scholarly journals The Use of Mobile Learning Technologies in Primary Education

Author(s):  
Mark Anthony Camilleri ◽  
Adriana Caterina Camilleri

This research explains the rationale behind the utilization of mobile learning technologies. It involves a qualitative study among children to better understand their opinions and perceptions toward the use of educational applications (apps) that are available on their mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The researchers organized semi-structured, face-to-face interview sessions with primary school students who were using mobile technologies at their primary school. The students reported that their engagement with the educational apps has improved their competencies. They acquired relational and communicative skills as they collaborated in teams. On the other hand, there were a few students who were not perceiving the usefulness and the ease of use of the educational apps on their mobile device. This study indicates that the research participants had different skillsets as they exhibited different learning abilities. In conclusion, this contribution opens avenues for future research in this promising field of study.

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Anthony Camilleri ◽  
Adriana Caterina Camilleri

Purpose A relevant literature review suggests that today’s children are increasingly immersing themselves in ubiquitous technologies, including interactive media and digital games. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the primary school students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations toward learning via gameplay through their mobile devices, at home and at school. Design/methodology/approach This study was carried out among primary school students in a small European state. It used valid and reliable measures that comprised the technology acceptance model’s key constructs. However, the empirical investigation also explored the students’ perceived enjoyment and social influences, as plausible antecedents for their behavioral intention to engage with the educational applications (apps). Findings The findings reported that there were strong correlations between the students’ perceived usefulness of the mobile technologies and their behavioral intention to use them for their learning. The results also indicated that there was no significant relationship between the perceived ease of use and the children’s enjoyment in engaging with the educational apps that were used at school. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no other study in academia that has explored the children’s technology acceptance, normative pressures and their intrinsic motivations to use mobile learning technologies in the context of primary education. Therefore, this contribution opens future research directions, as this study can be replicated in other contexts.


10.28945/3738 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruti Gafni ◽  
Dafni Biran Achituv ◽  
Gila Rahmani

Aim/Purpose: This study examines how the use of a Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) application influences the learners' attitudes towards the process of learning, in voluntary and mandatory environments. Background: Mobile devices and applications, which have become an integral part of our lives, are used for different purposes, including educational objectives. Among others, they are used in the process of foreign language acquisition. The use of a MALL application to learn foreign languages has advantages and drawbacks, which are important to understand, in order to achieve better learning results, while improving the enjoyment of the process. Methodology: The study population included people who participated in a foreign language course and used Duolingo application on a mobile device in parallel. One group consisted of high school pupils, who were obliged to use the application, while the other group consisted of people who took face-to-face courses, and chose to use the same Duolingo application voluntarily, in order to assist their studies. Contribution: This paper helps to understand the perceived advantages and drawbacks of using a MALL application by students both in mandatory and voluntary environments. Findings: Most of the participants found the MALL Duolingo application as enhancing the learning process. The gamification characteristics, ease of use, ubiquity and self-learning facilities had a stimulating effect on the process of learning, and contributed to the willingness to continue using the application and to recommend it to others. Recommendations for Practitioners: The research findings can contribute to both teachers and students who conduct and participate in foreign language courses, by helping them examine the possibility of combining mobile learning with a traditional face-to-face course. Moreover, the findings can assist developers of mobile learning applications, in order to include gamification options in the process of learning. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers in the fields of mobile applications and m-learning need to understand the factors enhancing the learning process, in order to develop the next generations of m-learning applications. Impact on Society: Mobile devices have become an accessory that almost every person in the world uses. Its ubiquitous characteristics allow using it everywhere and anytime. This is a greatjite opportunity to facilitate education to people all around the world. Gamification of m-learning applications can promote and encourage the use of these applications. Future Research: Further examination is need in different cultures, in order to understand if the findings are universal.


Author(s):  
Kateryna Osadcha ◽  
Angelica Babich

The article actualizes the problem of improving the process of teaching informatics in a secondary comprehensive school. It was noted that the technology of using mobile learning tools was covered by scientists J. Attewell, K. L. Buhaichuk, I. O. Zolotareva, V. V. Osadchyi, D. L. Revenaugh, A. M. Trush and others. V. O. Kuklev, Ye. D. Patrakin, A. A. Fedosieiev, B. Banister and others highlighted prospects and possibilities of mobile learning in their works. M. Yu. Novikov raised the question of possibility to use mobile technologies in the school curriculum of informatics in senior classes. However, the use of mobile technologies by secondary school students while studying informatics has been hardly covered in home researches. Having analyzed scientific methodological literature and the Internet resources there was generalized the experience of introducing mobile technologies into the process of teaching informatics in a secondary school. There were given the definitions of notions “mobile technologies”, “mobile learning technologies”, “mobile informational and communicative technologies”. The authors understand mobile technologies as learning technologies based on the use of mobile devices (Mobile phones, smart phones, communicators, pocket computers, tablet computers), mobile attachments (programs for mobile devices), services (receiving, storage, processing, search, transfer of data and others with the help of a mobile device), and mobile communication facilities (GSM, WAP, GPRS, Bluetooth, WiFi, IMax) in the process of learning. There was analyzed the existing program software for operational systems Windows 10 Mobile, Android, iOS intended for education. On the basis of this there were singled out mobile attachments to be used at informatics lessons from the 5th to the 9th grades according to curriculum topics. In particular, while learning the topic “Algorithms and their performers” to study basic algorithmic structures (sequence, repetition, branching, conditions, functions, cycles, repairing) it’s offered to use such mobile attachments as Coddy, Lightbot, Robozzle. In the 8th grade in order to make acquaintance with the programming environment and to study the ways of creating a software project, the topic “Basis of event-driven and object-oriented programming” should be learnt with the help of such programs as AIDE-IDE for Android Java C++, Java Editor, Pocket Code, Scratch, iBlocks Blocky, CB1 Blockly, MIT AI2 Companion. The authors draw to the conclusion that every topic in informatics in a secondary school can be learnt with the help of mobile attachments. Given examples of using mobile attachments (Robozzle Droid, «Kahoot!») at informatics lessons in the 6th and the 8th grade demonstrate various possibilities of mobile software in studying informatics. Survey results of effectiveness of mobile technologies while learning informatics in a secondary school which were provided prove the reasons of using mobile technologies at informatics lessons and while doing home tasks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-108
Author(s):  
Maša Đurišić ◽  
Vesna Žunić-Pavlović

Introduction. It has long been established that school climate can influence the course and outcomes of education, but the findings of previous research are inconsistent as to which elements of school climate are crucial for positive outcomes. This paper provides a more detailed insight into the individual contribution of the dimensions and determinants of school climate for adaptive functioning of students. Objective. The objective of the research was to consider the patterns of the relationship between the quality of school climate and its determinants (program, process and material) and adaptive characteristics of students. Methods. The research was conducted in five primary schools in Belgrade. The Charles F. Kettering, Ltd. - CFK School Climate Profile was used to assess school climate, and the TRF Adaptive Functioning Profile was used to assess adaptive characteristics of students. Both questionnaires were completed by primary school teachers. Results. Positive correlations were found between the quality of school climate, program, process and material determinants, on the one hand and, on the other hand, adaptive characteristics of students. Based on the results of regression analysis, the program determinants of school climate were singled out as the only significant predictor. Conclusion. The results of this research confirm that a good school climate, and especially school programs and practices in the domain of learning and teaching, can contribute to adaptive characteristics of students. Based on the obtained results, the paper describes the implications for future research and practice in this field.


Author(s):  
Elena Dolzhich ◽  
Svetlana Dmitrichenkova ◽  
Mona Kamal Ibrahim

<p class="0abstract">The higher education system around the world is being rapidly developed towards digitalization – from computers to laptops, from laptops to tablets and smartphones. Accordingly, traditional delivery of instruction is being shifted towards blended learning that is being gradually replaced with distance learning, i.e. higher education is moving forward with mobile learning (m-learning) technologies. The introduction of mobile learning became the most topical event in 2020 in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, due to which many countries had to completely move to distance learning in higher education. The purpose of the study is to analyze the prospects for the widespread use of mobile applications in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Russia to Russian and Arab learners. In the course of the study, an online survey based on a questionnaire consisting of four open and closed questions was conducted. An empirical method was applied to collect the research data.  The survey was conducted at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Engineering Academy of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (EA PFUR). The total research sample included 200 participants and consisted of: 50 potential employers, 50 Russian and Arab students of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia studying Linguistics (training program code 035700), 50 faculty members, namely teachers of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, the Institute of Foreign Languages of the Moscow State Pedagogical University and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, as well as 50 administrative staff of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. The purpose of the survey was to collect information about the use of mobile applications (Smartphone Apps) and the introduction of mobile learning technology (m-learning) in the process of teaching EFL to students. According to the results of the survey, instructors are actively using mobile technologies in their professional activities and all participants in the learning process are receptive to their introduction in education. At the same time, respondents believe that technical challenges are the major obstacle to the adoption of mobile applications; these problems must be overcome in order to enable more productive use of mobile applications. In this regard, the study of mobile applications that are suitable for specific aspects of learning a foreign language, such as spoken language, reading comprehension, listening or writing, can be considered a promising research area.</p>


Author(s):  
Khalil Alsaadat

<p>Technological development  have altered the way we communicate, learn, think, share, and spread information. Mobile technologies are those that make use of wireless technologies to gain some sort of data. As mobile connectedness continues to spread across the world, the value of employing mobile technologies in the arena of learning and teaching seems to be both self-evident and unavoidable The fast deployment of mobile devices and wireless networks in university campuses makes higher education a good environment  to integrate learners-centered m-learning . this paper discusses mobile learning technologies that are being used for educational purposes and the effect they have on teaching and learning methods.</p>


Author(s):  
Hranovska Tetiana ◽  

The article deals with the features of the mobile learning technology emergence. The genesis of mobile learning in the field of distance and e-learning and its development in the field of blended learning are clarified. The foreign experience and research of domestic scientists on the introduction of mobile learning in the educational process of Ukrainian educational institutions are analyzed. The relevance of the application of this innovative learning technology is clarified according to carried out the literary analysis, but there is a lack of study of mobile technologies using in the educational process, in particular in natural sciences study. The author conducted an experimental study in the form of questionnaires to find out the state of mobile education in general secondary education and to identify the readiness of natural subjects’ teachers to use mobile technologies to teach students. Teachers use mobile technology in lessons, mainly for organizing work with e-textbooks and searching for material online, and less often for demonstrating video experiences in the classroom. The barriers to the use of mobile technologies are the follows: lack of information about the educational opportunities of mobile technologies, lack of methods for its use, the influence of administration policy on the educational process, as well as the age of teachers. The article presents examples of mobile technologies that are appropriate to use in teaching natural sciences. Mobile applications are analyzed and their didactic capabilities are identified during specific lesson activities. The results of the study confirmed teachers' readiness to use mobile learning, in particular by using mobile technologies during the lesson. This paper describes the advantages of mobile devices in the application of its distance learning capabilities. The prospects of using mobile technologies in the educational process during pupils study are proved. The article outlines the prospects for future research of the methodology development for using mobile devices in teaching natural subjects.


Author(s):  
Athra Sultan Alawani

Teachers' professional development programs need to be reconsidered to meet their expectations in the new digital era. Thus, there is need to consider the importance of offering mobile, informal, and social learning in the workplace through smart utilization of the emerging mobile technologies. This chapter introduces the features of an innovative mobile and social learning platform, which aims at improving teachers' performance in the UAE and the Arab world by promoting knowledge and skill through better integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process and better adoption of learner-centric learning. A smart mobile learning platform called “Wamda” is providing micro-courses that are relevant to the curriculum, experiential, and immersive. It is designed to utilize the power of mobile learning technologies, artificial intelligence techniques, and social networking approach. Through this chapter, the critical pedagogical and technical aspects of creating a smart mobile learning environment were elaborated and checked against a list of attributes of smart systems.


2022 ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
Chenxiang Elaine Ji

After mapping dimensions and directions of experience in applying mobile technologies to Chinese language learning, another key task is to measure different levels of experience in terms of its dimensions and directions of learners' experience in leveraging mobile technologies, mobile learning apps in particular. Equipped with the proposed 6E-r framework of mobile experience, this chapter provides indicators and criteria in measuring mobile learning experience in applying mobile technologies to Chinese language learning around the world. This chapter also developed an online questionnaire for future research reference in order to successfully gauge the different levels of experience in applying mobile technologies to Chinese language learning. Ultimately, this chapter attempted to resolve the research question, that is, how mobile learning experience is enhanced by narrowing the gap between the normative experience and the empirical experience.


Author(s):  
Hoda Baytiyeh

The disruption of education services during major crises poses a challenge for international agencies, governments, schools, and communities. The article demonstrates a potential role for mobile technologies in supporting continuity of education delivery during temporary school closures caused by such crises. Discussing how school administrators can reduce the impact on students, this article describes an interactive online educational environment and outlines the advantages of available mobile learning devices for this purpose. With proper training, teachers can integrate mobile learning tools in both classroom activities and out-of-classroom learning. The article will be of interest to educational policy makers and school administrators with responsibility for ensuring continued education delivery in the aftermath of major crises.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document