Making use of the affordances of simple features of mobile technologies in higher education

Abstract

This paper, based on the literature of mobile technology applications in higher education, studies the affordances of specific features of the mobile technologies for learning and other practices, focusing on mobile phones and Palms/PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) as it is reported that these mobile devices are becoming widely used by learners. Affordances in this paper refer to the potential of mobile technologies for learning and other practices.

The literature study shows that current research into educational applications of mobile technologies in higher education have, by and large, been carried out through small-scale experiments or qualitative studies. Though the results of these research projects are generally positive, large-scale applications of these practices remain limited due to the lack of a standard platform, technical support, and varied constraints of the mobile technologies themselves.

A further examination of this research indicates that higher education students highly value the affordances of the simple features of mobile devices for learning and other practices. Student recorded preferences suggest that they would like to adopt and adapt general 'ease of use' features of mobile devices for their studies and other activities. The paper concludes by identifying a need for a longitudinal case study directed at making use of the affordances of these simple features of mobile technologies to support student learning and other practices in higher education.