The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students' learning performance: A meta-analysis and research synthesis

AbstractMobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become a learning tool with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning. Although there have been qualitative analyses of the use of mobile devices in education, systematic quantitative analyses of the effects of mobile-integrated education are lacking. This study performed a meta-analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated mobile devices in teaching and learning, in which 110 experimental and quasiexperimental journal articles published during the period 1993–2013 were coded and analyzed. Overall, there was a moderate mean effect size of 0.523 for the application of mobile devices to education. The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed and the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning in different levels of moderator variables were synthesized based on content analyses of individual studies. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed

Developing a SCORM-based U-Learning LMS System

An integrated content and learning management system (LMSs) which has the characteristic of being ubiquitous is the most essential component of U-Learning. However, most modern learning management systems have different architectures, which makes it’s difficult to integrate the numerous learning resources, and reusability is hard to achieve. Otherwise, most learning resources read on mobile platforms are still restricted to electric books or digital learning materials. So, it’s not easy to manage the learning progress and immediately information providing or interactions between learners and instructors are impossible. A research is proposed in this paper to develop a SCORM compliant blended U-Learning LMS system, which emphasizes the content compilation, content packaging and the implement of SCORM run-time environment to have learning materials being reusable and interoperable

Using mobile devices to support online collaborative learning

Mobile collaborative learning is considered the next step of on-line collaborative learning by incorporating mobility as a key and breakthrough requirement. Indeed, the current wide spread of mobile devices and wireless technologies brings an enormous potential to e-learning, in terms of ubiquity, pervasiveness, personalization, flexibility, and so on. For this reason, Mobile Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning has recently grown from a minor research field to significant research projects covering a fairly variety of formal and specially informal learning settings, from schools and universities to workplaces, museums, cities and rural areas. Much of this research has shown how mobile technology can offer new opportunities for groups of learners to collaborate inside and beyond the traditional instructor-oriented educational paradigm. However, mobile technologies, when specifically applied to collaborative learning activities, are still in its infancy and many challenges arise. In addition, current research in this domain points to highly specialized study cases, uses, and experiences in specific educational settings and thus the issues addressed in the literature are found dispersed and disconnected from each other. To this end, this paper attempts to bridge relevant aspects of mobile technologies in support for collaborative learning and provides a tighter view by means of a multidimensional approach.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game

In this paper, we present an educational game for an iPhone and a Tablet PC. The main objective of the game was to reinforce children's knowledge about the water cycle. The game included different interaction forms like the touch screen and the accelerometer and combined AR mini-games with non-AR mini-games for better gameplay immersion. The main differences between the two devices were screen size and weight. A comparative study to check how these differences affect different aspects was carried out. Seventy-nine children from 8 to 10 years old participated in the study. From the results, we observed that the different characteristics (screen size and weight) of the devices did not influence the children's acquired knowledge, engagement, satisfaction, ease of use, or AR experience. There was only a statistically significant difference for the global score in which the iPhone was scored higher.We would like to highlight that the scores for the two devices and for all the questions were very high with means of over 4 (on a scale from 1 to 5). These positive results suggest that games of this kind could be appropriate educational games and that the mobile device used may not be a decisive factor. (C)2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This work was funded by the Spanish APRENDRA project (TIN2009-14319-C02). We would like to thank the following for their contributions: The "Escola d'Estiu" and especially Juan Cano, Miguelon Gimenez, and Javier Irimia. This work would not have been possible without their collaboration. Noemi Rando, Encarna Torres, Severino Gonzalez, M. Jose Vicent, Patricia Liminana, Tamara Aguilar, Alfonso Lopez, Yolanda Martinez, Enrique Daunis, M. Jose Martinez, and Eloy Hurtado for their help. The children's parents who signed the agreement to allow their children to participate in the study. The children who participated in the study. The ETSInf for letting us use its facilities during the testing phase.Furió Ferri, D.; González Gancedo, S.; Juan Lizandra, MC.; Seguí, I.; Costa, M. (2013). The effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game. Computers and Education. 64:24-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.015S24416

K-12 Mobile learning

Mobile devices have been the focus of a push in many nations and internationally as part of efforts to achieve greater literacy and numeracy among students. Research has shown a strong link between Internet usage, the spread of broadband in a country, and its GDP. Those coun - tries that are the highest performing educationally already integrate mobile devices in their education. This paper synthesizes empirical research on mobile devices from 2010 to 2013 in K-12 schools by focusing on studies that demonstrate emerging themes in this area. It is also clear that the pedagogy needed to be successful in creating positive outcomes in the use of technology has to be student-centered with the aim of personalizing the learning experience. Research found that students could become collaborators in designing their own learning process. As students become independent learners, they become more prepared in the skills needed for college and in their careers

ALEX®: a mobile Adult Literacy Experiential Learning application

An alarmingly high number of adults in the world's most developed countries are linguistically functionally illiterate. The research presented in this paper describes ALEX©, an ongoing attempt to successfully develop an innovative assistive, mobile, experiential language-learning application to support the daily literacy education and needs of such adults, anywhere, anytime. We introduce a set of guidelines we have collated to inform the design of mobile assistive technologies, introduce our application and describe the design activities to date that have led to the development of our current application. We present this overview in the hope that it is useful to others working in the fledgling domains of mobile assistive technology design and/or mobile experiential language-learning technologies

Smartphones

Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones

Handheld Augmented Reality in education

[ES] En esta tesis llevamos a cabo una investigación en Realidad Aumentada (AR) orientada a entornos de aprendizaje, donde la interacción con los estudiantes se realiza con dispositivos de mano. A través de tres estudios exploramos las respuestas en el aprendizaje que se pueden obtener usando AR en dispositivos de mano, en un juego que desarrollamos para niños. Exploramos la influencia de AR en Entornos de Aprendizaje de Realidad Virtual (VRLE) y las ventajas que pueden aportar, así como sus límites. También probamos el juego en dos dispositivos de mano distintos (un smartphone y un Tablet PC) y presentamos las conclusiones comparándolos en torno a la satisfación y la interacción. Finalmente, comparamos interfaces táctiles y tangibles en aplicaciones de AR para niños bajo una perspectiva en Interacción Hombre-Máquina.[EN] In this thesis we conduct a research in Augmented Reality (AR) aimed to learning environments, where the interaction with the students is carried out using handheld devices. Through three studies we explore the learning outcomes that can be obtained using handheld AR in a game that we developed for children. We explored the influence of AR in Virtual Reality Learning Environments (VRLE) and the advantages that can involve, as well as the limits. We also tested the game in two different handheld devices (a smartphone and a Tablet PC) and present the conclusions comparing them concerning satisfaction and interaction. Finally, we compare the use tactile and tangible user interfaces in AR applications for children under a Human-Computer Interaction perspective.González Gancedo, S. (2012). Handheld Augmented Reality in education. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/17973Archivo delegad

M-learning: an exploration of the attitudes and perceptions of high school students versus teachers regarding the current and future use of mobile devices for learning

Despite rapid growth and use of mobile Internet devices, schools have remained resistant to the adoption of the devices. The cost of the devices, the distractibility of the devices to the learning environment, and safety and privacy issues that come with the devices are all reasons that schools have used against the implementation of the devices. Nevertheless, studies have shown that students become more motivated when technology and social media are allowed for their learning (Kozma, 2005). To better understand the usage gap, teachers and students at a high school underwent an online survey and follow up focus group. The study yielded differences in the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the potential implementation of the devices into high schools as current or future learning tools. The findings of the research indicate that students and teachers at the subject high school are ready to adopt mobile learning. Students feel that teachers need further training and education regarding the uses of mobile devices for education. Teachers, while aware that students use mobile devices to socialize, were unaware of the frequency by which students use the devices for learning opportunities. Finally, students and teachers both agree that the use of mobile devices in schools, albeit a difficult transition, will help increase student motivation, improve overall achievement levels, and create a more positive school culture. The conclusions are: (a) students have near ubiquitous access to mobile devices outside of school, yet teachers remain reluctant to accept these devices as learning tools because teachers feel the need for additional support and training before they are comfortable using the devices with students; (b) teachers are unaware of the everyday dependency of students on these devices for communication, collaboration, and learning; therefore teachers have not made the necessary efforts to integrate the devices into their curricula; and (c) teachers and students agree about the potential for mobile devices to spark the creativity of learners, create a more positive classroom learning environment, and increase student motivation. However, students will need to understand proper mobile device etiquette in school, whereas teachers need additional training to effectively manage a mobile learning environment