Explore! possibilities and challenges of mobile learning

Abstract

This paper reports the experimental studies we have performed to evaluate Explore!, an m-learning system that supports middle school students during a visit to an archaeological park. It exploits a learning technique called excursion-game, whose aim is to help students to acquire historical notions while playing and to make archaeological visits more effective and exciting. In order to understand the potentials and limitations of Explore!, our studies compare the experience of playing the excursion-game with and without technological support. The design and evaluation of Explore! have provided knowledge on the advantages and pitfalls of m-learning that may be instrumental in informing the current debate on e-learning.

Mobile Learning: What Guidelines Should We Produce in the Context of Mobile Learning Implementation in the Conflict Area of the Four Southernmost Provinces of Thailand

“…Mobile learning have been applied in diverse areas such as in geography field work (Theng et al, 2007), rural area (Kumar et al, 2010), environmental restoration site (Rogers et al, 2009), and a trip to an archaeological park (Costabile et al, 2008). Theng et al (2007) implemented Mobile G-Portal, a group of mobile devices as learning assistant tools supporting collaborative sharing and learning for geography fieldwork.…”

“…From their study, they concluded that their research has shown how mobile devices can be used by collaborative teams to switch between task-based and sense making activities, moving between their experiences of the physical environment and higher level ideas and abstractions, provided the workload is not too high and the digital information can readily be shared among the team. Costabile et al, (2008) compared the experience of playing the learning game with and without technological support at the archaeological park of Egnathia, in Southern Italy. This study demonstrated that no distraction was generated in the students by the technology and proved the effectiveness of the electronic version of the excursion-game as a learning technique.…”

“…This study demonstrated that no distraction was generated in the students by the technology and proved the effectiveness of the electronic version of the excursion-game as a learning technique. As a consequence, Costabile et al, (2008) addressed that e-learning can be regarded as equally valuable as traditional learning, provided that appropriate techniques are used, which are able to exploit the advantages of the technology and to engage and stimulate students.…”

A General-Purpose Context Modeling Architecture for Adaptive Mobile Services

“…Here we briefly describe the use of this architecture in one such application: the current version of the educational mobile (m-learning) game "Gaius' Day" [1] designed to support students' school visits at the archaeological park of Egnathia, Italy. The next section describes how we are currently enhancing the game using the proposed context modeling architecture.…”

Potential of SoundCloud for mobile learning in music education: a pilot study

“…Mobile learning is, by nature, wireless, referring to how users are not tethered in any way to that which would keep them from moving around (Cavus and Uzunboylu, 2009;Sharples, 2000;Yordanova, 2007), and is therefore, naturally ubiquitous, meaning that it can take place anytime and anywhere (Botha et al, 2010;Costabile et al, 2008). These definitions position mobile learning as a powerful tool for use in educational contexts.…”