Group Admins
Description
This interactive session addresses the conference theme: creating new learning, teaching and assessment opportunities.
In Higher Education there is an acknowledgement of the potential of mobile technologies for teaching and learning, however, as a recent study at the University of Florida highlights, mobile learning typically occurs outside the classroom with only limited guidance from tutors (Chen 2013). Through aligning pedagogy and design, that is the traditions of teaching and learning with an understanding of new methods and technologies (Beetham 2007), this study was designed to explore the impact of introducing mobile technologies into standard classroom based teaching practice and practice learning environments, and to allow students to drive exploration of the use of mobile technologies in post graduate education.
This session will describe a 12 month mixed methods study in which, post graduate qualifying social work students (n = 113) and teaching staff (n= 12) used mobile devices in both practice learning and classroom based teaching. The aims of which were to;
- To explore from the perspectives of students and university staff, the process and impact of mobile technologies on the learning and educational experiences in classroom based settings.
- To identify factors which mitigate the advantages and disadvantages of mobile technologies use within the context of post graduate social work education.
The study was built around the concept of educational usecases; these were planned teaching and learning sessions, each using a different capability of mobile technologies and associated applications for defined educational goals.
The session will explore the feasibility and acceptability of mobile technology in post graduate education from the perspectives of staff and students and perceived value of mobile technology in the classroom setting from student and staff perspectives. This will be done through the presentation of: methods used, qualitative and quantitative data on student and staff experiences, analysis of the data, organisational barriers and enablers. The session will identify and discuss the key learning points from this study. Whilst the results show good evidence that using mobile technology in the classroom improved the learning experience associated with post graduate social work education in the HEI setting, the expectations of utility and benefit in placement settings were not met, suggesting the need for further enquiry in these areas. Through the use of mobile apps session participants will be encouraged to report on their experiences of using mobile technology in educational settings and provide critical reflections on the study presented.
References
Chen, B. a. D., A. (2013) Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing for 21st Century Learning. Educause Review Online
Beetham, H. S., R. (2007). Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing and Delivering E-Learning, Routledge.
