UTILIZING SMARTPHONES TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ COLLABORATIVE WORK
Year: 2015
Editor: Guy Bingham, Darren Southee, John McCardle, Ahmed Kovacevic, Erik Bohemia, Brian Parkinson
Author: Wu, Xiaolong; Mi Choi, Young; Fenlason, Clay
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
Section: Learning Environments
Page(s): 136-141
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
With the rapid improvement of technology, the screen size of smartphones is becoming bigger, battery life is increasing and more processing power is available. Smart phones have been regarded as a complement-learning tool beside formal classroom-based pedagogy. Compared with traditional personal computers, the portability of smart phones enable groups of students to work on a common project while not tied to a fixed location. Previous studies have shown that mobile learning provides opportunities for students to learn from within real contexts/situations not tied to a specific location. Mobile learning can also aid in multimedia authoring and sharing. Few articles discuss whether these new features improve the effectiveness of students’ collaborative work. The goal of this paper is analyzing the use cases of personal computers and smart phones, identifying suitable tasks for smart phone use, and conducting usability tests that can lead to improving the effectiveness of mobile collaboration. The task performance of college students’ collaborative work on smart phone and on laptop will be measured, and students’ preferences will also be collected in this study.
Keywords: Mobile learning, collaborative work