Tablets (iPad) for M-Learning in the Context of Social
Constructivism to Institute an Effective Learning Environment
Palmo Thinley
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Keywords: M-Learning, Tablets, Social Constructive Learning, iPad.
Abstract: With the proliferation of mobile devices, educational institutions have experimented with it to implement
mobile learning (M-Learning). Studies have revealed that effective learning happens when teachers and
learners are actively participating in the knowledge building process. Therefore, there is need for mobile
applications that create effective learning environments which are learner-centred, knowledge-centred,
assessment-centred and community-centred. Mobile applications used by educational institutes have been
categorised and mapped to respective learning theories that it supports. From these it can be observed that
none of the existing applications demonstrate social constructive perspective of learning theory.
1 INTRODUCTION
With the proliferation of mobile devices, educational
institutions have experimented with various mobile
devices to implement mobile learning (M-Learning).
Mobile devices have been used to facilitate, support,
and enhance and extend the reach of teaching and
learning. But, use of mobile devices has not moved
further than when it was first adopted. It is still
used to provide and access mere information, rather
than construct knowledge.
As M-Learning has been conceptualised with the
assumption that learners are always on the move, M-
Learning has been viewed as an isolated activity. To
be able to view M-Learning as a rich, collaborative
and conversational experience, we need good mobile
applications. Mobile applications would act as a
platform on which an effective learning environment
can be created.
Tablets (iPad, Samsung Galaxy, etc.) have
become pervasive technology because it is now
widely embraced by students, teachers and even
formally adopted by educational institutes. Its
popularity can be credited to the availability of
significant number of educational applications
ranging from study aids to collaborative and
interactive learning. Currently available educational
applications have been categorised and mapped to
learning theories that each app supports. Most of
these applications support traditional learning
activities instead of enhancing them.
Studies have revealed that effective learning
happens when teachers and learners are actively
participating in the knowledge building process.
Therefore, there is need for applications that create
effective learning environment.
2 M-LEARNING
M-Learning is defined as a form of learning
accomplished with the use of mobile technology.
Recently tablets have
been added to the growing list
of mobile devices used for teaching and learning
purposes.
Educational Institutions have used mobile
devices to demonstrate technological feasibility and
pedagogical opportunity (Taylor and Evans, 2005).
The US National Research Council produced a
synthesis of research into educational effectiveness
and they concluded that students learn effectively
when the learning environment is learner-centred,
knowledge-centred, assessment-centred and
community-centred (National Research Council,
1999). These research findings match the social-
constructivist approach of learning where students
play an active role in a learning context and teachers
and students collaborate to facilitate knowledge
construction.
692
Thinley P..
Tablets (iPad) for M-Learning in the Context of Social Constructivism to Institute an Effective Learning Environment.
DOI: 10.5220/0004411806920695
In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2013), pages 692-695
ISBN: 978-989-8565-53-2
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
Therefore, as reported in EDUCAUSE report
2011, use of mobile devices are expected to change
the didactic traditional classroom learning to a more
active and engaging learning environment which
also exploits the social-constructivist pedagogical
approaches to learning.
2.1 Mobile Use in Higher Education
Zeng and Luyegu (2004) reported that the use of
mobile technology resulted in escalated
transformations, while in 2010 some researchers
were still predicting that mobile technology could
play an important role in the revolution of education
(Liu and Hwang, 2010). This indicates that their use
in education have not been evaluated and reported.
Mobile devices are largely being used for
delivering information and barely being used to
actively engage students in the learning process
(Litchfield, Dyson, Lawrence, and Zmijewska, 2007,
Rudd, 2011).
Mobile phones with their restricted screen size
have limited their use to sending SMS (Short
Messaging Service) messages, with prompts for
course requirements, assignment due dates, polling
answers for quizzes, and sending URL links to
additional learning resources.
Tablet PCs have been used as an interactive
digital whiteboard (Anderson et al. 2004; Willis and
Miertschin 2004). They have also been used for
note-taking, reading, and for in-class assessments,
with the use of systems such as Lecturer’s Assistant,
and Class Presenter System.
3 TABLETS FOR EDUCATION
Tablets such as iPads have been designed and
developed primarily as an interactive content
consumption device with intuitive interface. Though
the iPad was never specifically developed as an
educational tool, educational institutions have
widely started adopting iPads. Its advanced
attributes allow the user to experience just-in-time
learning opportunities, connection and convergence
to other devices, networks and technologies.
Thereby, users are not restricted to traditional
limitations of time and space related to learning.
3.1 iPad for Teaching and Learning
Many universities worldwide have discussed and
reported on the general uses of the iPad but none of
the universities have determined a significant
pedagogical use of the device in higher education.
Additionally, the universities have not yet formally
measured and reported the impact of the iPad.
Universities have adopted the iPad as a
collaborative tool, a standardized mobile device to
integrate into curriculum. Stanford University of
Medical Science, Seton Hill University, University
of Adelaide and several other universities around the
world have started iPad projects. The core goals of
these projects were to improve the student learning
experience and also to replace traditional textbooks
and other teaching materials with online study tools.
3.2 Impact of iPad in Education
The iPads have been effectively used as a content
delivery device, complementing other forms of
conventional content delivery methods. The
University of Minnesota, Stanford University, and
the University of California-Irvine are some of the
medical schools that have handed iPads equipped
with productivity, content delivery, and content
consumption apps to students.
Therefore, reports released on these projects
have limited its focus primarily on the use of the
iPad as an eReader. Furthermore, Stanford
University reported that its use did not significantly
contribute to increased student learning outcomes.
But these universities have left it to the students to
explore the use of the iPad for learning, instead of
integrating the device in the design of their teaching
and learning activities.
4 TAXONOMY OF
EDUCATIONAL APPS
Students and teachers have used numerous
educational apps that are available on the Apple
appstore (www.apple.com/au/ipad/from-the-app-
store/) and some of the universities have even
developed their own apps. The following taxonomy
of educational applications has been developed to
classify apps used for formal learning. In this
context, formal learning is defined as learning where
a university/department sets the goals and objectives
of learning (Cofer, 2000).
These categories have been chosen after
analyzing applications that are (or have been) used
by the students and teachers in higher education.
Each category is further described below.
i. Content Consumption and Creation
Applications
Tablets(iPad)forM-LearningintheContextofSocialConstructivismtoInstituteanEffectiveLearningEnvironment
693
ii. Content Delivery Applications
iii. Collaborative and Interactive Learning
Applications
iv. Course Management Applications
v. Teaching and Learning Enhancement
Applications
4.1 Content Consumption and
Creation Applications
Students and teachers use these applications to read,
take notes, concept map their ideas, create
presentations, draw diagrams, and make use of
spreadsheets to capture and analyse tabular data sets.
4.2 Content Delivery Applications
This category of applications is used to enhance the
delivery of lectures and distribute podcasts of the
lectures and discussions. These applications are used
to make the lectures dynamic by using them as
interactive digital whiteboard.
4.3 Collaborative and Interactive
Learning Applications
Lecturers use this category of applications to
encourage students to engage, participate, and
provide them with platforms to collaborate and
learn. It includes applications that encourage any
kind of communication among teachers and
students, including classroom polling applications,
as they help in initiating classroom discussion.
4.4 Course Management Applications
Applications that universities use for administration
purposes such as unit enrolment, class allocations,
unit tracking, grade management, and to manage
lecture and course content. Some of the universities
have developed custom course management
applications, while most universities use Blackboard
Mobile™ application.
4.5 Teaching and Learning
Enhancement Applications
These applications are used by teachers and students
to support teaching and learning activities. . These
applications also include file management
applications that help people organise their files as
the iPad does not have a file management system.
5 MOBILE APPLICATIONS AND
LEARNING THEORIES
In the following table, the above categories are
compared with the classification of mobile learning
activities developed by Naismith et al. (2004).These
authors have categorized activities around existing
relevant learning theories.
Table 1: Application taxonomy with relevant learning
theories.
Mobile
Application
Category
Example Mobile
Applications
Learning
Theory
Content
Consumption
and Creation
Consumption:
inkling,
GoodReader,
Creation:
EverNote,
AutoCAD WS
Some apps have
quizzes which
partially support
Behaviorist
learning theory
Content
Delivery
KeyNote,
Podcasts,
Constructivist
learning theory
Collaborative
and Interactive
Learning
Edmodo,
iClicker,
iResponse
Convore, tweet
Behaviorist
learning theory
Collaborative
Learning
Course
Management
Blackboard
Mobile™ and
university
applications
Not Applicable
Teaching and
Learning
Enhancement
Splashtop, Air
Sharing,
DropBox
Not Applicable
The iPad projects have reported that its use did
alter academic workflows, such as making them
paperless, web resources were easily accessible,
easier note handling, marking made portable, and
listen to podcasts anytime (Marmarelli, 2011, Hardy
and Suter, 2011, Murray and Olcese, 2011 ).
Available educational applications demonstrate
that the iPads have just been used to replace
traditional modes of teaching and learning. They
have indeed made learning and teaching efficient,
but there are no formal reports on being able to
create effective learning environments.
Therefore, universities need to develop
applications that help create learning environment
that supports the social-constructivist approach to
learning, where students play an active role in their
learning, and teachers and students collaborate to
facilitate knowledge construction.
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6 CONCLUSIONS
Educational institutions have experimented with
almost every available mobile device, to enhance
and to make learning more effective. The tablet is
the latest technology that universities have started
adopting. The availability of numerous educational
applications for the tablet gives it an edge over all
the other mobile devices.
From the taxonomy presented above, it can be
seen that all of these educational applications
demonstrate behaviourist, constructivist and
collaborative perspectives of the learning theory and
none of them demonstrate the social constructivist
perspective of learning theory
There are very few applications that provide
interactive and collaborative pedagogy. To make
tablet an effective educational, there is need for
educational applications that can capitalize on the
benefits of effective learning pedagogies.
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