Title:	EXPLORING MOBILE AFFORDANCES IN THE DIGITAL CLASSROOM
Author(s):	David Parsons, Herbert Thomas, Jocelyn Wishart
ISBN:	978-989-8533-49-4
Editors:	Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2016
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Mobile learning, affordance, learner activity, curriculum, context of use
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	43
Last Page:	50
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	This article reports on a survey of teachers undertaking a postgraduate applied practice certificate in digital and collaborative learning. The survey was intended to capture how mobile learning was currently being used by the teachers both on the course and in their own classrooms. The objective was to investigate to what extent mobile learning was being used by our teachers, and which particular mobile learning activities were, or were not, being integrated into teaching and learning in their own classrooms. We also wanted to explore how interested the teachers might be in seeing new mobile learning activities embedded within the course. Our results suggested that teachers and their students are frequently engaged in activities that utilize mobile learning affordances, but that these activities focus on simple, supplementary activities such as taking photographs and making videos. However, our results also indicate that there was significant interest among our teachers to explore more sophisticated mobile learning activities such as outdoor discovery activities. One conclusion we might draw from this study is that, despite many years of research into mobile learning and how it can be used both inside and outside the classroom, teachers need to be explicitly guided and supported to adopt these approaches in their schools. The feedback from this survey will be used to help to develop the course curriculum to integrate new elements of mobile learning.
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