{"title":"Investigating the Classroom Environment With Physical Computing","authors":"David Parsons, K. MacCallum","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.315627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.315627","url":null,"abstract":"To integrate digital technologies into the curriculum, teachers must support learners to use digital tools in authentic contexts. Physical computing, which involves the use of small portable electronic devices, provides an opportunity to achieve these goals. This article reports on the initial stages of a design-based research (DBR) project that will enable students to monitor and investigate their own learning spaces, with a focus on the impacts on their own well-being, and to propose solutions to any issues that they identify. The study focuses on a series of workshops, run with staff from an educational organisation, designed to explore environmental monitoring in the classroom and identify opportunities to apply the theory of situated cognition to authentic learning in context. The article reports on the first two phases of the DBR approach, defining the project focus and understanding the problem, to propose and refine a set of five design principles. The insights gained will be used in the subsequent phases of the DBR process.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85150449","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Developing Critical Digital Literacies Through Digital Storytelling: Student Attempts at Re-Telling the District Six Story","authors":"A. Noble, D. Gachago","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.312184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.312184","url":null,"abstract":"The South African Higher Education sector has undergone major transformation since the end of Apartheid more than 25 years ago. Critical digital literacies and critical (digital) citizenship, aligns with the most important aspects of the transformation agenda, ‘the production of socially conscious graduates that will become the thinkers and leaders of tomorrow' (Soudien et al 2008). The ability to link the past and the present, the personal and the political is an important element of critical digital literacies. This paper reflects on projects introduced in a first year Extended Curriculum Programme course for Architectural Technology and Interior Design students at a University of Technology, in which students created a digital story after visiting historical sites in the Western Cape. Framed by Critical Race Theory concepts of master narratives and counter-storytelling, using multimodal analysis of the digital stories, this paper will highlight examples of students' attempts to disrupt common narratives through their creative yet personal engagement with the past and the present.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78108983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Practice-Based Approach to Developing First-Year Higher Education Students' Digital Literacy","authors":"Tabisa Mayisela","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.314582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.314582","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the conceptualisation of digital literacy as a social practice. While previous studies have focused on student digital skills and digital practices in well-resourced environments, there is a research gap concerning digital literacy as a social practice in resource constrained environments, such as South African universities. A qualitative approach is used to explore the acquisition of discipline-specific digital literacy practices by a purposive sample of three first-year students from two extended degree programme courses. The findings reveal that the discipline-specific learning and assessment activities instantiated students' digital literacy practices in the technical, cognitive, and social-emotional dimensions. Furthermore, the participants acquired digital literacies in the technical and cognitive dimension. The research findings provide insight to how other higher education educators in developing contexts could integrate digital literacies into course curricula as a means of building students' capacity on discipline-specific digital literacies.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42364157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"ERT as Mobile Learning by Necessity: A Sociomaterial Perspective of Lecturers' Design Journeys - Lecturers' Approaches to ERT in Resource-Constrained Settings as Shifting Digital Practices","authors":"N. Pallitt, Neil Kramm","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.313975","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.313975","url":null,"abstract":"The term as below Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) has been adopted worldwide. In practice, approaches to ERT have been contextual with diverse lecturer and student experiences owing to complex assemblages of sociomaterial practices. Approaches to ERT as mobile learning by necessity are understudied. The ‘pivot' to ERT was particularly challenging for those in resource-constrained environments. Lecturers not only had to redesign face-to-face courses for ERT but were designing for mobile learning based on their own resource constraints and that of their students. For many, this highlighted broader concerns for equity and social justice. The authors share case studies of two lecturers at Rhodes University, arguing that a sociomaterial perspective can assist researchers and practitioners to better understand contextual approaches to ERT. The article demonstrates concerns when designing mobile learning experiences and how lecturers' design journeys are entangled with the material, social and political.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82829824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Photography Education in Resource-Constrained Contexts: Exploring the Potential of Mushfaking","authors":"B. Khoza, N. Tshuma","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.313974","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.313974","url":null,"abstract":"The history, development, products, and impact of image-making are well-represented in literature. The literature looks extensively at the technological developments and advancements in the field and how photography has contributed to our understanding of historical, political and social tensions. However, the training and preparation of photographers has received less attention in the literature, particularly in photography education in resource-constrained contexts. This paper seeks to present mushfaking as a conceptual framework that addresses the multi-literacies required in photography education. This approach uses inexpensive solutions to aid digital photography's teaching and learning process. Mushfaking is offered as a learning design tool for practice-based teaching and learning. The paper aims to offer a new dimension on how mushfaking can be used as a learning design principle to show how this concept could bring theory and praxis together, facilitating the design of context-based solutions to educational problems.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86942632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Digital Literacy Needs for Online Learning Among Peri-Urban, Marginalised Youth in South Africa","authors":"Tas Adam","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.310940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.310940","url":null,"abstract":"As online learning modes become more common, this can exacerbate educational inequalities for learners who do not have the ability to utilise these modes effectively. This has been seen in the COVID-19 crisis where there has been a shift to remote and distance learning modalities despite the limited ability for all learners to benefit equitably. In particular, digital literacy remains a fundamental barrier to benefitting from online and blended learning. This paper reports on a study that investigated the digital literacy needs and preferences of peri-urban, marginalised youth when utilising online and blended learning in South Africa and how online education platforms can be designed to better suit such groups. It is argued that for online courses to truly support marginalised groups, it needs to be ensured that these learners are digitally equipped and digitally literate in terms of accessing, utilising, and benefitting equitably from online learning.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83085083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Assessing Rural and Urban Teenagers' Domestication of Technology: The Role of Digital Literacy","authors":"Chikezie E. Uzuegbunam","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.310941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.310941","url":null,"abstract":"This paper focuses on a qualitative analysis of the ways in which rural and urban teens domesticate digital technologies that are available to them. The study draws from 16 focus group interviews with teenagers in the southeast and north central parts of Nigeria using a child-centered approach. Anchored on domestication and technological appropriation framework, the paper explores the circumstances whereby technology assumes the meanings and uses assigned to them by the teens. From gaming, social connections, leveraging schoolwork, information and news, family connection, to self-learning and education, the findings foreground the idea of domestication whereby the teens metaphorically tame digital technologies to suit their realities as children in specific contexts. Analysis foregrounds barriers such as digital illiteracy and other factors limiting children's digital development. Recommendations are made on how to improve children's full digital participation in the local context.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78436265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enablements and Constraints in the Uptake of Digital Technologies for Teaching and Learning","authors":"N. Ngcobo","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.314584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.314584","url":null,"abstract":"In South African higher education, institutions are exploring pedagogical practices of dealing with a multiple number of emerging technologies. Though the use of educational technologies is an established practice in higher education institutions, its uptake seems to be varied. This chapter draws on a study of educational technologies (EdTechs) in different institutions within the South African higher education context to identify how various academic staff development units (for example, instructional designers in e-learning units) empower academics to integrate technologies in teaching and learning practices. In this chapter, the author analysed data by drawing on Archer's (1995) social realist framework. Data was obtained from an online survey (open-ended questionnaire) and interviews The findings from both data phases reveal a strong call for more theorised approaches in the use of EdTechs to promote digital literacies. In addition, academic development activities were valued as a driver to the uptake of these technologies.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43955363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"MirrorMe@work: A Theory-Informed Methodology to Support Novice Teachers' Individual and Collective Professional Development at the Workplace","authors":"E. Rusman, Jeroen Storm","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.304460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.304460","url":null,"abstract":"Novice teachers are often discouraged by the problems they encounter in their daily professional practices and they (still) feel unable to cope with. This is also reflected in high drop-out rates in the early stages of teachers’ careers. In this paper a theory-informed methodology to support novice teachers’ individual and collective professional development at the workplace is proposed. This methodology, called MirrorMe@work, strives to reduce teachers professional loneliness, increase their confidence and reduce stress, through technology-enhanced support of self- and co-regulation, (collective) reflection and knowledge co-creation processes, informed by (shared) memorable moments and critical incidents that teachers experience in their practices. Future and further research is needed to determine whether the MirrorMe@work method supports novice teachers as intended and whether this indeed reduces novice teachers’ drop-out rates.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81557629","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Actualizing Affordances of Audiobooks for Elective Readings in a University Course","authors":"Vladena Bätge Jahn, Koen Lombaerts","doi":"10.4018/ijmbl.304457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijmbl.304457","url":null,"abstract":"This study explored actualization of affordances of audiobooks for mobile learning, as well as constraints encountered by students engaging with elective readings in a university course. Participants often tried learning in different situations before settling on a preferred learning practice. Students reported having listened on-the-go as well as in their traditional learning spaces. Some students took advantage of hands-free, eyes-free and screen-free listening along another task, such as a commute, note-taking or a sport activity. Participants also leveraged audiobooks for incidental and intentional learning of second language (L2). Co-listening was identified as an affordance stemming from unique properties of audiobooks and students’ initiative. Some students combined listening and reading to address challenges related to mLearning in L2. Despite having had little or no prior experience of learning with audiobooks, most participants discovered new ways to learn - using audiobooks to customize their mobile learning practice.","PeriodicalId":44375,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82715785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}