Support of Mobile Phones in a Private Network for Science Teaching

Support of Mobile Phones in a Private Network for Science Teaching

Mobile learning

Science education

The potential of mobile phones to facilitate students’ science learning, when they are engaging in group activities, was investigated. To minimize the disciplinary issues emerged from the previous research on mobile devices and to enhance the quality of learning, a set of mobile phones that are connected to a private network was used. The lesson planning and implementation through these mobile phones were facilitated by a web based Application. A purposively selected group of teachers developed three lessons while integrating mobile phones in a private network into learning activities. Then the lessons were implemented in real classroom settings. This paper is based on one of the lessons ‘Waves and their Characteristics’ that was implemented for Grade 11 students. The data were collected through observations using audio, video and field notes and were analyzed using thematic analysis technique with the help of NVivo10 qualitative data analysis software. Based on the thematic analysis, two assertions were derived. Notably teachers appreciated the support of the private network in enhancing the quality of group learning activity while minimizing the students’ misuse of mobile phones.

Ekanayake, Sakunthala Yatigammana

Samarakoon, Kamalanath

International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM); Vol. 10 No. 2 (2016); pp. 4-9

1865-7923

International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), Vienna, Austria

2016-04-28

Copyright (c) 2017 Sakunthala Yatigammana Ekanayake, Kamalanath Samarakoon

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Peer-reviewed Article