Marshalling meaningful mobility: Readiness opinions and experiences of mobile learning (ML) at a School of Education [PowerPoint presentation]

Abstract

Higher educational institutions are transitioning from a predominantly traditional mode of educating to more flexible approaches. Mobile education is being pursued as a viably effective option. Even in the face of educational change, meeting facilitators' and students' teaching and learning needs is a priority and should not be overlooked or negated in a dynamic higher educational climate. Lecturers and students traverse the physical campus but also teach and learn from a distance. They do so with many and varied mobile devices. Maintaining secure, reliable, and adequate mobile access for various users with multiple types of mobile devices for teaching and learning, involves being consistently aware of user needs. To this end, this study investigated the opinions and experiences of students pursuing a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) course and facilitators using mobile devices for education with a view to facilitating relevant mobile modalities. Seventy six participants (55 adult students and 21 facilitators, inclusive of lecturers, tutors, and course coordinators) from a School of Education were surveyed to determine their attitudes and beliefs regarding mobile teaching and learning, factors affecting mobile device use, types of devices used, preferred communication modes, and usage patterns of mobile technologies. The data were analysed and revealed some surprisingly cogent information