An issue I have with the introduction of mobile technologies to this institution is the level of support available to students who are required to use them. The introduction of this technology could be detrimental to students learning if they do not receive appropriate levels of support to use the device. It would be easy for students with no experience of learning on mobile devices to get caught up in the struggle of getting the device to perform as required, rather than concentrating on the learning task they are supposed to be concentrating on.
This difficulty with IT support and students is documented in this paper by Pettit and Kulkulska-Hulme.
"... sometimes when you deal with people who... know IT, they just press buttons and things work out... and then you take [the device away] with you and it doesn't work again ... you don't want to go back again , because it makes you feel that you are not listening when they tell you what to do..." (Pettit and Kulkulska-Hulme, 2008 P4)
This situation and other issues with supporting whole classes of students working on mobile devices need to be seriously thought about before encouraging the implementation of mobile devices for learning.
Sarah Dawson
Student Representative
Kulkulska-Hulme A., Pettit J., (2008) "Do smart devices make smart learners?" Proceedings of the MLearn 2008 Conference , 7-10th Oct 2008, Ironbridge, Gorge, Shropshire, UK. [Online] Available from: http://oro.open.ac.uk/15106/2/2DA38EAB.pdf Accessed: 29th June 2010.
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