Mobile learning in English vocabulary acquisition: towards implementation in Malaysian secondary schools

This thesis explores the use of mobile phones to support English vocabulary learning in Malaysian schools and develops an implementation strategy which consists of the policy and procedure through an Educational Research and Development (ER&D) methodology (Borg and Gall, 1979) with the interview as the main research tool. The methodology consists of rigorous steps in developing, evaluating and disseminating the implementation strategy as well as exploring other issues associated with mobile learning implementation in Malaysian schools.Based on the respondent’s perspectives, it has been established that the implementation strategy developed in this study would have the potential to provide guidance in the implementation of mobile learning in Malaysian schools. There is also a potential to utilise mobile phones to complement the existing practices in Malaysian schools: adding value to the existing initiatives for teaching the English Language in Malaysian schools; complementing the ICT policy in the Malaysian Education System; complementing the Malaysian Smart School vision to utilise mobile technologies; and becoming an alternative teaching and learning tool. This study also explores emerging themes in the implementation of mobile learning.These are the opportunities of utilising mobile phones including: to support English Language subject; as an affordable device; as a common device among students; as a future teaching and learning tool; as an engaging and motivational learning device; to support various learning activities; and to prepare students for their future with digital literacy. The challenges identified are: misuse, current educational policy, management and maintenance, stakeholders’ attitude, digital divide and personal space invasion.The study sheds light on the situation regarding the utilisation of mobile phones including the challenges that need to be addressed to make it a reality. It is envisaged that the implementation strategy would help towards the realisation of mobile learning implementation in Malaysian schools

Evaluating a tactile and a tangible multi-tablet gamified quiz system for collaborative learning in primary education

[EN] Gamification has been identified as an interesting technique to foster collaboration in educational contexts. However, there are not many approaches that tackle this in primary school learning environments. The most popular technologies in the classroom are still traditional video consoles and desktop computers, which complicate the design of collaborative activities since they are essentially mono-user. The recent popularization of handheld devices such as tablets and smartphones has made it possible to build affordable, scalable, and improvised collaborative gamifled activities by creating a multi-tablet environment. In this paper we present Quizbot, a collaborative gamifled quiz application to practice different subjects, which can be defined by educators beforehand. Two versions of the system are implemented: a tactile for tablets laid on a table, in which all the elements are digital; and a tangible in which the tablets are scattered on the floor and the components are both digital and physical objects. Both versions of Quizbot are evaluated and compared in a study with eighty primary-schooled children in terms of user experience and quality of collaboration supported. Results indicate that both versions of Quizbot are essentially equally fun and easy to use, and can effectively support collaboration, with the tangible version outperforming the other one with respect to make the children reach consensus after a discussion, split and parallelize work, and treat each other with more respect, but also presenting a poorer time management.We would like to thank Universitat Politecnica de Valencia's Summer School for their collaboration during the development of this study, as well as Colegio Internacional Ausias March for their support in the development of educational content.This work is supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and funded by the European Development Regional Fund (EDRF-FEDER) with Project TIN2014-60077-R. It is also supported by fellowship ACIF/2014/214 within the VALi+d program from Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana), and by fellowship FPU14/00136 within the FPU program from Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and SportGarcía Sanjuan, F.; El Jurdi, S.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Nácher-Soler, VE. (2018). Evaluating a tactile and a tangible multi-tablet gamified quiz system for collaborative learning in primary education. Computers & Education. 123:65-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.04.011S658412

Serious Games to Enhance Education. Play, Technology and Archaeology in a Spanish museum

Serious games are a powerful resource in the teaching-learning process in formal and informal learning settings since this kind of activity motivates participants to take part actively in their own learning process. Within informal learning environments, they serve to improve their pedagogical role, which is sometimes difficult to be perceived by users. Nevertheless, serious games play another equally important role in museums, Art galleries or Science centres: engaging part of the surrounding society with this kind of institutions. This paper describes a “serious game” using new technology that includes Information and Communication Technologies and 3D digitized models to be played in informal learning settings. It aims to enhance their didactic role and look for social engagement. An experimental experience was carried out in the National Museum of Roman Art (Mérida, Spain) to attract and retain a specific group of people, teenagers, reluctant to visit archaeological museums most of the time since they considered them boring places. Finally, this experience served to assess the applicability and versatility as an educational resource of the game scheme proposed