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Editorial introduction: Collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies: Editorial

DOI:10.1111/bjet.12596
Authors:
Jimmy Jaldemark at Mid Sweden University
Jimmy Jaldemark
Stefan Hrastinski at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stefan Hrastinski
Anders D. Olofsson at Umeå University
Anders D. Olofsson
Lena-Maria Öberg
Lena-Maria Öberg
Lena-Maria Öberg
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Special Issue British Journal of Educational Technology, to be published in 2018
Click on the link to read more.: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.12596/full/
Editorial introduction: Collaborative learning
enhanced by mobile technologies
Jimmy Jaldemark, Stefan Hrastinski, Anders D. Olofsson & Lena-Maria Öberg
Mid Sweden University
Background to the theme: Collaborative learning enhanced by mobile
technologies
Since the early trials of supporting learning with mobile devices in the mid-1970s (Chiang et al., 2016),
opportunities for learning enhanced by mobile applications, devices and networks have undergone major
technological leaps. These early trials mostly focused on technological issues and how the relationship between
the device and a human being could improve learning. By the millennium, a significant shift had occurred in the
research field, with sociocultural approaches to understanding mobile learning taking centre stage (Crompton,
2013; Kukulska-Hulme et al., 2011; Wali, Winters & Oliver, 2008). More recently, a movement within the field
of mobile learning has emerged, which focuses on how collaborative learning could be enhanced by applying
various mobile technologies (Berge & Muilenburg, 2013; Traxler & Kukulska-Hulme, 2016). This movement
also finds support in the technological development during the recent decade. The era of smart devices includes
the emergence of different touchscreen devices with opportunities for instant social and technological
networking. Mobile devices such as small portable laptops, smart phones, tablets and, more recently, various
wearable devices have since made up a technological platform for enhancing collaborative learning. The
emergence of mobility as an essential aspect of everyday life underlines a need to update the conceptualisations
of how we learn (Traxler & Kukulska-Hulme, 2016).
Collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies occurs in both informal and formal educational
settings. It could occur in situations where human beings learn about content during leisure activities or while
studying, working or performing other everyday activities. Collaborative learning enhanced by mobile
technologies also embraces distribution of content in groups of two or more people. Such learning in this
research field is linked to togetherness in terms of enhancing dialogues between individuals (Berge &
Muilenburg, 2013; Dillenbourg, 1999; Sharples & Spikol, 2017; Traxler & Kukulska-Hulme, 2016).
However, designing mobile educational settings needs the consideration of many aspects of collaborative
learning to be successful. These aspects of mobile collaborative learning include physically co-located learners
as well as learners that are separated by time and place. It embraces an understanding of mobile technologies as
a feature that is possible to enhance by collaboration and provides evaluation opportunities, as well as observes
and enhances collaborative learning activities in everyday informal and formal educational settings. Besides
awareness of the rapid technological development, it is also important to understand its impact on the learners’
context and how learners’ communicate with each other (Amara et al., 2016).
Examples of recent research of collaborative learning and mobile technologies includes, among others, the
study by Delen and Krajcik (2017). They show how mobile applications in informal settings, such as museums,
can support and enhance science learning. In their study, they applied augmented reality and tablets in a design
aimed at supporting collaborative learning between teachers and museum educators. The design helped establish
a time- and place-independent link between the museum and the teachers’ formal educational setting. Reychav
and McHaney (2017) also performed a study that followed the research theme of collaborative learning
enhanced by mobile technologies in formal educational settings. The students used mobile devices while
working together on an assignment. The study showed that gender was related to learning and working together
in groups. They claimed that female students benefited from collaborative learning and educational settings that
integrate mobile technologies. Maor (2017) performs an example of workplace settings. The study focused on
teachers’ mobile collaborative learning and found that such learning seems to enhance teachers’ development of
content knowledge as well as their pedagogical and technological skills. Nevertheless, these studies are
examples of separate studies on different topics. To reach a deeper understanding of a specific topic, there is a
need for coherent publications such as special issues and book-projects including different studies that deal with
a wide range of theoretical ideas and designs that push the boundaries further. This special issue shall be read as
an attempt to achieve this by collecting nine papers all focused on collaborative learning enhanced by mobile
technologies.
Particularly in a society characterised by social and cultural changes, and driven by a wide dissemination of
emerging smart mobile technologies, there is a need for coherent publications that shed light on new theoretical
developments regarding how human beings come together and learn. In effect, to bring light to the impact of
such development, research is needed that explores various ways of designing such learning and that compares
effects on collaborative learning from different mobile technologies. Moreover, researching collaborative
learning enhanced by mobile technologies also informs understanding about how learning is provided in a
society characterised by an emerging digitalisation (Duval, Sharples & Sutherland, 2017; Traxler & Kukulska-
Hulme, 2016).
To sum up: this special issue focuses on research that combines and takes into account key findings from
social aspects of learning and development within the smart technological era. These findings are points of
departure for this special issue’s ambition of analysing, discussing and disseminating various ways of how
collaborative learning can be enhanced by mobile applications, devices and networks.
Studies in collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies
This special issue includes papers that contribute theoretically to discussions about how collaborative learning
could be enhanced by mobile technologies, while other papers emphasise how the design of mobile technologies
could enhance collaborative learning. There is also a review paper that summarises the state-of-the-art in mobile
collaborative language learning. Together, they illustrate the need to sum up the current work and develop new
theoretical insights and designs in order to inform future work on how collaborative aspects of learning relate to
mobile technologies. The special issue emerged as a result of an international research symposium held in
Sundsvall, Mid Sweden University on October 12–13, 2015. The symposium, organised by the research group
HEEL (Higher Education and E-Learning), identified collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies as
a key area for further research. There are many opportunities to explore the intersection between collaborative
learning and mobile learning, which are often regarded as separate research fields.
This special issue includes nine articles produced by 28 scholars from four continents and ten different
countries: Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom and
USA. Six of the papers focused on higher education, two papers on K–12 education and one paper on adult
informal learning. Notably, all but one of the papers adopted a learner’s perspective rather than a teacher’s
perspective.
The first paper in this issue, “Mobile collaborative language learning: State of the art”, by Agnes Kukulska-
Hulme and Olga Viberg, presents a literature review of mobile collaborative language studies published in
2012–2016. The aim of the paper is to deepen our understanding of how mobile technologies have been used to
support collaborative learning among second and foreign language learners. The systematic search for literature
created by the authors includes studies on Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) with a specific focus on
collaborative learning. The paper uses a content analysis for MALL’s evaluation framework. Results, for
example, show clear benefits of collaboration in mobile language learning, in which affordances like flexible
use and peer coaching have been emphasised, and in which studies often take a social constructivist approach to
learning. The paper points out that additional knowledge about important processes and steps involved in mobile
learning design for fostering collaborative learning practices is needed.
In “Taking an instrumental genesis lens: New insights into collaborative mobile learning”, Teresa Cerratto
Pargman, Jalal Nouri and Marcelo Milrad focus on how collaborative learning emerges in four tablet-mediated
Swedish elementary school classrooms. The authors adopt an ethnographic approach including classroom
observations of teachers and students as well as semi-structured interviews with teachers. The paper draws on
the instrumental genesis theory including the Collective Instrumented Activities and Situations Model (CIAS
model), which provides a theoretical lens for the analysis of appropriation processes involved in mobile
collaborative activities mediated by digital artefacts. The findings show that the tablet emerges as a
collaborative digital instrument through the establishment of teachers’ and students’ multiple instrumental
mediations. Moreover, emotional and spatial mediations are of importance when understanding teachers’
intentions in designing collaboration, participation and engagement in the classroom.
In the paper, “Understanding nomadic collaborative learning groups”, Thomas Ryberg, Jacob Davidsen and
Vivien Hodgson develop three categories of practice for nomadic collaborative learning groups. Nomadic
learners refer to students who accomplish their work across locations, collaborate with others and can be
distributed in time. The study includes two undergraduate student groups engaged in self-organised, long-term
collaborations based on problem- and project-based learning. The students used mobile and digital technologies
as well as physical and/or non-digital technologies in their group work. The paper found that in both groups,
there was a fluidity, situatedness and improvisational aspect to how they negotiated the orchestration of their
work. Their ways of utilising space, places, technologies and activities over time was a complex interweaving of
the digital and physical
In “A tale of two communication tools: Discussion-forum and mobile instant-messaging apps in
collaborative learning,” Zhong Sun, Chin-Hsi Lin, Minhua Wu, Jianshe Zhou and Liming Luo compare the
learning-related uses of an online discussion forum against the use of a mobile instant messaging app.
Combining different technologies is essential since the literature has tended to focus on individual technological
tools rather than examining how the choice of one tool over another impacts collaborative learning. The study
includes 78 undergraduate pre-service teachers. Based on the results of the content analysis, social network
analysis and a survey of student attitudes, it was found that while both tools facilitated collaborative learning,
they appeared to have different affordances. Using the online discussion forum resulted in more communication
aimed at knowledge construction, while using the mobile instant messaging app resulted in more social
interactions.
The paper, “Authoring and enactment of mobile pyramid-based collaborative learning activities”, is
positioned in the field of mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (mCSCL). Kalpani Manathunga
and Davinia Hernández-Leo study the impact of mobile orchestration in higher education learning scenarios.
Central in the paper is Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLPFs) and the so-called PyramidApp, which
implements a Pyramid CLFP particularization to support face-to-face and distance mobile learning in higher
education. The PyramidApp contains both a web-based authoring tool and an enactment tool. Data are collected
through a mixed approach and contain both quantitative and qualitative data from teachers and students that
took part in evaluating the PyramidApp. Results show that the teachers appreciate the design and applicability of
the PyramidApp in their educational contexts and that the PyramidApp supports activities that seems to have a
positive impact on the students’ learning.
In “Mobile technology affordance and its social implications: A case of ‘Rain Classroom’”, Xiangming Li
and Song Shuqiang explore learner engagement and disposition to share when using the mobile application Rain
classroom. The application integrates information publishing before class, real-time answering and interaction in
class, and reviewing after class. The participants were graduate-level engineering students (N=387) that were
assigned to a test group and a control group. Based on the results of two surveys, which were issued before and
after a 14-week experiment, the results show that the test group had a positive attitude towards the mobile
technology tool and obtained statistically higher scores in both learning engagement and their willingness to
continue the learning experience.
In “Toward personal and emotional connectivity in mobile higher education through asynchronous formative
audio feedback”, Päivi Rasi and Hanna Vuojärvi develop a teaching approach that can be characterised as
collaborative case-based learning. The method is a designed-based research, and the study explores how
students experienced the use of audio feedback. The participants were Finnish teacher students (N=50), and the
data collection methods included a questionnaire, transcribed audio feedback and student performance results.
The study focuses on utility, emotional support and learning, and the results indicate that formative audio
feedback could promote students’ emotional engagement. The students welcomed audio feedback but expressed
a desires to combine written and audio feedback.
In the paper, “Mobile-based collaborative learning in the fitness center: A case study on the development of
English listening comprehension with a context-aware application”, Gi-Zen Li, Jin-Yao Chen and Gwo-Jen
Hwang present a mobile application used within a ubiquitous learning system — an application aimed at
improving the user’s English listening comprehension. The aim of the study is to investigate learning strategies
in groups and a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The participants (N=36) were Chinese
native speakers who were equipped with a smartphone when they were at a fitness center. The study includes
pre- and post-tests, and the results show that the students improved their listening comprehension; the
application also helped them retain the knowledge.
In “The effect of ‘here and now’ learning on student engagement and academic achievement”, Gavin
Northey, Rahul Govind, Tania Bucic, Mathew Chylinski, Rebecca Dolan and Patrick van Esch present a low-
investment blended learning approach to facilitate collaboration outside of the classroom. The study is quasi-
experimental, and the aim is to study the effects of ‘here and now’ learning on student engagement and
academic achievement. Four classes (N=118) were assigned to be test groups, and two classes were the control
group. Two surveys were used to collect data. The findings show that suggested learning design has a positive
influence on both student engagement and academic outcomes.
Concluding remarks
The papers of the special issue emphasise that collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies is a
phenomenon that relates to a broad range of educational settings. Here, it is illustrated with studies performed in
the formal educational system (i.e. primary school and higher education). In the mobile learning scenarios,
formal settings are linked to the application of informal resources and spaces to form seamless and ubiquitous
educational settings where boundaries between formal and informal aspects of learning can be dissolved. These
studies show how contextual aspects of conceptual space, physical space, social space, technology and time
have an impact on how people collaboratively learn as enhanced by mobile technologies.
Collaborative learning enhanced by mobile technologies needs to be studied with a wide range of different
research approaches and different research methods. As shown in this special issue, it depends on which
problems the paper focuses on. From ethnographic approaches on one side, to quasi-experimental, pre-post-
testing approaches on the other side, all aim to provide knowledge to inform the next step in understanding the
relationship between collaborative learning and mobile technologies.
While the papers emphasise design issues and the learners’ perspective, a possible conclusion to draw is that
there is a need for further work in other certain areas within this field, for example, research focusing on
collaborative learning and mobile technologies in teaching and leadership. Such studies could analyse and
discuss instruction supported by mobile technologies as well as different aspects of teachers’ and school leaders’
beliefs about the relationship between collaborative learning and mobile technologies. This knowledge can then
be used to both inform practice and adapt to future policy development. Another focus not highlighted in this
special issue is that of critical studies of policy issues and how the societal debate is linked to its impact on
learning.
This special issue has shed light on the importance of research in the intersection of collaborative learning
and mobile technologies. By drawing on the papers, there are at least three opportunities for further research
where this special issue might serve as a starting point. First, there is a need for further theoretical development,
which could be guided by exploring the use of lesser known theories such as instrumental genesis theory and
nomadic collaborative learning. Second, future research could investigate effects of using specific media and
comparing different media for mobile collaborative learning such as mobile instant messaging, social
networking and audio feedback. Finally, there is a need to continue designing prototypes and mobile
applications for collaborative learning, which are built on previous research and rigorously evaluated. We
believe that these three opportunities for further research are essential in developing a deeper understanding of
how mobile applications could be used to enhance collaborative learning.
... This limitation might result in students' losing the opportunity of interacting with both teachers and peers once they leave the class. This issue cannot be simply ignored at the age of communications technology when mobile devices are added each day to enhance collaborative learning (Jaldemark, Hrastinski, Olofsson, & Oberg, 2018). Pachler, Ranieri, Manca, and Cook (2012) explored educational perspectives on the use of mobile devices and concluded that these devices can help both teachers and students to overcome the limitations of face-to-face learning by increasing access to learning materials. ...
... Moreover, mobile technology provided the participants with authentic communication activities and social interactions that, according to Communicative Language Teaching approach, were both the means and the goal of learning a new language. The results supported several researchers who studied the effectiveness of integrating online activities with students' tasks and concluded connecting with social networking during classes could aid students in mastering the knowledge and increasing their skills (Jaldemark et al., 2018;Pachler et al., 2012;Sun et al., 2017). However, the findings did not support the results of Zhang, Song, and Bruston's (2011) study which demonstrated MALL caused distractions and forgetting and there was no significant difference between the control group subjected to MALL and the experimental group subjected to traditional instruction. ...
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The study aimed at investigating the impacts of mobile-assisted instruction on improving Iranian female EFL learners’ speaking skill and exploring their perceptions of the experience. Random sampling was applied to select 90 female students at the Zand Higher Education Institute in Shiraz, Iran. Their ages ranged from 18 to 24. They were randomly assigned to one control and two experimental groups. The control group was subjected to traditional instruction and the experimental ones were subjected to mobile-assisted instruction on their course-related contents through Voice Thread and Twitter as their out-of-class activities for three months. The needed data were collected using speaking papers of the Preliminary English Test and an interview. A paired samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to compare the performances of the participants in the speaking pre- and post-tests. Findings revealed mobile-assisted instruction played a prominent role in improving learners’ speaking skill. The interview results showed the majority of the participants (71.25%) had positive attitudes toward mobile learning. This study provided experimental evidence that both Voice Thread and Twitter could be used as educational tools to help the students of English as a foreign language to improve their speaking skill.
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... Learning in the 21st century saw an upsurge in the use of technologies such as mobile devices, laptops, smartphones, and tablets that provide instant interactive and collaborative learning opportunities (Jaldemark et al., 2018). Using technology for collaborative learning holds the potential to facilitate "knowledge acquisition, metacognition skills, and epistemological beliefs" (Fu & Hwang, 2018, p. 141). ...
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... The most commonly cited advantage of mobile technology is mobility, which allows computing to occur anywhere and at any time (Jaldemark et al., 2018). Accessible from any place and at any time, mobile technology may reduce time and space restrictions in gaining access to vital information and improve communication, coordination, collaboration, and knowledge sharing (Yu et al., 2014). ...
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p style="text-align: justify;">Collaborative learning has been identified as an essential aspect in the process of learning. As accelerated advancement continues to characterize the developments of technology, innovative mobile technology appears to be transforming the way collaborative learning is taking shape. This study focused on identifying whether mobile technology has a significant impact on collaborative learning in engineering studies in a private University in Malaysia. Using a quantitative approach, an online survey was administered for the data collection. Some 221 participants were selected randomly among undergraduate engineering students in the University. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS. The research findings revealed that mobile technology has a significant impact on collaborative learning. The findings also indicated that two of the mobile technology dimensions, namely mobility and immediacy have significant impact on collaborative learning. Consequently, this research suggests engineering educators can integrate mobile technology into their future instruction for more collaborative learning and create a smart workforce consisting of fast and adaptive engineers as well as other learners in Malaysia.</p
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... Due to its potential, Amazing Science should be applied by combining it with a collaborative learning model in order to improve other students' skills, like science process skills. The combination of collaborative learning with potential learning media like mobile learning can enhance quality of learning process and learning outcomes [39][40][41][42]. This implementation enables students to reach meaningful learning. ...
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... Even though learning has been carried out online, it would be better if educators use the media as a tool to make it easier for educators to convey material. Technology can be used to create a medium that educators can use in delivering material [11] [12]. One of the digital technology products that can be used to create a learning medium is a whiteboard animation video [13]. ...
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... They could be performed synchronously or separated in time and be located at the office, at home, or between different locations. Besides working face to face, working together could also be enabled by various digital technologies (Jaldemark et al., 2018). In recent decades, various technologies have emerged and been developed to facilitate communication between people and enable group work. ...
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... The use of collaborative learning tools provides students with authentic learning opportunities, and allows teachers to organize learning activities that are more engaging and learner-centered (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998). Mobile devices have been reported to have great potential to promote collaborative learning (Jaldemark, Hrastinski, Olofsson, & Oberg, 2018). Fisher et al. (2013) indicated that iPads enhanced collaboration among students and allowed students to transition between private and public learning spaces. ...
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... The organization has asserted that m-learning enhances the students' results and has a great potential in improving the quality of learning process [7]. In addition, m-learning has undergone major leaps and collaborative learning has been enhanced by applying mobile technology [8]. ...
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... In higher education they are promoted with dif- ferent technological tools for self-regulation of learning, as well as collaborative and cooperative learning [19]. Examples of this are the Flipped Classroom (FC) [18] and Mobile-Learning (ML) [11] methodologies. In addition, in the context of e-Learning, interactions between participants have been defined through the concept of Community of Inquiry (CoI) [8]. ...
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Full-text available
  • Mar 2016
This paper explores the use of the TPACK model in two higher education e-learning courses in Australia that enhanced students’ ability to use technology in their learning and later in their professions. The courses focused on teaching students becoming digital pedagogues who could integrate technology and pedagogy and be more interactive teachers using the latest technologies. The aims of the two courses were to encourage students to become reflective learners and to create knowledge collaboratively. Newer technological tools, such as iPads, ePortfolios, and eBooks, were used to create digital pedagogies to enhance the students’ learning experience and obtain students’ reflections on the course. To maximize students’ learning, TPACK was used in the design of the course, the learning activities and the assessment. It was also used as a framework to analyze the data. Results from the survey data found that students increased their confidence and their understanding of the use of the different domains of TPACK. The study also found that the majority of students became digital pedagogues and took the opportunity to implement the TPACK model in their classrooms. It contributes to understanding the value of the overlapping area of TPACK and the conceptual space necessary to implement digital pedagogies.
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Group Formation in Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Contexts: A systematic literature review
Article
Full-text available
Learners are becoming increasingly divers. They may have much personal, social, cultural, psychological, and cognitive diversity. Forming suitable learning groups represents, therefore, a hard and time-consuming task. In Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (MCSCL) environments, this task is more difficult. Instructors need to consider many more issues, such as the rapid change of mobile learners’ context, their direct and naturel interaction, and the characteristics of mobile devices and networks. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) that examines the relevant solutions for the problem of group formation in MCSCL environments. In the context of this SLR, an initial list of 178 papers was reviewed. After careful analysis of each paper using specific selection criteria and a quality assessment method, a final list of 12 relevant studies was filtered and used to answer the research questions. The findings revealed that: (a) there is a lack of approaches addressing the group formation problem in MCSCL environments; (b) the most proposed solutions do not allow instructors to customize the grouping process; (c) there is no useful solutions to automatically capture and evaluate many of learners’ behaviours and context information; (d) the majority of approaches do not support a dynamic formation of learning groups; (e) the majority of approaches do not provide descriptions about the implemented grouping algorithms nor about the evaluation methods. Extracted and synthesized data from the selected studies is discussed in this paper, together with current research gaps and recommendations for further works.
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Using Mobile Devices to Connect Teachers and Museum Educators
Article
Full-text available
The use of mobile devices is increasing rapidly as a potential tool for science teaching. In this study, five educators (three middle school teachers and two museum educators) used a mobile application that supported the development of a driving question. Previous studies have noted that teachers make little effort to connect learning experiences between classrooms and museums, and few studies have focused on creating connections between teachers and museum educators. In this study, teachers and museum educators created an investigation together by designing a driving question in conjunction with the research group before field trips. During field trips, students collected their own data using iPods or iPads to take pictures or record videos of the exhibits. When students returned to the school, they used the museum data with their peers as they tried to answer the driving question. After completing the field trips, five educators were interviewed to investigate their experiences with designing driving questions and using mobile devices. Besides supporting students in data collection during the field trip, using mobile devices helped teachers to get the museum back to the classroom. Designing the driving question supported museum educators and teachers to plan the field trip collaboratively.
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Technology enhanced learning: Research themes
Book
  • Jan 2017
This book gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). It is organized as a collection of 14 research themes, each introduced by leading experts and including references to the most relevant literature on the theme of each cluster. Additionally, each chapter discusses four seminal papers on the theme with expert commentaries and updates. This volume is of high value to people entering the field of learning with technology, to doctoral students and researchers exploring the breadth of TEL, and to experienced researchers wanting to keep up with latest developments. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017. All rights reserved.
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The relationship between gender and collaborative learning assessment in a mobile technology-based setting: An empirical investigation
Article
Mobile technology offers educators new potential for course and learning material construction. Empirical best practices research is scarce, particularly in secondary and higher education settings. This article provides a field experiment using a 2 (individual vs. group) x 2 (text vs. video) design in a secondary school context with students engaged in learning activities related to either text or video content on mobile devices. We structured material to benefit either individual or collaborative learning practices and examined gender as a critical factor to understand ways to improve teaching approaches. The study used an ANOVA with repeated measures to understand impacts of various attributes on outcomes such as material experience duration, perceived peer influenced learning, satisfaction, perceived understanding, and performance. This study provides empirical evidence in a mobile learning environment that suggests female students engaged in group learning modes, supported with video material, had different engagement patterns than male students. Females spent more time in the application consistent with earlier research suggesting females are more likely to use strategies such as active listening, asking questions, and soliciting input. In addition, female students engaged in group learning mode, supported with video material, had higher peer-influenced learning scores than male students. Holistically, this evidence supports the view that females use learning strategies that benefit from group learning and features provided by mobile technologies. The results help direct future research regarding design and implementation of learning in secondary school settings and may help remove gender disparities.
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Mobile Learning: The Next Generation
Book
  • Jan 2016
This is a book published by Routledge (full text cannot be shared). It documents the most innovative projects in context-aware mobile learning in order to develop a richer theoretical understanding of learning in modern mobile-connected societies. Context-aware mobile learning takes advantage of cell phone, mobile, and pervasive personal technologies to design learning experiences that exploit the richness of both indoor and outdoor environments. These technologies detect a learner’s presence in a particular place, the learner’s history in that place or in relation to other people and objects nearby, and adapt learning experiences accordingly, enabling and encouraging learners to use personal and social technologies to capture aspects of the environment as learning resources, and to share their reactions to them.
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Research and trends in mobile learning from 1976 to 2013: A content analysis of patents in selected databases
Article
Mobile learning has been a very popular topic in the past several decades. As more patents in this field have been submitted, the analysis of patents has surfaced as an important mechanism to understand trends, uses, targeted audiences and other aspects in the mobile learning space. Based on the CNIPR, USPTO, and Espacenet databases, this paper provides an analysis of mobile learning from 1976, when the first patent in mobile learning emerged, to 2013. One hundred thirty patents were analyzed from two dimensions: the instructional dimension (including target audience, situation and purpose) and the patent dimension (including technology and style). It was found that “students” was the most popular target audience; “out of class for education” was the most utilized situation; “provide more friendly peripheral service” was the primary purpose; “wireless, mobile and ubiquitous technologies for learning, pervasive computing for learning, u-computing in learning” were the most utilized technologies; and “system and method” was the most common style. Currently, patents in mobile learning are more inclined to provide personalized, contextualized, easily-retrievable, auto-updated and intelligent pushed learning content. Additionally, providing multipresentation, supporting seamless learning, adopting learner analysis, improving learner diversity and context awareness are becoming the characteristics of mobile learning patents.
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