The Use of Mobile Devices in Education

Full text

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2016.
CY-ICER 2016
The use of mobile devices in education
Rostislav Fojtika
*
aUniversity of Ostrava, 30.dubna 22, Ostrava, 70100, Czech Republic
Abstract
The use of mobile technology increases around the world and therefore is growing interest in its use in education. Mobile
technologies are dramatically influencing how and when students learn. Technology plays an increasingly important role in
education. This paper deals with the possibilities of mobile technology in the education and it shows how teachers and students
readiness to work with mobile devices. Aid questionnaires were verified what relation to mobile technologies have teachers and
students. It was also verified how teachers use their mobile devices in preparation for learning and teaching. Research methods
were used questionnaires, interviews and a pedagogical experiment. Results of surveys and experiments show that mobile devices
can enhance teaching, but also brings the new difficulties and problems.
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of CY-ICER 2016.
Keywords: education, mobile device, mobile technology, research, questionnaire.
1. Introduction
Mobile technology is currently developing very rapidly and are involved in all aspects of life. Devices such as
smartphones, tablets, notebooks, convertible devices, smart watches, and other readers, uses a large portion of the
population, including children. Mobile devices represent a major breakthrough in the use of computers and require
a new approach. Greater emphasis is placed on the use of cloud services and data synchronization with other devices.
Previously, users had a tendency to have all the data on the internal storage of the computer. When working with
mobile devices, it is preferable to use mainly cloud services and devices are widely becoming only kind of terminal
that accesses the individual data and services. The user was a few years ago fundamentally limited to a specific device
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +420 603 167 678.
E-mail address: rostislav.fojtik@osu.cz

2 Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
and most of the data formats to be able to view and edit only on desktops or laptops. Current smartphones, tablets and
other mobile devices allow you to work with documents of all formats, access, and edit any data. All data can be
synchronized and the user has access to their information from any device. Users can check their tasks and
appointments, view documents requested, work with multimedia data anytime and anywhere. Many mobile devices
are becoming fashionable and trying to own the latest tablet or smart phone is noticeable not only among adults but
also children. In education and training also addresses the development of mobile computing. It is developed by the
amount of mobile educational software, increases the effort and the pressure on the classification of these modern
means of teaching. Teachers are experimenting with the use of mobile devices in the classroom. Increasingly frequent
are noticeable efforts across the board to introduce mobile devices into education. [5] [1]
2. The survey on the use of mobile devices
We did a survey of relationships between teachers and pupils to mobile devices. As a basic method was used
questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by 39 teachers. 15 of them teachers teach Informatics and Computing.
Other respondents of the research were 138 students aged 11 to 19 years. Among teachers, 56% were women and 44%
men. The average age of teachers is 40 years; the average age of students was 15 years. Among the students, 67% of
boys and 33% girls.
2.1. The methodology
Teachers filled out a paper version of the questionnaire, which contained 15 questions. The questionnaire contained
content items, but also functional items, specifically items contact and control. Most of the items of the questionnaire
were closed or semi-closed structured entries. Questionnaires were sent out, but the individual respondents were
personally sought to fill, to ensure a full return. Pupils received an electronic questionnaire with ten items. The
evaluation of the data obtained were used statistical methods. For analysis of the results in each item was measured as
having detected data variability. We used a coefficient of variation. To interpret the results of the second stage
classification was done chi-square test. [2] For evaluating the results were used MS Excel and statistical software
Wizard for the operating system on Mac OS X and statistical software Statistics Visualizer for iPad.
2.2. The result of research
Teachers and pupils were asked whether they think that mobile technology can help them in the classroom. 85%
of teachers believe that mobile technology can help them prepare for courses in teaching itself. The opposite holds
only 5%. 10% can not assess it. Pupils have similar results: 86% of students believe that mobile devices can help them
in the classroom, 9% think the opposite and 4% can not assess it.
The following graphs show some of the survey results. Teachers are divided into two groups. The group of teachers
of informatics and the group of teachers of other courses.

Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000 3
Fig. 1. Do you think that students wear the mobile device to school?
The first chart shows that both students and teachers believe that the large number of pupils wear the mobile device
to school.
Fig. 2. Do you use a cloud storage?
Teachers of computer science know and use cloud services. These services are very important for a complete and
quality use of mobile devices. Many teachers of other subjects do not know or hardly used cloud services. Questioning
students are divided almost equally large groups.
Predictably, teachers and pupils use most laptops, tablets and smartphones. Respondents cited as other mobile
devices e-book readers. Convertible devices, smart watches and wearables are used on a small scale so far.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Yes, I use regularly I use only
occasionally
I know, but I do not
use
I do not know and I
do not use
Do you use a cloud storage?
Other teachers Teachers of Informatics Students
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Yes, I think most Yes, but I think that
only a smaller part
No I do not know
Do you think that students wear the mobile device to school?
Teachers Students

4 Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
Fig. 3. Which mobile device do you use?
The graph in Figure number four shows that teachers of informatics use mobile devices in preparation for learning
more. They are using the most notebook and tablet. Convertible devices are not yet sufficiently widespread among
teachers and for this reason the frequency of their use smaller.
Fig. 4. Which mobile device do you use to prepare for teaching?
The questionnaire found in what situations and how teachers use mobile devices. These are activities such as the
creation of lesson plans, communication with students and their parents, testing and testing, recording marks and
students' results presentations in the classroom, working with the information system of schools, acquisition of new
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
notebook convertible
notebook
tablet smartphone smartwatch wearables other
Which mobile device do you use?
Other teachers Teachers of Informatics Students
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
notebook convertible
notebook
tablet smartphone smartwatch wearables
Which mobile devices do you use to prepare for teaching?
Other teachers Teachers of Informatics

Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000 5
information, reading books in electronic format. The results clearly show that computer science teachers are using
mobile devices more often and in almost all activities. The most common devices are laptops and tablets. Teachers of
other approbation use smartphones to their work rather exceptionally, computer science teachers use more often.
Fig. 5. Which mobile device do you use in classroom?
Most of teachers use the notebook. Teachers of Informatics also use the tablet.
Fig. 6. The use of mobile applications
When determining how teachers and students use specific mobile apps, it was found that computer science teachers
and students are familiar with and use more than teachers of other approbation.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
notebook convertible
notebook
tablet smartphone smartwatch wearables other
Which mobile devices do you use in classroom?
Other teachers Teachers of Informatics
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Evernote OneNote iTunes Kindle Google Play App Store
The use of mobile applications
Other teachers Teachers of Informatics Students

6 Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
Fig. 7. The use of mobile applications
Pupils on their devices most commonly used mobile applications for social networking, Web browser and mobile
games. The graph in Figure number seven and eight shows how students lined up mobile application, depending on
how frequently and intensely used. The graph in Figure number eight shows how students use mobile Internet access.
Fig. 8. The use of mobile Internet access
We created several hypotheses:
H1: Teachers of Informatics use mobile computing devices better and more often than teachers at other approbation.
H2: Teachers use mobile devices better than students.
H3: Students use mobile devices for gaming and social networking.
020 40 60 80 100 120 140
games
maps
train timetable
social networks
web
camera
documents
The use of mobile applications
1 (most frequently) 2 3 4 5 6 7 (only sometimes)
0.00 %
10.00 %
20.00 %
30.00 %
40.00 %
50.00 %
60.00 %
70.00 %
Yes, I use regularly I use occasionally I do not use Mobile connections
I have, but I do not
use
The use of mobile Internet access

Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000 7
The testing of hypotheses were used statistical methods for analysis of nominal data, specifically the chi-square
test. Were first formulated null and alternative hypotheses were calculated expected frequencies and test criterion,
which was then compared with a critical value. At a significance level of 5% can be stated veracity hypothesis H1.
Conversely H2 hypothesis can not be confirmed. For verification A third hypothesis was found that students use mobile
devices for other purposes than just games and access to social networks.
3. Pedagogical experiments
The first experiment was attended by 163 teachers. Teachers should carry out simple tasks for working with cloud
services. Based on simple tasks, it was found that only 26% of secondary school teachers and 24% of primary school
teachers knew how to use cloud services. Tasks related to work with cloud storage, synchronization and data sharing.
The vast majority of participating teachers had no or very little practical experience with the services offered by cloud
storage. Teachers usually know very little about the ability to synchronize your data among desktop, portable and
mobile devices. They almost did not use these functions.
The second experiment was verified algorithmisation teaching at the gymnasium. For teaching was used by Marco
Run! Students in this application compiled algorithm that moves the figure to the designated place. Pupils in the class
were divided into two groups. A control group of pupils received worksheet in which the ten rounds in picture form.
For each round, students had the task to write a single worksheet commands. The experimental group worked directly
with the application Run Marco! on the iPad. All pupils did tests before and after the experiment. Comparison of
results of experimental and control groups shows minimal differences. Students in the control group gained more
points for evaluation worksheets. [3]
The third experiment dealt with the possibilities of using interactive e-book that have been created for iPad. The
content of interactive e-book and control material in pdf format was the topic of web pages. In experiment involved
84 students ranging in age from 15 to 18 years. Students were divided into control and experimental groups. The
control group studied on a desktop computer using a textbook in pdf format. Each student in the experimental group
used the iPad. There was an interactive textbook, which was created with iBooks Author. We conducted with two
groups of testing before and after the experiment. The control group reported slightly more improvement than the
experimental group. [4]
None of the experiments failed unequivocally that the use of tablets significantly improved the quality of teaching.
In some parameters even control groups of pupils achieve better results than the experimental groups. Teachers
conducting experiments unambiguously confirmed that pupils of experimental groups were more motivated to teach.
Due to the fact that the tablets in the surveyed classes in teaching commonly used, students often gave lots of energy
to become familiar with the devices. Students sometimes tend to do on a tablet activities other than what was required.
Pupils were therefore places less focus and work usually took them longer than students in the control groups. To
increase the reliability of experiments would certainly be useful to repeat the experiments. It is necessary that students
often worked with the tablet and would not devote so much energy to become familiar with the devices and to become
a tablet for pupils conventional teaching means.
4. Conclusion
Mobile computing technologies require users to change their approach to the use of these devices and more work
with cloud services and data synchronization among devices. A survey among teachers and pupils showed that mobile
devices are widely used and exploited. Teachers other than those qualified informatics is not used and do not know
many of the important possibilities of using mobile technology. Our pedagogical experiments confirmed that the use
of tablets clearly improved the quality of teaching process.
References
[1] BARAN, Ervim: A Review of Research on Mobile Learning in Teacher Education. Educational Technology & Society, Volume 17, Issue 4,
2014.
[2] CHRÁSKA, Miroslav: Metody pedagogického výzkumu. Základy kvantitativního výzkumu. Grada Publishing, Praha 2007, ISBN 978-80-247-

8 Rostislav Fojtik / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2016) 000–000
1369-4
[3] PALEČKOVÁ, Zdeňka: Využití tablet ve výuce. Diplomová práce, Ostravská univerzita v Ostravě, 2015.
[4] ŠKUTA, Petr: Tvorba učebních materiálů pro iPad. Diplomová práce, Ostravská univerzita v Ostravě, 2015.
[5] VAUGHAN, Norman, LAWRENCE, Kimberley: Investigating the role of mobile devices in a blended pre-service teacher education program,
Canadian Journal of Higher Education, Volume 43, No. 3, 2013, ISSN: 0316-1218