This document discusses the potential role of mobile devices in higher education. It outlines a presentation given by Dr. Gila Kurtz on this topic. The presentation introduces mobile learning and provides examples of how mobile technologies are being used in higher education courses. It then summarizes findings from studies on the impact of mobile device use during lectures and student perceptions. The presentation concludes by considering how instructors can engage students through mobile technologies to benefit learning while limiting distractions.

1. Mobile Devices in Higher Education:
The answer for future learning?
Gila Kurtz (Ph.D)
Instructional Design, Development
and Evaluation Department
School of Education
Syracuse University
September 2014

2. Outline:
 Introduction
 What is mobile learning?
 Examples from the field (mainly f2f)
 Findings from studies
 What’s next??

3. ????
http://www.slideshare.net/gilaku/syracuse-talk

4. Do you think that mobile devices in
higher education are the answer for
future learning?
Go to: govote.at
Enter code: 800323
results

5. Established 2008
BA students: 3,800
MA students: 1,600
~100 full time faculty

10. What is mobile learning?
Any learning which takes place via
wireless mobile devices such as smart
phones, PDAs, and tablet PCs where
these devices are able to move with
the learners to allow learning anytime,
anywhere (Naismith et al., 2006;
Wang, Wu, & Wang, 2009).

11. BYOD -Bring Your Own Device

15. fb+ mobile phones -
presence checking

16. fb+ mobile phones -
asking the children
Integrating a Facebook Group and a Course
Website: The Effect on Participation and
Perceptions on Learning
To be published
December issue of AJDE (vol. 28 no. 4)

17. PBL project

18. Courses’ evaluation

19. More examples
• Taking a quiz
• Sticky & photo sharing
• Diffusion of innovation theory
• Google Books Ngram Viewer
•

20. Findings from studies
The Laptop, the Tablet,
and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture
Hagit Meishar Tal and Gila Kurtz
Rosemary, L, Goodyear, P., Grabowski, B., Puntambeker, S.,
Underwood, J. & Winters, I. (Eds.), Handbook on Design in
Educational Computing. (pp. 279-287) London: Routledge

21. The Laptop, the Tablet, and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture (1)
(a) mobile technologies available to students in
class;
(b) students’ use of these mobile technologies
in class;
(c) students’ perceptions of these uses, i.e., how
they estimate the contribution or damage of
the use of these devices during the lecture;
(d) how intensively lecturers engage students
via the mobile devices in the students’
possession

22. The Laptop, the Tablet, and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture (2)

23. The Laptop, the Tablet, and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture (3)

24. Table 3. Positive and negative effects of using mobile devices in class
(Range of responses: 1 = none / little, up to 5 = very large extent)

25. The Laptop, the Tablet, and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture (5)

26. The Laptop, the Tablet, and the Smartphone Attend the Lecture (5)
• use of mobile devices in class is all the rage
among students, serving them identically for
learning-supportive and distractive purposes
• “continuous partial attention,” i.e., concurrent
superficial attention to several incoming
sources of information (Rose, 2010).
• These findings hand the higher-education
system a new challenge—to develop teaching
strategies that will amplify learning-supportive
uses and limit distractive ones.

28. Engaging Students in Class
through Mobile Technologies –
Implications for the Learning
Process and Student Satisfaction

29. Engaging Students in Class through Mobile Technologies (1)
• how students are using their mobile devices in
class and whether lecturers can influence this
usage to the benefit of learning
• an intervening research (2 groups, pre-post
questionnaires)
• Levels of constructive usage in the
intervention group were significantly higher
while less content related distractive usage
(NOT in distractive communications.

31. So.. what do you think about my
presentation???
Go to: govote.at
Enter code: 530892
results

32. http://content.mycutegraphics.com/graphics/thankyou/thank-you-sign-in-flower-patch.png
Gila_k@mla.ac.il