Usually during your time at school you starting to use more other word Theory. You heard about probably theory in maths or in Physics Theory of relativity. Each subject has different theories and views. But how to describe theory itself in a simple words? Usually it explains how and why something happens in a logical form. Sutton and Staw in their article explains, that Data, variables, hypotheses, diagrams and references are not the theory. These things adds and helps to understand the theory itself, but doesn’t describe it.
The research paper I’ve chose research Here and now mobile learning: An experimental study on the use of mobile technology by Florence Martin*, Jeffrey Ertzberger. from Computers & Education journal with Impact Factor: 2.775. With mobile devices becoming part of every student life it is important to find ways how it can contribute and help in a learning process. How mobile technology can help students to learn content better and succeed during the course. Main idea behind is to compare how Computer based instructions and iPad, iPhone or iPod improve student achievements ‘Here and Now’. Is there significant differences between technologies used. It is always good to attend classes where learning content provided in a different ways. It affects how students perceive and absorb materials during and after the class.
According to Shirley Gregor there is five types of theory Analysis, Explanation, Prediction, Explanation and prediction (EP), Design and Action. In this paper the theory method used in my opinion is Explanation and prediction. Authors tries to answer the questions how, why, when by analysing case study in particular university where over 100 students are involved. They’ve been decided into three groups by using different mobile technologies. The study authors presented by Gregor is Explanation. They do say that still needed longer and more in depth research to be done where future studies should be more pedagogical rich and collaborative in nature (Martin, Ertzberger:2013). The limitation of explanation theory is that, it doesn’t provide Design and action elements and not state how to implement their research in other environments. It was limited just to one university and very small group of students. The limited overview of the study gives other researches possibility to explore this are more deeply by implementing suggester ideas which I can see as a good part of Explanation theory.
Ref:
Martin Florence, Ertzberger Jeffrey, Here and now mobile learning: An experimental study on the use of mobile technology, Computers & Education 68 (2013) 76–85.
Gregor Shirley, THE NATURE OF THEORY IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS, MIS Quarterly Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 611-642/September 2006
Interesting article. I believe there is still a lot to of improvements to be made in how you can use electronic media as a complement for learning.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is a great example of a tool, which has made an interactive discussion available between students, which was not possible while I did my bachelor studies for instance.
I am sure there will be many more interactive possibilities help to improve learning and engage students, we just have to make them!
Hey! You chose a really interesting paper and as Jenny pointed out, this particular subject could be really useful, but research needs to be more extensive and improved in that area for it to have a bigger impact and make a bigger difference. Nonetheless, as also stated, interactive possibilities are growing everyday so there will be an almost endless amount of opportunities to further this research!
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