Investigating practices and perceptions of higher education students concerning the utilization of mobile devices in their studies

Abstract

Learning through the use of mobile or portable devices (Mobile Learning or mlearning), is the type of learning that takes place at any time and geographical location and is supported by a device that simulates computer-like functions. Researches about the use of smartphones and tablets in higher education have studied the effectiveness of mobile devices in learning. Other researches have focused on the percentage of students owning and using smartphones and tablets for academic purposes, as well as on problems or barriers recognized by them in the use of mobile devices, during their studies. Although mobile devices play an active role in both daily life and learning process, research data on higher education in Greece, so far, is limited. Through this research we look forward to enhancing the debate on the use of mobile devices as learning tool and during the educational process in higher education. The present study investigates views of students from the University of Patras on the educational utilization of mobile devices. For this purpose, a questionnaire was created through the GoogleForms online application and was administrated from April to May 2018. This study involved 98 students from various schools, Humanities and Social Sciences (49%), Engineering (19.4%), Economics & Business (15.6%), Natural Sciences (9.2%) and Health Sciences (6.8%). Regarding the use and availability of mobile devices (smartphones/ tablets), we deduced that almost all students possess a smartphone. It is a fact that we have passed from the era of tablets and laptops to the era of smartphones, bearing in mind that the capabilities of the latter are at least similar to those of tablets and many computers. Regarding the applications most frequently used on their smartphone or tablet to support their studies, students stated that they mainly use PDF reader, email, Facebook, learning management systems such as eclass and google. The above http://epublishing.ekt.gr | e

Ποιές Είναι Οι Αντιλήψεις Εκπαιδευτικών Των Γυμνασίων Για Τη Χρήση Της Φορητής Τεχνολογίας Στις Τάξεις;

“…Για παράδειγμα, στην πλειονότητά τους είναι τύπου «πρακτικής και εξάσκησης» βασιζόμενες σε χαμηλά επίπεδα σκέψης και δεξιοτήτων (Παπαδάκης & Καλογιαννάκης, 2017). Από το χώρο της τριτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης αναφέρουμε ενδεικτικά πρόσφατη έρευνα (Lavidas et al, 2020) με 98 Έλληνες φοιτητές που δήλωσαν ότι οι φορητές συσκευές είναι μαθησιακό εργαλείο για τις ακαδημαϊκές τους σπουδές τους: χρησιμοποιούν κυρίως αναγνώστη pdf, ηλεκτρονικό ταχυδρομείο, Facebook, και συστήματα διαχείρισης μάθησης όπως eclass και google. Η ευελιξία στη μάθηση δηλώθηκε ως πλεονέκτημα, ενώ ως κύριο εμπόδιο δηλώθηκε το ασθενές σήμα Wi-fi.…”