Young, Keith (2019) Imagined Futures: The impact of mlearning and access to mobile technology on the role of the teacher. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Abstract
The use of mobile devices in education has long been predicted and imagined. Recent
technological changes and increased affordability have enabled pioneering schools and
educators to embark on mobile device initiatives. In the Irish educational context, schools
were able to link their use of devices to anticipated curricular reforms, but lacked national
guidance on the use of those devices for teaching and learning. This study concerned itself
with the impact of mobile learning and devices on relationships of learning. The literature
review revealed a significant gap in the research on the use of mobile devices in certain
contexts and a lack of theoretical understanding of their use.
The study employed a constructivist grounded theory methodology to explore the
experiences of schools, teachers and students in Ireland. A sample of two post-primary
schools and seven teachers, with their students, were recruited to the study. Data were
gathered using interviews, video analysis, online observations and physical observations of
classes. Some methods were extensions or innovations on traditional grounded theory
approaches. These data were analysed through the process of constant comparison, from
which codes and categories emerged. The categories demonstrated the importance of
school context, the value of teachers’ virtual classrooms and the requirement to understand
teachers’ beliefs.
The findings add new knowledge to the field of mobile learning, and innovation in the
methods of grounded theory, and yielded insights of value to school leaders and policy
makers. The grounded theories which emerged placed emphasis on understanding a
teacher’s beliefs, and demonstrated that those beliefs largely shape their use of technology.
They also establish that mobile devices, despite substantial new benefits to users, were not
intrinsically agents of pedagogical change.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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Keywords: | Imagined; Futures; mlearning; mobile technology; role of the teacher; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Education |
Item ID: | 12554 |
Depositing User: | IR eTheses |
Date Deposited: | 09 Mar 2020 17:08 |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/12554 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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