Designing for mobile learning in higher education

• AbstractThis paper deals with the problem of designing for participation in mobile learning. Particularly it discusses how such participation could be designed into higher educational settings. As society is increasingly dependent on mobile technological solutions, higher education needs to be prepared for changing behaviors in terms of increasingly emerging mobile communication patterns of students and teachers. Such communicative patterns are increasingly supported by technologies such as smartphones and tablets. Moreover, the number of mobile applications and devices ready to be implemented in educational settings are growing. Since the shift of the new millennium the research field of mobile learning has developed. Results from this field identifies that mobile learning is about learning through communicative actions between people and across different contexts. Personal portable and wireless devices support these communicative actions. The research field has discussed such learning in terms of aspects of physical space, technology, conceptual space, social space, and learning as dispersed over time. However, more research is needed from a Nordic perspective and with a focus on design of educational settings. Therefore, projects that explore models of mobile participation in blended higher education settings are needed. The design of such projects is of strategic value for institutions of higher education that need to be up-to-date with the development within the mobile society. In the paper the design of a development project is used as an example of how such design could be implemented in blended higher education settings. This project secured a wide range of learning about mobile learning in higher education settings by building on research reviews and experiences from teachers that informed their planning, and discussions of trials they performed in their own courses. The project includes trials that were conducted in four different first-cycle programs. These trials included an approach to mobile applications and devices that embraced the deployment of universityowned equipment as well as bring-you-rown-device scenarios. Cumulative features were included in the design of the project with the purpose of informing the performance of features in later stages of the project. Iteration was included to create loops of different features that could help participants recycle and share their experiences. The embracement of different approaches to technologies as well as the cumulative and iterative features of the design offered the opportunity to go beyond the traditional classroom in higher education settings. 

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Educational design

Higher education

Mobile learning

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)