Assessing the Use of Smartphone in the University General Physics Laboratory

Abstract

In this study, smartphone was used to alter the traditional procedure by involving students in active learning experiences prior to the laboratory meeting. The researcher surveyed students' view on the effect of using smartphone to enhance learning in the general physics laboratory. The use of smartphone was evaluated by having 120 students who enrolled in the Fall Semester 2013 at a Chinese university general physics laboratory fill out subjective opinion survey forms. Results showed smartphone was a very useful tool to provide background on the lab safety information, administrative requirements, general knowledge of physics lab equipment, but not very useful to show how to write a laboratory report. This was because the laboratory report evaluation was according to the individual instructor's specific preferences. Interestingly, it was also found male students prefer smartphone learning strategy more than female students, although no significance was presented.

Effect of Real-time Physics Organizer Based Smartphone and Indigenous Technology to Students’ Scientific Literacy Viewed from Gender Differences

“…Male students show the ability to think systemically in managing information with diverse or divergent strategies, like challenges and spend more time preparing problem-solving steps, while female students tend to adapt to a small number of strategies that they feel are not big challenges, focus on problem-solving efforts (Mun et al, 2015). Furthermore, in line with Shi et al (2016), when learning using RPO male students are happier and more able to demonstrate their ability to explore a physical phenomenon or do scientific experimentation using smartphone sensors and their applications than female students.…”

Dynamic measurement of the elastic constant of an helicoidal spring by a smartphone

“…The development of smartphone apps aims to complement the traditional learning and to help students to learn anytime and anywhere. Smartphones make this goal easy to achieve since they combine multiple features and at the same time give more mobility to the students for distance learning [5, 25,26]. Students' perceptions regarding the capabilities of smartphones and apps for improving learning processes in university subjects indicate that the use of apps is highly valued by students as a new format which both supports and enhances learning practices, also fostering collaborative work among students and teachers [25].…”

“…This different approach certainly contributes to students' learning of science concepts and stimulates the interest of students towards physics [4]. Furthermore, it is worth noting that performing physics experiments by using smartphones, as a laboratory tool, may foster students' active learning [27], enhancing engagement and interaction during lessons [26,28] and communication in lectures [29]. Indeed, the interest of students in smartphones, as well as their expertise to use such devices, can result in a powerful tool to bolster active learning and reinforce their interest in learning scientific issues [4,28,30].…”

The Use of Smartphone Applications in Laboratory Activities in Developing Scientific Communication Skills of Students

“…Smartphone functions are optimized to support and bring learning materials. Some forms of smartphone conversion in the learning process are learning media based on multimedia (Arista & Kuswanto, 2018;Fradika & Surjono, 2018;Saputra & Kuswanto, 2019), learning media based on the digital pocketbook (Astuti, et al, 2018a;Astuti, et al, 2018b;Ferdianto, et al, 2019), supporting facilities of practicum activities (Monteiro, et al, 2015;Septiando, et al, 2017;Staacks et al, 2018), online class (Coca & Slisko, 2017;Oswald, et al, 2018;Wang, et al, 2019), online conferences (Chuntala, 2019;Mueller, et al, 2017) and learning evaluation (Huang & Chiu, 2015;Nayak, 2016;Shi, et al, 2016). This research used experimental research methods, which consisted of 23 students of the fifth-semester in Physics Education Department that contracted Advanced School Physics Laboratory courses as the subject.…”