Mobile Apps for Teaching

We are pleased to offer Apps & Appetizers, an event where faculty share how they are integrating meaningful technology into their practice. Therefore, we would like to share an article by France et.al entitled “Ability of students to recognize the relationship between using mobile apps for learning during fieldwork and the development of graduate attributes. Examples include infographics, screencast, video scribe and student response systems.

Data reveal that students’ understanding of the value of app differs depending on how each app was used and their prior knowledge - so methods and scaffolding appear to be essential. Students’ understanding of the value of mobile app use in the development of the graduate attributes, which were identified as graduate student knowledg

e, skills, and dispositions applied in a range of contexts, differs depending on how each mobile app was utilized during their field course and the students’ prior knowledge.

The researchers note that, Email, Evernote and Numbers app were recognized as the least effective to develop GAs. In addition, no one app was identified by all four focus groups as contributing to the development of one or more attribute. It was further noted that the goal of incorporating the use of apps in context was to encourage a more “active learning” approach, which aims to ensure the students are consciously aware of how and perhaps why they are using the apps. Ideally this approach will help students select appropriate tools through their career.

In conclusion the authors indicate that using mobile applications can be beneficial while promoting distinct skill sets simultaneously.