autonomously. As they gradually move out of the
418 M. Pegrum

shadow of their military origins, these helicopter-like machines are nding their
way into areas like surveying and mapping; remote viewing of difcult-to-access
terrain, flora and fauna; news-gathering; and even the lming of movies or creation
of digital stories (ELI 2015).
Telepresence robotswhich for now are controlled remotely through smart
devices but may in the future allow gesture-based control, and which for now are
grounded but in the future might fly like dronespermit distant teachers to show
their faces on a screen on the robots head, to view and move around a local space,
and to engage in an embodied manner with participants in that space (ELI 2013b).
Meanwhile, semi-independent robotic language teaching assistants have already
found their way into Asian classrooms, where they can interact in simple ways with
students (Han 2012; Pegrum 2014). Ongoing research into affective technologies (as
in MITs Personal Robots project at www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/personal-
robots) and, more broadly, empathic systems (as in the EUs Empathic Products
project at www.empathic.eu) is leading to robots and systems capable of evaluating
human emotions and reacting appropriately, allowing a more organic relationship
(Isaas 2014) between humans and our (mobile) technologies.
As noted earlier, the mobile ecosystem is part of a larger hardware ecosystem.
Indeed, the power of mobile technologies derives in part from their capacity to
connect easily to more stationary devices, like desktop and laptop computers which
offer superior computing power and enhanced input options; data projectors and
smart TVs which facilitate sharing and collaboration via large displays; emerging 3D
printers, which foster a 3D literacy linked to novel approaches to design thinking
(Thompson 2013); and even 4D printers, which will produce objects that mutate over
time (Marks 2013), fostering further sophisticated digital literacy skills. But even
more than this, the power of mobiles derives from their connection to the network of
devices, sensors and beacons that make up the evolving internet of things:

The Internet of Things, or IoT, represents a major departure in the history of the Internet. The
Internet is moving beyond the rectangular connes of smartphones and tablets and helping to
power billions of everyday devices, from parking meters to home thermostats. (Rubin 2013,
p. 2)

The use of low-power sensors and transmitters is permitting growing numbers of

everyday devices to become smart, collecting and sharing data with each other
and with us, often via smartphone apps that can be used for data visualisation as
well as device management. Wearable, embeddable or implantable devices can
hook into this same communicational network, as can independently or
semi-independently mobile technologies like smart cars, drones or robots. Indeed,
extending beyond the internet of things, we are arguably seeing the advent of an
internet of everything:

It is no longer far-fetched to envision a world where all people, objects and devices are
connected to act in concert, regardless of brand or vendor. This idea is also known as The
Internet of Everything (IoE), which is comprised of machine-to-machine (M2M),
machine-to-person, and person-to-person networked technologies. (Johnson et al. 2015,
p. 46)
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 419

By weaving our mobile and stationary devices together, the IoT (or IoE) amplies
the educational potential inherent in individual devices. Considerable implications
follow from our devices capacity to receive or retrieve detailed localised data from
objects in our real-world environments, possibly displayed in AR interfaces. In this
way they can support hypersituation, where learning is informed by a host of
interdisciplinary information that is pushed to [us] from [our] surroundings
(Johnson et al. 2015, p. 47), or indeed pulled by us from those surroundings.
Similarly, considerable implications follow from our growing ability to generate,
collect, access and analyse networked, up-to-the-minute big data
(Mayer-Schnberger and Cukier 2013). Mobile apps already display our quantied
selves, based on the tracking, evaluation and visualisation of our health, tness and
sleep patterns (Feinleib 2013; Mayer-Schnberger and Cukier 2013). These
quantied selves will increasingly intersect with learning analytics (Johnson et al.
2014), where our learning patterns are analysed to predict our future successes and
challenges (US Dept of Education 2012). As time goes on, our devices will provide
us with even more tailored answers to our questions, along with even more tailored
advice which we have not yet thought to request.
As our machines increasingly offer what appears to be intelligent advice,
delivered in what appears to be the right emotional tone, we might feel we are
witnessing the birth of articial intelligence (AI). But this is at best weak AI, where
machines simulate thinking in a narrowly dened area, often based largely on the
rapid processing of big data, rather than strong AI, where machines actually think
(Russell and Norvig 2010). This may change: in todays AI research there is a new
interest in biological models and processes as well as the role of emotions and
embodiment in shaping intelligence (Kaku 2014; Warwick 2012), and there is
speculation on the eventual merging of human and technological intelligence in
more fundamental ways than via implants (Kaku 2014; Kurzweil 2013; Warwick
2012). The consequences of such distant developments are difcult to anticipate
from our current standpoint, though it is probable that along the way we will learn a
great deal more about learning itself. In the meantime, it is important to keep a
critical eye on these, and all, new technological developments, remembering that
todays immediate concerns around privacy, surveillance and security
(Mayer-Schnberger and Cukier 2013; Schneier 2015) are likely to be heightened
by tomorrows concerns around the control of AI and robots (Kaku 2014; Russell
and Norvig 2010).

24.4 The Educational Context

In the foregoing account of our technological context, we have begun to sketch out
the educational potential of new and emerging technological developments. But the
realisation of that potential depends on whether, and how, these developments t
with todays major educational trends. We will turn now to these trends, seeking an
420 M. Pegrum

example of the technological developments that might be enlisted to support each

trend. Neither the list of educational trends, nor the list of supporting technologies,
is exhaustive. Rather, they serve as pointers to the possible shape of future
m-learning at the intersection of technology and pedagogy.

24.4.1 Contextualisation of Learning (E.G., Through

Augmented Reality)

Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on contextualised learning, that is,
learning which occurs in contexts as similar as possible to real-world contexts, and
ideally in the actual real-world contexts themselves where the learning applies.
Unlike desktop devices that operate in their own little world, mobile devices
operate in the world (Traxler 2010, p. 5, italics in original), meaning that
m-learning reverses the move away from the real world inherent in much
e-learning, and opens up the possibility of situated learning (Lave and Wenger
1991) and indeed embodied learning (Lipson Lawrence 2012) in everyday sur-
roundings. Mobile devices can thus help break down the walls between the
classroom and the world, thereby alleviating the problem of transfer distance, that
is, the need to transfer learning across the gap between formal learning contexts and
everyday contexts.
There is little doubt that todays smart devices permit ubiquitous learning or u-
learning (Milrad et al. 2013), provided we treat them not as screens but as lenses:

The mobile device as a lens rather than a screen is a critical design metaphor it is critical
that designers do not create experiences where the technology becomes a barrier to the
environment. Rather the technology needs to drive the students deeper into the authentic
observation and interaction with the environment and with each other (Dunleavy 2014,
p. 32)

Here, an appropriate AR interface could mediate between the digital and the real,
immersing us in a ubiquitous, omnipresent mixed reality where digital material is
directly overlaid on our view of the real world. In other words, AR could offer us a
magnifying lens rather than an impermeable screen (even if, pending fuller
development of AR wearables, the lens will be displayed for now on a mobile
screen) to support and enhance situated, embodied learning.
Within the classroom, mixed reality technologies already offer students simu-
lated environments with which they can physically interact (Lindgren and
Johnson-Glenberg 2013). But the greatest promise may lie outside the classroom:
on the AR Heritage Trails in Singapore, students learn about their citys history in
surroundings whose signicance is unlocked by digital overlays (Pegrum 2014); on
the AR TIEs (Trails of Integrity and Ethics) in Hong Kong, students engage with
ethical issues in the everyday university settings where they may arise (Chow et al.
2015); and in the MASELTOV project in Europe, a dashboard app provides stu-
dents with context-aware language learning recommendations (Gaved et al. 2014).
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 421

Indeed, with the support of mobile, and ideally AR, technologies, students can turn
any real-world context of their choice into a user-generated learning context (Cook
2010). While early educational forays into this area augur well for the future, we
must bear in mind that challenges may arise for students in disentangling the real
from its representations, and for teachers in deciding how best to guide, track and
evaluate learning which ebbs and flows between the virtual and the real.

24.4.2 Personalisation of Learning (E.G., Through Big

Data and Learning Analytics)

Much is heard nowadays about the personalisation of learning. This may be

achieved in multiple, overlapping ways: for instance through BYOD approaches
where students use individually customised hardware (Pegrum 2014), through
flipped approaches which enhance student control over information delivery
(Johnson et al. 2015), or through user-generated learning contexts which students
create in their own everyday environments, as described above. Digital, including
mobile, technologies also lend themselves to the differentiation of learning to suit
varying student needs.
Such differentiation is now becoming possible at a large scale through the use of
big data subjected to learning analytics. After collecting and analysing past per-
formance data, an adaptive learning system can decide what and how to teach a
student next (Feinleib 2013; Waters 2014), so that each student may see a different,
tailored version of an online course (Johnson et al. 2014), with an early warning
system serving to identify at-risk students (Aljohani and Davis 2012; de Freitas
et al. 2014). Ideally, students should have access to an open learner dashboard, or
personal dashboard (Aljohani and Davis 2012), which displays an overview of
their learning journey, their strengths, and their challenges. On the basis of group
performance, course design as a whole may be adapted automatically, or adapted by
teachers operating as informed learning designers (Feinleib 2013; Johnson et al.
2015; Mor et al. 2015). Because we carry our mobile devices with us at all times,
they can gather far more data about us than our desktop or even laptop computers,
especially in terms of our quantied selves. As briefly noted earlier, new insights
are sure to emerge at the intersection of the quantied self and learning analytics,
highlighting the link between lifestyles and learning outcomes (de Freitas et al.
2014; Johnson et al. 2014).
Explorations are underway in this space by private companies such as Knewton,
for-prot universities like the University of Phoenix (with its patented Adaptive
Activity Stream), public universities like the University of Michigan (with its
GradeCraft learning management system) and, increasingly, private-public hybrids
like Smart Sparrow (spun off from the University of New South Wales) and ven-
tures like the ongoing collaboration between Arizona State University, Knewton
and Pearson (Johnson et al. 2015; Waters 2014). There would seem to be potential
422 M. Pegrum

for strengthening engagement by gamifying both the quantied self, notwith-

standing certain risks (Whitson 2013), and adaptive learning systems, as seen in
GradeCraft, which may open up future avenues of research. Important questions,
however, remain about the accuracy and limitations of big data (boyd and Crawford
2012; note that danah boyd does not capitalise her name), the level of data literacy
required of those who interpret it (Pegrum, in press a), and its privacy and
surveillance implications (Mayer-Schnberger and Cukier 2013).

24.4.3 Diversication of Learning (E.G., Through MOOCs)

Diversication of learning correlates to some extent with personalisation of

learning, in the sense that greater diversity opens up scope for greater personali-
sation. This can be seen for example in the growing diversication of hardware
through BYOD, of courses through learning analytics, and of learning environ-
ments through user-generated contexts. The spread of MOOCs can also support the
diversication of learning on a mass scale. Of course, MOOCs have been plagued
with bad press: not unlike some rst-generation e-learning innovations, many
MOOCs simply wrap up old pedagogies in new technologies; most have startlingly
low completion rates of between 5 and 16 % (Johnson et al. 2014); and nearly all
appeal only to an educated elite rather than the once hoped-for broader demo-
graphic. On the other hand, there are MOOCs, sometimes called cMOOCs, which
hold to the original connectivist ideal of autonomous, flexible, networked learning
shaped by students interests, in contrast with cognitivistbehaviourist xMOOCs
whose instructor-determined videos, quizzes and discussion forums mirror more
standard online courses (Hew 2014; Margaryan et al. 2015). At least within the
boundaries of an upper secondary- and tertiary-educated demographic, MOOCs
offer access to a wide range of content and teachers (especially, though not only, in
the case of xMOOCs) and peers and learning communities (especially, though not
only, in the case of cMOOCs). Once accreditation issues are settled, MOOCs may
prove especially useful in diversifying flipped approaches (Hew 2014).
There is something of a trend towards MOOCs about mobile learning as well as
a trend towards MOOCs intended to be accessible through mobile devices, with the
latter sometimes called mMOOCs (de Waard 2013). These trends are seen for
instance in the 2011 and 2012 mobiMOOC (mobimooc.wikispaces.com); the 2013
#IDML13 (Instructional Design for Mobile Learning; facultyecommons.org/
instructional-design-for-mobile-learning-idml13-2/); and the 2015 #MOSOMELT
(MObile SOcial MEdia Learning Technologies; mosomelt.wordpress.com). While
only the last of these explicitly badges itself as a cMOOC, all have a connectivist
orientation. mMOOCs which are simultaneously cMOOCs capitalise on the
capacity of todays chief networking tool, mobile devices, to support networked
learning, while mMOOCs in general facilitate contextualised learning in our
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 423

everyday surroundings and personalised learning on our own devices. As such,

mMOOCs are a step forward in realizing an m-learning format that ts the con-
temporary and future needs of education in this knowledge era (de Waard 2013,
p. 360).
In the European 3D World MOOC project, empathic technologies are being built
into a virtual world-based MOOC with the aim of better immersing and supporting
students in the learning process (Isaas 2014). While there is still much research to
be done, we might ask whether there is future potential in the merging of empathic
systems with mMOOCs that take the real world as their learning context. But before
tackling such questions, we may need to address more basic concerns about the role
of MOOCs in fostering a postmodern, even neoliberal, marketplace of learning,
linked to the unbundling of todays educational institutions (Barber et al. 2013), and
conceivably threatening the conceptual coherence of traditional qualications.

24.4.4 Student Support (E.G., Through Virtual Assistants)

In an era of mass education, techniques for contextualising, personalising and

diversifying learning at scale are of great importance. These processes can be
reinforced by providing individualised support to studentsnot necessarily human
support, which is difcult to scale, but the automated support of virtual assistants.
Such virtual assistants depend on a convergence of three technological trends:
conversational user interfaces, personal context awareness, and service delegation
(Johnson et al. 2014). Conversational user interfaces, part of the trend towards
natural user interfaces, allow us to interact with virtual assistants much as we would
with human assistants. Personal context awareness involves understanding patterns
in each individuals manner of speaking, but also ties into a broader analysis of big
data: The most advanced versions of this software actually track user preferences
and patterns so they can adapt over time to be more helpful to the individual (ibid.,
p. 46). Service delegation entails virtual assistants accessing and managing our
collections of apps.
In time, we may see virtual assistants that can tailor AR displays to our needs at
a given moment, and guide us through adaptive learning experiences based on
patterns they have extracted at the point where our quantied selves intersect with
our learning analytics trails. Meanwhile, empathic technologies and AI may make
our assistants seem ever more lifelike and ever more intelligent. Yet as Scoble and
Israel (2014) remind us in a broader discussion of big data: The marvels of the
contextual age are based on a tradeoff: the more the technology knows about you,
the more benets you will receive (Kindle location 225). Convenience and privacy
are thus negatively correlated and, in observing the evolution of our apparently
obsequious helpers, we should bear in mind the dangers of surveillance, the limi-
tations of big data, and even the risks of AI which may slip out of our control.
424 M. Pegrum

24.4.5 Student Engagement (E.G., Through Gaming

and Gamication)

Just as educational institutions are seeking to bolster student support, so too are they
seeking to promote student engagement. In this respect, digital gaming would seem
to hold some promise. First, complex multiplayer games (as opposed to beha-
viourist drills or quizzes dressed up as games) are pedagogically rich (Klopfer
2008, Kindle location 22) spaces that involve critical thinking and creativity,
negotiation of meaning and collaborative problem-solving (Gee 2007; Pegrum
2014); and they provide a clear learning structure incorporating reasons, goals,
assessment criteria and potential rewards for all activities undertaken (Hoyle 2012).
Second, games are highly motivating (ELI 2014a; Klopfer 2008) as players engage
in intensive learning to accomplish in-game tasks. While lacking the full impact of
gaming, gamicationessentially the process of using gaming elements like
badges, levels and leaderboards to shape or reshape educational activitiescan also
offer motivational benets (Johnson et al. 2014), as seen for example in the
aforementioned GradeCraft (ELI 2014a).
We are now seeing a major shift towards mobile gaming. This can just mean
app-based games played on small screens rather than big screens. But of much more
interest is the use of networked, context-sensitive devices to engage in AR games
played in real-world settings annotated with digital information (Klopfer 2008;
Pegrum 2014). Early explorations are promising: in the US Alien Contact! game,
teams of students moved around their school grounds using GPS-enabled mobile
devices to seek clues and develop an explanation as to why aliens had landed on
earth (Dunleavy et al. 2009; Potter 2011); in Mentira, a US game for learners of
Spanish, teams equipped with iPhones or iPod Touches seek clues to a historical
murder mystery, which includes navigating a local Spanish-speaking neighbour-
hood (Holden and Sykes 2011; Pegrum 2014); and the MASELTOV app, discussed
above, incorporates a competitive gaming element based on learners real-world
target language conversations (ibid.). As AR interfaces continue to improve in
conjunction with wearables and embeddables, more and more situated learning
options will open up, with Googles Ingress game (www.ingress.com) hinting at
future possibilities. But educators will need to ensure that gamied learning is
designed in line with sound pedagogical principles so that gaming does not over-
take or trivialise learning.

24.4.6 Student Creativity (E.G., Through Makerspaces)

Much attention is currently focused on students development of creativity and

related 21st century skills (Khan 2012; Robinson 2011), in line with perceived
national and international needs for innovative political leadership and entrepre-
neurial economic leadership. This notion is gaining considerable traction in Asia,
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 425

where creativity is increasingly viewed as an essential complement to education

systems which have traditionally produced strong performances on standardised
international tests (Barber et al. 2012; Zhao 2012). One means of fostering cre-
ativity involves linking BYOD approaches with new learning spaces whose layouts
and furnishings are crafted to support different kinds of learning, underpinned by
different kinds of interactions, supported by students own chosen mobile devices,
and situated within an inviting, inspiring dcor.
Among the new learning spaces emerging on campuses and in libraries are
makerspaces (ELI 2013a; Johnson et al. 2014) equipped with a range of craft tools
and digital toolsthe latter sometimes including devices like 3D printerswhich
students can use as they actively engage in creative, higher-order problem solving
through hands-on design, construction and iteration (Johnson et al. 2015, p. 40).
Makerspaces may also involve fully digital creation, as in the production of digital
stories (ibid.) or the building of apps; indeed, as the Mozilla Webmaker slogan
reminds us with reference to coding, making is learning (Santo 2013). In mak-
erspaces, students work both autonomously and collaboratively, cross disciplinary
boundaries, and expand institutional limits as they focus on innovative approaches
to real-world issues, and become creators rather than consumers (Johnson et al.
2014, p. 7) of knowledge and design. Of course, perennial questions remain about
how creativity is best guided and supported, and how it can be captured and
assessed.

24.4.7 Wider Collaboration (E.G., Through Digital

Networking)

There are great advantages in students learning about real-world issues alongside
the real-world communities which are dealing with those issues. Participatory
pedagogy, often underpinned by a problem-based or inquiry-based design, pro-
motes engaging, hands-on, contextualised learning through which students come to
understand that their learning can, and perhaps should, have an impact on the wider
world (Pegrum, in press a):

At the heart of the idea is to allow students to participate in knowledge-creating activities

around shared objects and to share their efforts with the wider community for further
knowledge building that is a legitimate part of civilization (Scardamalia and Bereiter 2006).
(Vartiainen 2014, p. 109)

Such participation is very much facilitated by the shift towards a network society
(Castells 2013; Rainie and Wellman 2012), where human networking is supported
by digital networking thanks to pervasive social media accessed on mobile devices.
Research shows a correlation between online networking and offline social and
civic engagement (Castells 2013; Thompson 2013). The most dramatic results have
been seen in protest movements like those surrounding the Arab Spring (Castells
2012), though naturally the online/offline nexus is likely to be promoted in more
426 M. Pegrum

low-key ways in educational contexts. Within an appropriate educational design,

digital networking with experts, peers and wider communities via mobile media
allows students to situate their learning within real communities and contexts,
develop their understanding with input from those communities, and share their
emerging insights in the contexts where they might be of benet. Again, as with
creativity, and as with contextualised learning more broadly, questions remain
about how best to capture and assess such learning.

24.5 Conclusion

Mobile hardware and software will continue to proliferate and mutate for the
foreseeable future, but it is likely that much of it will sit within a cluster of ongoing
technological trends, namely towards greater mobility of devices, greater ubiquity
of computing, and more seamless integration of our devices with other devices and
our wider environments. It may also link to subtrends towards smaller sizes (for
wearable and embeddable technologies) and greater independence (for technologies
like drones and robots). The relevance of these developments for education,
however, will depend less on their t with technological trends and more on their t
with ongoing educational trends, notably towards contextualisation, personalisa-
tion, and diversication of learning; towards student support, engagement, and
creativity; and towards wider collaboration.
These educational trends are in turn influenced in complex ways by partially
overlapping and partially conflicting cultural, social, political and economic trends.
With the shift towards a network society comes an upswing in digital networking;
with the shift towards a knowledge economy comes the promotion of transferrable
21st century skills; and with the shift towards neoliberalism comes an emphasis on
marketplace diversication, not to mention personal entrepreneurship. At the same
time the global emphasis on quantication of performance, and the standardised
assessment of education, may t neatly with big data and learning analytics, but it
flies in the face of personalisation, diversication and notoriously difcult-to-assess
21st century skills.
As we noted at the outset, this chapter provides glimpses of a possible future for
digital learning in general and mobile learning in particular. Exactly how the future
plays out will depend on technological developments and, moreover, on how these
t with evolving educationaland cultural, social, political and economictrends.
In attempting to anticipate the future of m-learning, we need to keep an eye on both
technological and educational trends, and ask ourselves constantly how the two are
likely to intersect.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank Pedro Isaas and Julian Stodd for their help with specic
technological queries that arose during the writing of this chapter.
24 Future Directions in Mobile Learning 427

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