Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The emergence of mobile devices has aroused researchers’ interest in the educational possibilities of these electronic tools. This work, using case study methodology, presents an innovative experience with m-learning focused on literary education in Higher Education. The experience - creating a video-review of a children’s book - was carried out with 68 students taking a Degree in Early Childhood Education. To evaluate its effectiveness, the final tasks were taken into account, as well as instructor and students’ perception. An instrument was designed to analyse the videos and two questionnaires to elicit students’ and instructor’s opinions. Findings reveal the flexibility of m-learning and its adequacy for literary education in teacher training. The students learned to select and evaluate children’s books and acquired some knowledge of children’s literature. The task involved searching for information, critical thinking, analysis and synthesis, decision-making, autonomy, development of communicative competence, creativity and team work skills, and helped to familiarise students with m-learning. Weaknesses detected suggest that more taught sessions are required, and more attention should be paid to oral skills, to the use of the task blog and to fostering social interaction. Finally, the study has educational implications which might be applied in similar contexts