Title
Enhancing learning: a study of how mobile devices can facilitate sensemaking
Abstract
Mobile technologies are increasingly being promoted as tools to enhance learning. They can be used to augment ongoing activities, such as exploring outdoors, by enabling users to move back and forth between the physical environment and a variety of digital resources and representations. In so doing, they have the potential to facilitate sensemaking activities, where people seek to find structure in an uncertain situation through using a combination of information, communication and computation. However, continuous switching of attention between different representations and activities can be distracting. Our research is concerned with how mobile devices can be used to engender collaborative sensemaking activities during scientific tasks. We present two studies showing how different versions of a mobile learning application, LillyPad, were used by teams to make sense of their ongoing observations, when measuring the effects of different planting methods for an environmental restoration site. The findings show marked differences in the amount and type of sensemaking. We discuss reasons for this in terms of task demands and workload, information type and distribution of devices.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1007/s00779-009-0250-7
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Keywords
Field
DocType
information type,ongoing activity,collaboration mobile learning mobile technologies sensemaking,mobile device,collaborative sensemaking activity,mobile learning application,different representation,sensemaking activity,mobile technology,different planting method,enhancing learning,different version
Mobile technology,Computer science,Workload,Sensemaking,Mobile device,Human–computer interaction,Environmental restoration,Multimedia,Digital resources
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
14
2
1617-4917
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
32
1.85
23
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Yvonne Rogers14850448.33
Kay H. Connelly248942.61
william r hazlewood344027.14
Lenore Tedesco4453.90