Reconceptualizing Learning Designs in Higher Education

This goal of this chapter is to provide a design and development roadmap for the adaptation of traditional classroom activities into engaging iPad-based digital learning activities. Reporting on an ongoing longitudinal case study, the chapter provides an overview of rationale and design considerations of the authentic iPad learning design implementation project, and the outcomes and improvements made over time. The iPad activities described provide further details of the approach taken and adaptations made. Since implementing iPad activities into this higher education environment several terms ago, the lecturer reports significantly higher levels of student engagement. Additionally, students report that the classroom activities in the post-graduate marketing course are authentic, transferrable, and are more engaging due the use of the iPad-based activities.

Using Mobile Technologies to Co-Construct TPACK in Teacher Education

How student teachers might benefit from using their mobile technologies during teaching experiences is a timely question for teacher educators. This chapter describes efforts to use the TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to investigate how students use iPad computers during their student teaching and design appropriate supports. A design-based approach (Sandoval & Bell, 2004) was used over two years with two cohorts of student teachers (N=60). Descriptions of the use of the TPACK framework in this endeavor and findings from surveys and field notes about how and to what degree mobile technology can facilitate activities and interactions in planning, teaching, reflecting, and sharing are included. The case is made for co-learning and co-constructing by student teachers and teacher educators of the various TPACK domains of teacher knowledge in the context of mobile technology. Implications for developing supportive learning environments for 21st century student teachers are also discussed.

Mobile Technology in Higher Education

Innovative instructional strategies and approaches are in high demand in STEM higher education. Currently, interest lies in the integration of mobile technology within these settings to provide learning opportunities that are flexible and feasible enough to increase student understanding using critical inquiry. Although the positive impact of the use of mobile technology in many pilot settings is known, there are still numerous questions left unanswered in relation to the effectiveness of the use of mobile technology as it is replicated from developer across enthusiastic replicator use to required use. This chapter examines the replication and transferability patterns related to the use of a mobile technology device within and across multiple instructors, settings, context, and content areas. Key variables explored relate to student and instructor prior use and experience with the mobile technology, pedagogical goals, and similarly, content and context to original use.

Using Mobile Technology for Student Teaching Observations of Special Education Candidates

Student teacher supervision has been an important part of teacher preparation almost since the inception of teacher education programs. The goal of this type of supervision is to strengthen the skills of the pre-service teacher. Providing this type of observation can be difficult for teacher preparation programs and university faculty. Many factors, including large numbers of students in teacher education programs and student placements in remote schools, contribute to this. In order to make the most effective use of faculty and pre-service teacher time, other options for providing this support need to be explored. The rapidly developing field of mobile technology (e.g., iPads, iPhones, Smart Phones) can be used to facilitate student teaching observations. This chapter discusses how teacher preparation programs can implement candidate field supervision using video conferencing via mobile technology to increase the ability to conduct observations in schools and in a more efficient manner. It also explores the security of video conferencing applications and the issues related to using video conferencing in special education classrooms, where student confidentiality is heightened.

Mobile Social Media as a Catalyst for Collaborative Curriculum Redesign

This chapter illustrates the potential of mobile social media to be used as a catalyst for collaborative curriculum redesign. The authors critique a case study implementing a mobile social media framework for creative pedagogies and draw out the implications of this framework for wider educational contexts. They conclude that an effective mobile social media framework for collaborative curriculum redesign must meet three goals: model the building of learning communities, explore the unique affordances of mobile social media to enable new pedagogies, and establish a supporting technology infrastructure.

Integrating Mobile Technologies in Multicultural Multilingual Multimedia Projects

This chapter explores the role of mobile technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and cell phones and tablet PC technologies, in higher education and professional development; offers creative strategies and possibilities for integrating GPS and mobile technologies into the curriculum with limited resources; outlines participants' projects and digital stories; and demonstrates examples that integrates Maps, Mathematics, and Media Education using cell phones, tablet PCs, and GPS devices in a gallery walk. The study explores a wide range of meanings participants associated with experiential project-based learning activities; the impact of mobile technologies in developing multicultural and multilingual curriculum that promotes inclusive and differentiated instruction; the ways in which participants integrated math, maps, and media into their learning; and how they gained alternative points of view on global education and renewed interest and commitment to community service and socially responsible teaching. This chapter will benefit teacher candidates and teacher educators who seek innovative and cost-effective strategies and tools in higher education.

Framing Mobile Learning

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce faculty and instructors, and those interested in using mobile technologies to support teaching and learning, to the Framework for the Rationale Analysis of Mobile Education (FRAME; Koole, 2009). This chapter discusses how mobile or handheld devices can be used to promote inquiry-based learning and constructivist and authentic pedagogies. Additionally, the chapter discusses Koole's (2009) FRAME model as a scaffold for guiding “the development of learning materials, and the design of teaching and learning strategies for mobile education” (p. 25). Lastly, the FRAME model is used to guide the implementation of an inquiry-based instructional unit incorporating mobile or handheld devices.

Opportunities and Challenges of Mobile Technologies in Higher Education Pedagogy in Africa

Since the late 1990s, Kenya has undergone a real technological revolution, especially in the domain of mobile telephony and Internet connectivity. From a negligible number of handsets in the hands of the political elites, today almost every adult Kenyan has a mobile phone, or access to one. This is thanks to reduced costs following expansion and diversification of the market niche. Despite this remarkable progress, research has shown that cell phones are used mainly for financial transactions, social communication, and entertainment, but hardly for learning purposes. This means that despite the impressive number of smartphone owners in the university, for example, the devices are not used for enhancing student learning or teaching. In Kenya, more than 60% of the population employs mobile banking, thus underscoring the immense potential that the cell phones have for education. This chapter explores the benefits and challenges in employing mobile telephony to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Developing Faculty to Effectively Use Mobile Learning Technologies in Collegiate Classes

Mobile devices have become a common accessory for many college students, and with the habits and tendencies that have formed from frequent use, colleges have begun to incorporate mobile devices into the delivery of education. As mobile learning has grown as a teaching strategy, some faculty have found it difficult to adapt to open access to computing, and others have simply attempted to ignore the new reliance on technology. Department chairs are uniquely situated to bridge the world of technology and the contemporary campus, and through strategic and intentional faculty development, they have the potential to successfully bring mobile learning to higher education. Throughout the chapter, strategies outline how to use adult learning to build faculty development programs that encourage the effective use of m-learning as an instructional strategy.

Promoting Strategic Reading Using the iBooks Author Application

Students are increasingly bringing their own mobile devices into the classroom. However, they do not take advantage of the various features that technology offers for supporting learning. The focus of the chapter is on digital reading in learning and particularly in foreign language learning with tablets. The author reviews the literature on digital reading and discusses briefly the use of reading strategies to promote reading comprehension. This is followed by a discussion of how the application iBooks Author was used in a research project in September 2012 in an Adult Education Centre in Denmark. The aim of the project was to determine to what extent students employ reading strategies when using tablets and which functions in the tablets support reading comprehension. Using a theoretical framework for learning strategies, the author discusses the design of digital material embedding reading strategies. The chapter concludes with practical suggestions for teachers and educational designers for promoting strategic reading using the iBooks Author application.