“What’s the Tab’s Apps?”: Piloting Low-Priced-Tablet-Aided Course Delivery in Teacher Education

Abstract

Mobile learning generally offers delivery of blended learning or simply as tool for course enhancement in university setting. A small teacher education institution piloted a low-priced-tablet-aided instruction in its language courses via exploratory case study. Through focus groups and journal writings, students favorably reported most aspects of mobile-aided learning experiences and confirmed some challenging technical issues. Moreover, qualitative analyses on the device, learners’ engagement and course-activities revealed these five key categories: (1) tableting pros and cons; (2) making adjustments and connectivity issues; (3) moodling, googling and strategizing use; (4) trending apps and functionalities; and (5) changing views on technologies and pedagogies. Finally, lessons learned and future works on the tablet adoption, applications and strategic implementation in aid of teacher education course delivery and related disciplines are suggested.

Facebook short response: The 10/90 model and comment and-reply strategy

“…Local studies (e.g. Cacho, 2017;Cacho, Avila, & Villaseñor, 2017) in a small college in the Philippines reveal how Facebook group feature (an exclusive group created by students and teacher) is integrated in an online undergraduate course work. College students with the guidance of their instructors use their smartphone Facebook app to communicate with their peers on education related content.…”

“…Both studies argue the needs to utilize such platform through any accessible device for instructors and learners to be able to extend the learning space and to create more opportunities for them to co-create individualized or group-initiated relevant educational material. Cacho, Avila and Villaseñor (2017) in a small college in the Philippines piloted the use of tablet devices in teacher education using multiple technologies; in-depth investigation, however, focusing on one particular application and its features for potential learning and teaching processes (for instance, Facebook group post comments or reply capability) has yet to be systematically undertaken. Consequently, this study responds to such call and to many academic demands (e.g.…”