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

From gimmick to game-changer : a study on the use smartphones to expand access to higher education in sub-Saharan Africa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology at Massey University, New Zealand

Today, blended university courses are designed with an unspoken assumption that students will use desktop PCs and laptops for online learning. Recent studies regarding smartphone usage in educational settings explore ways to adapt desktop PC and laptop content for viewing on smartphones; however, the impact of these studies is limited. Smartphones are still subservient to conventional platforms. While this is not an issue in developed countries, it is problematic for developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Only 20% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa own desktop PCs and laptops compared to 80% smartphone ownership. The dearth of these conventional platforms means many learners in sub-Saharan Africa are excluded from the benefits of blended learning. This research took the first steps to explore whether a student who owns a smartphone and does not have access to a desktop PC or laptop can successfully participate in a blended university course. Shaped by the pragmatist philosophical perspective, the research utilised a mixed-methods case study design. The case examined was Tom Mboya University College (TMUC), a Kenyan public university that exclusively offers on-campus courses. The research progressed in four phases: a feasibility study; survey with students (n = 114); interviews with lecturers (n = 17); and beta-testing of a smartphone-supported blended course with students. Results indicate that smartphones could provide a viable learning platform. Key findings identify that TMUC students and lecturers value smartphone-supported learning due to its ability to enhance collaborative learning activities. Furthermore, the results led to the development of a novel framework entitled ‘Smartphone Only Learning Environment’ (SOLE), that provides guidelines on how teachers can deliver blended university courses solely to smartphones.The research implication is three-fold: First, it facilitates introduction of blended learning in extraordinarily resource-constrained public universities of sub-Saharan Africa. Second, it provides the foundations for critical discussions on smartphone-supported online learning policies; notably, discussions about supporting teachers by providing an institution LMS are necessary. Finally, underpinned by the collectivist culture of sub-Saharan Africa, this research showcases opportunities for educators around the world to uncover learning theories that focus on more collaborative forms of blended learning

The Digital Leisure Divide and the Forcibly Displaced

UNHCR has been pursuing an agenda of enhanced connectivity and digital inclusion for forcibly displaced people. In 2020, following an array of standalone efforts in pursuing these agendas – for example, through the 2016 Connectivity for Refugees Strategy – the organization began a journey to consolidate initiatives around digital transformation into a new organization-wide strategy. One priority outcome area is around digital inclusion that seeks to ensure forcibly displaced and stateless people “have equitable access to digital technology and channels and can use them to pursue opportunities for lifelong learning, inclusion in the digital economy, leisure, and solutions.” For a number of years, many digital inclusion interventions have been tied to specific developmental goals – enhanced education, use of digital financial services, greater access to information, among others. There is emerging evidence that challenges the notion that those targeted with such interventions prioritize connectivity for these purposes. Rather, the agenda highlights leisure as a key driver for adoption of digital technologies, and a critical use case for such technologies that bring indirect benefits beyond the ‘virtuous’ aims of humanitarian aid and development programmes globally. In this report, UNHCR and Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) scholars document the evidence on digital leisure in the forced displacement context, highlighting issues unique to that context. This report constitutes a continuation of the desk review,1 and provides evidence from fieldwork carried out in two refugee shelters in the city of Boa Vista, Brazil – Rondon III and September 13 – at the end of 2021. The report focuses on the main uses and potential benefits of digital leisure in refugee contexts. It brings together evidence from Venezuelan forcibly displaced people with an emphasis on Brazil due to that country’s relevance in the human mobility context within the Latin American region. The report aims to inform actors in the government, private, non-profit, and aid agency sectors who are interested in digital inclusion and rights-based solutions for forcibly displaced people. It provides insights about issues of access, privacy, and trust experienced by forcibly displaced persons while using devices and navigating connectivity in their everyday lives. It also explores the opportunities for community-building and local citizenship through content creation and connection with family, friends, and society at large. We reveal how digital leisure fosters unique opportunities for self-realization and shapes specific worldviews through their information practices in digital spaces. The possible livelihoods enabled by digital leisure and the aspirational digital lives of participating Venezuelan refugees and migrants are also explored

NAVIGATING MOBILE LEARNING: ENGLISH LEARNERS’ LANGUAGE LEARNING AND LITERACY PRACTICES

Despite the fact that the majority of teenagers and young adults use smartphones, little research has studied English Learners’ (ELs’) actual mobile phone language practices, specifically, how and why ELs use their smartphones as language learning assistant devices (Godwin-Jones, 2008). The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to explore ELs’ perceptions of mobile-assisted language and literacy practices, and to document ELs’ literacy practices through their mobile devices. Drawing from New Literacies Studies (Gee, 2004, 2010; Kress, 2003), research questions that guided this study were as follows: 1) How do participants use mobile devices in their classes, and what features of mobile devices do they find useful (e.g., recordings, video, still photo, etc.)? 2) What mobile device applications do participants find important in school and/or in their everyday lives? 3) Is there a relationship between participants’ use of mobile devices and their identity in and out of school? Participants were four ELs aged from 15 to 21: Three high school students and one university student. Primary data for this study were semi-structured interviews collected over a three-month period. Data were analyzed using constant comparison, looking across participant interviews to generate themes. Several important findings emerged. First, participants utilized various applications/features for language learning, and their mobile device practices were inextricably linked to their social practices through their use of mobile phones. Second, participants intentionally used mobile devices as tools to translate, capture class notes, and seek out auxiliary materials to support their learning in school. Third, ELs’ reported that their transition from their home country to the US, resulted in a shift in their personality and identity and their mobile devices provided an emotional support. This study extends current literature and explains how mobile devices play an essential role in ELs’ lives in and out of school. With increasing EL populations in US schools, this study articulates ELs’ actual use of mobile devices, and how mobile devices are important to ELs’ success in the classroom

ECOLOGIES OF SPONSORSHIP: WHAT FITBIT USERS CAN TEACH US ABOUT DIGITAL LITERACY

As digital technologies have expanded, so have the literacy sponsors that support and shape how those technologies are used. This project focuses on one of these growing sites of sponsorship surrounding a specific health-tracking technology: wearable Fitbit devices. While much of the work on literacy sponsorship has focused on institutional sponsors as agents, I argue that the picture becomes more complicated and interesting when we place our focus on how users—often considered the sponsored—can become agents in a system that may have marginalized, excluded, or used them. Using a combination of qualitative methods, this dissertation highlights how various literacy sponsors create possibilities and constraints, how communities of users support and resist these frameworks, and how users can become digital literacy sponsors. This research maps the ecologies of sponsorship that Fitbit users engage in as both consumers and producers. The concept of “ecologies of sponsorship” is a unique contribution of this project, which expands traditional frameworks for understanding the stakeholders in literacy development to account for digital, networked environments. In addition to typical tracking practices, this research found that significant groups of users “hack” the technology to help them work toward subversive goals. Some users reject the stated purposes of health-tracking technology, instead manipulating their data to create an illusion of health. Some of these users have shared their alternative goals and tactics in online communities, which allows them to become sponsors of metistic digital literacies. Rather than transforming Fitbit technology and ideologies of health through explicit hostility or force, this research explores how users developed metistic practices to subvert health-tracking systems from within. Though this research focuses on the development of digital literacies in extra-curricular spaces, there are important implications for writing classrooms that aim to help students develop digital literacies. This research raises questions about how our classroom practices might shift if we add metistic literacies to frameworks that already support functional, critical, and rhetorical literacies. And by considering classroom-based teaching in the context of larger ecologies of sponsorship, this research highlights a need for new pedagogical practices that account for the distributed nature of technological expertise

A framework for mobile digital literacy skills of educators using mobile technology in rural formal education

Information and communication technology (ICT) is considered a vital enabler in the quest to reduce the disparities between the developed and developing world. Developments in mobile technology have dramatically changed the ICT landscape. Mobile cellular technologies have flourished and proliferated more rapidly than any previous technology hitherto and is thus considered, at this time, the most pervasive technology in the world. However, the introduction of mobile ICT in rural formal education is faced with many challenges and ways in which to maximise its usage is still being explored. This research explores mobile digital literacy skills required by a rural educator to successfully integrate mobile technology into the classroom. This exploration used the ICT for rural education development (ICT4RED) project as its case study and added dimensions to the project through the development of a framework for mobile digital literacy skills. ICT4RED was an appropriate case for the exploration as it met the following criteria: educators were using mobile technologies in the classroom, educators had been part of the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) course offered by the ICT4RED project and educators were based in a rural resource-constrained area in South Africa. Questionnaires were used to gain insight into which skills educators rated as most important, and least important, as based on their teaching experience using mobile technologies in the classroom. The work is grounded on an interpretivist research philosophy and followed an inductive reasoning approach. Additionally, the research employed a qualitative method of analysis with a single case study, comprising of two units, facilitating a perspective of the phenomenon. Framework development was enabled through a literature review which assisted in theorising the mobile digital literacy skills. An expert review, followed by a questionnaire driven survey for educators, was conducted. The qualitative analysis revealed that most of the mobile digital literacy skills from literature were important and should be employed. The majority of educators and experts felt that the skills could not be categorised as, due to the lack of resources, most are considered very important. The lack of stable internet connection/s were also considered a major (if not the major) hindrance to successful mobile integration in rural areas. The main research question answered by this study is: How can a framework for educators’ mobile digital literacy skills support educators using mobile technology in formal rural education? The findings of this research should be significant to developers of mobile technology training programmes, as well as educators trying to successfully integrate mobile technology into their classrooms. The framework will enable both trainers and educators to prioritise skills and channel resources into the acquisition of those skills which have been identified as important by this research work.School of ComputingM. Sc. (Computing